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A devastating critique of Darwinian and neo-Darwinian theories of life’s origins, and a rigorous defense of Intelligent Design as a legitimate and compelling scientific theory. Stephen Meyer is a philosopher of science, and he ably traced the discovery of DNA and its contemporary challenges in his previous book, Signature in the Cell.

Now, in Darwin’s Doubt, Meyer takes on the fossil record in the “œCambrian Explosion” and details the attempts by evolutionists to account for it. As it turns out, Charles Darwin himself recognized that the fossil record exposed a potentially fatal weakness in his new theory of natural selection, but one he assumed (not unreasonably at the time) that science, given enough time (pun intended), would fill in the gaps. Unfortunately, as our understanding of biology and genetics has increased exponentially over the last 150 years (and especially since the 1960s), the difficulties for Darwin’s theory have only gotten worse.

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Takeaway: I do not know any book that takes the reading, study and importance of scripture more seriously than this book.

I am a fan of NT Wright.  Primarily because I so strongly appreciate his pastoral heart for the church and his desire to serve the church.  He can be a controversial figure, in part because of that pastoral heart.  He created another dust up last week because of an editorial about the US and Osama bin Laden.  And I have heard more than a few people complain that Wright needs to focus on scripture, where he has few peers and leave all other areas of social involvement alone.

However, the entire point of much of Wright’s writing and speaking is to help people put into practice the living of their lives as Christians. You may disagree with him over politics or theology, but it is clear that his positions are based on his understanding of scripture and he thinks and acts deeply based not on political maneuvers, but on his understanding of scripture.

Scripture and The Authority of God is a reworking of a 2005 book, The Last Word and I think is the most accessible and best book of Wright’s that I have read.

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Summary: The Emergent (or old school liberal) stream of Christianity has a real faith, and something to teach Evangelicals.

A long time ago and in a far away place, I decided to go to seminary.  I never wanted to be a pastor.  But at the time, I thought I wanted to be a social worker or at least work in a church based social service program.

So I decided to get a dual masters in Social Work and Divinity.  There are several places you could do that at the time.  I could have stayed in my denomination of origin (American Baptist) and gone to Eastern Seminary (but then would have gone to a different school for the social work.)  I could have go to Southern Seminary where my father went to seminary.

What I decided to do was go to the University of Chicago Divinity School and School of Social Work.  I very intentionally decided to go to U of C because I had an undergrad degree from Wheaton College.  I had experienced one of the best Evangelical colleges in the country, I had a very good background in theology and I am from a long line of pastors and was quite comfortable in my faith.  I wanted to challenge my Evangelical background and be in the minority for a while.

University of Chicago was overwhelmingly Christian, mostly Protestant, but of a liberal bent.  Marcus Borg would be very comfortable with many of my professors at U of C Div School.  I loved my time at the Div School.  It is one of the few places that I have very clearly claimed the label Evangelical.  Being among a different stream of Christianity both expanded my view of the Church and made me more comfortable in my part of the Church.

So for quite a while I have been very intentionally trying to understand what other Christians believe, how they think and how they explain their faith.  The Heart of Christianity is an attempt by Borg to explain his faith.  In format it is very traditional.  He starts with his understanding of scripture, and works through God, Jesus Christ, Salvation, Sin, Heaven, Salvation, Spiritual Practice and Pluralism.  Essentially he is doing what he doing an Emergent (his word) version of systematic theology.

What I really appreciate about this book is that he makes it very clear that liberal Christians have real faith.  It is not just some type of wishy-washy universalism that has gotten rid of any belief or theological content.  His belief is not the same as most Evangelicals (although in many more areas than most Evangelicals are comfortable with, there will be a good bit of agreement).

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I am reposting this 2011 review because the Kindle Edition is currently on sale for $1.99 as part of the Big Deal Sale
Takeaway: Heaven is not just a promised place (fire insurance), but really is a place we should look forward to.

This is a short semi-fictional novel by a primarily non-fiction author and professor, James Bryan Smith.  In his book, The Good and Beautiful God (my review), Smith shares that in a short period of time his good friend (and renter of his attic apartment) Rich Mullins, his 2-year-old severely disabled daughter and his mother all die in pretty quick succession.  Smith was devastated and mad at God.

In the novel, an author is in the same situation and goes on a five-day spiritual retreat.  During the retreat, the main character has a dream and is taken to heaven to visit with the three that were the cause of the spiritual quandary but also others that help him understand more of the purpose of God.  The epilogue says that while the setting is fictional and that Smith did not have a dream like character in the book, he did have a ‘waking dream’ writing exercise with many of the same features.

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Summary: A mediocre biography of a formative figure in the history of journalism.

I have been keeping my New Year’s resolution of not buying more than one book a month to try and whittle down my list of books that I have already purchased but not read.  But I have also been working through library audiobooks that I have had on my radar but had not listened to yet.

The first problem with Cronkite is that it is an abridged audiobook.  Had I realized that, I would have probably not checked it out in the first place.  It felt like an abridgement long before I realized that it was.

Also it felt like a repetition of events more than an insightful biography.  Maybe this is about a bad abridgement, but I did not feel like I really understood Cronkite, although I heard a lot about him.  It also felt like a quote fest.  I am not opposed to accurately quoting sources.  But too often the quotes feel forced into the content and not naturally supporting the flow of the book.

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Takeaway: Professional biblical scholars bring important understanding to texts. We need to spend more time being taught, not just by pastors, but by the academic theologians and biblical scholars throughout the church.

Over the past year I have been increasingly convinced (and convicted) that the church needs to take scripture seriously.  Not just reading it or finding biblical principles to live by, but seriously studying scripture and allowing scripture to change us.

I have been hearing about the Lost World of Genesis One for a while, but only started reading it as part of a book discussion.  John Walton, a formerly at Moody Bible Institute and currently an Old Testament professor at Wheaton College, makes a clearly presented case that the first chapter of Genesis is not about the material creation of the earth, but a functional creation of the earth as his temple.

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