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Takeaway: I wish more people read Reinhold Niebuhr.  He has much to say both about politics and international relations, and also about the limits of security and state power.

The Irony of American History is oddly relevant.  It was written in 1952 and based on two lectures given earlier than that. The introduction calls it the most important book on American foreign policy ever written. That is a bit too strong, but still Niebuhr understands in a way that very few do, the weaknesses of all human forms of government, while still being hopeful that government can serve the people.

Niebuhr, with proper use of irony, speaks of the issues of the 1950s in similar terms to many others in talking about the global reach of US power.  It is almost funny that Niebuhr quotes US policy makers that think that the Asians should be more grateful to the US (at the time it was Korea, soon to be Vietnam) for our intervention to their affairs. But it is very similar to the way that some in the Bush administration thought we would be received in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The narrator on the audiobook is a bit pretentious sounding and I think that detracts from what Niebuhr is trying to say. But in general Niebuhr traces the thought patterns of a Jeffersonian (roughly secular) and a Puritan (certainly Christian) that both view the United States as a fundamentally separate place. The language of the Puritans is a “City on a Hill” and “called out by God for a specific purpose”. But the Jeffersonian ideals are not much different. Jefferson was secular in his reasoning, but thought that the separateness of the geography and the rightness of our political will and life also left us with a specific calling and purpose that in the end was not much different from the calling and ideals of the Puritans.

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Summary: We need to be pursuing eulogy virtues, not resume virtues.

I like David Brooks. I don’t always agree with his politics, but he is largely a reasonable pundit, and even when I disagree, I understand his position. I liked his earlier book, Bobos in Paradise, but I have not gotten around to reading his last two books. But after a positive mention on Twitter by James KA Smith and Englewood Review of Books editor Chris Smith (and noticing that the audiobook was on Scribd but going away soon as part of some changes there), I picked it up.

This is a hard book for me to review. There is much to commend here. This is a better version of Eric Metaxes’ 7 Men. Brooks has a clear vision and has no problem telling us the secrets to the greatness of his profiled people. The secret is character.

But at the same time, this felt like a nostalgic look at character. For Brooks, character is about suffering. I do not completely disagree, but it is an overly simplistic understanding. Suffering is where we see character, suffering is like exercise that helps to develop character. But the development of character requires more than just suffering.

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Summary: Christianity is not just about the salvation event, it is also (or maybe primarily) about the life we live after the salvation event.

Maybe it is my approaching middle age, but how we live as Christians is increasingly important to me. After reading seven Susan Howatch novels in the last 4 months, all of them concerned more about how Christians grow and live as Christians (none of them really even touch on anyone becoming a Christian), I decided to give Afer You Believe another try.

I have previously picked up After You Believe at least two times. Both times I got about 1/3 of the way before putting it down. This time, like my previous experiences with Wright, I listened instead of read.

The initial illustration is of Captain Sullenberger, the airline pilot who was able to safely land his plane in the Hudson River and get all of the passengers off safely. Wright says that Sullenberger did not become a hero because of random chance. Sullenberger had spent years flying planes. He had made thousands of small decisions that prepared him for his quick decisions that day. He had practiced so that what would be impossible for most of us was possible for him. The landing of the plane was less a miracle than a natural result of a well lived life. (Wright does not dismiss the landing as miraculous, but thinks only thinking about it as miraculous minimizes how God works through us as Christians.)

Wright wants us as Christians to think of the development of our Christian life, our character and virtue, to be something we think about in a similar way. Character comes about by ongoing small decisions and habits that are formed over time. The virtuous Christians does not become virtuous by accident any more than a master violinist become a master by accident.

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I am reposting my 2013 review of the Silver Chair because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $1.99.
Summary: More allegorical than many of the Narnia books, Eustace and Jill, with the help of Puddleglum, must find Prince Rilian.

After finishing the new biography of CS Lewis last week I decided that I wanted to read or re-read many of Lewis’ books.

I started with the Silver Chair because it was the story line that I remembered least of the Narnia books.  I knew it was Eustace and Jill and that they searched for the Prince.  I remembered a Witch, but that was about it.

It has been such a long time since I have read most of the Narnia books that I forget that they really are children’s books. I read this very quickly.

The Silver Chair is more allegorical than several other books. Lewis takes on bullying at school and makes fun of the new school systems. (Having read the biography of Lewis, he hated his boarding school and was likely the target of bullying himself.)

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Summary: An impassioned letter from an African American father to his 15 year old son.

Between the World and Me deserves all of its praise. It will be on virtually every ‘Best of 2015′ book list. I need some space, but I would like to read it again before the end of the year.

This is not an easy book to read. I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Coates. All of the passion and pain of the book carries through. However, this book of passion and pain and not easy to take.

Coates formats the book as a letter to his 15 year old son on the occasion of his disappointment that Darren Wilson would not be indited or face trial for the shooting of Michael Brown. The book recounts Coates’ life and place in the world as an African American man.

Overwhelmingly it is about his concern for how his son will live, how Coates will not be able to protect him from the pain of life that is unfairly biased against him.

The book is roughly divided into three sections. The first is about the “˜plunder’. The systemic loss of safety and autonomy that Coates, and all African Americans, face because of results of racist institutions. This section also tells the story of Coates own growing up years where he learned to navigate his way through his isolating urban streets.

The second section is about his coming of age at Howard University and how he was “˜made for the library and not the classroom’. His eyes were widened as he learned about others and their different backgrounds and world. He met his wife and they married and had their son and moved to New York. But also how he was frustrated with what his learning revealed.

The third section was about the killing of his friend from Howard University, Prince Carmen Jones, by a cop in 2000. Jones was an engineering student, the son of a highly respected doctor. The cop, who was black, was undercover, and pursuing a 5 ft 4, 250 lb suspect. He mistakenly identified Jones, a 6 ft 3, 210 lbs, as the suspect. He and his partner, in separate unmarked cars followed Jones across two state lines for 16 miles without pulling him over.

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I am reposting this 2013 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $1.99.
Takeaway: All of life is about growing up.

I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman.  I think he is one of the most innovative writers around.  And I love that he concentrates mostly on fairy tale stories, whether for adults or kids.  Many of them are a bit creepy and a little twisted, but at heart they are fairy tales.

The Graveyard Book is the only one of Gaiman’s full length books that I have not previously read.  It is intended as a young adult book.  Not as young as Coraline, but still appropriate for middle grade and up, if the kids enjoy and can handle creepy and dark stories. (I say this as a person that in general hates creepy stories.)

The book opens with murder. A family is murdered, mother, father, sister.  But the baby, about 18 months old, crawls out of the crib and walks away before the killer finds him.  The family lives near a graveyard and the baby walks there.  The ghosts see he is in trouble, hide him from the killer and agree to raise him there in the graveyard.  He is given the freedom of the graveyard.  So he can talk to and learn from the ghosts.  He can move through the walls and into the crypts.  He is taught to Fade and produce fear.  And he learns about some of the darker and older things that are in the graveyard.

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Summary: The method of apologetics is intrinsically linked to the work of apologetics.

I like Dallas Willard. He has been very helpful, if not always directly, through the mentoring of various other authors and teachers I have been directly impacted by.

Dallas Willard passed away just over two years ago. This book was underway before he passed as a joint project between Willard and his daughter. She organized it based on a series of lectures he gave in 1990 and supplemented it in areas he thought needed further development using other lectures and writings. Despite that, this feels like a cohesive book.

Willard is trying to remind the apologist that the method (and life of the apologist) is important to the work of apologetics. In 1990, I think that was probably a much more needed message than today. We always need to be reminded of that, but I do not think that many apologists today would disagree with that basic summary.

Even so, the part that I most resonated with was that simple reminder. (Although I kept thinking that Unapologetic did a better job communicating the point and at least parts of Vanishing Grace did a better job reminding the reader of the importance of grace toward the non-Christian. )

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