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Review: Swing Low, Volume 2

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Cover image of "Swing Low, Volume 2), General Editor: Walter R. Strickland II

Swing Low, Volume 2: An Anthology of Black Christianity in the United States, General Editor, Walter R. Strickland II, Associate Editors, Justin D. Clark, Yana Jenay Conner, and Courtlandt K. Perkins. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514004227) 2024.

Summary: An anthology of primary source writings on Black Christianity in America from the 1600’s to the present.

Last month I reviewed a new history of Black Christianity in the United States by Walter R. Strickland II (review at https://bobonbooks.com/2025/07/02/review-swing-low-volume-1/). So, this volume is a companion to that work, providing an anthology of readings to complement the historical narrative of the first volume. In other words, if you’ve studied history, you understand how important primary sources are. Therefore, this collection is a treasure trove, both for what is represented here and the more extensive sources to which they point.

For example, here are some of the readings included:

  • Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
  • Richard Allen “The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labours of the R. Rev. Richard Allen…”
  • Francis Grimke, “Christianity and Race Prejudice”
  • Charles Octavius Boothe “Plain Theology for Plain People”
  • Martin Luther King, Jr., “Our God is Able”
  • Howard Thurman, “Jesus and the Disinherited”
  • Fannie Lou Hamer, “To Praise Our Bridges: An Autobiography”
  • Tom Skinner, “Black and Free”
  • William E. Pannell, “My Friend, the Enemy”
  • James Cone, “A Black Theology of Liberation”
  • Samuel Proctor, “Samuel Proctor: My Moral Odyssey”

Like other anthologies, many of the readings are excerpts of key passages of longer works. In addition, each of the selections includes a brief biography of the author and the context in which it was written as well as the original source of the reading.

Moreover, the anthology follows the organization of Volume One, the history, in two ways. Firstly, the anthology annotates the readings with symbols for the five theological anchors Strickland elucidates in the first volume:

  • Anchor 1: Big God
  • Anchor 2: Jesus
  • Anchor 3: Conversion and Walking in the Spirit
  • Anchor 4: The Good Book
  • Anchor 5: Deliverance

Secondly, the sections follow the historical periods of volume one, making it well-suited for use as a companion volume in courses on Black Christianity. These sections are:

  1. Pre-emancipation: 1619-1865
  2. Reconstruction and Its Aftermath: 1865-1896
  3. Civil Rights Era 1896-1968
  4. Black Evangelicalism: 1963 and Beyond
  5. Black Theology: 1969 and Beyond
  6. Into the Twenty-First Century

Finally, the readings in each section are divided into four categories:

  • Sermons and Oratory
  • Theological Treatises
  • Worship and Liturgy
  • Personal Correspondence and Autobiography

I especially appreciated the Worship and Liturgy selections which included early spirituals like “Go Down Moses” and “Oh! Peter Go Ring Dem Bells,” Civil Rights protest songs like “We Shall Overcome.” and contemporary hip hop like Sho Baraka’s “Maybe Both, 1865.”

In conclusion, this volume is the ideal complement to the history of volume one. Not only that, the readings allow us to listen to Black Christians in their own words. In particular, I found both great comfort in the faith of these believers and great challenge as they spoke of the sins of slavery and racism. For example, consider this excerpt from William E. Pannell’s “My Friend, The Enemy”, from 1968:

“No, this man is a friend. He’s against the KKK, abhors violence, supports the Constitution and is for Negro voting rights. We read the same version, believe the same doctrines, probably have the same middle class tastes, but all he knows about me–or cares to know–is what he sees on the 6 o’clock news.… I wear a suit as good as his, yet he sees me looting a clothing store in Watts. He knows something of my temperament as its mirrored in the behavior of my sons, yet he identifies me with the muggings in Washington or Buffalo. To him, the cause of brotherhood, the disintegration of human relations–civil rights!–is my problem. Mine, because I created it and I perpetuate it.”

Certainly, it does not take a great deal of imagination to draw parallels to our own day. For this reason, this anthology is so valuable. Because the writers are believing Christians who speak biblically into their situation, they offer us a chance to shed our blinders. But will we?

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Late Monsieur Gallet

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Cover image of "The Late Monsieur Gallet" by Georges Simenon

The Late Monsieur Gallet (Inspector Maigret, 3) Georges Simenon. Penguin Books (ISBN: 9780141393377) 2014 (first published in 1931).

Summary: Gallet’s death seems that of an uninteresting failure until Maigret discovers that nothing about him is as it seems.

A non-descript man checks into a hotel in Tracy-Sancerre. His usual room is unavailable, so he takes a back one, facing out on a courtyard, The next morn, he is found dead with a gunshot wound to the face and a stab wound to the heart.

Maigret is sent to investigate. He finds an ordinary man, Monsieur Gallet, with an old, shiny suit. The man’s widow, who lived in Saint Fargeau, thought he was in Rouen. She even had a postcard from there. Maigret learns he was a traveling salesman. The widow is rather vain, from a family that considered her husband a failure. Her only consolation is that the dead man had taken out a 300,000 franc life insurance policy. Her son seems aloof and ambitious, and not terribly broken up.

When Maigret contacts the man’s company, he finds they have not employed him for eighteen years. He’s not in Rouen. Nor is he working at the job everyone believed he was doing. His attacker or attackers first wounded him from outside his room, then killed him with a knife wound in his room. And how has he purchased a house, paid for a life insurance policy, and maintained their lifestyle when he has no job? Why was he in Tracy-Sancerre?

Suddenly, this non-descript, unattractive man becomes interesting to Maigret. The fascination in this story is how Maigret discovers the nature of the double life this man was living and how he died. Like others in the series, there are just enough twists, interesting characters and red herrings to make this interesting without dragging out the story. Simenon’s genius lies in telling a story with nothing extraneous and lots that is puzzling.

Review: Learning to Be Fair

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Cover image of "Learning to Be Fair" by Charles McNamara.

Learning to Be Fair, Charles McNamara. Fortress Press (ISBN: 9781506495095) 2024.

Summary: The ancient origins of the idea of equity in western moral philosophy and the historical development of the concept.

The word “equity” has become part of the contentious triad of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” As such, the concern for equity is deemed modern and “woke.” Hopefully one error the reader will not make after reading this book is to consider equity a newfangled notion. In Learning to Be Fair, Charles McNamara demonstrates that the concept of “equity” goes back at least two millennia to the Greeks. He also shows the contested character of the concept goes back to its origins.

He begins with the Greeks and how Aristotle differed from Socrates on the matter of what constitutes justice. Whereas Socrates treated it as an immutable absolute, Aristotle introduced the idea of epieikeia, from which our word equity comes via the Latin aequitas. Aristotle believed in adapting law to actual events and concrete situations.

He then turns to the Romans, and the relationship of equity to equality, reflected in tensions between democracy and aristocracy and ambiguity around questions of merit. The questions we struggle with in our own day are not new.

From here, McNamara turns to the idea of equity in English legal tradition. Not only were there courts of law but also courts of equity, or chancery courts. For example, he traces Thomas Hobbes’ concept of distributive justice, implemented through courts of equity. The term even makes it into Article III of the U.S. Constitution.

But this hardly settles its meaning. McNamara observes that two species of equity persist and are in conflict in our culture. One is “equity of the exception.” Here law is applied, taking into consideration concrete and specific circumstances. Then there is the “equity of the norm,” which seeks to treat all alike. Yet we often fail to do this for particular groups, hence the tension between the two species.

McNamara concludes the book noting the tension and vagueness around the term equity throughout history. Instead of the binary defined by the positions of Socrates and Aristotle, he commends the approach of Isocrates who treats equity as a poietikon pragma, a creative activity. Rather than equity being something “known,” he treats it as something “made,” in which equity is defined by us in our political processes.

That seems to me to be vague as well and capable of abuse. It requires the robust guardrails of democratic institutions with a balance of power. My own sense is that Isocrates holds together the “both-and” of the inherent tensions in equity. Rather than absolutism or utter relativism, good politics is creative in fashioning proximal, common good approximations of equity that meet the situation yet adhere to the rule of law. What this presumes is recognizing that political opponents need each other, which sadly does not seem to be the modus operandi at present.

However, what McNamara does offer is a challenge to the idea that equity reflects a contemporary “woke” progressivism. Rather, from the Greeks onward, equity, with all its challenges, is part of just governing, crucial to the functioning of a civil society. At the same time, he helps us understand why equity has been so contentious. And he gestures toward a politics that creatively negotiates that tension.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Thanks for visiting Bob on Books.  I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]

Review: Tamarack County

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Cover image of "Tamarack County" by William Kent Krueger

Tamarack County (Cork O’Connor, 13), William Kent Krueger. Atria Books (ISBN: 9781451645774) 2014,

Summary: A judge’s wife is missing, a dog is beheaded, and Stephen is nearly killed and Cork must connect the dots.

Evelyn Carter’s car has been found abandoned on a back road in the middle of a blizzard. She is the wife of a retired judge who is increasingly dependent upon her. As part of the county’s Search and Rescue volunteer team, Cork joins the search to look for her. But they find no trace.

Then, while Stephen is visiting his girlfriend Marlee, someone beheads the dog she and her mother are keeping for a relative in prison. Someone is stalking Marlee’s family, it appears. A guy in a green pickup followed her mom home from work until she eluded him. The same truck subsequently follows Marlee and Stephen, running them off the road.

While Marlee recovers in the hospital, Cork stays with her mother, ostensibly to offer protection. Rainy is away and told Cork he was free, although they keep in touch. You can probably guess what happens.

This isn’t Cork’s only problem. Annie is home. She has left the religious order into which she had hoped to join as a nun. She won’t talk about it and the rest of the family gives her space. It is clear there is something troubling that she is trying to sort out.

But that’s not Cork’s only problem. Only when Stephen is nearly killed does it become apparent that the driver of the truck that ran Marlee and Stephen off the road was really after Stephen. Stephen lies between life and death when Henry Meloux comes to his hospital bed.

It is apparent to Cork and Sheriff Marsha Dross that there is a connection behind all these events and that he must find that connection before more harm comes to those he loves. And as so often in these stories, Cork’s own life is on the line in an edge-of-the seat climax.

This was probably less mystery than suspense-thriller with a dash of family drama. I’m not sure why Krueger threw in the plotline of Marlee’s mother and Cork. One could say it humanized him but it also diminished him for me. On the other hand, Stephen continues to emerge as a truly interesting character and we wonder if someday he will succeed Henry as a mide. For the time, Jenny is happy as a mom to her adopted son. We discover that Annie is far more complicated than we knew.

It will be interesting to see how Krueger develops Cork as the series progresses. He seems to be in a liminal space, even while he continues to be the one who interposes himself between others and danger. One senses he would choose a different life if he could. As he ages, one wonders if Krueger will find a way for that to happen for Cork and how that will take shape.

__________

Thanks for visiting Bob on Books.  I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]

Review: Teaching Godly Play

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Cover image of "Teaching Godly Play by Jerome W. Berryman

Teaching Godly Play, Jerome W. Berryman. Church Publishing (ISBN: 9781606740484) 2009

Summary: An introduction to the Godly Play approach to the Christian formation of pre-adolescent children.

I made a mistake in picking up this book. I thought this would be a discussion of play and how one might think as a Christian about the subject. So that you don’t make the same mistake, “Godly Play” is the name of an educational approach to the Christian education or formation of pre-adolescent children developed by Jerome and Thea Berryman.

That said, I’m glad to have made this mistake. The Christian education of children is often left to committed but poorly trained adult volunteers. One of the thing I appreciated here is that the Berrymans developed an approach to the Christian formation of children that thinks about the roles of the co-teachers (storyteller and door person), the flow of lessons, how one works with a community of children, and the setup of a classroom.

The dedication, which written shortly after the passing of Berryman’s wife, Thea, explains how they developed this approach out of their experience with Montessori education, including their training with Maria Montessori. The dedication concludes with a diagram of the Godly Play Room. Bookmark this for reference as you read the book. Then Berryman explains his use of the language of play and the idea that children might come to understand their faith through the medium of play. What he offers is a brief theology of play. An explanation follows of bringing a community of children together to play through listening, wondering, through artistic expression, feasting, and blessing. The goal of this is to form children in a Christian language that enables them to make sense of their faith for themselves.

Berryman then walks, chapter by chapter, through the flow of a Godly Play class. It begins at the threshold, where parents and children leave each other with the door person’s help. Children “get ready” to enter the circle, which involves sitting quietly on the floor with legs crossed and hands folded, resting on their ankles. When the child does this at the door, they can take a seat in the circle.

The co-teacher who is storyteller sits on the floor with the children. Berryman describes setting up the circle and presenting the story. Then comes the wondering time. This is where children are invited to ask wondering questions about the story. Along the way, Berryman also offers help in dealing with disruptions in a non-punitive fashion.

The next step involves dismissing children so they can work on their own responses to the story. Children are dismissed one at a time and helped by the door person to use art or lesson materials during this time. Examples are provided of the different ways children can “work’ during this time–really a kind of wondering play. The time concludes with clean-up, putting all materials away on the appropriate shelves.

Then the group prepares for “the feast.” The feast may be as simple as cookies and juice, prepared by volunteers. Each child has the chance to pray quietly or out loud. After prayer, they enjoy the feast, which can be a time for informal visiting with children. Then it’s time to clean up. One can see how this anticipates the Eucharist.

By then, parents are waiting. There is a process of saying good-bye to each child and to bless each other and commend them to their parents.

The final two chapters focus on growing as Godly Play teachers. The first asks, “How do you know Godly Play when you see it?” Berryman notes that both God and play must be present! He also outlines how the Godly Play curriculum uses a spiral approach to reinforce learning the Christian language. Finally, he contends that growth as a Godly Play teacher involves staying close to children.

The book serves as an introduction to the Godly Play approach of Christian education. On its own, it offers help to those who teach children. Better yet, seek out Godly Play training and use the Get Started resources and Godly Play resources to set up a classroom.

This book makes us consider how seriously do we take the Christian formation of children. Is it as carefully thought through as a regular classroom? Is teacher training and good curriculum materials offered? And are children treated as part of our community, with dignity? Whether or not a church adopts Godly Play, these are questions we must ask.

__________

Thanks for visiting Bob on Books.  I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]

Review: Abigail and the Waterfall

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Cover image of "Abigail and the Waterfall" by Sandra L. Richter, illustrated by Michael Corsini

Abigail and the Waterfall, Sandra L. Richter, illustrated by Michael Corsini. IVP Kids (ISBN: 9781514008928) 2025.

Summary: Abigail’s family hikes to a waterfall, sees the creatures that live there, and learns to care for their home.

Abigail’s family hikes in the nearby forest on the first Saturday of the month. This Saturday, they are hiking to Abigail’s favorite place! They walk through a thick forest, noticing the birds and animals that make their home there. Then, she notices the mist in the air and dragonflies flitting about. They are getting close!

But as they run ahead, mom encourages them to stay on the trail. Creek banks are fragile environments, and creatures shelter under vegetation, which also filters the water. Finally, Abigail’s favorite place comes into view, a freshwater creek with a waterfall! The darters in the water are a sign of the creek’s health.

Then they enjoy the delicious lunch mom packed while enjoying the sound of the water, the coolness of the air and the way the sun’s light filters through the trees. Butterflies and ducks look on. Afterwards, they are careful to pick up all their trash, remembering the time they rescued three darters caught in a plastic bag.

After lunch, it’s time to climb the rocks by the waterfall. As they peek over the top of the rocks, they see something “slimy and scary with BIG googly eyes!!” Dad identifies the creature as a Mountain Dusky Salamander. Abigail gets eyeball to eyeball but doesn’t touch and notices how beautiful is this creature who loves the waterfall.

Then it’s time to leave. As they return to their car and look over the forest valley, their hearts are full of thanks to God and a resolve to care for the home of all the creatures they’ve seen–especially the Mountain Dusky Salamander!

This delightful story invites us all to care for God’s world and the creatures who make it their home. Implicit in the story are things like limiting plastic use, caring for creek banks, and the self-purifying mechanisms of waterways. The author mentions these in the back.

The text is set against the lush, verdant illustrations of Michael Corsini. Children may be encouraged to look for creatures on each page, which are identified. The one thing you’ll have to watch if you read this with your children is that they may want to go on a hike like Abigail’s family takes. Prepare to plan one together!

___________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila

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Cover image of "The Life of St. Teresa of Avila" by Carlos Eire

The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila (Lives of Great Religious Books), Carlos Eire. Princeton University Press (ISBN: 9780691164939) 2019

Summary: An account both of St. Teresa’s life and of her autobiography recounting her encounters with the divine.

The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila, or as it is often known, the Vida, is one of the great works onf the spiritual life, tracing the religious progress of Saint Teresa of Avila and her encounters, some quite ecstatic, with God. It was so controversial at the time that it was not published for two decades. In this volume of the Lives of Great Religious Books. Carlos Eire not only offers an account of her life and the composition of the book. He also traces its after-history of reception and interpretation, down to the present.

Eire begins with her life story. He emphasizes the place of good books in her life. She entered the convent at age twenty and nearly died of an illness. However, it would be another twelve years of convent routines before Teresa’s transformation. This came when venerating a new image of Christ brought to the convent. From here, she rapidly evolved into a mystic, experiencing instances of union with God that included visions, raptures and even levitations. Eire also notes the influences of other mystics, including Francis Borgia and Pedro de Alcantara. This awakening resulted not only in mystical experiences of union with God, but a series of writings beginning with the Vida, and her leadership of efforts to reform the Carmelite order, resulting in establishing the Discalced Carmelites.

The origin of the Vida was less her desire to get her story out than a directive of her spiritual advisors, a kind of confession to answer questions about her experiences. This was the time of the Spanish Inquisition. Her unusual experiences raised eyebrows. It was fascinating to see how the work developed under her advisors oversight, which she heeded, which probably saved her from outright condemnation as a heretic. She had both defenders and opponents. She both remained free while the Inquisition succeeded in suppressing her work.

Eire then walks us through the content of the Vida. He sets the book in the context of her reading. He also discusses major themes, including mental prayer, the Four Waters, the prayers of quiet and union, and mystical phenomenon.

Then he turns to the afterlife of the Vida. Teresa died in 1582. He discusses both the lingering opposition to the work and its spread, including numerous translations. He also traces the representation of the Vida in art, which underscored the rapturous character of some of her experiences. The final chapters explore her treatment in modernity and in post-modern criticism. This includes those skeptical of her accounts, those who psychoanalyzed her experiences, and even Spanish fascists who sought to appropriate her for their cause. The book concludes with her elevation as a Doctor of the Church by Paul VI. Eire notes how her treatment as doctor orationis (Doctor of Prayer) remains in conflict with modern and post-modern readings of her life.

I’ve read Teresa’s Interior Castle but not the Vida. Eire’s account made me want to do so. And his commentary makes this an ideal companion that I’ll want to have on hand should I do so.

__________

Thanks for visiting Bob on Books.  I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]

Review: Does Science Make God Irrelevant?

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Cover image of "Does Science Make God Irrelevant?" by Hans Madueme

Does Science Make God Irrelevant? (TGC Hard Questions Series), Hans Madueme. Crossway (ISBN: 9781433597978) 2025.

Summary: Proposes that science and faith may coexist as allies and that Christian assumptions make science possible.

“Does science make God irrelevant?” In my experience, that is not even a question for many. Rather, they assume it is a settled fact. For such people, they do not object to belief, if you need this to get through life. Rather, they make sense of the world just fine without God, thank you. It’s also my experience that many of these people have high moral standards. After all, integrity is a high value if you are doing good science.

Hans Madueme, in this concise little book, proposes that pursuing science, and living by faith may walk hand in hand. He begins by debunking the idea that science and faith have been at war. Many of the earliest scientists were believing Christians, including Galileo. Galileo got into trouble more because of the politics of the religious establishment rather than a conflict between science and scripture. The Scopes trial was as much about promoting the town of Dayton as it was a faith-science conflict. John Scopes was put up to it by the ACLU.

In fact, Madueme argues, Christian assumptions undergird science. The Creator-creation distinction encourages investigation of the cosmos because it is not divine. Christian assumptions that the world is knowable, rational, and dependable are basic to science. Even the fall is related to science in providing a basis for empiricism rather than the assumption that one may simply philosophically “know” the world.

Rather, the problem for Madueme lies with “scientism,” the belief that “nothing but” science is needed for all human knowledge. Ironically, that assertion is not scientifically demonstrable. However, although Madueme argues against ideological naturalism, he notes that most Christians have no difficulty embracing methodological naturalism, seeing it as the way we study the book of nature.

Having argued that faith and science may be close allies, he discusses the challenge of evolution and the different ways Christians approach this challenge. While he tries to clarify some language, like “creationist,” he doesn’t propose a resolution in this short booklet. Rather than encourage an anti-science response to instances of bad science, he affirms the commitment Christians and most scientists share to integrity, to following the data where it leads. I would like to have seen Madueme address the anti-science stance in some parts of the church and the politicization of science.

Finally, Madueme concludes the book with a brief description of the “fine tuning argument.” This is the idea that there are some particular stringent conditions under which life may arise and that the odds of this happening are incredibly high. The presence of an intelligent creator is certainly consistent with this reality, although this does not constitute proof. He notes the multiverse theories proposed as an alternate explanation. However for the believing scientist, the incredible order of the world, its intricacy, and beauty all move one to praise.

Madueme does all this in 65 pages of text. Of course he offers brief summaries of much longer discussions you can find in his notes. But I’ve found in many conversations about such things, most people are not that interested (at least initially) in wading through a technical text of several hundred pages. A brief, cogent summary is often what is needed and what Madueme has provided.

___________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Paul, Apostle of Grace

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Cover image of "Paul, Apostle of Grace" by Frank Thielman

Paul, Apostle of Grace, Frank Thielman. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802876294) 2025.

Summary: An introduction to the life and world of Paul based on Acts, his letters, and other sources including archaeology.

The sheer number of books on Paul, discussing aspects of his life and theology, attest to his continuing importance to our understanding of the early Christian movement. But often, these discussions focus on a particular book or theological theme. In addition, many of these discussions reflect the narrower scholarly consensus regarding the Pauline corpus. Many relegate Acts to secondary status.

Frank Thielman has written an overview to Paul’s life and world that sets his travels, mission, and writings in a wider historical and cultural context. Unlike some works, Thielman bases his account on all thirteen canonical letters of Paul as well as Acts. He also draws upon non-canonical sources and archaeology to round out this chronological account of Paul’s life, mission, trials, and death.

Beginning with Paul prior to the Damascus road, Thielman traces his travels and the context of each city and region in which he worked. He notes the theologically formative aspects of his training, his early meeting with Peter, and the developing vision of God’s grace for Jew and Gentile alike, formed at Syrian Antioch and elaborated throughout his ministry.

For example, Thielman develops the Jewish opposition Paul encountered in Syrian Antioch, Asia Minor, and Achaia over the inclusion of Gentiles without circumcision. For Paul, their inclusion, and table fellowship as one new people was essential in testifying to the grace of God in Christ. Likewise, Gentile solidarity with the Jerusalem church drove Paul’s collection.

Also, Thielman helps us understand the role and movements of Paul’s companions, notably Prisca and Aquila, Silas, and Timothy. And he fits the composition of each of the letters into Paul’s travels, and later, his imprisonment. He discusses the concerns occasioning each letter, how Paul responds, and how the letters may have been carried to their recipients.

Thielman argues for the reliability of Acts as a source and Luke as a historian and creates a chronology drawing both on letters and Acts. He does take positions on the chronology of Paul’s life that he describes as “outliers.” He equates the Jerusalem conference of Acts 15 with that described in Galatians 2. Thielman argues for Galatians as the earliest of Paul’s letters and affirms a southern hypothesis. He also argues for 1 Timothy, Titus, and 2 Timothy being written within the time covered by Acts. Thus, he argues that Paul was not released from his imprisonment and later re-imprisoned.

Thielman defends his reliance upon Acts and all thirteen canonical letters in his first appendix. And he discusses the imprisonment and the timing and manner of Paul’s death in appendices two and three.

The strength of Thielman’s work is that it reflects a scholarly account that reflects conservative convictions. He accepts the full Pauline corpus and the reliability of Acts. More than that, his account sets Paul’s ministry amid Jewish opposition, imperial concerns, and religious and commercial culture.

Thielman admits at the outset:

“Writing a book about Paul’s life is like putting together a puzzle of a thousand pieces, but a puzzle whose pieces can fit together in different ways. The best one can hope for, perhaps, is a picture that is reasonable and that, at least in some cases, is probable.”

On one hand, Thielman succeeds admirably in putting all the pieces together. However, this book is touted as a successor to F. F. Bruce’s Paul: The Apostle of the Heart Set Free. As a cohesive reckoning of all the details in a theologically conservative account, that certainly is the case. Thielman incorporates scholarship to which Bruce did not have access. But, in comparison to Bruce, this account seemed too concerned with all the puzzle pieces. While Thielman gets the theology of grace right, I felt the book lacked the overarching vision of grace’s liberating power for Paul and his ministry that I found in Bruce.

Nevertheless, this book is a great resource to read alongside Acts and the letters of Paul. It offers the “big picture” of Paul’s life. We see Paul’s ministry and his letters in context rather than just as disparate biblical passages. Thielman lays a good foundation for anyone pursuing further studies of Paul, the apostle of grace.

___________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Thanks for visiting Bob on Books.  I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]

Review: Loser Takes All

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Cover image of "loser Takes All" by Graham Greene.

Loser Takes All, Graham Greene. Penguin Classics (ISBN: 9780140185423) 1993 (first published in 1955).

Summary: On a honeymoon in Monte Carlo, Bertram’s gambling successes force a choice between love and money.

Mr. Bertram is getting married. Neither he nor Cary are affluent. He’s a low level accountant in a business firm, with few aspirations for advancement. But they are excited to share a frugal life with each other, beginning with a modest honeymoon in Bournemouth.

All that changes one day when he is called on to resolve some accounting problems for the firm’s director, Mr. Dreuther. He does so in short order. Bertram mentions his wedding plans and Dreuther insists on what is an enticing alternative. He invites him to go to Monte Carlo to get married, and then join him on his yacht for a sailing honeymoon. How can he and Cary say no to that!

They arrive in Monte Carlo. But there is no Mr. Dreuther. Bertram and Cary marry and enjoy their honeymoon suite. But they had not planned to stay. Bertram visits the casino in hopes of winning enough to afford it. They are living on snacks. At one point, the hotel even fronts him a loan as a member of Dreuther’s firm. He keeps losing until his “system” starts working and he wins enough to pay back the loan. He keeps winning, and at one point gains the balance of controlling shares in his firm from another firm director who has been losing at the tables.

But as he spends all his waking hours gambling or thinking about it, he loses something else. He loses Cary, who loved the hungry and poor Bertram, not this rich stranger. It all comes to a head when Bertram discovers Cary has moved out of their suite to be with a hungry young man she has met during all those days Bertram left her alone.

Then Dreuther shows up, pleading a breakdown to excuse his delay. He finds Bertram alone and hears the sad tale. Instead of counselling him to accept a failed marriage, Dreuther suggests a plan to win Cary back, a plan suggested by the book’s title.

The story is a kind of parable on the saying, “One cannot serve two masters.” In this case, Bertram must choose between love and money, and he chose poorly. Fortunately, we do not have to wait long in this short novel to discover whether Dreuther’s plan will allow him to redeem his poor choice.

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