This has been a weird and scary month for us, no matter where on the planet we live. Suddenly, the world shifted into discussions of attempting to flatten exponential curves in country after country, in whole economies shutting down, and of infections and deaths. Suddenly, the number of books we read, or even what we were reading seemed far less important. We struggled with not being able to focus. Yet there were hours at home, and eventually we had to get away from the grim news. Losing ourselves in a good book sometimes was the one of the things (perhaps second only to prayer) to help us preserve our sense of sanity and some sense of perspective. Some of the books on this list even took on a relevance I hadn’t thought of when I requested them for review–things like community, the “bonus time” all of us are living each day, and praying in a distracting world.

Paul’s Idea of Community (3rd Edition), Robert J. Banks. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020. A study of how Paul understood the nature of community in the churches he planted, considered against the cultural backgrounds of first century AD Greco-Roman culture. Review

Loving Your Community, Stephen Viars. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2020. A pastor whose church has developed a number of community-based outreach ministries, describes their journey into this work, and the variety of ministries that have resulted. Review

Living in Bonus Time, Alec Hill. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2020. The President Emeritus of InterVarsity/USA recounts his experience of surviving cancer, how he experienced disorientation and growth, and reframed his purpose in life in light of his “bonus time.” Review

Unsettling Truths, Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019.  Shows how “The Doctrine of Discovery,” an outgrowth of a Christendom of power rather than relationship has shaped a narrative of the United States, to the dehumanizing  of Native Peoples, slaves, and other non-white peoples. Review

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith. New York: Harper Perennial, 2018 (originally published in 1943). A coming of age story told through the eyes of Francie Nolan, about a girl’s life and ambitions in a struggling family in Brooklyn. Review

Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene. New York: Open Road Media, 2018 (originally published in 1958). A struggling Englishman in 1950’s Cuba is recruited to be a secret agent for MI6 and ends up deceiving the service only to find his fabrications becoming all too real. Review

Running for our Lives, Robb Ryerse (Foreword by Brian D. McLaren). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020.  A northwest Arkansas pastor decides to run in a primary against one of the most powerful Republican representatives in a grassroots campaign to restore a say in government to ordinary citizens. Review

Three Pieces of Glass, Eric O. Jacobsen. Grands Rapids: Brazos Press, 2020. Focuses on loneliness and belonging and the influence of cars, television, and smartphones on the experience, and even design of community and the choices we may make to foster belonging. Review

Including the Stranger (New Studies in Biblical Theology), David G. Firth. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019. A study of the former prophets that makes the case that God was not an exclusivist who hated foreigners, but that God welcomed the stranger who believed and excluded the Israelite who repudiated him. Review

The Big Fella, Jane Leavy. New York: HarperCollins, 2018. A biography of Babe Ruth, with the narrative of his life connected with a day by day account of a barnstorming tour of the country after his home run record-breaking 1927 season. Review

From Nature to Experience, Roger Lundin. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Using two essays by Emerson, “Nature” and “Experience,” traces the shift in American moral and cultural authority during the last two centuries. Review

The Possibility of Prayer, John Starke. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2020. We both long for a rich prayer life yet think it impossible for all but the spiritual elite; this work points to the possibility and practices that invite us into that life. Review

Best Book of the Month: I’m going with an American classic, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I can understand how this coming of age story was a favorite of soldiers in World War 2. For soldiers coming out of the Depression, I could see how this story of a family struggling through poverty, and a young girl’s dreams and aspirations, and the evocation of place that all come together in this story.

Quote of the Month: Most of us live in a tension between longings for a deeper life with God, and wondering whether prayer is really a productive use of our time. John Starke challenges the thinking at the heart of this tension:

The Bible challenges our utilitarianism. The prayers in the Psalms use words of waiting, watching, listening, tasting, and seeing, meditating and resting. It’s remarkable how inefficient these actions are. They aren’t accomplishing anything. There isn’t a product on the other side of these prayerful actions. Yet over the years they bring steadfastness, joy, life, fruitfulness, depth of gratitude, satisfaction, wonder, an enlarged heart, feasting, and dancing. (p. 7).

What I’m reading: I discovered Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache recently, but made the mistake of starting with book ten. Since then, I’ve picked up the first five and am nearly finished with Still Life, the first in the series–and I’m loving this introduction to Gamache, Beauvoir, LaCoste, and Three Pines. I also started into Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower. I’m not sure picking up dystopian fiction was the best choice in this season, but Butler creates an interesting scenario of the breakdown of American society in set in the years following 2024, and the visionary response of a young girl trying to survive in an increasingly violent and changing world. I’m also reading a collection of writings by Benjamin B. Warfield, one of the Princeton theologians who both affirmed the inspiration, authority and trustworthiness of the Bible, yet did not think, with some qualifications, that evolution need not conflict with the Bible. To round it out, I’m working through a new commentary on one of my favorite Bible books, Philippians.

Reading is different right now. Sometimes it is escape. But at other times, it is an effort to understand the times, and gain perspective to live in this time as each day unfolds. I hope this will be so for you as well and that you are granted health in body and spirit in this time. Stay safe, friends. By grace, I hope to meet you here with another month’s tally when we get through the month of April.

No simple way to summarize this month’s reading. A number of shorter books and one long one, David Halberstam’s War in a Time of Peace, a history of US foreign policy in the decade of the Nineties, after the end of the Cold War. My first Mary Oliver book, a fascinating tale of what is purported to be da Vinci’s last painting, a history of the Amish and of New York’s Bowery Mission. A lot of theology and biblical studies from a variety of perspectives, from Sproul to Hauerwas to Eberhard Arnold to Matthew Bates. So here is the list.

The Last Things (Contours of Christian Theology), David A. Höhne. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019. A theology of the last things that is Trinitarian in focus, centered on the exaltation of the crucified Lord, and the preservation of the believer. Review

Bowery Mission, Jason Storbakken. Walden, NY: Plough Publishing, 2019. A history of the Bowery Mission’s 140 year history of working with those down on their luck on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Review

The Heart of Revelation, J. Scott Duvall. Nashville: B & H Academic, 2019. A thematic approach to the book of Revelation focusing around ten key themes which answer the basic question of “who is Lord.” Review

Love and Quasars: An Astrophysicist Reconciles Faith and Science, Paul Wallace. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019. An astrophysicist recounts both his journey away from faith as he saw it in conflict with science, and his return to a faith enlarged by his pursuit of science. Review

The Last Leonardo, Ben Lewis. New York: Ballantine Books, 2019. The story of the Salavator Mundi, purportedly the last painting of da Vinci, sold in 2017 for $450 million. Review

Sacred Endurance, Trillia J. Newbell. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019. Using the analogy of running a race, sets out the promises of God and the practices of the believer that enable us to finish the race of faith. Review

Upstream, Mary Oliver. New York: Penguin, 2016. A collection of essays on nature and literary figures and how we might both lose and understand ourselves as we interact with them. Review

Choosing Community: Action, Faith, and Joy in the Works of Dorothy L Sayers, Christine A. Colón. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019. A compilation of three lectures and responses on the theme of community running through the works of Dorothy L. Sayers. Review

The Conscience (Inner Land, Volume 2), Eberhard Arnold. Walden: NY: Plough Publishing, 2019 (first published in German in 1936). A short treatise on the conscience, what it is, what it’s witness is, how it functions apart from God, and how it may be restored. Review

Gospel Allegiance, Matthew W. Bates. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2019. Contends that our traditional ideas of salvation by faith reflect an inadequate gospel that fails to call people to allegiance to King Jesus. Review

A Week in the Life of a Greco-Roman Woman (A Week in the Life series), Holly Beers. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019. A creative rendering of what life was like for a woman from the lower free classes in Ephesus during the period when Paul was preaching in the city. Review

War in a Time of Peace, David Halberstam. Touchstone: New York, 2002. A history of the post-Cold War conflicts of the first Bush and the Clinton administrations, with extensive coverage of the Balkan conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. Review

A History of the Amish: Third Edition, Steven M. Nolt. New York: Good Books, 2016. A history of the Amish from their European Anabaptist beginnings to the present, tracing the different groups and their continued growth in the United States and Canada. Review

The Making of Stanley Hauerwas (New Explorations in Theology), David B. Hunsicker, foreword by Stanley Hauerwas. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019. A study of the theology of Stanley Hauerwas and the apparently contrary threads of being characterized as both Barthian, and a postliberal theologian. Review

Growing in Holiness, R. C. Sproul. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2019. Compiled from the author’s lectures, the book offers both theological basis and practical help for the believer for growing in Christ-likeness. Review

Best of the Month: I really liked The Heart of Revelation. It will be the book I recommend as an introduction on Revelation with it’s focus on key themes in Revelation rather than systems for interpreting the symbols, or attempts to connect the text to contemporary events. I found my heart encouraged and moved to worship throughout my reading of the book.

Quote of the Month: Eberhard Arnold’s little treatise, The Conscience, written in the context of the rise of Nazi Germany made this trenchant observation that is well to consider in every era:

Jesus Christ is the only leader [Führer] who leads to freedom. He does not bring a disguised bondage. He does nothing against the free will of the human spirit. He rouses the free will to do that (and only that) which every truth-loving conscience must urge it to do. “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Freedom is the free power for free action. 

Anyone who wants to hand over the responsibility for his own actions to a leader [Führer]–anyone who wants to be a human leader–has betrayed freedom. He has become the slave of a human being. His enslaved conscience will be brought to utter ruin if this mis-leader calls to a freedom that is no freedom. All leaders whose authority is merely human ruin people’s consciences.

Current reads and upcoming reviews. I’ve heard from many about the crime fiction of Louise Penny and her Chief Inspector Gamache. I picked up The Nature of the Beast (not the first in the series) and was not disappointed. Look for my review tomorrow. Alan W. Gomes 40 Questions about Heaven and Hell is just that, and offers good arguments for our resurrection hope in the new heaven and new earth (we won’t be ethereal spirits wafted about on clouds), and for a traditional understanding of hell and eternal conscious punishment. I’m really enjoying City on A Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism. The book focuses on John Winthrop’s sermon “A Model of Christian Charity” with its “city on a hill” reference, which has become the metaphor for American exceptionalism. The book observes that the sermon had little impact when given in 1630, and was buried in archives for 200 years. He traces how historians with a passion for archival work preserved and eventually published this sermon, and how this one phrase became the watchword of American exceptionalism. Our Good Crisis explores how the Beatitudes may overcome the moral chaos (our good crisis) of our times. Finally, I’ve been delightfully surprised by Francis Su’s Mathematics for Human Flourishing. Su writes about how math cultivates deeply human pursuits like exploration, seeking meaning, and beauty. I’m not a math geek, but this one makes me want to pull out old math texts and brush up my math!

It is Labor Day today in the U.S. Traditionally this marks the end of summer. Students are back in school. And as befits that, three of the books here concern life on the college campus, including an important defense for including religious ideas in academic discourse. A couple books tackle tough theological questions, particularly that of God-sanctioned violence in the Bible. Others chart a vision for a faith that doesn’t make enemies, reflect on what it means to be in Christ, and propose that Christian witness can be delightful rather than dreadful. Jean Vanier was probably one of the most non-violent of men. I read a wonderful biography of his life. Two books deal with very different forms of ecology–of the American desert and of digital space. Two fine historical books are in this list, one on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, and one on the first settlement of the Ohio country. It wasn’t all serious stuff though–a mystery in a bookstore, a spy thriller set in the Sputnik era, and a beautiful debut novel. Good reads of all sorts here. It can’t be all back to school or back to work!

The Church of Us vs. Them: Freedom from a Faith That Feeds on Making Enemies, David E. Fitch. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2019. Discusses the roots of a church of us versus them and proposes a vision of the church as a space beyond making enemies. Review

Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey, illustrated by Peter Parnell. New York: Touchstone, 1968. The author’s account of spending six months as a park ranger in the Arches National Monument in southwest Utah. Review

The Violence of the Biblical God, L. Daniel Hawk, foreword by John Goldingay. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2019. A study of the narratives of violence in scripture and the multiple perspectives one finds in the text regarding God’s involvement in that violence. Review

Campus Life: In Search of Community, Edited by Drew W. Moser and Todd C. Ream, Foreword by David Brooks. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019. An expanded version of a 1990 Carnegie Foundation report on the basis for community on college campuses, with contributions from pairs of academic and student development leaders at six Christian universities. Review

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, Matthew Sullivan. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018. When Joey the Bookfrog commits suicide at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, Lydia Smith’s ordered life is overturned as she discovers a connection between his death and buried memories from childhood that had marked her life ever since. Review

Confronting Old Testament Controversies: Pressing Questions About Evolution, Sexuality, History, and Violence, Tremper Longman III. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2019. With a commitment both to the authority of the Bible, and pastoral concern for readers, the author addresses controversial questions about origins, historicity, violence, and sexuality. Review

The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation, Brenda Wineapple. New York: Random House, 2019. A history of the accidental presidency of Andrew Johnson, his resistance to the civil rights fought for in the Civil War, and the impeachment proceedings against him. Review

Hidden in Christ: Living as God’s Beloved, James Bryan Smith. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press/Formatio, 2013, 2019. Thirty short reflections on different key words found in Colossians 3:1-17 on what it means to be “in” Christ. Review

The Pioneers, David McCullough. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019. An account of the first European-Americans to settle the Northwest Territory, focused on their settlement at Marietta, the challenges they faced, key figures in the town’s early history, and three important conditions they established in the new territory. Review

Ecologies of Faith in a Digital Age, Stephen D. Lowe and Mary E. Lowe. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2018. Proposes an ecological model of faith formation and the possibility of creating this kind of spiritual ecology in online educational settings. Review

Jean Vanier: Portrait of a Free Man,  Anne-Sophie Constant. Walden, NY: Plough Publishing, 2019. A biography of Jean Vanier, the founder and guide of the L’Arche homes where assistants and cognitively disabled live together in community. Review

Who’s On First (A Blackford Oakes Mystery), William F. Buckley, Jr. New York: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Media, 2015 (originally published 1980). Oakes becomes involved in a plot to abduct a Soviet scientist couple involved in the research to launch Sputnik. Review

Religion in the University, Nicholas Wolterstorff. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. Defends the idea of the place of religious ideas in scholarly discussion. Review

The Dearly Beloved, Cara Wall. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019. Two couples, the men holding a joint call to a New York City church in a time of change, two wives utterly unlike, and the bonds forged between them as they lean into suffering and the challenges of faith each approaches differently. Review

In Search of the Common Good: Christian Fidelity in a Fractured World. Jake Meador. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019. Observing the breakdown in community in both church and society, the author traces the root causes, and the practices of Christian community that can lead to recovery of community and a church that seeks the common good in society. Review

Walking with Jesus on Campus, Stephen Kellough. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2019. A former college chaplain reflects on ten key issues students face. Review

The Reluctant Witness, Don Everts. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019. One reluctant witness shares personal narrative, helpful principles, and survey data that indicate that spiritual conversations may be delightful rather than dreadful. Review

Best Book of the Month: In this case, my choice is one that I thought the most significant of the month, Nicholas Wolterstorff’s Religion in the University. Far too often, the assumption is that we must keep religious ideas out of academic discussions, except when we are talking about religion. Wolterstorff makes an argument for how religious ideas are important to the discussions that occur in the university and, in fact, can enrich those discussions.

Quote of the Month: I love Ann-Sophie Constant’s description of Jean Vanier’s compassion for the intellectually challenged:

Jean has a profound intuition of human beings and of their beauty. “They don’t realize that they are so beautiful!” he says. “They are so crushed with guilt and feel very dirty. They don’t have any self-confidence. They do not realize that they are loved. They don’t know how valuable and how precious they are” (p. 75).

Current Reads and Upcoming Reviews: I’m very excited to be reading a collection of short essays titled Science and Faith. The mistaken notion is out there that there is a war between the two. These essays suggest that the two are complementary ways of understanding the world. I’m also reading Fundamental U, a scholarly study of fundamentalist Bible institutions and colleges, their history and development, and impact on the wider higher education landscape. A Liberated Mind is on ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), a counseling approach. Way back when, I was a psychology major and still try to work in a few books on the subject. Finally, I’m an inveterate Inklings lover, and digging into Tom Shippey’s Road to Middle-Earth, which looks at the influence of Tolkien’s philological studies on his work.

The end of summer has brought a raft of new books to review. Look for a post previewing these new arrivals soon!

 

I was traveling for a week this month and so posted fewer reviews than usual, but read some gems, nonetheless. For lovers of literature, there was a work on the influence of the Bible on English poetic imagination, a collection of essays on the work of Marilynne Robinson, and a book on the “earthy” spirituality of C. S. Lewis. For those who are writers themselves, I reviewed a couple books on writing. In the area of fiction, I discovered Stuart Kaminsky’s Chief Inspector Rostnikov, and the first installment of a new fantasy trilogy. My history read for the month was Michael Beschloss’s study of war presidents. It was sobering to see the cost to these presidents of leading the nation in war. I liked Paul Gould’s idea of an apologetic of beauty, goodness, and truth, and Chris Nye’s challenge to a kingdom vision that far surpasses the American dream. Two books fell in the category of unusual topics: Ben Witherington’s fictional account of the life of Priscilla, who appears in Acts and several of the letters of Paul, and Karl Deenick’s biblical theology of circumcision. Rounding out the month was David Brooks, The Second Mountain, describing the journey from success to commitent, and something of what it has meant in the New York Times columnist’s own life. So, here’s the list, along with links to the full reviews.

Scripture and the English Poetic Imagination, David Lyle Jeffrey. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019. A collection of essays tracing the influence of the scriptures, and particularly the poetry of scripture, upon poetry in the English language from medieval to modern times. Review

Priscilla, Ben Witherington III. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, C2019. An imaginative rendering of the story of Priscilla, a companion of Paul, as a dictated narrative recorded by her adopted daughter Julia, as she faces possible trial before a Roman tribunal. Review

Balm in Gilead: A Theological Dialogue with Marilynne Robinson, edited by Timothy Larsen and Keith L. Johnson. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019. A collection of presentations from the 2018 Wheaton Theology Conference, discussing the work, and particularly the fiction, of Marilynne Robinson with contributions from Robinson. Review

Presidents of War, Michael Beschloss. New York: Crown Publishing, 2018. An account of eight American presidents who led the nation into war, how they coped with its stresses, and the consequences of their actions with regard to presidential power. Review

Cultural Apologetics: Renewing the Christian Voice, Conscience, and Imagination in a Disenchanted World, Paul M. Gould, foreword by J. P. Moreland. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019. Contends that in our disenchanted post-modern world, the apologist needs to engage in a culturally aware apologetic that appeals to goodness, truth, and beauty. Review

Fall of a Cosmonaut (Porfiry Rostnikov #13), Stuart M. Kaminsky. New York: Mysterious Press, 2000. Chief Inspector Rostnikov and his team are charged with investigating three cases, a missing cosmonaut, a stolen film, and a brutal murder in a Paranormal Research Institute, only the first of the murders in the course of the story. Review

Less of More, Chris Nye. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2019. Proposes that the American dream is making us miserable and that the vision of the kingdom turns the American dream upside down, leading us to a truly rich life. Review

Righteous by Promise (New Studies in Biblical Theology), Karl Deenick. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2018. A biblical theology of circumcision, beginning with Abraham’s being reckoned righteous on the basis of faith in God’s promised seed, who would bless the nations, through its significance in the law of Moses, and fulfillment in the work of Christ. Review

The Poppy War, R. F. Kuang. New York: Harper Collins, 2018. First of a fantasy trilogy, focuses on an orphan woman, Rin, who escapes from her village by testing into a military academy, overcomes prejudice, only to discover disturbing powers that reveal her true identity, thrusting her into life-changing choices as war breaks out between Nikan and the Federation. Review

Stones and Stories, Judith E. Anderson. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2019. A guide for understanding and writing with clarity, whether about literature or in any of four forms of discourse. Review

Write Better, Andrew T. LePeau. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, Forthcoming October 8, 2019. An experienced writer and editor describes the craft, art, and spirituality of writing well, or at least better. Review

The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, David Brooks. New York: Random House, 2019. A book on our life journey, from the first mountain of individual achievement and success to the second mountain of rooted commitment to relationships and service. Review

Pursuing an Earthy Spirituality, Gary S. Selby. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019. A survey of the works of C.S. Lewis through the lens of their incarnational spirituality, discussing how Lewis brings together spiritual formation and the embodied life. Review

Best of the Month: I thought that Andrew T. LePeau’s Write Better does what it says. LePeau writes with wit, practicality, and a great deal of encouragement to those who have given themselves to the hard work of writing. I wrote, “LePeau’s advice . . . is characterized by the unpretentious common sense that calms fears, and offers the coaching that helps the writer lean into the hard work that turns ideas into books.” If you regularly write in any form, get this book when it comes out in October!

Best Quote of the Month: I was moved by David Brooks account in The Second Mountain of how Anne (then his research assistant) walked with him on his spiritual journey:

“Anne answered each question as best she could. She never led me. She never intervened or tried to direct the process. She hung back. If I asked her a question, she would answer it, but she would never get out in front of me. She demonstrated faith by letting God be in charge. And this is a crucial lesson for anybody in the middle of any sort of intellectual or spiritual journey. Don’t try to lead or influence. Let them be led by that which is summoning them” (p. 239).

In a wonderful turn of events Anne and David later married, a story he also tells.

Current Reads and Upcoming Reviews: I’m just finishing up The Church of Us vs. Them by David Fitch, exploring how churches can turn others into enemies and how to move beyond us versus them. I’m also coming to the close of Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire. His account of boating down the Glen Canyon, before a dam turned the area into a lake, is worth the price of admission. Brenda Wineapple’s The Impeachers helps me understand how Andrew Johnson barely survived an impeachment vote. Dan Hawk’s The Violence of the Biblical God takes a different approach from most books I’ve read on the subject. He doesn’t try to explain away or gloss over instances of violence in which God is involved or rationalize these but rather proposes that this was the cost of being a God who did not remain aloof from a fallen creation but committed himself to work through his covenant people to accomplish his redemptive purposes. I also hope in the next month to read David McCullough’s new book The Pioneers, which explores the settlement of southeast Ohio around Marietta, a book on the faith of Dwight Eisenhower and a biography of the recently deceased Jean Vanier.

So, I hope you can make the most of the dog days of summer to enjoy a good book, sip a cool drink, and refresh both body and mind!