Christianity

Review: Unparalleled

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Unparalleled

Unparalleled, Jared C. Wilson. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2016.

Summary: A book that makes the case for Christianity by proposing that the unique elements in Christian faith’s account of God, humanity, Jesus, salvation, history, and the end make it  both worthy and credible.

I love to tell the story;
’tis pleasant to repeat
what seems, each time I tell it,
more wonderfully sweet.
I love to tell the story,
for some have never heard
the message of salvation
from God’s own holy Word.

-Katherine Hankey

I not only love telling the story of the Christian faith but listening to others tell it, even when they are speaking of things I’ve heard before. Reading Jared Wilson’s account of the compelling character of the Christian faith in its “unparalleled” claims was “wonderfully sweet” and I commend reading such books even by “seasoned” Christians so we can better tell the story ourselves.

In a conversational style, Wilson recounts his own efforts to tell the story, and along the way, highlights how so often the good news that we share is a message most have never heard before and shatters their misconceptions. He speaks of a God who is great, utterly good and just, and yet who may forgive even the most heinous crimes. How can that be? He talks about the challenging matter of a God who is three and yet One, and whose relational character serves as the basis of all loving relationships.

He explores how the Christian view of humanity reveals us as both beautiful and yet broken reflections of the beautiful God. He opens up to us the uniqueness of Jesus, who had the audacity to claim to be God, lived a life that backed this claim, and then amazingly died and rose to triumph over evil and death. All this was to accomplish a salvation that rests utterly on what he has done, and not what we do, and propels the forgiven and beloved into global mission that speaks bring a message both universal and unparalleled that anticipates a new heaven and earth, a glorious future that transcends both our own lives, and life on earth as we know it.

I think there are several good uses for this book. One I’ve already alluded to is that it helps Christians, both young and old alike, to crystallize our message for this generation. A second use is as a more accessible version of a book like Mere Christianity to offer those exploring the faith and how it could possibly make sense to become a Christian. For both, this is not a book so much of apologetics as that upon which good apologetics is founded, a good explanation of basic Christian belief, or doctrine.

The only thing that mars this book in my opinion are the few places where the author feels compelled to speak critically of Christians outside his own (Baptist Reformed) tradition, taking shots at points at both emergent and mainline Christians. There are other places where this kind of engagement may be appropriate but it detracts from the “mere Christianity” feel of so much of the book that is its strength.

That said, I found myself enjoying the old, old story being told by a new generation of story-teller. No doubt, I will draw upon this book as I have chances to share that same story.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: Christ and Crisis

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Christ and Crisis

Christ and Crisis, Charles Malik. Grand Rapids: Acton Institute, 2015 (originally published by Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1962).

Summary: Contends that the deepest crisis of his (our) age is a spiritual crisis that the church properly addresses by laying hold of all the resources and pursuing the calling of people of faith.

Charles Malik was a Lebanese diplomat and a drafter of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as a later U.N. convention against genocide. He presided over the 1958 U.N. General Assembly and later taught at Harvard, Dartmouth, Notre Dame and American University. He was a thoughtful and deeply committed Orthodox Christian involved in several international ecumenical causes.

Malik wrote this book as the world faced the aggressive advance of Communism in the years following World War II, when nations were gaining dependence from colonial powers and the West was attempting to re-define the place of democracy in the world order. It was a time of crisis and activism and Malik was in the midst of it all.

Contrary to what you might expect, this book is not a call to Christian social activism, to political engagement in the crises of the day. Rather Malik, especially in the opening address (the book is a transcription of seven addresses Malik gave in this period), argues that the most significant crisis the world is facing is a crisis of spirit and the most significant calling of the church is to pursue the disciplines of devotion, the practices of holiness, and courageous witness to the message of the gospel. At one point he speaks disparagingly of churchmen who wade into international affairs and social issues about which they know little.

In some respects, he sounds like more modern writers like John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas in calling for the church to be the church and as such be its own distinctive order in the world. But there is a crucial difference–he is not a pacifist but one who might be in the principled just war camp. He writes at one point:

War is terrible, and not only will a Christian not provoke it, but he will do everything in his power to prevent it from breaking out. But six things do not follow from this: (1) It does not follow that if war is forced upon him that he will not defend himself; (2) nor does it follow that he will not in advance prepare to defend himself, since there is nothing to guarantee that war will not be forced upon him; (3) nor does it follow that if and when war is forced upon him he will not fight like a man or will not fight for complete victory;  (4) nor does it follow that, since cold war is a kind of war, he will not fight it to victory; (5) nor does it follow that under conditions of war, whether cold or hot, he will blaspheme God and cease to be a Christian, loving Christ above everything else and his neighbor as himself; (6) nor, finally, does it follow that, if he is opposed to war, he has any right to be opposed only to that form of war which is “international,” namely, war between the nations, while saying nothing whatsoever about that other form of war which goes by the name of “class war,” namely, war between social and economic classes which could be just as terrible and just as unjust and just as devastating as any so-called “international war.” (p. 100)

Here we have thoughtful, nuanced, and “both-and” thinking, that while not finding agreement with everyone, transcended simplistic and polarized positions of his time and ours.

While addressing the great crises of his day, he also spoke trenchantly to the challenges all Christians face that he summarizes as coming on six fronts: the world and its temptations, our own memories, our tendency to sloth, our inveterate pride, our daily temptation to worship things and objects, and finally, the lures of the Enemy (pp. 65-66).

This is a book that speaks into our own activist age. Those who identify as progressive may not agree, but I hope they will engage with his critique of his own age and his analysis of the spiritual dimensions of the crises we face and our response to them.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

200,000 Views Later

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One of my TBR piles

Sometime during the day yesterday Bob on Books was viewed for the two hundred thousandth time since I launched the blog in August 2013. For some blogs, this is not such a big deal. They may get that many views in a month or even a week or less. I’m still surprised that over 137,000 visitors were actually interested enough to visit a page.

The picture above was the one that appeared on the first blog. Since then there have been 930 more posts (an average of 215 views per post) and something of a rhythm that includes two to three review posts, and usually something related to reading, something related to larger life issues, and, since May 2014 posts each Saturday on Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown. I take Sundays off from writing new posts, but often re-post old Youngstown posts or others from the archives.

I have to say that this has truly been a delightful journey. Some of those delights have been:

  • Readers: I’ve interacted with so many either on the blog or via pages on Facebook and Google +. With very few exceptions, people have been thoughtful, often appreciative, and many times have added insights of their own that have enriched my insights.
  • Admins:  I post on a number of Facebook and Google+ pages appropriate to content of particular posts. Page admins have been so gracious in permitting this. I could mention so many but several stand out: Byron Borger at Hearts and Minds Books, John Mulholland at Charles Malik Society for Redeeming Reason, Rob Bradshaw at Theology on the Web, David Swartz at Geezer 1, and those two amazing Youngstown women, Bobbi Ennett Allen at I Used to Live in Youngstown, and Joan Alfona Watters at I Grew Up in Youngstown. Tom Grosh at the Emerging Scholars Network has given a number of my review posts a second life and a wider audience.
  • Authors: I am surprised by how many times I’ve heard from authors of books I’ve reviewed. Most gratifying is when they convey that I understood what they were trying to do.
  • Publishers: A number of the books I’ve reviewed, and often enjoyed, were graciously provided by publishers. Yes, I took time to read and review these books. But I don’t take these review copies for granted. I hope I helped make their books known and helped sell a few.
  • Booksellers: These folks, especially the Indies, have taken so many risks and work so hard to pursue what they love. Its been fun to tell some of their stories and share what awesome places are their stores.

And a few concluding insights about blogging:

  • Strive for quality, and keep showing up. In my case, I had 3300 view the first year, 45,000 views the next year. Last year, I topped 100,000 views. Most of what I did was to just keep writing.
  • Persist in finding new places and means to connect with people you don’t know, and some will follow, and many others view.
  • Take your readers seriously. Respond where possible to their comments. Be grateful for them. They turn electrical impulses into conversations, shared experiences, and traffic of yet others to your blog.

All of you who follow, read, comment, share, and let me into your lives, whether readers or authors or admins have been gifts and made writing a joy. Very simply, thank you.

 

 

Review: When Athens Met Jerusalem

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When Athens Met JerusalemWhen Athens Met Jerusalem, John Mark Reynolds. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009.

Summary: The Christian message advanced in a Greco-Roman World prepared in many ways by both the failure of the Homeric gods and the classic philosophers. This book explores the intellectual antecedents to the gospel in pre-Socratic, Socratic, Platonic and Aristotelian thought, culminating when Jerusalem meets Athens when Paul preaches on Mars Hill.

In the third century, the Christian Tertullian asked the questions, “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church? what between heretics and Christians?” For many Christians, this has been the last word on the matter and they have decided there is little or nothing of value in studying the Greek philosophers of the Classical tradition preceding the advent of Christianity.

John Mark Reynolds would argue to the contrary pointing out both how Greek philosophy prepared the way for the gospel as it groped for something beyond the gods of Homer and tried to explain why there is cosmos rather than chaos. It gave us the humility of wisdom in Socrates who knew that he didn’t know. It gave us the dilemma of the cave and the question of what is the really real. It gave us the Aristotelian mean in ethics and the cultivation of virtue. And yet it failed to deliver Greece from the power hungry Alexander, the decay of its civilization, its lapse back into pagan deities and gnostic mysteries that failed to illumine and give hope. It prepared the way for the Apostle Paul to appear on Mars Hill to speak of the “unknown God” who has revealed himself scandalously in the resurrection of his son.

The book is a useful and sympathetic survey of classical thought. Reynolds begins with the pre-Socratic philosophers in chapter 1, Socrates in chapter 2, Plato in chapters 3-7, Aristotle, the pupil of Plato in chapters 8 and 9, and finishes with the neo-Platonists, Epicureans, and Stoics in chapter 10. The end of chapter ten concludes with the preaching of Paul addressing a culture, prepared by this lineage.

If I had any criticism, it would be that this book is long on Athens and short on Jerusalem. Perhaps Reynolds felt that this is all he could do in a book of this length. Yet it seems that the whole book intentionally builds toward the intersection of Athens and Jerusalem. Reynolds spoke of giving us a whirlwind tour through the classical Greeks. I think he could possibly have given us a tighter summary and explored more of the engagement between Greek philosophy and Christian theology. Clearly this has shaped Western Christianity to the present, but the shape and critique of that engagement is sparse in this book. It is clear that Reynolds is more favorable to the Greek philosophers than either Tertullian or many moderns. Perhaps it is because he so loves his subject matter of the Greek philosophers. A more in depth discussion of that engagement could have been a valuable contribution.

This is a useful secondary text for students, particularly Christian students, reading the classics. Reynolds provides helpful context and commentary and helps show the relevance of the questions these philosophers were asking as well as the thought world Christians encountered as the gospel established a beachhead in Europe during the missionary journeys of Paul. It also serves as a helpful review for some of us who read these classics many years ago and need a “brush up.”

Review: The Soul of Atlas

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soul of atlasThe Soul of Atlas, Mark David Henderson. Lexington: Reason Publishing, 2013.

Summary: Is there any way to reconcile the thought of Ayn Rand and the Christian faith? Through a personal narrative of dialogues with his two fathers, one a Christian, and one an adherent to Ayn Rand’s philosophy (Objectivism) the author explores what possible ground could exist between Objectivists and Christians.

Ayn Rand argued that we ought to pursue that which is of chief value, which is our own selves, validated in productive work. The universe is all there ever was. There is no God. Christians see our chief end as to glorify the creator God who made us in his image. Rand criticized the altruism and self-sacrifice she saw at the center of Christian ethics as weakness. Christians would argue there is no virtue in selfishness. It seems these two worldviews are poles apart and utterly irreconcilable.

Mark David Henderson was stuck with a dilemma. There are two men, both fathers, in his life. One he calls Dad and he is a Christian. The other is John, an adherent of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. He deeply respects both men and has experienced the imprint of both men’s worldviews on his life, even though he has finally chosen Christianity over atheism, because as he explains in one place,

“In connecting my fathers’ world views to Meaning it became clear that Dad lives to glorify God and sees Meaning as dependent upon a Supreme Being. John sees existence itself as Reality. Along with Rand, he says that asking for anything else is a futile pursuit. Both men would consider their values objective, that is to say, true for everyone. The turn for me happened here. I found that John’s explanation didn’t satisfy, and while dissatisfaction itself didn’t validate dad’s answer, I felt myself leaning in his direction. I recognized there is plenty we may value in life that is not lasting. It may be meaningful, in a temporal sense, but if it came about by chance and it fades away, there is no ultimate purpose to it. Valued aspects of life may be meaningful, but this is not Meaning” (p. 127).

This gives you a flavor of his writing. I worried as I got into the book that the “two fathers” theme would get schmalzy but it never did. There was both feeling and intellectual grit in the discussion of these two men’s ideas about Sex, Money, Power, Meaning, Joy and more. Along the way he recognizes places of convergence, common grounds of a common humanity between two disparate world views. Neither man nor the beliefs they represented could accept a “hook up culture”. Both recognized the value in productive work and the monetary measures of this although each placed this differently in their values hierarchies. Both agree that the best government is limited government, whether this infringes upon the initiative of productive individuals or because governments are tempted to usurp the place of God.

Perhaps Henderson’s most significant insight, influenced by the writing of John Piper was to recognize convergence around the idea of rational self-interest. In fact, God is the greatest egoist of all, because he rightly puts himself and his glory above all else. What distinguishes the Christian from the egoist is simply the recognition that there is One greater than oneself of ultimate worth and indeed, the greatest Joy one can have in life is to place value in what is of ultimate worth.

What I liked about this book is that Henderson was not writing a work of syncretism–fusing Christianity and Randian Objectivism uncritically. Rather he recognizes that when it comes to some fundamentals, they are irreconcilable. Yet he does something else. He recognizes that we may differ without being utterly different. There are common grounds that may be found between those who differ and things we may deeply admire even in someone we might not agree with. His vision is one that recognizes how important such common agreement is to work in the public square to maintain the rule of law, basic human rights, and constitutional liberties. Most of all, though, I appreciated the insight that if Atlas represents Rand’s highest ideal for humankind, that it is in the gospel that this ideal, this deepest longing in the soul of Atlas finds its realization. And that just may reconcile the irreconcilable.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Exposing Myths About Christianity

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MythsExposing Myths About Christianity by Jeffrey Burton Russell, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2012.

Summary: Under eight headings, this book offers 145 short essays responding to lies, legends, and half-truths about Christian faith in contemporary discussions, giving concise, thoughtful and catholic responses (in the sense of representing the wide swath of Christianity) helpful both to the person exploring the faith and to apologists and others who proclaim it.

“Christianity is anti-scientific.” “Christians are creationists who deny evolution.” “Early Christians suppressed the true religion of Jesus.” “Protestantism is puritanical.” “Miracles are explained away by science.” “God is a product of structural and chemical arrangements in the brain.” “Nothing is true.”

Perhaps you’ve heard these ideas and wonder if there is a cogent response. Perhaps you believe them and wonder how Christians with a brain in their heads could still embrace Christian belief.

Jeffrey Burton Russell is a Guggenheim fellow and professor of medieval history who has probably written the landmark work on the concept of the devil in five volumes as well as a book that argues that 19th century anti-theists invented the idea that medieval Christians believed that the world was flat. So he comes with impressive credentials for debunking the debunkers.

Following a chronology of pre-Christian and Christian history, his book is organized around eight headings:

  1. Christianity is Dying Out
  2. Christianity is Destructive
  3. Christianity is Stupid
  4. Jesus and the Bible Have Been Show To Be False
  5. Christian Beliefs Have Been Shown to Be Wrong
  6. Miracles are Impossible
  7. Worldviews Can’t Be Evaluated
  8. What’s New is True

The articles range from a paragraph or two to five pages or more, depending on the subject. Because of the nature of this project, none can be considered an exhaustive response and in fact books have been written on many of the issues he covers (and he provides an ample bibliography at the end of the book for further study).  At times, one wishes for greater nuance, as in his discussion of Christianity as a western colonial religion. While acknowledging the millennium long ascendancy of western Christianity, the plea that both early and contemporary Christianity is global in scope does not excuse the complicity of Christian institutions in colonialism at certain points in history. At other times, such as discussing Christian views of war, one finds a far more nuanced discussion. All this is to say that no one will agree with Russell at all points.

Nevertheless, what I found winsome was Russell’s discussion of the broad sweep of Christianity rather than one particular segment, particularly in a work published by an evangelical publisher. In discussing Mary, for example, he respectfully presents Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox views of Mary. He argues that what all have in common is that none permit the worship of Mary.

Sometimes his discussions are careful to define both what Christians mean and don’t mean by a particular term, such as “original sin”. This particular essay, as many others, included sparking insights, this being an example:

“Original sin is actually a democratic idea. Without believing in original sin, one person might pride himself or herself on being better than another and one group or race or nation might claim to be better than others. The idea that absolutely everyone is a sinner makes it much harder to be arrogant and judge others” (p. 263).

I think there are several groups of people who will find this book of help. One would be those who are considering Christian faith but have been given pause by one or more of these contentions. To read through this book, or at least sections on issues troubling one, is to listen to a cogent defender of the faith who provides good counter-reasoning to the myth purveyors and debunkers of Christian faith. Those whose interest is apologetics (the defense of the faith) will find this as a good primer on the wide range of questions that arise with pointers to more in-depth resources where further study is needed. Finally, many who preach or otherwise proclaim the faith will find themselves called upon to respond to many of the questions raised in this book. Most of the time, what is wanted is not a dissertation but a concise and thoughtful response, precisely what Russell gives us.