Category: Book review

Centuries ago Brother Lawrence wrote the spiritual classic The Practice of the Presence of God. There that monk taught us to be aware that God is with us in each moment, even when performing such mundane tasks as working in the kitchen or cleaning a floor. In Liturgy of the Ordinary Tish Warren has provided us with such a classic for our day.

From

waking to brushing teeth to making phone calls to getting into an argument to going to sleep at night, she opens to us how we live each moment in God’s presence. These gifts of repeated patterns or recurring events in our lives offer us the opportunity to see God’s grace in each moment and give thanks for his gifts when life is hard and when it is good.

The

spirit this book creates is wise, warm, encouraging and at the same time very honest. It is neither sugarcoated nor moralistic. We don’t find do’s and don’ts. Rather, in this Christianity Today Book of the Year, we find a winsome invitation to join our day to God’s.

While the book uses the motif of liturgy to frame the book, readers certainly don’t need to come from or be familiar with the liturgical tradition to benefit from this. Instead it provides fresh dimensions for and expands our appreciation of Immanuel, God with us.

Moneyball is the kind of book (as was the movie) that you can love even if you aren’t interested in baseball. It’s a David and Goliath story. It’s story of calcified tradition vs. gritty innovation. It’s a story of rising from the ashes.
Continue reading “A Story Even Those Who Aren’t Baseball Fans Can Enjoy”

Arguing doesn’t always mean getting angry. Sometimes it means persuading, trying to make a civilized attempt to convince others of a viewpoint. That’s what Jay Heinrichs has in mind in his Thank You for Arguing, subtitled, What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion.
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Science fiction at its best helps us care about ideas and care about people. Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter hits both targets dead center. It’s the best I’ve read this year among many top-rated novels in the genre.

Too often SciFi is plot driven, like an action movie. It’s fun, to be sure. And Dark Matter has plenty of action and drama. But that’s not what sets this book apart.

So what’s the central idea the book deals with? What would it be like to live a different version of your life, to follow a different key choice you made that would lead you down a different path? Yes, that’s not entirely new, but its an important idea, one that the book makes you think about.

Likewise, Blake Crouch focuses on people–the other missing dimension from so many SciFi books. His central character, Jason Dessen living in present-day Chicago, is three dimensional, complex and conflicted. He and others are not cardboard cut outs used as excuses for a wild ride through the universe. They are people we can identify with, imagine ourselves with, imagine wanting to help.

What’s Jason’s dilemma? Think of those who are closest and dearest to you, and now imagine they are suddenly gone–either by your own choices or because of others. How do you feel and what do you do to get them back? Would you compromise your own values and ethics to do so? Would you let them go for a greater good? The gravity of Crouch’s book draws us into all these questions.

In short, Dark Matter is deeply human, taking seriously both heart and mind.

Glowing screens entrance us wherever we are. From smart phones to tablets to laptops to maximum-strength HD TVs–young and old alike are mesmerized by our enticing “easy everywhere” culture. Promising the Nirvana of connectivity, ear buds and touch pads actually detach us from those who are bodily in the same room or at the same table with us.

What’s a family to do? Andy Crouch to the rescue.
Continue reading “Family in a Time of Technology”

It seems obligatory these days to begin any discussion of sex and society with autobiography. So here goes. I’m an old, white, heterosexual male who basically doesn’t have a clue when it comes to understanding gender dysphoria. (But I guess the second half of that sentence was redundant with the first half.) That’s why I appreciated psychologist Mark Yarhouse’s book, Understanding Gender Dysphoria, so much.
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In the midst of the explosion of Christianity around the world, some strange and unusual expressions of faith are emerging.
Continue reading “Insider Jesus”

Every Christmas and Easter Handel’s Messiah treats us to the greatest hits in the book of Isaiah. We can hardly help but sing along when we read such texts as:
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Reading the New Testament apart from the Old Testament is like having just one good eye. We can function, certainly. But we will lack depth perception and may misinterpret what we see. Objects may be closer or further away than we think. As a result, we may bump into something we shouldn’t have–or miss something we were trying to hit.
Continue reading “Through Old Testament Eyes 2: Misreading Jesus’ Trial”

Many Christians function with half a Bible. When we feel troubled we may go to the Psalms, or when we need an exciting story to keep children entertained we may go to Daniel or Jonah. But that may be about it. We say the whole Bible is authoritative and inspired by God, but sadly the Old Testament remains largely a closed book.
Continue reading “Through Old Testament Eyes 1: Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels”