Engaging God's World: a (brief) Review

Cornelius Plantinga is the president of Calvin Theological Seminary and a systematic theologian. His work Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living was suggested to me by Mister Ginger a few weeks ago. I recommend it most highly.

Plantinga divides his work into five sections: Longing and Hope, Creation, the Fall, Redemption, and Vocation in the Kingdom of God. His work details the Gospel narrative and how it interacts with the life of the mind. Plantinga is that rare theologian who can in language that actual people can understand. He carefully offers a well reasoned world view that sees the world as it truly is: made good, yet fallen. This keeps him between the twin falsities of pantheism (Creation is God) and Gnosticism (Creation is Evil). This book is an excellent work for college students (or anyone else) with curious minds about this world that God has created.

Kings: A Review

As we’ve discussed around here before, part of the biblical text that makes it most enduring is how it is reread and refashioned in different contexts. For millennia, culture has taken and retold these stories. Perhaps the most recent example of how Biblical stories are updated is found in the newest dramatic series on NBC, Kings.

Kings retells the story of the David narrative in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. It is set in the nation of Gilboa, a modern nation replete with cell phones, modern aircraft, and skyscrapers. Gilboa is ruled by King Silas, a man who has been a successful soldier in the past, but now is trying to lead his nation toward a time of peace. But that is complicated by the nation of Gath. Gilboa has been locked in a bitter war with Gath for several years. Recently arriving in his court is a young soldier, David Shepherd, who has recently become a national hero.

David single handedly faced down an enemy supertank (the Goliath, natch) and rescued several soldiers. One of the soldier he rescued turned out to be the crowned prince of Gilboa, Silas’ eldest son Jack. In appreciation for his impressive service, Silas reassigns David to his court in the capital city of Shiloh. Once there, David meets such impressive people as Michelle (the alluring daughter of King Silas), the Rev. Samuals, and General Abner. (Corresponding to Saul’s daughter Michal, the prophet Samuel, and ummm General Abner). I’ve only seen the first episode so far, but it’s like catnip for a Old Testament geek like myself. The details are pretty impressive . For example, David refuses to wear the flak jacket before taking on the tank (It wasn’t a good fit) and when the Reverend Samuels tells Silas God has rejected him and chosen another, Silas grasps his shoulder (though he doesn’t actually tear it). Not everything works. God’s divine favor resting on Silas is depicted by several butterflys that land on his head. Strange. Also, Silas insinuates strongly that Jonathon is gay, which adds a distracting edge to his impending friendship with David.

But the strongest reason I look forward to this series (they’ve already completed around 13 episodes or so) is that it deals forcefully with the reality of God in the lives of people. I expected that the characters would mention God very obliquely, if at all. But the main characters of David, Silas, and Samuals each speak explicitly to the central role that God plays in each of their lives.

David and Saul are two of the most fascinating characters in the Old Testament. Few other people in the Bible were as capable of such incredible acts of butchery and destruction as these two. But one of them was hand-picked to be the first king of Israel, and the other was a man after God’s own heart. They are compelling figures in any age and time.

Each of the first two episodes are available online at NBC. Watch the rest of the season on (naturally) Sunday evenings.

Review: Don't Let Me Go!

Don’t Let Me Go is a wonderful exploration of the relationship between David Pierce and his teenage daughter Chera. Somewhat on a whim, David and his daughter decided that they would climb Pike’s Peak, despite never having moved much beyond the comforts of the couch in their living room. After climbing the mountain (and experiencing numerous obstacles) they decide to continue undertaking several challenges that included running in marathons and culminating in an attempt to climb Mount Rainier. As they overcame these various physical obstacles, they grew even closer together. It made their last four years together before Chera went off to college deeper and more meaningful. The book ends in a poignant moment as Chera must face the last (and greatest) challenge with Dad as a spectator.

As Pierce shares the present day story of his daughter, he also narrates the past mountains he faced in his own childhood. He tells the story of a distant and alcoholic father and his own search for God throughout a difficult childhood. The contrast between his own upbringing and the way he raises his child is light years away.

This was a tough book for me to read. Squealer, at 13, is precisely the age that Chera was in the beginning of the book. Pierce models the kind of parent that I think most anyone would want to be. Certainly he presents himself in the best light possible (that never happens here at Coffeespoons;) but Pierce models the kind of involved, caring parent I aspire to be.

(Spoiler Alert)The book ends with Chera getting married (thus morphing the tale into, as Bowden would say, a “horror story”). David is made all too aware that the mantra he repeatedly told himself while he and Chera were on mountains (“Don’t let go!”) had to change, as the minister told him to place his daughter’s hand into the hand of her husband and then to “Let go!” Good grief! (End Alert)

Overall, this book expands beyond the story of one father and one daughter to include all fathers and daughters. This is the mark of an memorable piece of literature. You start off thinking about this character and their relationships and end up meditating upon your own. I recommend this work highly.

Squealer is 13 and goes off to college in four years. The clock is ticking…

(I have one extra copy. Whomever first tells me which Southern Baptist seminary I attended gets it.)

Review: How to Argue Like Jesus

Sometimes I receive a book I request for a review and wonder “Why did I ever request this book?!” Such was my feeling when I opened the packaging for How to Argue Like Jesus by Joe Carter and John Coleman (Crossway, 2009). I expected another book that carefully explained how the views of Jesus happened to coincide with the views of the particular author and now the reader should spread these views a bluntly and confrontationally as possible.

Happily, I was very much surprised by this work. Carter and Coleman focus on the art of communication in this book. They spend the majority of the work, exploring the rhetoric of Jesus in the gospel accounts, and locating his rhetoric within the context of Aristotle’s analysis. For example, they discuss the concepts of pathos, ethos, and logos and cite several examples from Jesus’ teaching that reinforce these concepts. The authors also use Jesus’ discussions with opposing religious officials to highlight their usage of various rhetorical fallacies.

After their focus on Jesus’ logical argumentation, Carter and Coleman turn their attention from building the message to spreading the message and explore several contemporary examples of how churches follow the example of Jesus. Jesus engaged in discipleship, using his own material, and developing the first concept of cell groups. We should do the same. Following this section the authors include a couple of case studies of rhetorical analysis and a glossary of terms.

This is a helpful book, one that would be a nice addition for any preacher or teacher who devotes time to speaking in front of people. I recommend it. (But I would’ve changed the title. How to Communicate Like Jesus would’ve been a better one.).

Two Reviews

Thursdays are for Reviews

In a previous post, I mentioned the difficulty that readers face in filling in the gaps of biblical texts. One of the great benefits of gaps is that it leaves a narrative space for creative reflection on the rest of the text itself. The artist is invited to dialogue with the text by carefully reading and noting these narrative gaps.

I recently received one artist’s attempts to creatively interact with biblical texts. After a recent review in which I noted the paucity of pink books on my bookshelf, Benjamin Potter graciously sent me two works which fill in some of the literary gaps in the infancy narratives of the gospel accounts of Matthew and Luke.

Something Special at Leonard’s Inn (Loom and Wheel Publishing, 1999) is the story of the birth of Jesus told through the eyes of the innkeeper in Bethlehem who let Joseph and Mary use a stable and the manger.

Just a Simple Carpenter: the Story of Joseph (Loom and Wheel Publishing, 2000) retells the same story from a different vantage point: the perspective of Joseph. In this work, Potter casts a wider net as he begins months before the birth of Christ and ends his story right after Mary and Joseph lose Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem.

I enjoyed each of these works a great deal and would recommend hem highly. I was reminded as I read them about the great challenge that we have as Christians to retell the Story to others and to ourselves. As we read the Christmas story year after year, it can become repetitive and comfortable. Potter resists the comfortable reading by engaging each text from the first person perspective. He fleshes out the characters of the inn-keeper and of Joseph with much care.

One consequence of Potter’s telling of these tales is that they are darker than the sunny Christmas story we set out on our lawns every December. As Potter rightly (writely?) notes, the splendor of the visit of the Magi is shortly followed by the (no doubt) desperate flight of the first family to Egypt before the murderous edict of King Herod.

And in Leonard, Potter reminds us that each of the peripheral characters in these narratives bring their attendant hurts and sorrows to these stories. The shepherds, the inn keepers, the wives, and the Magi were all genuine people with actual thoughts and feelings. Far from the two dimensional images we meet in Christmas pageants throughout December, they were real, actual people.

Each of these books remind us that the people surrounding Jesus shared sorrows and rages, pleasures and joys. Just like us.

Valentine's Book Review (I)

A three pack, yea a four pack of valentine reading pleasure for you. I’ve divided these four reviews into two posts. Just read the second post if you’ve not got much time.

First up is a devotional version of the well reviewed book from last year Love as a Way of Life. This devotional takes the five categories of love in Chapman’s book and breaks them down into 90 devotionals, with stories added for illustrative purposes. Frankly, the entire enterprise reeks of repackaging. Chapman had an assistant work on this and I could never tell how much Chapman wrote and how much his assistant contributed as both writers speak in first person throughout the text. Regrettably, this has the feel of a repackaged text, aimed at a literary marketing microniche. Skip this book and read the original.

Two books I had not encountered before are entitled For Men Only and For Women Only by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn. These two books have just been released as a boxed set entitled For Couples Only. They each contain a great deal of useful information for members of the opposite sex. Based upon interviews and surveys of thousands, the Feldhahn’s make numerous conclusions about each gender. They then summarize their findings in this work.

Each of these books reads like a wildlife handbook for examining strange species. Now I understand that Men are from Mars while women sojourn from Venus. I am further willing to concede, that after living in close proximity with not only a wife, but two daughters, for almost a decade and a half, I know less about women than I did while I was single. But I do think we need to be careful in the broad stereotyping that goes on in some of these books.

For example, For Men Only comes with a fold out cheat sheet on women (I’m not making this up). It’s called a “Quick Start Guide.” Again, let me emphasize, I’m being serious. This is a sheet (not unlike what you would find accompanying a box of software or a new stereo system) that allows you quick knowledge without having to read the entire manual. This guide is subdivided into several different areas (reassurance, beauty, emotions, etc) that contains questions like “Why does she ask ‘Do these pants make me look fat?’” Answer “When she asks you how she looks, she’s not asking whether or not she’s presentable for the party. She wants to know that she still rocks your world.” I think that there is a lot of valuable information here, but packaging it as a quick start guide is offensive and dehumanizing. She’s your wife, not your new Kubota Tractor.

But aside from the packaging, I would recommend each of these books. For Women Only offers an accurate, though stereotypical, exploration through the male mind. And a quick check with Kadie confirms the accuracy of For Men Only as well.

Review: The New Media Frontier

The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ is the first work that I’ve read to take a detailed look at how the emerging world of cyberspace is affecting the way we Christians commonly think about connecting people together. This work illustrates how several institutions are affected by these various new media. The book divides into two parts: the platform and the content (these are my terms).

The first section covers the essential elements of the growing media presence online. It provides several reflections on the consequences of media migrating from print to pixels. Helpfully, this section doesn't simply take up pom poms and cheerlead this new reality, but it also explores some of the very difficult implications of these new media for Believers. It concludes with two chapters on the nuts and bolts of the new media: blogs, podcasting, vlogging (video blogging) etc.

The second section of the book takes a magnifying glass to several different areas of these media and explores how they are shaped by some of the top practitioners in the field. So Fred Sanders looks at what changes that the internet will bring to higher education, Scott Ott to Journalism, Roger Overton to Apologetics, and Mark Roberts to Pastoring.

Some chapters simply take the existing topic and translate it into cyberspace. Other sections, like the one on Bioethics by Joe Carter and Matthew Eppinette go beyond simply looking at how Bioethics are affected by the media and include an excellent survey of the topic itself that their work could be used in a classroom setting. It could be stolen by some unscrupulous professor and foisted off as their own material. Not that anyone would actually do that.

Conclusions from the book:

As one might expect, each of the authors takes a position that the new media have emerged to stay. There will be no turning back the clock. Those who ignore this new media will increasingly find themselves marginalized from contemporary community. The benefits of the new media are a wider circle of contacts and a greater opportunity to provide megaphones for individuals and organizations.

But the authors pretty consistently argued that the wide opportunities carry a significant cost: while these various media allow more and more people to be reached than ever before, their impact is proportionately smaller than ever before. For all their breadth, the new media sacrifice depth.

Additionally, these new methods of communication add to rather than remove barriers between actual humans. Human interaction is always mediated through electronics. Anyone who has perused the comments of a blog often see how the commentators can misunderstand one another.

But the authors of The New Media Frontier know these shortcomings of their approach. And since these media are here to stay, they engage proactively, and constructively with them. Anyone wishing to seriously harness these new media for the good of the church and the good of the Kingdom of God, should be familiar with this work.

Full Dsiclosure: One of my good friends wrote a couple of chapters of this book and provided me with the review copy, which no doubt affected my glowing review. A little.

A Review: Twilight

Summary

Twilight tells the first person story of Bella Swan, a 17 year old from sunny Phoenix who has to move to the damp, dark town of Forks, Washington to be with her Dad. (Oddly, Forks is embracing its newfound fame, though the picture painted of the town in the book is far from ideal.) Her mom is following her stepfather to Florida and Bella doesn’t want to go. So Bella moves to a town where she knows her father and no one else. The story follows Bella as she moves into the new community and struggles to fit in to its closed society.

At the local high school she wrestles with the typical challenges of the new kid as she tries to carve out her own self identity while trying as best she can to “fit in”. In her first few days of school, she notes one group of teens who stay off by themselves, away from the regular students. They are members of the Cullen family, whose pater familias is a prominent local doctor. One of them in particular catches the eye of young Bella, another 17 year old named Edward.

Initially, Edward seems to go out of his way to either avoid, or torment young Bella. Despite his frigid attitude toward her, she is hopelessly drawn in by his good looks. After he saves her life in a near car accident, she discovers that he has reciprocal feelings for her and their relationship begins in earnest.

As most everyone knows by this point, Edward is a vampire, part of a unique family of vampires who have foresworn human blood so that they might continue to live among humans. They hunt and consume animals, and are thus able to satiate their bloodthirst and coexist with humans.

The story unfolds as Bella learns more and more about Edward’s clan, as well as the other vampires who roam the earth and still pursue humans. She is threatened by these other vampires, but ultimately is saved by Edward and his family.

Most of the problems I had with this work were sytlistic and are explained by the simple fact that I’m not its intended audience. Twilight is clearly aimed at the Young Adult (and specifically female) market. For example, it describes Edward as he and Bella were resting in a country field:

“He lay perfectly still in the grass, his shirt open over his sculpted, incandescent chest, his scintillating arms bare. His glistening, pale lavender lids were shut, though of course he didn’t sleep. A perfect statue, carved in some unknown stone, smooth like marble, glittering like crystal.”

I had to take an insulin shot before typing that quote.

But more interesting that the literary dimension of the text is the theological.

A Theological Reading

The text is laden with theological meaning. There are some clues that Meyer has in mind a theological reading of this text. (And regardless of her intent, as a Believer, I can’t really read it any other way.) The cover of the text depicts two female hands offering a delicious red apple. There’s quite a track record with women bearing apples of course (never mind the more recent incarnations of Disney movies and one particular ABC television show, complete with apparel).

This cover calls to the mind of the reader another fruit borne of a woman, the famous fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Yes, Genesis 2 and 3 makes no mention of the word apple. Which makes it a gap of course. The reason that so many have thought it was an apple has to do with the Latin, which...sorry, off topic. Go here if interested.)

So the very cover leads the reader to conclude that there might be some element of forbidden knowledge, or forbidden fruit involved in the narrative. And when you open the cover and read the frontspiece, that suspicion is confirmed as the first text of the book that appears is the scriptural citation Genesis 2:17 “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” So Meyer clearly reads this forbidden fruit into the background of the story.

The story rightly emphasizes the importance of blood. Blood is what the vampires must have if they are to live. As Leviticus 17:14reminds us “ because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.’” The vampire story gets this element right. There is no life without the blood.

Meyer also portrays immortality as coming with a significant cost. The vampires are immortal, but without a soul. They can only find a meaningful existence by interacting with humans and ummm, playing baseball. The vampires strive for divinity but fall far short in their attempt to reach it on their own. They gain the entire world, but in the process lose their souls.

And lastly, I think that Meyer skillfully constructs a narrative in which blood is a metaphor for sex. In the story’s account of vampires, each vampire is particularly sensistive to a specific human’s scent. Naturally, Edward is highly attuned to Bella’s scent. It makes her particulary enticing for him and he is tempted throughout the book to feast upon her blood and turn her into a vampire. Consequently, there is a tension throughout the book as Edward and Bella fall in love. Does he really love her, or is he after her only for her body blood?

Edward’s bloodlust becomes a stand in for actual lust. Edward is animalistic and primal in his lust for blood. He desires Bella and the reader anxiously awaits alongside her to find out if Edward will simply use her for his own desires and get what he wants. And will Bella lose a vital part of herself in the process?

After Scooter and I read Twilight, we went out for lunch and talked about each of these theological themes in the book. Approaching these issues using a story from her world was unusual for us and I think we both enjoyed the talk. I hope that in the end, it will help her develop as a critical reader of popular texts.

After we talked, a friend of mine from church asked me if I was glad that I let her read it. I replied “She just read a story which compares hormone ridden teen-age boys to blood-sucking vampires. Of course I’m glad she read it!”

A Review: Christian Writers’ Market Guide 2009

The Christian Writers’ Market Guide 2009 by Sally Stuart is a powerful resource for all authors interested in the Christian market. It contains a burgeoning amount of information identifying literary outlets for Christian writers. It is a reference work, not a “how to” book. It can help the writer to identify which books or periodicals might be the best outlets for its works.

After an initial chapter explaining how the book is best used, chapter 2 covers Book publishers. This chapter divides into three parts. Part one is a topical list of book publishers (e.g. Bereavement, homiletics, Marriage, Women’s books, etc). Thus the prospective published writer can use the list to guide her or him to the publisher most likely interested in that particular topic. The second list is a simple alphabetical listing of all Christian publishers. The third list is a list of “subsidy publishers.” A subsidy is when the publisher requires you to pay all or part of the costs associated with publishing a book. (The term I am more familiar with is “subvention”). The fourth section is a list of book distributors (e.g. Campus Crusade, Christian Book Distributors). The final section is what Stuart calls a “marketing analysis” where she lists publishers by the numbers of books published, most popular book topics, etc.

Section (chapter?) Three covers much of the same ground, except with periodicals. The first section is a topical listing of Christian magazines. It includes topics like book reviews, African-American Markets, Grandparenting, Poetry, etc. A second (sub)section then lists the Christian periodicals alphabetically. This is followed by a final “market analysis” of periodicals. The fourth section of this tome explores the world of Christian greeting cards, gifts, and specialty markets. It also includes Christian software, DVDs and music CDs.

The fifth section is entitled “Helps for Writers” and focuses upon subjects like writer’s conferences, editorial services, literary agents, and writing contests. The sixth (and final) section of the book includes an index and glossary as well as a break down of publishers by both corporate ownership and denominational affiliation. Included with the book is a CD which contains an additional three sections covering additional resources for writers, additional writing and marketing resources, and a final section of a glossary of terms.

This lengthy work (547 pages + a CD) provides a blizzering array of information categorized in a very logical way about all elements of the Christian writing market. In its collection of data, it is more of a resource4 than a how-to of getting into the Christian writing market. The Christian Writers’ Market Guide is an invaluable resource for any writer who is interested in writing their way into this market.

It’s also sad and depressing.


My mind reels at the micro-niches found throughout the Christian subculture. Do we need two magazines separated only by punctuation? Good News or Good News! (As opposed to the regional website Good News of South Florida or the Good News Connection). Maybe they’ll even come up with a Good News, etc. (Oh…. they did). How would the motorcycling needs of a Christian motorcyclist differ from a pagan motorcyclist. Plus, doesn’t another religion already have the motorcycling market down?

I understand the need for marketing analyses and micro-niches. I think that there is an important role for Christian publishing houses with their attendant books and magazines. I simply think that we get into trouble when we speak only to ourselves. What we need (as others have said) is fewer good “Christian writers” and more good writers who happen to be Christians.

But that is more a critique of the culture that provides the need for this book rather than a critique of this books itself. Which is exceptionally good and thorough.