Elliot Ritzema

Category: Books

  • April 2010: Books Read

    1. The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? by Richard Stearns. April was a busy month for me, with starting a new full-time job as well as continuing with my internship obligations at church. That’s why the only book I finished this month was The Hole in Our Gospel by the president of World Vision US, Rich Stearns (Here is an interview with him in Christianity Today).

    This was a challenging book for me. Not because it was hard to read, but because it was hard to not become numb to the many statistics that Stearns cited, showing just how poor so many people are. The “hole” of the title is that many Christians in the United States have decided that the gospel is nothing more than a transaction, in which God forgives them of their sins and they get to go to heaven when they die. The real gospel is not less than this, but it is so much more, according to Stearns. One thing in particular that it involves (and which is the focus of this book) is serving the poor in a self-sacrificial way. The most compelling part of this book, for me, was Stearns telling his own story of how he went from being the president of Lenox, a fine tableware company, to being the president of World Vision. His story of how God grabbed him and drove him to care more about the poor gave me hope that God can grab more Christians and show them their obligation to assist those in need.

    I don’t know whether this book will change the American church or not. We can pat ourselves on the back for being generous, but in fact the percentage that so many of us give is far below the level of sacrificial giving that we read about in the Bible (specifically in 2 Corinthians 8-9). I hear a lot of complaining these days about how the government is taxing too much, and I wonder sometimes if we aren’t being judged for doing little with our money besides feathering our own nests. I hear people say that Jesus said “The poor you will always have with you” (Mark 14:7), thinking that this excuses them for being selfish. Far from letting people off the hook, though, Jesus was alluding to Deuteronomy 15:11: “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’”

    You will always have the poor among you. Therefore, open your hand. Not out of guilt (and despite the ranting of the previous paragraph, I really don’t think that trying to induce guilt is the best way to get people to be generous), but because God has blessed you.

  • Book Review of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy


    Eric Metaxas, who is already familiar to aficionados of Christian biography through Amazing Grace, his biography of William Wilberforce, has written a fast-paced and informative portrait of Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and theologian who resisted the Nazis even unto his death in a concentration camp in April 1945. This book, while not nearly as long as Eberhard Bethge’s 1000-plus page authoritative biography, is still a substantial 542 pages, not including endnotes.

    While Metaxas relies heavily on Bonhoeffer’s own words to tell his story, one way in which he keeps the pace fast is that he does not enter into a detailed discussion of Bonhoeffer’s written work, which one can get elsewhere. It seems that Metaxas is far more interested in showing the real-life consequences of Bonhoeffer’s theology, instead of giving a lengthy exposition of it.

    This is a wonderful book, and a real page-turner, but there were a few problems that might have gone away with more vigilant editing. For example, it mentions that Bonhoeffer’s brother Karl-Friedrich studied with Alfred Einstein and Max Planck in the 1920s. Karl-Friedrich was a physical chemist. Alfred Einstein was a musicologist. I can only assume that Metaxas meant Albert, the more famous Einstein? Also, there is a quote from Matthew 10 that says it is from the Sermon on the Mount – but Matthew 10, while part of Jesus’ teaching, is not part of the Sermon on the Mount. These are minor errors, and didn’t seriously impede my enjoyment of the book.

    This book will not replace Bethge’s biography; after all, it is hard to get closer to Bonhoeffer than his best friend. But what Metaxas does is introduce Bonhoeffer to a new generation that will greatly benefit from knowing that such a man existed – a man who was obedient to God (not merely to a set of principles), even when that obedience brought him into deadly conflict with his church and his country.

  • March 2010: Books Read

    1. Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain. I’m a big fan of Mark Twain. As a fan of Twain’s, I have already read his most well-known works, like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I have also read Roughing It, Life on the MIssissippi and an awful lot of his essays. It was about time, then, that I got around to reading Puddn’head Wilson.

    It was not bad, but clearly there is a reason why this is not among his most-read stuff. It is about two children who were switched as infants, with one being raised as the scion of a wealthy family and the other being raised as a slave. The plot was interesting enough, but for a “mystery,” the ending was not at all surprising. The characters were not as compelling as in some of his better work. And this book was written in the 1890s, when Twain was becoming more and more of a cynic – as can easily be seen in the epigraphs at the beginning of every chapter. Though he was still talented, his later work is, with some exceptions, just not as entertaining to read.

    2. Jane Austen (Christian Encounters Series) by Peter Leithart. Reviewed earlier here.

    3. Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire by William T. Cavanaugh. This is an excellent, short work on the interaction between Christianity and economics. It is made up of four essays, and is only 103 pages long. Cavanaugh is Catholic, and draws mainly on Catholic theologians, but his theology is not so distinctly Catholic that other Christians can’t benefit from his insights.

    Cavanaugh critiques the definition of economic freedom as only “freedom from” and proposes instead that economic freedom ought to be “freedom for” participation in community and realizing our humanity more fully. He also critiques consumerism, globalization and the economics of scarcity. It is simultaneously a quick read and a dense read, and unfortunately I read it over a month ago and can’t describe its arguments with the nuance they deserve. It is a book well worth picking up, though.

    4. The Glory of Preaching: Participating in God’s Transformation of the World by Darrell W. Johnson. I studied preaching under Johnson at Regent College, so it was no surprise that I found much to agree with in this book. He honed the material for this book in his preaching classes, so a lot of it was not new.

    What is unusual about this book, as over against most other books about preaching, is Johnson’s confidence in the biblical text. That is not to say that other books on preaching are not confident in the Bible to change people’s lives. It is unusual, though, for a writer to say, as Johnson does, that when the living God speaks, something ALWAYS happens. Another unique thing about this book is that Johnson thinks preachers are not responsible for applying the text to people’s lives. I remember, when I was in preaching class, that some students pushed back on this. Johnson was adamant, though. Preachers can imply what the text means – they can state the truth that the text leads us to. But applying – that is, telling people what particular things they ought to do – is the job of the Holy Spirit.

    This is a wonderful book, and one that I will return to over the years.

    5. The Cross of Christ by John R. W. Stott. I decided that during Lent this year, in addition to fasting from something, I would read something that led me to focus on Jesus. I’ve had this book on my shelf since my time at Regent, and it is as good a book as any to accomplish that goal.

    There isn’t a lot that I could say about this book, aside from saying that it is a classic work on what Jesus’ death meant and means. If you are interested in learning more about what Jesus’ death accomplished, this is the first place to turn.

  • Book Review: Jane Austen by Peter Leithart

    I have never read a Jane Austen book. I love to read, and I’m sure I would enjoy her novels, but I have just never gotten around to it – though she is one of my wife’s favorite authors.

    So when I had the chance to read a short biography of her, I jumped at the chance. I saw it as a way to “prime the pump,” as it were. This book by Peter Leithart, in the Christian Encounters series from Thomas Nelson, did not disappoint. Though Austen did not live an outwardly eventful life, Leithart does a good job of mining her correspondence and the reminiscences of friends and family members to paint a picture of a woman who had a gift for observation and storytelling, a strong sense of humor with a satirical bent, and a sincere (though reserved) Anglican faith. I especially appreciated Leithart’s pointing out that Austen intended for her works to be instructive without being overtly moralistic. Throughout the book, and especially in the first chapter, the reader can get bogged down trying to keep straight the names of many of Austen’s relations and friends. However, the publisher has taken pity on the hapless reader by including an appendix of names in the back.

    In all, this book made me more interested in reading Austen, so that I can more fully understand the fascination that she has exerted over readers for two centuries.

    (Thanks to Thomas Nelson for a review copy.)

  • February 2010: Books Read

    1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I’ve heard from various places (not least the cover of the edition I read) that this is Steinbeck’s masterpiece, and it was certainly a very good book. It’s an epic story that follows the Trask and Hamilton families through three generations, from the Civil War to World War I. It could even be termed a semi-autobiographical novel, since Steinbeck’s mother is from the Hamilton family and young John himself makes a cameo appearance in the book.

    What stuck out the most to me about the novel were the descriptions of the Salinas Valley in California, and the relationship between Adam and Cathy Trask. It is clear that Steinbeck loved the Salinas Valley and sought to convey that love in writing this book. Cathy is one of the more monstrous villains I have encountered in any novel I have read, and Steinbeck describes her (and Adam’s love for her) in a riveting way. There are many rambling asides in the book which slow down the pace of the narrative, but that comes with the territory in an epic. They were never so distracting that I skipped through them or wanted to put down the book.

    2. The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister. Reviewed earlier here.

    3. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien. This is one of my wife’s favorite books from her childhood. After we watched the animated movie version of this book (The Secret of NIMH), she insisted that I read it because it is so much better.

    And it is. It is the story of Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse and mother of four children, who needs to move her family out of a farmer’s garden. She is unable to do that, however, because of her youngest son’s pneumonia. She eventually enlists help from the mysterious, super-intelligent rats who live under a nearby rosebush. In doing so, she finds out the story of how they came to be who and where they are. She also finds out that they are planning on moving to a remote valley to being a civilization of their own. They help her move her house, and she helps them in important ways as well.

    This is an entertaining children’s book (I particularly enjoyed reading the story of how the rats came to be), and it is also a tract for the “back to the land” movement of the ’60s and ’70s. The rats feel that depending on a farmer for electricity, or continuing to use tools they find, is dishonorable. A few rats disagree and leave, but these rats are cast in a negative light in the book. The noblest ones (O’Brien strongly hints in the narrative) are the ones who want to set out on their own, start afresh, raise their own crops, construct their own homes.

    3. Slaves, Women and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis by William J. Webb. I heard about this book during my first semester at Regent in 2004, but never got around to reading it because it wasn’t required for any class. Now that I’m finished with school, I finally got around to picking it up, and I’m glad I did.

    This book deals with hermeneutics, which is the discipline of determining how to interpret the Bible. Webb’s argument is that when it comes to slavery and patriarchy in the Bible, there is a “redemptive movement” at work. That is, the Bible never explicitly condemns either, but the broad ethical strokes, especially in the New Testament, lead inevitably to the abolishing of both. The Christian church has collectively decided that slavery is in fact against biblical teaching, and Webb argues that the same conclusion should be reached regarding patriarchy.

    Webb contrasts slavery and patriarchy with homosexuality, on which he argues there is no redemptive movement. It is condemned from start to finish, and so those who attempt to make a biblical case for homosexuality are using a faulty hermeneutic.

    A lot more could be said about this book. It is probable that no one will agree with everything Webb says, simply because of the sheer number of arguments that he advances. I also should point out that this is not an easy read, as the arguments can get technical in places. But it is a rewarding book, and one that I recommend to anyone who wants to put in the effort to learn more about hermeneutics.

    4. When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg. Ortberg is pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in CA. I have listened to a few of his sermon podcasts, and I heard him speak in person at the Covenant Midwinter Conference in Denver this year, but this is the first of his books that I have read. I read this book in particular because my church is doing a video series based on this book together during Lent.

    Ortberg uses games as a launching point for talking about materialism and mortality. The object of the game of life is to be rich toward God, and Ortberg makes this point winsomely, using stories and humor. I like his writing style, and this is a popular-level book on the Christian life that I would readily recommend to others.

    5. Incarnate Leadership: 5 Leadership Lessons from the Life of Jesus by Bill Robinson. My first response to the title of this book was a snarky comment: “Incarnate leadership – as opposed to the other kind?” As I read it, though, it began to grow on me. Robinson is the president of Whitworth University in Spokane, WA, and he has an informal, engaging style of writing. He bases this short book on Jesus’ example of leadership, in particular John 1:14: “The Word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us.”

    The five leadership lessons from the title are Minding the Gap (closing the chasm between the positions we occupy and the needs of those we lead), Leading Openly, Bending the Light (remembering that leadership is not about us, but that we need to be mirrors reflecting God’s glory), Living in Grace and Truth (understanding the need for, and the time for, both) and Sacrificing. This was a short book, but a challenging book on how to lead like Jesus.

  • Book Review: The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister

    (note: thanks to Thomas Nelson for providing me with a review copy of this book)

    I am an evangelical Protestant. I grew up attending a Southern Baptist church, and today am part of the Evangelical Covenant Church. In my earliest Christian formation, there were some hints of the liturgical year, but on the whole it was not emphasized.

    I was curious, then, to learn more about the liturgical year from this book. It is written by Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun, and consists largely of bite-sized (5-7 pages each) meditations on each feast and fast of the liturgical year.

    I found it to be a helpful book, but it is not for everyone. If you are the kind of Protestant who is allergic to anything Catholic (yes, Marian feasts are mentioned), this book isn’t for you. If you are interested in a blow-by-blow historical account of the development of the liturgical year, then this book isn’t for you (though there is some discussion of the historical development behind various aspects of the liturgical year). However, if you are interested in meditating, along with Chittister, on the meaning of the liturgical year and how it can help you grow into a more faithful disciple of Christ, then this is the book for you.

  • Booksneeze

    As you may have noticed, this blog has in recent months largely devolved into book reviews. I still have high hopes of writing more far-ranging posts, but recently there has always been something else to do. I stay disciplined in reviewing all the books I read every month, though, because reviewing each book helps me to process my thoughts about it, and because I want to be able to revisit my reviews later and remind myself what I thought about a particular book.

    My friend Dawn told me a few months ago about a program run by the publisher Thomas Nelson, which at the time was called “Book Review Bloggers” (they have since changed the name to “Booksneeze“). On their Web site, they have a list of books to choose from, and they will send you a free review copy of one of them. If you post a review on your blog, as well as on a third-party site like Amazon, you can choose another one to review.

    Even though I can rarely resist the prospect of free books, at first I had my doubts about whether I would do it. As far as evangelical Christian publishers go, most of what I buy tends to be from InterVarsity Press or Zondervan or Eerdmans, with a few coming from Baker as well. I would even be excited about such an offer from Ignatius, which is a Catholic publisher. But before I heard the news from Dawn, the most recent book I had heard about to come from Thomas Nelson was the American Patriot’s Bible, which I object to on theological grounds (for more specifics, see an insightful critique by Greg Boyd here).

    I looked at the books they had available, though, and my cynicism was overcome. There were several of the books they were offering that I was interested in reading. I selected a book from their “Ancient Practices” series called The Liturgical Year, and I’ll post a review of it tomorrow.

  • January 2010: Books Read

    1. The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation by Barbara R. Rossing. I picked this book up at the library as background reading for the Sunday School class on Revelation that I’m teaching this month. Rossing, a professor and ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, apparently wrote this book to counteract the dispensationalist theology that is found in the Left Behind novels and the writings of Hal Lindsey, among others. I found it a quick read, and Rossing certainly has some talent as a writer. The main message of the book can be found on page 86:

    The Left Behind novels follow the pattern of other apocalypses as they take readers on a vivid journey and wake them up to a sense of urgency about God. That is the novels’ strength. Their failing is the dangerous conclusions about God and our life in the world that grow out of the Left Behind version of the apocalyptic journey… Left Behind’s characters spend more time in airplanes and helicopters, or in underground bunkers, than they do walking the earth – illustrating the dispensationalist view of the world as a place from which to escape. Their high-tech gear, satellite phones, custom Range Rovers and stadium-size rallies cannot be reconciled with the heart of Revelation, because more than any other biblical book Revelation speaks to marginalized and powerless people.

    A later criticism, elaborating on the difference between her interpretation of Revelation and that of dispensationalists, I thought was particularly insightful as well:

    The heart of our difference is this: dispensationalists do not seem to believe the Lamb has truly “conquered” or won the victory when he was slaughtered. They preach the saving power of the blood of the Lamb in Jesus’ crucifixion, but it is not quite enough saving power for them. They need Christ to come back with some real power, not as a Lamb but as a roaring lion. Jesus has to return so he can finish the job of conquering. (137)

    I thought she was spot-on in her critique of dispensationalist readings of Revelation, but nevertheless I could not recommend this book. One reason is her uncharitable characterization of dispensationalists as “using it [dispensationalism] to further their particular social and political agenda” (41). Another reason is that her interpretation of the New Jerusalem that comes to earth at the end of the book didn’t have enough tangibility in it. It wasn’t even entirely about a future victory over evil. She writes,

    The mystical journey into the ‘Aha’ presence of God’s New Jerusalem and its river of life can happen in many ways for you: through nature, when you behold a mountain or stream so beautiful that it transports you to God’s riverside; through music that connects you mystically to heavenly chorus; or through other powerful experiences of community or presence that take you outside of yourself (160).

    I agree that we can experience the presence of God in the stuff of this earth, but I’m not convinced that this is what the vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22 is all about. The final chapters of this book, once Rossing is finished criticizing dispensationalists, turn into insipid, over-realized eschatology.

    2. God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades by Rodney Stark. Over the past few years, I’ve grown in my appreciation for the writing of Stark, the sociologist of religion who teaches at Baylor University. He’s an entertaining and engaging writer, and over the past 15 years he has delighted in turning conventional wisdom about the history of Christianity on its head. In this book, he takes on historians who argue that the Crusades were fought by greedy and opportunistic knights, that they were unprovoked, and that Muslim culture was superior to medieval European Christianity. The final paragraph of the book sums up his conclusions:

    The Crusades were not unprovoked. They were not the first round of European colonialism. They were not conducted for land, loot, or converts. The crusaders were not barbarians who victimized the cultivated Muslims. They sincerely believed that they served in God’s battalions. (248)

    Note, finally, that this is not a biblical defense of the Crusades. Stark is not trying to prove that crusaders were following the commands of Jesus when they went to Palestine, though he does argue that this is what they thought they were doing. This is a historical argument for a popular audience, and a very informative and entertaining book.

    3. Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination by Eugene Peterson. I’ve enjoyed Peterson’s writing for some time, and this book was no exception. It is a short, popular commentary on the book of Revelation for the poetically inclined. Since it is short (just shy of 200 pages), Peterson does not go into as much depth as a technical commentary would. However, it is a welcome break from other popular treatments of the book, which tend to major on sensational interpretations of John’s visions and minor on Jesus.

    You might not find out what the “thousand years” of Revelation 20 means, but you will be encouraged by this book to find that Revelation is only and always about Jesus.

    4. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. This was a fascinating book. What was most fascinating was how Robinson could so believably write a first-person novel narrated by an elderly pastor from the 1950s. The premise was that this pastor, John Ames, has heart trouble, has been informed that he will die soon, and is writing to his seven-year-old son to tell him all he wants him to know when he grows up. Set in the small town of Gilead, Iowa, an important part of the narrative is the return of the son of a good friend. This son, who was named after Ames, has been in every way a prodigal. His return is occasion for much reflection on the part of Ames and many awkward conversations between the two, culminating in a final resolution.

    It is by no means a page-turner; I wasn’t flipping the pages wildly, trying to find out what happens next. Instead, it is a book that encourages the reader to meditate and reflect on the page at hand. It is a book that quiets the soul.

    5. Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation by Bruce M. Metzger. This is another short (just over 100 pages) commentary on Revelation for the popular reader, much like Reversed Thunder above. Like Peterson, Metzger was a well-respected evangelical and author of many books (he died in 2007). He taught New Testament for many years at Princeton Theological Seminary.

    There isn’t much to say about this book that I haven’t already said about Reversed Thunder. It has the main advantage (it’s accessible for the lay reader) and disadvantage (it is so short that Metzger doesn’t always have space to explain how he came to some of his interpretive conclusions) that come with the territory of a short commentary. One thing it has that Peterson’s book doesn’t is a set of discussion questions in the back. I found them helpful for preparing my own class on Revelation that I taught this January.

  • 2009 Books

    Here are the books I read in 2009, in chronological order. I’ve put in bold the ones I particularly enjoyed or found the most helpful. Not putting a book in bold doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it, though. After all, these are the books I read cover to cover this year, and I wouldn’t have finished them if I didn’t like them.

    Since it’s New Year’s Eve, I’m tempted to make a book-reading resolution for 2010, but I think I will refrain. It would be an accomplishment to read a book every week this coming year, but then I look at some of the books I’d like to read (like Jesus and the Victory of God by N.T. Wright or The Mission of God by Christopher J.H. Wright), and I don’t think I’m likely to finish those in a week. So I’ll just keep reading what I want and what I have time to read, and posting short reviews each month.

    1. Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century by John Stott
    2. The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries by Rodney Stark
    3. Not Even A Hint: Guarding Your Heart Against Lust by Joshua Harris
    4. A Holy Meal: The Lord’s Supper in the Life of the Church by Gordon T. Smith

    5. A Primer on Postmodernism by Stanley Grenz
    6. Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy! by Bob Harris
    7. Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton

    8. Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity by Nancy Pearcey
    9. John Stott: The Making of a Leader by Timothy Dudley-Smith

    10. Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs by Ken Jennings
    11. The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins
    12. The Jeopardy! Book by Alex Trebek and Peter Barsocchini

    13. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
    14. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright
    15. The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr.
    16. God Will Make A Way: What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend

    17. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller
    18. A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society by Rodney Clapp
    19. Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
    20. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
    21. The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day

    22. Landscapes of the Soul: The Loss of Moral Meaning in American Life by Douglas V. Porpora
    23. The Essential Shakespeare Handbook by Leslie Dunton-Downer and Alan Riding

    24. Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving From Affluence to Generosity by Ronald J. Sider
    25. Praying With the Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today by Scot McKnight
    26. The Ascent of a Leader: How Ordinary Relationships Develop Extraordinary Character and Influence by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNichol and Ken McElrath
    27. The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight
    28. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
    29. The Theology of the Book of Revelation by Richard Bauckham

    30. Under the Overpass: A Journey of Faith on the Streets of America by Mike Yankoski
    31. Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts: Seven Questions to Ask Before (and After) You Marry by Les and Leslie Parrott
    32. Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt

    33. The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling
    34. The Heart of a Goof by P.G. Wodehouse

    35. The Irresistible Revolution: Living As an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne
    36. The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University by Kevin Roose
    37. The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyall

    38. What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson
    39. Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? by Philip Yancey
    40. Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture by Adam S. McHugh
    41. A Guide to Biblical Prophecy: A Balanced and Biblical Assessment of the Nature of Prophecy in the Bible edited by Carl Armerding and Ward Gasque
    42. Discipleship on the Edge: An Expository Journey Through the Book of Revelation by Darrell Johnson

  • December 2009: Books Read

    1. What Should I Do With My Life? The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson. Since I have been thinking a lot lately about the question from this book’s title, it jumped out at me when I was at the library one day. Bronson, an author who was asking himself that very question in 2002, set out to interview scores of people who were wondering what to do with their lives.

    The subtitle is not entirely reflective of what the book is about. Not that many people Bronson interviewed had actually decided what they were going to do with their lives, or had started doing it. Several people knew what they wanted to do, or had a vague sense of it, but were unable to go out and do it for various reasons: doubts, insecurities that go back to their family of origin, etc. Nevertheless, I found this book to be worth reading simply because of the sheer breadth of stories Bronson told. The book is made up entirely of people’s stories, and this made it hard to put down. At times, Bronson would philosophize about what he was learning from hearing all these stories, and one of these philosophical moments stuck with me. It was the idea that everyone has an “inner circle,” a table of people in their head that they are trying to please or keep up with. Sometimes this is a good thing, but other times it is a bad thing, as in the case of the inner-city schoolteacher who found his job fulfilling – but was always comparing himself to his rich, jet-setting classmates at Yale.

    This book is a lot different from other books about guidance that I have read. The reason for this is that other books I’ve read are written from a Christian perspective, and talk about being called and a Caller (God). Bronson, who is not a Christian, does not use this language, but I thought he did talk about calling in an indirect way. Here is a paragraph from his summing-up chapter, addressing the question, “What do people really want?”:

    They want to find work they’re passionate about. Offering benefits and incentives are mere compromises. Educating people is important but not enough – far too many of our most educated people are operating at quarter-speed, unsure of their place in the world, contributing too little to the productive engine of modern civilization, still feeling like observers, like they haven’t come close to living up to their potential. Our guidance needs to be better. We need to encourage people to find their sweet spot. Productivity explodes when people love what they do. We’re sitting on a huge potential boom in productivity, which we could tap into if we got all the square pegs in the square holes and round pegs in round holes. It’s not something we can measure with statistics, but it’s a huge economic issue. It’s a great natural resource that we’re ignoring. (363-4)

    I don’t know that I’d recommend it for anyone who is looking for what to do with their life, but I did enjoy it because I enjoy hearing about people’s stories.

    2. Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? by Philip Yancey. When I was in high school and college, I was a Philip Yancey junkie. The first book that I read by him was What’s So Amazing About Grace? This was followed quickly by The Jesus I Never Knew, The Bible Jesus Read, and Reaching for the Invisible God. The first two are still two of my all-time favorite books on Jesus and the Christian life. The latter two were good, but not incredible. After reading those four, I got away from Philip Yancey for a while. Every now and then, I would pick up one of his newer books in a bookstore, leaf through it, and decide that the subject matter wasn’t compelling enough for me to get it.

    Then I came across this book, which did have a compelling subject matter to me, and furthermore, was being sold for $2 at the library. So I bought it early this fall, and started reading it in October.

    Reading it was like getting acquainted with an old friend. Yancey has always included personal anecdotes and demonstrates a wide range of reading in his writing, and those traits were evident throughout this book. He also evinces a humility that says he doesn’t have it all together when it comes to his subject. This attitude is good, but it is found throughout the book and I started to find it repetitive by the end.

    I love Yancey’s writing style, anecdotes and humility, but to me the book lacked a compelling organization. Of course it had chapters and those chapters were grouped into sections, but I put the book down for several days at a time because I just wasn’t that interested to see what came next. I’m glad to have read it, but it doesn’t rank up there with the first two of Yancey’s books that I read.

    3. Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place In An Extroverted Culture by Adam S. McHugh. I was interested in this book from the first time I heard about it earlier this year. It is on a huge subject – so huge that it’s surprising that no one seems to have written an entire book about it. I was also interested in it because I am an introvert, and I have spent a lot of time in the church.

    The book did not disappoint. McHugh starts off with the problem: we live in a culture that is geared toward extroversion, and this is also the case in many churches. How do we make it so that introverts can thrive in the church? I loved this book, especially the chapters on introverted leadership and evangelism (no, they’re not oxymorons).

    This book was needed by the church, and needed by me personally. As a person who has felt called to ministry in the church since my college days, but who has also felt a persistent sense of inferiority because of my introverted personality, I needed the encouragement that this book provided. In the past, I leaned heavily on the writings of Eugene Peterson to assure me that introverts could be pastors. Now, I can lean on this book as well.

    4. A Guide to Biblical Prophecy: A Balanced and Biblical Assessment of the Nature of Prophecy in the Bible, edited by Carl Armerding and Ward Gasque. I picked this up at a used book store a year ago for two reasons: I wanted to learn more about the nature of biblical prophecy, and I trusted Armerding and Gasque, who are both retired professors from Regent College, where I went to grad school.

    As mentioned above, though, Armerding and Gasque are editors of this volume, not writers. It contains 16 articles from 16 different authors, ranging in subject matter from the Old Testament (“Messianic Prophecies in the Old Testament”) to the New Testament (“The Millennium”) to the historical (“Nineteenth-Century Roots of Contemporary Prophetic Interpretation”). I thought it was an interesting and helpful volume, but because of its nature as a collection of essays, it wasn’t comprehensive. If you are looking for a passage-by-passage guide to prophecy in the Bible, this isn’t it.

    5. Discipleship on the Edge: An Expository Journey Through the Book of Revelation by Darrell Johnson. I’ve been reading this book slowly throughout the fall as my small group has been making its way through the book of Revelation (note: there is no “s” at the end). I read the last few chapters this week to help prepare for the class on Revelation I’m teaching at church starting in January, and also so I could include it on the list of books I read this year.

    This book is exactly what the subtitle says it is: an expository journey through the book of Revelation. Johnson preached through the book in 1999, and then turned that series of sermons into this book in 2004. It is called Discipleship on the Edge because Johnson insists throughout the book that Revelation is not a “crystal ball” (as many interpreters would have us believe), but rather it is a discipleship document. It is meant to encourage (and challenge) Christian believers who are facing (or about to face) persecution by pulling back the curtain and showing what is really going on. I sometimes wished that there were a little bit more detail, but this is not a commentary. Each chapter, not surprisingly, reads like a sermon, and includes application of each text to our lives. I would recommend it, primarily because Johnson focuses on Jesus rather than on predicting catastrophic events.