Tag: christian

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Featured New Release Of The Week: Character Still Counts by James Merritt

This week we are looking at a book of nuanced fire from a former Southern Baptist Convention President. This week we are looking at Character Still Counts by James Merritt.

Outside of my own pastors over the years, there is no single preacher I’ve listened to more over the years than Dr. James Merritt. Among those preachers I don’t personally know, he is easily the singular one I respect the most. I grew up listening to Dr. Merritt’s sermons on TV as our family was getting ready for church, and I’ve been known to download his sermons from time to time in the years since. Nearly a decade ago when I listened to him for the first time in roughly that long, I discovered that this man who had been the SBC President at the time of the 9/11 attacks and was known to be quite cozy with then-President George W. Bush had mellowed quite a bit and had developed quite a bit of nuance to his preaching.

This level of nuance continues into this book, where Merritt makes it quite clear that we are all in the same boat, no matter our stage or position in life. In speaking of integrity, Merritt does not negate his own by taking partisan sides and instead condemns the adulteries of both former US President Bill Clinton and current US President Donald Trump in the same breath. He uses jokes and anecdotes both to illustrate his points and to provide a bit of levity in the midst of some at times very hard hitting passages where he is pulling no punches… even while his fist is wrapped in a velvet glove.

One geek out moment for me, and a moment that had to be very cool for his son, was when Dr. Merritt actually quoted and cited his son Jonathan’s most recent book Learning To Speak God From Scratch at one point. Behind the scenes, Jonathan has had a bit of a situation that caused a fair amount of drama in some circles, and this moment was a very blatant case of the father publicly standing beside the son. Truly, it nearly brought tears to my eyes, and I only know the very barest of hints of the details of the overall situation. (Indeed, 90%+ of what I know comes from when Jonathan himself addresses it in Scratch.) While not a “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased” level moment, it was instead a very subtle yet public simply stepping up beside the son and making it clear that the son has the father’s support. In a book all about character it was an excellent display of the father’s character and faith in the son’s character.

On the whole an excellent book, no matter whether you agree with Merritt’s own conservative evangelical American Christian mindset or not. Very much recommended.

As always, the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
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#BookReview: Did Jesus Rise From The Dead by William Lane Craig

Solid Introduction To The Arguments. This short and easy to read book is a solid introduction to the various arguments on the issue at hand. The only way it is lacking is in that many of these arguments probably need a lot more discussion of their various points and counterpoints and nuances, but that doesn’t seem to be the intent of this particular book. Instead, this book seems more geared to those that are looking for the basics, and is written in exactly that tone – scholarly, yet more of a “fireside chat” and not the hyper dry prose normally reserved for works aimed at fellow academics and particularly those in the same field. Very much recommended.

This review of Did Jesus Rise From the Dead by William Lane Craig was originally written on December 29, 2019.

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#BookReview: I Died Swallowing A Goldfish by Kent Holloway

Max Lucado Meets CSI. Holloway has been writing fiction stories for many years, sometimes involving various cryptids, other times involving various folklores, and even one time using his day job to create a fictional tale of a crime scene “cleaner”. This is his first foray into the nonfiction realm, and here he uses his day job to talk about Christian ideals in a style very reminiscent of Max Lucado. Each chapter is roughly half “here’s a story from my day job as a forensic death investigator” and roughly half “here’s how that tale impacts the Christian life”. Because Holloway consistently uses prooftexting – the technique of citing Bible verses out of context in support of one’s thesis – I personally cannot give it any more than the four stars I’ve chosen to give it here. Others, particularly Christians or at least those than enjoy reading books such as Lucado’s works, will likely rate it higher and honestly I cannot fault them for it. It was a solid tale in that vein, I simply am so adamantly against prooftexting that I cannot allow myself to give 5 stars to any text that uses the technique. Others more critical of Christian beliefs reading this more for the CSI side of it (which is a valid approach, that side is truly fascinating) might rate the book a bit more critically specifically because of the Christian points, and that too would be fair-ish. Holloway, as he admits in the text, is an ordained minister and a Southern Baptist, and what he says throughout the text is mostly solidly in line with current Southern Baptist theology. So if you’re reading this book just for the CSI side, maybe just skip over the back half of most chapters, or skim them for any conclusions about the CSI side of the chapter. Overall a very well written book with a rare if not unique perspective in this field, and one that is very much recommended.

This review of I Died Swallowing A Goldfish by Kent Holloway was originally written on November 20, 2019.

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#BookReview: Synapse by Steven James

Christian Mass Effect? Religious Deus Ex? Fair warning on this book: It is explicitly Christian Fiction – and it is pretty damn heavy handed on the preaching. If that isn’t your thing, you don’t want to read the first sentence of this thing. The story itself is decent enough, but the hyper preaching aspects drag what could have been a pretty awesome scifi tale that could challenge some of the Golden Age masters into just another book that likely won’t reach much beyond your local (dying) Christian Bookstore. Instead of a subtle exploration of whether robots could have souls ala Blade Runner, you get what amounts to mini sermons – which is theoretically appropriate, with the central character being a preacher. Overall a solid story that could have been so much more, and recommended if you can withstand the preaching.

This review of Synapse by Steven James was originally written on October 9, 2019.

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#BookReview: How Happiness Happens by Max Lucado

Solid Pointers, Regardless of Philosophy. This is a partial review based on the first 5 chapters of this text being provided by the publisher.

Here, one of the icons of my childhood, Max Lucado, takes on the topic “how can I be happy?”. And regardless of your particular belief system, he makes some really great points. Yes, the man has been a preacher most of my life if not longer. His first book was published when I was just 6 yrs old and learning to read, and his style really hasn’t changed in all that time. And honestly, that is one of the things that makes him so great. His style is very conversational and quite funny, and that makes any of his books – this one certainly included – very easy reads.

And yet, it is exactly that approach that gets him 4 stars here. Why? Because I *need* to see the back half of the book to see exactly where between 3 and 5 stars this text will ultimately land. With what he has laid out in the beginning of this book, combined with the titles for the back half that I don’t yet have access to, this book could go anywhere from mind blowing to just run of the mill Lucado (which, again, is still great – particularly in regards to how easy it is to read his books). Based on what I know of him from reading his books for literally most of the time I’ve had the ability to read and of his situation from having grown up in the same types of circles he has lived in throughout my life, I *expect* Lucado to play it a bit safe in that back half. He likely isn’t going to say anything that will get too many people too angry either direction. What he likely says will be theologically orthodox, but verbally kind – that is pretty much Lucado in a nutshell. But man, if he does the unexpected and actually takes some bold-for-his-age-and-position stances… it could be revolutionary.

A pessimist will find several faults here, chief among them the continued use of proof texting, and likely hit that 3* ranking.

An optimist is going to see how readable this text is and how refreshing its message is and likely hit it with the 5*.

This realist could agree with both of them and really needs more information to make a more sound judgement, so the 4* feels like the right option at least for now.

Excellent work, and it truly is an honor to be able to ARC a book from one of my childhood literary heroes.

This review of How Happiness Happens by Max Lucado was originally written on August 22, 2019.

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#BookReview: Hearing God by Nathan Finochio

Awesome Premise. Flawed Execution. In this book, Finochio makes several excellent points, and it is a book genuinely worthy of reading. But yet again we get a book from a Christian pastor that decries the practice of “proof texting” – citing an out of context verse from the Bible in support of whatever claim the person is making at the time – … while doing it in seemingly nearly every paragraph of the 200 pages of text of this book. We see, yet again, the modern Christian phenomenon of worshiping the Bible as God’s Word, despite the very book itself (in John 1:1) declaring that *Jesus Christ* is God’s Word. And indeed, Finochio uses some genuinely impressive mental gymnastics somewhat frequently to claim that both the Bible and Jesus Christ are God’s Word at the same time. For the Christian mainstream in America, this book will probably go over quite well and hell, he does make good points throughout the book even in his flawed execution, so I’ll recommend it to that crowd at least. It simply could have been so much more and so much stronger, and is disappointing in not being so.

This review of Hearing God by Nathan Finochio was originally published on June 11, 2019.

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#BookReview: Misquoted by Dan Suelzle

Problem Platitudes Ravaged. In this debut book from Rev Dan Suelzle of the Wittenberg Chapel, he takes on infamously misquoted Bible verses and examines both what they actually say and the comfort they seem to give when being misquoted. The point is repeatedly hammered home that while a particular thought may *seem* palliative, more often than not at least some level of pain is needed in order to fully grow and heal, and the misquotes thus harm the person they are intended to help. While not making it a particular point to “go after” any particular thought process or person other than simply explaining the quotes and why the misconstruction of them is incorrect, Suelzle also doesn’t hold any punches and actively calls out by name – a rarity in books, in my experience – at least a few particular practitioners who have built entire careers around at least two of the misquotes he writes about here. Truly an excellent work, particularly for fans of Jonathan Merritt’s 2018 book “Learning to Speak God from Scratch”, as both books take common language apart and reconstruct it in its real form. Fascinating and very much recommended.

This review of Misquoted by Dan Suelzle was originally published on May 19, 2019.

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Featured New Release of the Week: Optimisfits by Ben Courson

This week we are looking at a frenetically paced Christian self help book that contains a message many need to hear. This week, we aer looking at Optimisfits by Ben Courson.

This book was truly a frenetically paced manifesto of radical hope by clinging to nothing but Jesus Christ. At times, the wording evoked images of being shouted through a megaphone. The overall tone felt like a cross between WWE’s Mojo Rawley and his “All Hype All The Time” gimmick crossed with Canadian rapper Manafest’s breakout single “No Plan B” from several years ago. Courson does a great job explaining his philosophy and even references quite a few legendary Christian thinkers, from CS Lewis to G.K. Chesterton, and his message is one that should resonate in self help and Christian millenial/ GenX circles in particular.

The book as a whole is truly a great work, but there were a couple of problems with it. For one, Courson relies a bit too much on cliche catchphrases, liberally sprinkling them across nearly every chapter of the book. Another is that he proof texts quite a bit, though he also does a solid job of explaining several Biblical stories in more modern language. And the final problem is a general lack of citation. Given how much Courson makes some claim about something someone said and then just moves on with his point, a hearty bibliography and footnotes would generally be expected… but were not present in the Advance Reader Copy edition I read. Perhaps this will be better presented in the full publication edition, in which case this particular criticism would be rendered moot.

Overall this was an excellent introduction to a new to me Christian speaker and thinker, and I’ll likely be paying a bit more attention to future efforts from this author and recommend that you both pick up this book and check out his other efforts.

And as always, the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
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#BookReview: Undiluted by Benjamin L. Corey

Solid Effort. In this book, Corey puts forth a clear message that no matter what you think of Jesus, you are more than likely wrong in at least some aspect. He challenges very nearly every reader on at least some issue, and in that vein he truly shines. But in the end, he just can’t quite fully overcome his own particular bent, and ultimately this mars what could have been a truly stellar work. Still a worthy read, but could have been even better.

This review of Undiluted by Benjamin L. Corey was originally published on December 12, 2018.

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#BookReview: Disarming Scripture by Derek Flood

Solid Trajectory, But Not Far Enough. I’m not completely sold that the “trajectory” reading of the Bible Flood bases his premise on is entirely correct, but for now let’s go with it. Flood raises a lot of good points that will, as the title implies, “step on toes” across “both” sides of the American political divide. But there are certainly times where he contradicts himself and others where he reveals his own cloudy understanding of violence, choosing to view violence only as genocide, murder, explicit assault, and the like. But in the end, Flood doesn’t go quite far enough in his own line of reasoning and instead tends to embrace certain forms of “acceptable” violence, in ways reminiscent of the very blatantly antiquated notions he is attacking in this book. Absolutely recommended for those that either openly embrace the wanton slaughter of the Old Testament or those that fully reject it, as this will at least open you to the basic concepts of nonviolence.

This review of Disarming Scripture by Derek Flood was originally published on November 23, 2018.