Tag: christian

Posted on

#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.

Posted on

#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.

Posted on

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:
Continue reading “Featured New Release of the Week: Optimisfits by Ben Courson”

Posted on

#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.

Posted on

#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.

Posted on

#BookReview: Jesus Called – He Wants His Church Back by Ray Johnston

Interesting Concept, Not Much Substance. I went into this book expecting a great discussion calling the American Church back to Jesus Christ. What I got was a couple of decent points and a lot of sermon promoting the status quo for the American Church. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. So much promise, so little delivery.

If you’re in the American Church and wondering why so many people despise you – you won’t find many answers here.

If you’re a former member of the American Church that is begging for someone to call it to repentance – you won’t find that here.

If you’ve never been part of the American Church and you’re desperately seeking any acknowledgement at all of your problems with it – you’ll find here that some of them are mentioned… and quickly dismissed and yet again, you are to blame, according to the author.

What you *will* find here is more proof-texting (taking Bible verses out of context in service of whatever contrived point the speaker is attempting to make), more victim blaming, more The-Spirit-Of-God-Compels-You level berating, more scare tactic “evangelism”, and more trite Churchisms about how everyone else is the problem.

But there are *just* enough good or at least decent points to keep this out of Gold Mine level (tons of detritus for a few scarce flakes), so there is that at least.

This review of Jesus Called – He Wants His Church Back by Ray Johnston was originally published on October 20, 2018.

Posted on

#BookReview: The Great Spiritual Migration by Brian McLaren

Is Incomplete and Unproven. I was looking forward to this book. I really, really was. I wanted McLaren to show us how, what, where, and why Christianity was on a migration towards being a better Christian. Instead I got a story of how McLaren himself has moved from being a very conservative Christian to a very liberal one. Instead of describing how Christianity can transcend our political issues of the day, McLaren insists that we fight for one side of the political issues of the day. Instead of instilling hope, he seeks to instill fear – in the words of The American President, he doesn’t appear interested in solving anything so much as making Christians afraid of some *other* global catastrophe and saying that those who have a “lesser understanding” of the Bible are to blame for it. Rather than being transformative, as he believes himself to be, he exposes himself as just another elitist trying to tell everyone else that he knows what is best for them. Truly a shame.

This review of The Great Spiritual Migration by Brian McLaren was originally published on May 28, 2018.

Posted on

#BookReview: We Are The Danger by Sean Edwards

Presented a lot of arguments, but little evidence to back them up. I could very likely write a more detailed presentation of similar arguments with the facts to back them up myself – I’ve largely *been* doing that on social media for years. Still, a good read if you’ve never considered the topic. But in this day and age, who hasn’t?

This review of We Are The Danger by Sean Edwards was originally published on January 6, 2018.