Book Review - John Stackhouse's Why You're Here

Why You’re Here: Ethics for the Real World is John Stackhouse’s contribution to a conversation about ethics.  For Stackhouse, ethics are not a simple list of good things and bad things but are instead the character or essence of the thing.  Stackhouse uses this definition to suggest a reason why we are here: to maximize shalom.  Maximizing shalom means we have a job to do.  The book begins with a statement of what God expects of all people, then does the same regarding God’s expectation of Christians in particular, and then closes with some thoughts about what this looks like in practicality, which is where I found the majority of benefit in reading.  

Book Review - C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity

C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity is a consideration of Christian belief.  Borrowing from Acts 11:26, Lewis broadly defines a Christian as a person who follows the teaching of the apostles.  Lewis wants to explain the essence of such following.  Hence, Mere Christianity.  Lewis’ explanation of mere Christianity requires four steps (each each presented in an individual book that comprise the entirety of Mere Christianity).  It begins with an attempt to establish facts that allow Christianity to make sense.   Lewis then places Christian doctrine into dialogue with these facts to see if it addresses the needs such facts create, followed by an exploration of how such doctrine affects morality.  Lewis concludes with a discussion of who the Christian God is and what this God is turning people into.

Book Review - N. T. Wright's Scripture and the Authority of God

In Scripture and the Authority of God, N. T. Wright attempts to make sense of the claim that The Bible (scripture) is authoritative.  Wright’s argument is that the authority of scripture is more complex than saying that scripture provides correct information.  Instead, it means that the Christian God exercises his authority through scripture and has a plan to redeem all of creation.  Scripture spurs the completion of this plan through people.  The best way to understand this is to read the Bible as a five-act story.  The first four acts – creation, the fall, Israel, and Jesus – are already complete.  The fifth act – the church – began at Easter/Pentecost.  Scripture includes accounts and writings from early in this act and Christians today continue to live in this act.  

Book Review - Chris Hedge's Empire of Illusion

Chris Hedges offers a sombre reflection on America in the early 21^st Century, which is easily applicable to my own Canadian context.  Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle argues that we made five trades.  We traded rational and literate discourse for celebrity worship and intentional ignorance.  We traded love and empathy for pornography and consumerism.  We traded curiosity for entrenchment.  We traded happiness and for positive thinking and ignoring reality.  We have traded democracy, truth, and confidence for misguided icons, negligence, and shopping.  Worse than making these trades, however, is that we think that we are advanced for having done so.

Book Review - N. T. Wright's Simply Jesus

A “grown-up” Christian faith begs a question.  Is what it says about Jesus true?  N. T. Wright’s Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters says that it is true.  Wright’s thoughts suggest a new vision of Jesus, which he hopes will help people understand their lives today in a new way.

Book Review - Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo's Red Letter Revolution

Red Letter Christians are Christians who embrace evangelical theology, while striving to reflect what Jesus said (hence, “red letter”).  Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne had frequent discussions about what being a Red Letter Christian entails.  The book Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said? highlights these discussions.  Asking what it looks like when Christians start to be intentional about following Jesus will undoubtedly cause conflict.  The authors hope that Red Letter Christians will be a “positive irritant” that will grow in number and naturally become advocates for social justice and illustrators of spiritual disciplines. 

Book Review - Timothy Keller's Generous Justice

A basic biblical lesson is that Jesus came to earth to offer forgiveness.  Timothy Keller wrote Generous Justice to give light to another basic biblical lesson that people commonly ignore and overlook: When a person has a true encounter with forgiveness, she or he will “inevitably” long for justice.  The better a person understands grace, the more acute this longing will be.  Generous Justice hopes to make this clear.  Christians can learn that justice for poor and marginalized is at the centre of scripture.  People who are not Christians can see that the Bible, properly understood, directs people to be just rather than oppressive.

Book Review - Dewi Hughes' Power and Poverty

Poverty is, generally, unnecessary.  It rarely comes from a lack of natural resources or a human inability to use these resources.  Instead, argues Dewi Hughes in Power and Poverty: Divine and Human Rule in a World of Need, poverty is what happens when people misuse the power with which God entrusted us.  Understanding how poverty and power relate requires understanding who we are.  The linkage of poverty with the misuse of power means that in addition to being a social, political, and economic issue, poverty is a spiritual issue.  Hughes’ book has had more impact on how I think than any other book of theology or biblical studies.

Book Review - Desmond Tutu's God Has a Dream

Desmond Tutu’s God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time is a short and compelling blend of theology and spirituality with politics.  Tutu wrote the book to demonstrate that God does not ignore suffering.  God’s response to suffering is transformation and His agents of transformation are people.  Tutu describes himself as a “realist” and bases his thoughts on the reality he witnessed through the Bible, history, and living during apartheid in South Africa   

Book Reivew - N. T. Wright's After You Believe

In After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters, N. T. Wright considers how people who believe that Jesus is God’s offer of redemption should respond to this belief.  He writes primarily to Western Christians, steeped in the mistaken idea that Christianity is about getting into heaven after dying.  He suggests replacing this belief with a question, What is Christianity for right now and does it impact life today?  To understand his answer, readers need to understand three words: character, virtue, and wisdom. 

Book Review - Alan Storkey's Jesus and Politics

Alan Storkey contributes to the conversation about Christian interaction with politics in his book Jesus and Politics: Confronting the Powers.  He argues that Jesus must be central to the relationship between Christians and politics.  It is the responsibility of Christians to understand how Jesus factors into political history, if for no other reason than because church history is full of examples poor relationships with politics.

Book Review - Ronald J. Sider's The Scandal of Evangelical Politics

In The Scandal of Evangelical Politics: Why Are Christians Missing the Chance to Really Change the World?, Ronald J. Sider suggests that evangelicals have not given enough thought about how to approach politics as a biblical people.  This is unfortunate, partly because evangelicals are a political entity large enough to either hurt or help wider society.  In light of this, Sider proposes a method for Christians to use in approaching politics.  His method is to integrate social studies and a biblical base.  Sider hopes that this will help Christians form a wise political philosophy.

Book Review - Jean Bethke Elshtain's Who Are We?

In Who Are We? Critical Reflections and Hopeful Possibilities, Jean Bethke Elshtain suggests a way for Christians to interact with culture.  She identifies two mistakes people make when answering, “Who are we?”  First, people use the word “prophetic” as a rhetorical device.  Elshtain instead proposes that being prophetic means asking where current conditions and values may lead.  Second, people do not ask enough questions.  Liberals too often focus on possible good from social reform without considering potential pitfalls.  Conservatives look at the pitfalls without considering potential good.  Elshtain is critical of both mistakes because they indicate an unwillingness to be faithful to anything except self.  She is hopeful that it is still possible to be faithful to something more.  Such faithfulness means that we see cultures as ethical entities.

Book Review - George Weigel's The Cube and the Cathedral

In The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God, George Weigel describes two worldviews.  The first – represented by the Great Arch, or, “the cube” – is a secular society.  The second – represented by Cathedral Notre-Dame, or, “the cathedral” – is Christian teaching.  Which of these two worldviews can better protect European democracy?  According to Weigel, the latter is at the root of Europe’s existence.  Weigel argues that Europe faces a demographic decline that comes from the values of a European culture that now embraces secularism.  He uses a religious perspective to reflect on this change. 

Book Review - Tony Campolo's Red Letter Christians

In Red Letter Christians: A Citizen’s Guide to Faith & Politics, Tony Campolo introduces what it is to be a “Red Letter Christian.”  Red Letter Christians guides Christians who want to see their faith influence their politics, while challenging the Christians as Republican stereotype.  Campolo argues that Jesus does not fit into a particular political ideology and that attempting to make him do so creates division.  Instead, Christians should vote about social issues based on their best judgement of what God’s will is.  Addressing social need requires political action, rather than only relying on the good work of volunteers.  Simply put, it is sinful to pretend that there is no need for legislative responses to oppression and poverty.  

Book Review - Miroslav Volf's A Public Faith

In A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good, Miroslav Volf argues that religious people should be able to bring their views about what makes a “good life” to the public forum.  This does not mean that Christians (Volf writes from a Christian perspective and predominantly to a Christian audience) serve the common good through theocracy, but instead serve it by being one of a plurality of voices discussing what makes a healthy society.  The Christian contribution to this discussion should be rooted in the life and words of Jesus instead of ideology.  Volf’s argument has two parts.  In Part One, Volf acknowledges that Christianity “malfunctions”.  Highlighting where Christians have erred in their approach to the good life allows Volf to suggest a corrected vision.  In Part Two, Volf discusses how to present the corrected vision in a religiously and politically pluralistic culture.

Book Review - Stephen Lewis' Race Against Time

In Race Against Time, Stephen Lewis sets out to expand the international discussion about UN renewal.  Lewis argues that this discussion – which typically includes the Security Council, terrorism, and the Human Rights Council – must also include development and humanitarianism, particularly in relation to Africa.  During Lewis’ career in Africa, he was unprepared for the “carnage” of HIV/AIDS.  He makes the unsettling statement that he has spent the last four years “watching people die.”  He and others “race against time” to halt a seemingly endless epidemic that could kill a generation.  Lewis sees hunger, AIDS, education, and gender equality as four crucial areas and frames his argument with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG).  

Book Review - Bill Clinton's Giving

In Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, Bill Clinton explains why he chooses to give.  Clinton gives because he understands that not everyone has the same opportunities that he does.  By giving, he hopes to help other people meet their potential.  Everyone has the capacity to give.  Doing so will change the world because it allows people to recognize their common humanity.   Clinton’s purpose in this book is to encourage everyone to give, whether by sharing time, money, or skills or by supporting ethical business, beginning a social enterprise, or forming an NGO.  To meet this purpose, Clinton tells stories about people who give.

Book Review - Joseph Heath + Andrew Potter's The Rebel Sell

In The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can’t Be Jammed, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter challenge using countercultural or subversive behaviour to establish social justice.  Their claim is that the ideals of the counterculture are the same things that drive capitalism and purchasing.  Rebellious purchasing, whether that be organic food, extreme sports, grunge fashion, or something else, is sold on the same idea as a Lexus or Rolex – the desire to be different.  In essence, the counterculture cannot be co-opted because it does not exist.

Book Review - N. T. Wright's Simply Christian

In Simply Christian, N. T. Wright explains Christianity.  His goal is to recommend it to people who are not Christians, while also clarifying it to those who are.  It is intentionally basic and seeks to give this explanation a “shape.”  This shape has three parts.  Part one claims that some elements of life point to something greater.  Part two describes what Christians believe and why Wright believes that the something greater is the Christian God. Part three describes what following God is like and what the church is for.