Book Review: "Getting to Know the Church Fathers" by Bryan M. Litfin
This is a guest post from Erin Joy, a real doll. She writes about life in rural America and in the big city where she studies at a Bible college.
Erin Joy and her book
Posts tagged "reviews"
Review: The Mortification of Sin
Puritan John Owen wrote The Mortification of Sin (affiliate link) to address the "obvious difficulty that most professing Christians have in dealing with the temptations that surround them" (page vii), and this abridged version was published to make it "more accessible" to contemporary Christians.
Based primarily on Romans 8:13 ("For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."), Owen fleshes out his thesis:
Review: Bonhoeffer
Through Book Sneeze, Thomas Nelson gave me a copy of Eric Metaxas’s intriguing new biography Bonhoeffer (affiliate link) to review.
I found the book inspiring and enlightening, yet unsatisfying. I was impressed with the level of research, but I did not love the style.
Review: Speaking Our Minds
In Speaking our Minds, social worker Lisa Snyder gives readers the opportunity to hear from seven people living with Alzheimer’s. I think the greatest value of the book comes as a reminder that people with Alzheimer’s are people; as I was reading, I repeatedly thought about the value of a person not being in what they do but in what they are, namely, people.
One thing I became more aware of was how easy it is to misjudge the cause by noticing an effect. For example, one woman had difficulty shaking hands, not because she couldn’t remember what to do when someone extended a hand to shake, but because visual-spatial difficulties made it impossible for her to grasp someone’s hand in the air.
Short Review: Getting Organized in the Google Era
In the new book Getting Organized in the Google Era, former Google CIO Douglas Merrill and his co-author James Martin attempt to share ideas for better organizing information, frequently incorporating technology.
In general I thought the content was decent. Most of the content was either questioning obsolete paradigms (why do we have a 9-5 workday?) or applying common principles (don’t multitask or have frequent context-switches, so check e-mail at a break rather than having it interrupt you). I appreciated the emphasis on goals. I also think it had some reasonable information on skills that aren’t commonly communicated but should be: like how to use tagging and do better searches.
Review: When Helping Hurts
When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert (with Fikkert being the primary writer) presents thought-provoking information and ideas aimed at helping the church truly help those in poverty.
I enjoyed the theological groundings and challenging ideas, but I felt frustrated by unanswered questions. Overall, I would recommend it to most Christians.
Review: Introverts in the Church
Accused of being antisocial, labelled as shy, I learned at an early age that I am an introvert, which has been confirmed with each personality test I’ve been administered. As I was growing up, I also learned to love the church, earning rug burns swinging around the carpeted poles in Fellowship Hall with friends, adoring stained-glass windows in the sanctuary, meeting and celebrating Jesus, crying about fractures which formed within this family of believers. When I went to college, I found my new church to be the source of most of my friendships, but I felt awkward attempting finding my place, frequently feeling invisible, struggling to make smalltalk, expected to lead but hardly able to relate to the girls in my group, finally learning to bribe friends with food. The topic of Introverts in the Church is obviously of interest to me, so I requested a copy of Adam McHugh’s book from our public library after seeing it positively reviewed.
Characterizing introverts by being "engergized by solitude" (page 35), using "internal processing" (page 37), and having a "preference for depth over breadth" (page 41), McHugh, an introvert, combines his personal experience in ministry with research to present the strengths of introverts, some challenges they face, and potential ways to help introverts be part of the church community without requiring them to turn into extroverts.
Short Review: A Sweet and Bitter Providence
A Sweet and Bitter Providence by John Piper is a short and sweet look at the sovereignty of God displayed in the book of Ruth. The book was surprisingly easy to read while still packed with rich content. As usual with Crossway books, the typesetting was pleasant.
A Sweet and Bitter Providence goes through the story of Ruth showing how God intentionally weaves hard circumstances like famine, widowhood, and barreness into the lives of Naomi and Ruth. Things things are part of God’s beautiful plan for their lives; they are also part of His design for the lineage of Jesus.
Alice
This weekend, my generous parents took Michael and me to see Alice in Wonderland in 3-D. The movie tells a tale of Alice as a young lady returning to the land of her childhood dreams.
Visually, I found it fine, but not remarkable. The acting was decent; Depp’s acting was excellent as usual. Overall, I found it fine, but it seemed to lack "muchness," so I rated it at 3 stars over at movielens. There may be spoilers below.
Review: Dug Down Deep
I loved reading Dug Down Deep (that’s an affiliate link) by Joshua Harris. Dug Down Deep communicates core truths of Christianity using biographical examples from Harris’s life.
It is one of the few books I would give a five-star rating if we had a rating system with stars set up. That doesn’t mean it was perfect; it means Harris combined spectacular writing with excellent content.
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