Category: Reviews (Books)
Book Review: The Wonderful Decree by Travis James Campbell
Of the making of many books there is no end. Of the making of books on divine predestination there is also no end. Travis James Campbell’s recent book The Wonderful Decree focuses its attention on divine election and God’s desire...
Seeing Jack: The Prodigal in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead
‘For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him?’ In every important way we are such secrets from each other, and I do believe that there is a separate...
Augustine Amongst the Strong Gods
This is a time of ferment on the American right; that much has become abundantly clear. The post-Reagan consensus built around social conservatism and economic libertarianism is failing, trampled down by an economy that has left middle America behind and...
Revisiting the Kingdom: Ten Years After “Desiring the Kingdom”
It has been over ten years since the publication of philosopher James K. A. Smith’s paradigm-shifting, Desiring the Kingdom—Smith’s first title in what would become his three book Cultural Liturgies series. When it was first released, Kingdom received well deserved...
Book Review: From Adam and Israel to the Church by Benjamin Gladd
As one who spends a great deal of time with students who are being shaped to lead the people of God in ministry, I can tell you that much of the attention in the literature is given to the pragmatic...
Happiness, Virtue, and the Bastard Science
Happiness is a personal problem. Or so it may seem. Consider the self-help section. A library of recent books offers just the right mindset, self-care regimen, or practical hack for troubled souls who, presumably, hope that one more piece of...
Hinterland: Review of an Apocalypse
Shattered souls and ruined lives are the plot, and the ever-burgeoning, post-industrial wastelands created by the forces of global capitalism are the setting in Phil A. Neel’s gripping and brutal new book Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict....
Uncertainty Requires Courage: Adam and Eve, Strange Allies, and the Quest for Common Ground
An atheist, a Christian, and a Jew start talking about science and faith. This might seem like it is either the lead up to joke or the beginning of a fight. Instead, it was the setting of a meeting I...
Book Review: The Decadent Society by Ross Douthat
Although the word “apocalypse” in contemporary popular imagination connotes “the end of the world,” the word in biblical and theological literature means an “unveiling” or a “revelation.” In apocalyptic literature, the truth about reality is not always what it seems....
Book Review: What is a Girl Worth? by Rachael Denhollander
Abuse memoirs abound. But not many abuse memoirs describe the abuser being brought to justice. This is because not many abusers are brought to justice. As Rachael Denhollander reports in her new memoir, What is a Girl Worth?, for every...