Category: Book Reviews

Here is a screenshot from my Delicious Library of the books I have read in 2007. It is less than I expected and the list changed as I was put onto various other books of interest. A total of 19 reflects the joys of being a parent of two kids and tackling some (for me anyways) tougher reads. In particular, Colossians Remixed, Everything Must Change, The Great Giveaway, The Powers that Be, The Prophetic Imagination, and Simply Christian stood out as fantastic books. I would like to double that number this year, but we’ll see how and if my pace of life continues to collide with a steady reading rhythm. In the new year I would like to post brief, but engaging reviews of books, we’ll have to see about time.

If you would like to order these books, you can do so by clicking on the links and buying them at Amazon prices from the Toward Hope Bookstore (also accessed by the aStore link to the left of the blog under my banner).

I have just begun the journey into Colossians Remixed by Walsh and Keesmaat. My initial impression – slightly skewed by the great stuff I’ve already heard about this book – is that it is, and will be, a fantastic read. Their journey into the workings of gospel against empire is one I am excited to travel. Here is a glimpse of their insight into our cultural reality as they define Globalization:

“Globalization isn’t just an aggressive stage in the history of capitalism. It is a religious movement of previously unheard-of proportions. Progress is the underlying myth, unlimited economic growth its foundational faith, the shopping mall (physical or online) its place of worship, consumerism its overriding image, “I’ll have a Big mac and fries” its ritual of initiation, and global domination its ultimate goal.”

What they are trying to do early on in the book is get at the underlying realities of our postmodern condition and cybernetic optimism (and the values the espouse) in an effort to appropriately assess our culture before diving into the empire-subverssive message of the letter to the church at Colosse. Look for more posts about this book.

Anyone read it? What did you think?

Technorati Tags: Books, Culture, Theology

Tomorrow I approach the ripe age of 35. I got a little gift from my father today in the form of cash and I could not resist the impulse to buy some books. I ordered from Amazon in the US to take advantage of the strong Canadian $. Here is the list. If you like, you can order them from the Toward Hope Bookstore for the same discounted Amazon.com prices.

Countdown to Sunday: A Daily Guide for Those Who Dare to Preach

Chris Erdman

An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination

Walter Brueggemann

After Our Likeness: The Church As the Image of the Trinity

Miroslav Volf

Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes: A Literary-Cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke

Kenneth E. Bailey

Anybody read these ones yet?

Technorati Tags: Books, Christianity, Culture, ecclesiology, Gospel, Miroslav Volf, Preaching, Theology, Walter Brueggemann

In Reading McLaren’s book, Everything Must Change, (almost finished) I am reminded how much I appreciate both his insight and literary style to communicate things that are often ineffable. He draws his arguments from two big questions: What are the biggest problems in the world? And: What does Jesus have to say about these global problems? From there he does a great job of uncovering the global systems and structures that he ultimately pegs “suicide machine” and exposes the framing stories that serve to shape, guide, and move this unsustainable monster, made up of prosperity, equity, and security systems. A big critique coming from him is toward religion and how it plays into, even sponsors in a chaplain-like way, the injustice inherent in the system. Heady stuff, but coming from Brian, it is easy to read.

Brian draws great parallels with themes of empire evident in Jesus time and ours as he begins to reframe him for our day. What he makes clear is that today Jesus is largely misunderstood with regard to the complete message of the Kingdom and how it relates to the great problems of our day. What happens with religion in empire is that it becomes domesticated, private, and subdued to where it serves as an opiate to numb and never threaten the agenda of the empire; an agenda that moves the suicide machine forward. A way this is realized in our time is by the esoteric flavor Christianity has taken on; it’s one that is fixated on a vision of earth being destroyed in the next lifetime and Jesus coming back to take his followers to some disembodied heaven. When we consider the message of the Kingdom, it really confronts this domestic christianity whilst bringing into question the agenda of empire.

In many ways, this book is an important work as it seeks to address issues of how we have come to believe the gospel and how it relates to social justice and the problems of our day. And McLaren offers creative vision for implementation rooted deep within the framing story of scripture. Many will perhaps call Brian a liberal because of his emphasis on social justice, but what needs consideration is that it is not a classic liberal justice that is devoid of cross or resurrection, but a justice that is lived out of cross and resurrection. In my assessment thus far, I do not see an attempt at just making the world a better place, but a challenge to consider the greater aspects of God’s law and heart that, when taken seriously, really means we need to love our neighbour. And that is something that this book reveals many Christians know little of and many empires ignore.

Technorati Tags: Brian McLaren, Church, emerging church, Justice, Kingdom of God, Missional, Theology

I just bought the book and began reading it late last night. It seems intriguing as Brian attempts to ask daring questions in an attempt to integrate the gospel message with how we live on earth; certainly a central point to Jesus’ instruction about how we are to pray and live. I am curious how Brian’s work can help heal heal deep division between liberal and conservative camps with a more holistic gospel message.

Scot McKnight is blogging his way through the book, see Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6. It is well worth the read as Scot reviews books quite well.

This video is a good one posted at emergent village where Brian goes on about religions and the need to bring them into conversation to thwart the ‘opiate’ tendencies they often imbue. It is a very well communicated sequence that uncovers how religion has largely missed the plot

Technorati Tags: Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change, Scot McKnight

Lisa Samson sent me a copy of Quaker Summer a while back as it was being released. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to review because of my frenetic calendar. However, Barbara Mutch, one of my instructors in the Masters tract I am on was graciously willing to do so.

Quaker Summer, by Lisa Samson

Reviewed by Barbara Mutch



Quaker Summer, Women of Faith’s 2007 choice for Novel of the Year, is a story of transformation in one woman’s life. Heather Curridge, homemaker, dedicated shopper, private school volunteer, wife to a surgeon and mother to a teenage son old beyond his years, is dissatisfied with her life. She attempts to fill the void she feels with her twin passions of buying increasingly pricey things for her house and baking cakes, and a secondary passion of eating more than she knows she needs. Through a series of random encounters with people outside of her normal sphere of reference, she is drawn outside of her self-preoccupation and into a larger, risky, more satisfying world. She learns that serving the poor and the lonely allows a person to “give away some of my doubts, my fears, my own sin, and the sin of others that I know about.” She discovers that “God wants us to care for the poor and the lonely and the sick, not just for their sake, but for ours. Because in this, we become like Him, growing a bigger heart than we ever thought possible.” And through what may be the most humanly recognizable sequence in the novel, Heather’s remorse for acts of childhood cruelty to two children from a disadvantaged home, she eventually realizes that she wants to become “the person around whom people don’t have to do a thing to be loved.”

Heather’s transformation from collecting possessions to being willing to divest herself of many of her things is closely connected to her willingness to be open to learn new things from the people she meets and to persevere in attempting to recognize the invitations of the Spirit of God. There are few subtleties in the book, and a little less obviousness would make for a much more interesting and thoughtful read. However, spending time in a book that is based on the possibility of change, which lies so clearly at the heart of the gospel, is definitely worth something when looking for a light summer read.

Technorati Tags: Books, Gospel, Lisa Samson