Skip to main content
Reviews

Review of Sarah Irving-­Stonebraker, Priests of History: Stewarding the Past in an Ahistoric Age

In Priests of History, Sarah Irving-­Stonebraker diagnoses a partial cause of the identity crisis currently plaguing Western culture, generally, and the Western Church, particularly. We do not know ourselves because we have neglected the past. We are “ahistorical,” a term used by Irving-­Stonebraker to describe the loss of “meaningful engagement with, and connection to, history”…
May 19, 2025
Reviews

Review of Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture

Biblical Critical Theory is sparklingly clear and engagingly written. Part of the reason it is so engaging is that Christopher Watkin’s personal story is woven into the story without ever being intrusive or grating. As Christian academic writers, we can learn from the way he as a human being seeking truth and wholeness addresses us…
May 19, 2025
BlogReviews

An Extended Review of Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies

Harold Laswell famously defined politics as “who gets what, when, and how.” These decisions are surely as fraught now as they were when Aristotle wrote about politics in ancient Athens. Politics has always been about power: who has the power to determine who gets what, when, and how? When it comes to power, Christians live…
April 25, 2025
BlogReviews

A Review of Another Gospel: Christian Nationalism and the Crisis of Evangelical Identity.

In the past decade—or perhaps more precisely since the advent of Donald Trump into Republican politics—evangelical Protestants have debated so-­called “Christian nationalism,” a term that is so nebulous and so ill-­defined that it can loop in secularist Trumpist politics, Christian Reconstruction, and nearly anything else that is exotic enough to pique the interest—or derision, or…
April 3, 2025
BlogReviews

A Review of Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians

I cannot decide if Amy-­Jill Levine’s recent book, Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians, is properly or poorly titled. To be sure, the reason for the wording is obvious. It is a book about Jesus written primarily for those who would not self-­identify as Christians. Levine notes in her introduction that she writes “to atheists,…
March 13, 2025
Reviews

An Extended Review of Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies

Harold Laswell famously defined politics as “who gets what, when, and how.” These decisions are surely as fraught now as they were when Aristotle wrote about politics in ancient Athens. Politics has always been about power: who has the power to determine who gets what, when, and how? When it comes to power, Christians live…
March 11, 2025
Reviews

A Review of Another Gospel: Christian Nationalism and the Crisis of Evangelical Identity.

In the past decade—or perhaps more precisely since the advent of Donald Trump into Republican politics—evangelical Protestants have debated so-­called “Christian nationalism,” a term that is so nebulous and so ill-­defined that it can loop in secularist Trumpist politics, Christian Reconstruction, and nearly anything else that is exotic enough to pique the interest—or derision, or…
March 11, 2025
Reviews

A Review of Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians

I cannot decide if Amy-­Jill Levine’s recent book, Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians, is properly or poorly titled. To be sure, the reason for the wording is obvious. It is a book about Jesus written primarily for those who would not self-­identify as Christians. Levine notes in her introduction that she writes “to atheists,…
March 11, 2025
Reviews

A Review of Deep Reading: Practices to Subvert the Vices of Our Distracted, Hostile, and Consumeristic Age.

Given its title, Deep Reading: Practices to Subvert the Vices of Our Distracted, Hostile, and Consumeristic Age is unexpectedly narrow in its target audience and goals. Yet even more surprising is the power, richness, and far-­reaching value of the vision at its heart. This book is a guide for “Christian practices for teaching reading”Julie Ooms,…
November 6, 2024