Reviews

Reviewed by R. Michael Medley, English, Eastern Mennonite University When one risks sharing a story of intense personal suffering, one invites others to a sacred moment of communion. Though the assertions of the sufferer may make us uncomfortable, we cannot be judgmental nor shut our ears to his or her story. To read Christian Wiman’s…

Reviewed by Edward B. Davis, History of Science, Messiah College This book by Stuart S. Peterfreund, professor of English at Northeastern University, episodically traces the history and rhetoric of British natural theology from the early seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. The unifying scheme is the identification of a few key “turning points,” when the…

Reviewed by Noah J. Toly, Urban Studies and Politics & International Relations, Wheaton College Place matters to the practice of faith in urban congregations; congregations’ practices of faith matter to the dynamics of urban neighborhoods. So goes the two-pronged central argument of Katie Day’s book, Faith on the Avenue: Religion on a City Street, a…

Reviewed by Jacob Goodson, Philosophy, Southwestern College Recently, an undergraduate student attended my office hours with a list of questions that demanded answers. One of these questions was simple, yet significant. She asked, “What does postliberalism and postliberal theology mean?” She added, without hesitation, “Wikipedia doesn’t give a clear or helpful answer. So what is…

Reviewed by Dale Goldsmith, Religion/Academic Dean, Retired Until modern times, dying and death had been an immediate reality to everyone. Then – this is the short version – medicine came up with ways to postpone dying and distance us from death; and we made a point to shut it out of our thinking. Our institutions…

Reviewed by Jonathan Morgan, Theology, Toccoa Falls College A remarkable trend among evangelicals and other Protestant groups in recent decades has been an increasing interest in tradition – namely, the doctrines and practices of the early church. Many have recognized a need for continuity with the past in order to be consistent with the church…

Reviewed by Stephen L. Woodworth, Spiritual Formation, Toccoa Falls College In the past decade a number of authors have centered their gaze on attempting to understand the spiritual lives of emerging adults.Most notable are the often referenced works produced by Christian Smith, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults (New York,…

Reviewed by Nathan Jones, Doctoral Candidate in Theology and Music, Duke University Divinity School When you see the names “Bach” and “John Eliot Gardiner” together on the cover of a superb work of art, it hardly comes as a surprise. After all, Gardiner is one of the world’s leading conductors, whose recordings of Bach’s vocal…

Reviewed by Nicholas Kerton-Johnson, Political Science and International Relations, Taylor University Os Guinness is a prolific writer and commentator and in his latest book he also takes on the mantle of prophet, a point noted by William Inboden in his support for the book. Indeed, Guinness issues a powerful prophetic statement: that the freedom of…

Reviewed by Alexander Jech, Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Nicholas Wolterstorff’s new book, The Mighty and the Almighty: An Essay in Political Theology, aims to provide an original contribution to the long Western theological tradition of political thought and to show thereby that this tradition remains capable of making original and significant…

Reviewed by John Culp, Philosophy, Azusa Pacific University This paperback edition of a work originally published in 2010 responds to the general recognition among both Christians and non-Christians that the traditional arguments from natural theology for God’s existence do not provide conclusive proof that God exists. Despite this recognition, the ongoing revision and debate about…

Reviewed by Richard W. Pointer, History, Westmont College When Westmont revised its General Education curriculum about ten years ago, we created a new requirement in “thinking historically.” Students may select from a range of courses offered through various departments (history, art history, religious studies, music, and so on) covering a myriad of historical subjects and…

Reviewed by Andrew M. McCoy, Center for Ministry Studies, Hope College What makes worship “biblical?” This question would seem important for all Christians, but especially for those from evangelical and pietistic traditions for whom the Scriptures generally serve as a primary source of truth. Like many who grew up in these congregations, my earliest memories…

Reviewed by Louis Markos, English, and Robert H. Ray, Humanities, Houston Baptist University England is post-Christian in a way that America is not. Christian stories, imagery, and theological concepts permeate American culture; they do not do so on the other side of the pond. In America, religion still brings respectability; in England, it more often…

Reviewed by Bryan C. Hollon, Theology, Malone University In recent years, atheist critics of religion have been quite aggressive in working to get their message out. Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and a host of others have published popular books attacking theistic belief, and they have done a nice job promoting their…

Reviewed by Brian R. Bolt, Kinesiology, Calvin College When he wanted to make a point that could be understood by the widest possible audience, the apostle Paul’s metaphor of choice was sport. In sport Paul saw unrivaled tenacity, commitment, sacrifice, affinity, and intense love – all attributes he sought to stir in the hearts of…

Reviewed by Philip D. Byers, Graduate Student in History, Washington University in St. Louis For the latter half of the twentieth century, the ubiquity of the word “evangelical” in common parlance bore little correlation to the degree to which social commentators and water-cooler politicos actually understood the movement. Thankfully, diligent work by a generation of…

Reviewed by Jessica Hooten Wilson, English, John Brown University The human species is being threatened by a visible but unacknowledged enemy, which is not – as has been depicted so well by recent apocalyptic films – a contagious virus, a natural disaster, a mischievous Norse god, nor a potential nuclear war. The enemy is far…

Reviewed by Jillian Lederhouse, Education, Wheaton College Former Teach for America vice president of faith community relations and current founder of The Expectations Project, Nicole Baker Fulgham writes how her TFA experience and Christian faith have influenced her to advocate for education reform through a national platform. Although educational inequity has been a long-standing concern…

Reviewed by Jonathan Huggins, Chaplain, Berry College; Research Associate, Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology, Stellenbosch University Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat, by James D. Bratt, is a sizable and serious work of biographical scholarship. It is part of the Library of Religious Biography series, edited by Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch, and Allen C.…