Reviews

Reviewed by Matthew Hill, History, Liberty University Much ink has been spilled in recent years rediscovering many “forgotten founders” and arguing for a more diversified range of ideas of the founders on church and state issues. Excessive devotion to the likes of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison as well…

Reviewed by Michael Buratovich, Biochemistry, Spring Arbor University Stephen C. Meyer, director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, is one of the most prolific and articulate proponents of the theory of Intelligent Design (ID), which holds that certain features of the universe and living things are best explained by an intelligent cause…

Reviewed by Barry Hankins, History, Baylor University Molly Worthen has given us the first intellectual history of twentieth-century American evangelicalism. Apostles of Reason should be a standard for the foreseeable future and take its place alongside other fine books such as Joel Carpenter’s Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism and Darren Dochuk’s From…

Reviewed by Pamela Jordan-Long, The Center for the Study of C. S. Lewis & Friends, Taylor University Of making many books about C. S. Lewis there is no end. Even Lewisian scholars say that everything there is to say about Lewis has already been said. Yet, remarkably, Alister McGrath’s The Intellectual World of C. S.…

Reviewed by Philip Smith, Christian Studies, George Fox University Virtues and Their Vices is a collection of twenty two essays, freshly written for this volume, addressing that region of ethical theory called “virtue theory.” Most of the authors are philosophers, with two essays contributed by psychologists and one by a theologian. Some of the essays…

Reviewed by Nathan Alleman, Educational Administration, Baylor University Winston Churchill famously said, “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”393 House of Commons Debate, 5, s. 403 (October 28, 1943). The late Prime Minister’s words came to mind as I read Margaret Grubiak’s intriguing book, White Elephants on Campus: The Decline of the…

Reviewed by Steven McMullen, Economics, Management and Accounting, Hope College There are a cluster of interesting questions at the intersection of Christianity and economics, some of which go to the core of the disciplines of economics and theology. What is economic justice? How should Christians approach poverty? What is the role of the Church in…

Reviewed by Donald L. Cassell, Jr., Senior Fellow, Africa Portfolio, Sagamore Institute Susan VanZanten is a literary scholar and professor at Seattle Pacific University. She has written an autobiography that reads like a bildungsroman, a story of formation and growth. Here the growth is not necessarily psychological and moral, but intellectual and unexpectedly emotional. There…

Reviewed by Sarita D. Gallagher, Missiology, George Fox University In many ways Scott W. Sunquist’s text, Understanding Christian Mission: Participation in Suffering and Glory, is the text for which missiologists and mission practitioners have been waiting. In Sunquist’s three-part exploration of mission history, theology, and practice, the author presents a well researched, ecumenical, and theologically…

Reviewed by Arlin C. Migliazzo, History, Whitworth University For more than four decades Professor George M. Marsden has modeled for many of us in the academy the winsome synergy possible between disciplinary rigor and Christian faith assumptions. From his studies of fundamentalism through his critiques of American higher education, to his Bancroft Prize-winning biography of…

Reviewed by Fred Van Geest, Political Science, Bethel University The essays in Christian Political Witness were presented at the 2013 Wheaton Theology Conference at Wheaton College in Illinois. Of the twelve contributors, eleven have a background in theology and one is an historian (Mark Noll). Not surprisingly, the essays are largely theological in nature and…

Reviewed by Todd E. Johnson, Theological Director, Brehm Center for Worship Theology and the Arts, Fuller Theological Seminary Michael Bauer identifies the target at which this volume is aimed in the Introduction. Bauer writes, “This book is an attempt to lay a foundation for that vital work (arts ministry) by grounding it in the insights…

Reviewed by David Lyle Jeffrey, Literature and the Humanities, Baylor University Anyone who has read so much as one of her many books knows that Michelle P. Brown, Curator Emerita of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library and Professor of Medieval Manuscript Studies and History of the Book at the University of London, is no…

Reviewed by Steven W. Wood, Theatre and Communication, Indiana Wesleyan University Jill Stevenson has made a considerable contribution to evangelical theatre scholars and practitioners – and the larger academia interested in performance studies, theatre criticism, and American theatre historiography – by coining the term “evangelical dramaturgy” (4). American evangelical dramaturgy, Stevenson argues, is a broad-reaching…

Reviewed by Mary M. Brown, English, Indiana Wesleyan University All of the five contributors to Making Nothing Happen: Five Poets Explore Faith and Spirituality consider themselves both theologians and poets. Their formal educations and professions favor their positions in theology, but their practice confirms their place in the world of poetry. Gavin D’Costa, Eleanor Nesbitt,…

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…