Reviews

Reviewed by Carol Sue Humphrey, History, Oklahoma Baptist University In Sarah Osborn’s World, Catherine Brekus presents readers with an excellent biography of an influential woman who is not often discussed in history books. Using Osborn’s memoir and letters, Brekus provides a good understanding of Osborn and the world in which she lived. Brekus also uses…

Reviewed by Stephen M. King, Political Science, Taylor University, and Michelle L. King, Student, John Wesley Honors College, Indiana Wesleyan University A new release by Joshua Hordern, University Lecturer in Christian Ethics at Oxford, titled Political Affections: Civic Participation and Moral Theology, is a significant addition to our conceptual understanding of the nature and role…

Reviewed by Rachel Pietka, English, Baylor University Literature and Theology: New Interdisciplinary Spaces takes its place among other similar projects that have been published in the last few years: Finding a Common Thread: Understanding Great Texts from Homer to O’Connor (2013), Hard Sayings: The Rhetoric of Christian Orthodoxy in Late Modern Fiction (2013), Between Truth…

Reviewed by Gregory S. MaGee, Biblical Studies, Taylor University Is it possible that Reformation-inspired interpretations of Paul’s theology have diverted attention away from Paul’s interest in visual piety?This question may sound familiar to those who have followed discussions about the so-called New Perspective on Paul in recent decades. Advocates of the New Perspective on Paul…

Reviewed by James E. Bruce, Religion & Philosophy, John Brown University At its best, Vern Sheridan Poythress’s Logic offers succinct arguments and thoughtful explanations. For example, informal fallacies work by counterfeiting genuine arguments, such as how the fallacy of bifurcation (or false dilemma) “counterfeits the truth that in some cases there are actually only two…

Reviewed by Timothy J. Peck, Director of Chapel Programs and Lecturer, Azusa Pacific University One of the endemic challenges of the modern university system is the fragmentation of university life. Cary Balzer and Rod Reed’s Building a Culture of Faith seeks to help Christian universities address this fragmentation as it relates to spiritual formation by…

Reviewed by Tawa J. Anderson, Philosophy, Oklahoma Baptist University James Smith’s 2009 Desiring the Kingdom was the first of a three-part series on envisioning ‘Cultural Liturgies’ to enrich Christian spiritual and education formation. Imagining the Kingdom continues the narrative and exhortation, insisting that imagination must lie at the center of Christian formation. Smith’s Imagining the…

Reviewed by Michael Buratovich, Biochemistry, Spring Arbor University Several atheist scientists have written books arguing that their worldview ennobles humanity, engenders a deep appreciation of nature, provides the proper motivation and impetus for habitat and species conservation, and cultivates a reverent wonder of the majesty and intricacies of our planet and the universe. Christian scientists…

Reviewed by Kimberly Carmichael Thornbury, Senior Vice President for Student Services and Dean of Students, Union University Higher education faces ongoing major challenges including student access and affordability, massive budget constraints, and a race to find innovative ways to deliver educational products through online platforms. Christian higher education faces additional attacks, primarily issues of religious…

Reviewed by Thomas Jay Oord, Theology and Philosophy, Northwest Nazarene University I know of no finer, more accurate, or more accessible explanation of a Thomistic view of divine action than Michael Dodds’s recently published book, Unlocking Divine Action: Contemporary Science and Thomas Aquinas. This is an immensely important book, and those who care about issues…

Reviewed by Brian Glenney, Philosophy, Gordon College Life evolves according to something like PANDA: Progressive complexity, Ancestors in common, Natural selection, Descent with modification, Ancient earth. The phenomenon of natural selection, for example, reveals that living things with the most adaptive traits continue to exist. But some aspects of how adaptive traits become selected remain…

Reviewed by Thomas Trzyna, English, Seattle Pacific University Christian Scholar’s Review is a generalist journal, so the purpose of this review, above all, should be to recommend the poetry of one of the twentieth century’s most talented poets, W. H. Auden. Auden had the musical and compositional skills of Robert Frost and W. B. Yeats,…

Reviewed by Philip D. Byers, Residence Life, Bethel University David R. Swartz has produced a book that is at once innovative historiography and enlivening prose. Using the 1973 Thanksgiving Workshop of Evangelical Social Concern and its resulting “Chicago Declaration” as his framework, Swartz narrates and analyzes the mid-twentieth-century progressive movement in American evangelicalism. Examining many…

Reviewed by Bernadette Waterman Ward, Literature, University of Dallas Susan Colón’s concise, clear book argues that Victorian realism is particularly fertile ground for parables and thus undercuts many common presumptions in literary studies. Her opening chapters are theoretical, dealing first with creating a working definition of parables and secondly with dismantling some illusions about the…

Reviewed by Crystal Downing, English and Film Studies, Messiah College Several years ago I began a book review with these words: “Movies can elicit profound, sometimes dismaying, reflections about the reciprocal influence between religion and society, faith and culture, belief and behavior. Rarely, however, do filmgoers consider the influence of religion on the production of…

Reviewed by Christopher Tollefsen, Philosophy, University of South Carolina Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler’s new book is a follow-up to their earlier, more academic, The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology. It is written with a view to the “people in the pews” (xiii), but they argue for the same essential positions with many…

Reviewed by Charles Andrews, English, Whitworth University The hoopla in the Charles Dickens bicentenary has sustained a wealth of publications popular and scholarly on this most distinctly English of the great English writers. Gary L. Colledge contributes to this celebration a book that is a curious blending of scholarly intervention and popular plea to Christians…

Reviewed by Ryan Scruggs, Theology, Alberta Bible College Achieving some sense of mastery over a given discipline in the academy today is daunting for scholars, never mind for students or the general public. Without training, entry into a field such as medieval mysticism or philosophy of religion can feel like being dropped into a foreign…

Reviewed by W. Brian Shelton, Historical Theology, Toccoa Falls College Unbeknownst to many, a liberal arts curriculum consisting of the trivium and the quadrivium did not exist in antiquity. This was instead a medieval development, owing its pedigree to antiquity and in large part to Augustine, who set out immediately after his conversion to solidify…

Reviewed by Leah K. Clarke, Counseling, Messiah College You are a Christian psychotherapist asked to provide consultation on a case. The client in question is a middle-class Caucasian male, a nontraditional college student, and a veteran. He presents you with academic struggles, poor social connections, and doubts about his faith. He also has a difficult…