Reviews

Literature tries to depict something – people, a culture, a historical situation, or images that stir the imagination – but depicting and explaining can work together. Mark Knight’s strength is to hear the sounds in literature and offer a critique of those who do not hear them in a Christian manner. The introduction provides an…

In response to the fundamentalist atheism of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens in their recent popular books, Ian Markham seeks to “locate understand this skepticism (perhaps even make case with a bit more rigor) and then provide an account of faith that is compelling, readable, and informed” (6). His subtle, concise Christian apologetic…

Christian colleges and universities are filled with a diverse body of students and faculty who are dedicated to the great commission (Matt. 28:19-20) and to the greatest commandments (Matt. 22:37-40). Many in this diverse group eventually will find themselves operating in the global marketplace, perhaps the last great frontier of missions. Functioning effectively in this…

As a measure of unmistakable gratitude for Paul Griffiths’ book on intellectual appetite, I want to speak carefully and precisely in honoring his accomplishment. Many terms of approbation, suitable as I once thought them for favored books, simply will not do. For if Intellectual Appetite accomplishes what its author intends, we Christian scholars must learn—through…

Gary A. Anderson, professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible in the Department ofTheology at Notre Dame, argues that sin has a history. He uncovers this history in the shifting metaphors for sin found in the Bible, Aramaic texts of the Second Temple period, early rabbinic Judaism, and the Church Fathers. Sin, as a concept, has evolved.…

The November, 2009 Christianity Today webinar featuring Christian Smith discussing his most recent book provided a rich example of his argument. In this session Smith discussed the content and implications of his findings thoughtfully and articulately while online participants watched, listened and had the opportunity to post real-time questions that showed up in a sidebar…

In spite of the apparent benefits of recent and predicted advances in medical science which promise to enhance human well-being and extend life, many people experience a vague uneasiness about a brave new world where disease, suffering, and finitude in general might be vanquished. If we can replace limbs, repair organs, cure cancers, and even…

Although Christian ethics masquerades sometimes as a discrete discipline, it is understood better as an ambitious multidisciplinary enterprise, requiring knowledge of (at the very least) biblical studies, theology, philosophy, and the social sciences. Dennis P. Hollinger ’s The Meaning of Sex draws on material from across all these fields as he articulates and defends the…

In 1954 Aldous Huxley published Doors of Perception, an account of his mescaline-induced mystical experience. R. C. Zaehner responded to the wave of experimentation Huxley provoked with Mysticism Sacred and Profane: An Inquiry into Some Varieties of Praeternatural Experience, a book that drew fine distinctions between categories that Huxley had neglected to address. In the…

Billed as the first full-scale exploration of theatre and theology, Performing the Sacred: Theology and Theatre in Dialogue by Todd E. Johnson and Dale Savidge endeavors to find anexus between the previously distinct worlds in which both of the authors participate. Johnson, the theologian, and Savidge, the theatre practitioner, desire to create a new form…

The title of David Jasper ’s new book, The Sacred Body: Asceticism in Religion, Literature, Art and Culture, promises a survey of the topic of asceticism in art and literature. More enticingly, it promises the reader that she will embark on a historical pattern-finding mission with the author. (What is this “sacred body”? What is…

What is the relationship, if any, between Christian theology and the visual arts? Does this relationship need to be “contentious”? Should Christian theologians think that the Apostle Paul’s critique of images “made by man’s design and skill” (Acts 17:29) applies to all objects considered “visual art”? In Visual Theology: Forming and Transforming the Community Through…

David Smith, professor of German and director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College, has a knack for inducing discomfort in his audience. At the professional conference during which we interact each year, I consistently look forward to Smith’s talks, knowing that they will be engaging, witty, and insightful; yet…

That we Americans live in a radically pluralist society is no secret. For some time now, there has been concern among thoughtful Christians that America may be heading down the same road that Europe trod in recent decades – the road to a radically secular, post-Christian society. However, this trend is called into question, increasingly,…

Richard Horsley attempts to employ a more nuanced, historically and socially contingent approach to the interpretation of Scripture in order to lead us to embrace a call for economic justice. The end result is an interpretation of Scripture that portrays modern market capitalism as a violation of the original covenantal principles of economic justice. For…

At bottom, this is a wonderfully simple book. It gathers essays from scholars of high academic standing to tell us what we learned in kindergarten: we need to listen in order to understand; we need to put ourselves in another person’s shoes; we need to see things through another’s eyes. This collection of authorities gives…

Rodney Stark sums up the argument of God’s Battalions tersely: The thrust of the preceding chapters can be summarized very briefly. The Crusades were not unprovoked. They were not the first round of European colonialism. They were not conducted for land, loot, or converts. The crusaders were not barbarians who victimized the cultivated Muslims. They…

Initially, the title of this book made me think it could provide a much-needed critique of the ubiquitous notion of “human development” that, for centuries, has influenced a variety of fields from psychology to education to political science to philosophy to history. “Development” is indeed a commonplace term that deserves significant analysis, but this book,…

Peter J. Leithart is the organizing pastor at Trinity Reformed Church, a Christ Reformed Evangelical congregation, and the Dean of Graduate Studies and Senior Fellow of Theology for New Saint Andrews College, Moscow, Idaho. Deep Exegesis is a clear, optimistic, and well-written book, with wide-spanning and interdisciplinary implications. Impressively, Leithart returns frequently to his exegesis…