Reviews

Reviewed by Holly Ordway, Apologetics, Houston Baptist University “Apologetics? What’s that?” Chances are good that anyone who knows enough about the field to be interested in reading this review has heard that question before – perhaps many times. Sometimes it is followed by the joke, “Does that mean you’re apologizing for being a Christian? Ha,…

Reviewed by Young Lee Hertig, Global Studies and Sociology, Azusa Pacific University, Co-Founder/Executive Director of Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity (ISAAC) The book title, The Spirit Moves West: Korean Missionaries in America, can set different expectations than when first turning the pages. After empirical research of the fundamentalist sectarian group, the University…

Reviewed by Christopher A. Franks, Religion and Philosophy, High Point University This is quite simply one of the most helpful books on Aquinas I have ever read. It does so many things well. It gives a compelling historical reconstruction of Aquinas. It shows the immense resources Aquinas offers for contemporary theologizing. And it demonstrates, practically…

Reviewed by David M. Johnstone, Residence Life, George Fox University The subject of faith and the university experience has long been a topic of discussion, and both the volumes reviewed here add to that complex conversation. They particularly focus on the current American student experience, providing reflections and data that lead to new and sometimes…

Reviewed by Jerold Waltman, Political Science, Baylor University The papers representing the 10 chapters of this book grew out of a symposium sponsored by the Religious Freedom Project at the University of Oklahoma; it is the inaugural volume in the University of Oklahoma Press’s new series on the American Constitutional Heritage. The usual rubs on…

Reviewed by Mark W. Cannister, Biblical Studies and Christian Ministries, Gordon College Based in part on her 2007 research study “Testimony and Formation,” Amanda Drury set out to develop a greater understanding of testimony as a faith practice that contributes to the spiritual formation of adolescents. Her research included a collection of interviews with adolescents,…

Reviewed by Matthew Hill, History, Liberty University For too long, the religious dimension of the American presidency has been neglected. Outside the never-ending debate on the religious convictions of the Founding Fathers, four of whom became president, far too little research has been devoted to this subject. The religious dimensions of the Civil War have…

Reviewed by J. P. Gerber, Psychology, Gordon College This book is the first volume from the recently formed Society for the Exploration of Psychoanalytic Therapies and Theology. It seeks to refresh writing on psychoanalytic therapy by engaging a wide range of scholars and practitioners from diverse corners of the psychoanalytic landscape. It also attempts to…

Reviewed by David Vander Laan, Philosophy, Westmont College Who’s Afraid of Relativism? has two aims. The first is expressed in an epigraph by Augustine: “If those, however, who are called philosophers happen to have said anything that is true, and agreeable to our faith...not only should we not be afraid of them, but we should…

Reviewed by Micah J. Watson, Political Science, Calvin College Timothy P. Jackson is an intellectual revolutionary disguised as a distinguished professor of Christian ethics at Emory University. Political Agape is the third in a trilogy of books aimed at changing the way we think about a host of first-order subjects.The other two books are Love…

Reviewed by Zachary Purvis, Divinity, University of Edinburgh In Kelly Joan Whitmer’s telling, the story of the Halle Orphanage is the story of the formation of a new “scientific community,” populated by kings, theologians, and cosmopolitan inventors determined to furnish new instruments with the ability to decode the mysteries of magnetism. Hers is a fascinating…

Reviewed by João Chaves, Religion, Baylor University and Baptist University of the Américas The accented Jesús presented by Miguel De La Torre is at odds with what De La Torre calls the Euroamerican Jesus. Jesús is not on board with versions of the white, middle-class, American dream that are usually dependent on capitalist commitments either…

Reviewed by James Halverson, History, Judson University In the preface to Medieval Christianity, Kevin Madigan apologizes for adding another book to the “groaning shelves” of medievalists and historians of Christianity. He is correct about the groaning. Many trees have fallen in the service of studying Christianity between 600 and 1500 in the four and a…

Reviewed by Matthew W. Manry, Biblical Studies, Belhaven University C. Stephen Evans is University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Baylor University. He has written books on various topics in philosophy of religion and in Christian apologetics. In his latest book, Why Christian Faith Still Makes Sense, Evans lays out a well-reasoned defense of the…

Reviewed by Chan Woong Shin, Social Sciences, Indiana Wesleyan University Ani Sarkissian’s new book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on religion and politics in general and religious freedom and repression in particular. As Sarkissian argues, existing works have mostly focused on either the place of religion in democratic regimes or more severe…

Reviewed by Dale Goldsmith, Retired as Vice President for Academic Affairs, Oklahoma Panhandle State University Usually I see ethical issues such as abortion and war “discussed” on a crowded street by shouting, even pushing, placard-bearing advocates of “yes” or “no” with little accompanying detailed argument. The Ethics of Death offers a much quieter, sometimes casual—even…

Reviewed by Darren Patrick Guerra, Political Science, Biola University Can evangelicals model and sustain respectful political conversation? Harold Heie, Senior Fellow at the Center for Faith and Inquiry at Gordon College thinks they can, and he is committed not just to writing about it but to demonstrating it as well. This book grew out of…

Reviewed by Marion H. Larson, English, Bethel University Joy Davidman is best known today as the wife of C. S. Lewis, her untimely death poignantly portrayed in the play and subsequent film Shadowlands. Many also know of her through the touching reflections on death and the problem of pain that Lewis penned in A Grief…

Reviewed by P. C. Kemeny, Biblical and Religious Studies, Grove City College Christian Smith, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame, is a prolific scholar. His works span a wide range of topics, including liberation theology…

Reviewed by Garrett Trott, Librarian, Corban University Abraham Kuyper’s understanding of life was flavored by the sovereignty of God. A statement he made at the inaugural convocation of the Free University summarizes it well: “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which Christ, who alone is sovereign,…