Reading and Readers

Can prayer and theology mix? Isn't theology for the smart people and prayer for the spiritual people? How wrong you are.
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review "Prayers for Knowing God" by Tony Evans. 190 pages, published by Harvest House, on February 2021. It's available in Amazon Kindle for USD6.64 but it's free from Faithlife for August, as part of their Free Book of the Month programme.
Structure
By way of introducing this book, let me describe how it's organised. After the introduction, there are 54 chapters. Each chapter is a prayer.
At the end of the book, we have Appendix A and Appendix B. Appendix A is titled "The Urban Alternative" which describes Tony Evans list of ministry.
Appendix B is titled "The Doctrine of God". At the top of this appendix in brackets it says, "Note: First appeared in the Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Leadership Manual, 2001). This appendix is a study outline. The main headings are:

1. The Knowledge of God
2. The Revelation of God
3. The Triunity of God
4. The Character of God

And tucked within these headings you will read about the importance of knowing God, arguments for God's existence, the Trinity, how they are distinct and how they are united and we have a 17 point list of the characters of God with familiar ones like omnipresence, omnipotence together with less familiar ones like self-existence and immutability.
What I am about to say next is a completely fictional story. I made it up just to explain this book we are reviewing today.
Once upon a time, the Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship men were tidying up after an invigorating Bible study. John, one of the members, says to Ps. Tony Evans, "Pastor, this is amazing stuff! I never knew all these things about God's transcendence, his wisdom, his self-existence, man, it's so good. I just wish there was something I could do with all this knowledge."
Ps. Evans then says, "Well, you could pray with it." "You must be joking, Pastor. No, you are not joking. How do I pray with these things? I pray with the ACTS structure: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. I don't know how to pray with the Doctrine of God."
"No, John, you pray with ACTS on the Doctrine of God. I adore you God for you are holy. I confess I am not holy. I give thanks that you bring me near to your holy throne. I ask that you make me holy like you."
"Oh right, sure... you can do that for the holiness of God. But I bet you can't pray like that for all of God's attributes here, can you?"
And that's how this book came to be. Tony Evans took the bet or he saw it as a heavenly mission or a publisher's challenge and wrote an entire book where every chapter is a prayer using the ACTS formula on each attribute of God. That is the origin of the book... in my imagination.
Back in the real world, Evans wrote that many of the prayers in this were based on Appendix B, which was drafted many decades ago. But who knows, perhaps it was an encounter as a I described that somehow over time lead to this book.
Chapter 1 is titled "Knowing God Through His Holiness", Chapter 2 is titled, "Knowing God Through His Separation From Sinfulness", and on it goes. The last chapter, chapter 54 is "Knowing God Through His Overarching Power".
Let me pick an attribute of God that some may have problem praying with. Chapter 32, "Knowing God Through His Immutability".
I'll read the entire chapter. It's not too long. And if you listen attentively, you will know what to expect from the entire book.
The chapter begins with a quote from Malachi 3:6, "I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed."
There are four sub-headings in every chapter: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. Under Adoration:
Father, so much has changed and continues to change in our world. What seems like normal morphs into a new normal before our eyes. What we’re told one day is contradicted the next, or so it seems. Yet one thing remains the same: Despite all the changes we go through on earth and with one another, You remain unchanged. Your immutability means You are a God who changes not. I praise You and worship You for Your changelessness in the ever-changing continuum we call life. Let people see Your stable ways, Lord, so we can all praise You and seek Your security in all that we do. Let us as a church body worship You more fully and frequently for the constancy that is truly who You are.
Under Confession:
Lord, I confess that change can frighten me. Too many changes carried out too quickly can leave me feeling anxiety and dread. When I don’t know what to expect or what lurks around the next corner, my emotions sometimes get the best of me. I confess that I haven’t come to know Your immutability as deeply and intimately as I should. Forgive me for looking at my circumstances or the circumstances of our world more than I look at You. In You I will find peace, security, strength, and assurance. Your immutability is the blessed assurance my soul seeks.
Under Thanksgiving:
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your dependability. Thank You for always being stable. Thank You that, even though society sometimes looks as if it’s on the precipice of crumbling before our very eyes, You are calm, assured, and unchanging. Nothing catches You off guard. I consider that pandemics can spread around the globe, but You are not taken by surprise. You know what will happen, and You are ever-present to provide guidance and wisdom as we navigate the onset of such times. Thank You for Your loving care, which is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Under Supplication:
Holy God, I want to be more solidly like You in what I feel and in my actions. I don’t want to allow my emotions to dictate my choices. I want Your Word to take root so deeply within me that I, too, am stable and unchanging despite what life puts on my plate. I ask for this intimacy, which will produce a greater inner peace and stability for me. I ask to know You more and to love You more completely. Help me understand the importance of understanding that my identity comes tied to You and the assuring love You give. When I do, then I can rest in Your unchanging love, peace, and provision. In the incomparable name of Jesus Christ, I pray this prayer in honor of Your unchanging nature. Amen.
In terms of organisation, it's a simple book that delivers what it says on the title, "Prayers for Knowing God".
Now that you know what the book is about, here are my thoughts. I'll tell you two things I like and one thing I don't like about this book.
Two Things I Like
First, I like how it bridges theology to Christian living. From the Knowledge of God to Daily Prayer.
You can pray using a structure you are already familiar with: ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication (Supplication is Petition or Asking God for things). We teach new believers this formula. It is practised by saints young and old. And while it may seem like an unlikely match: ACTS is a simple practical structure and the Doctrine of God has its complex theoretical categories, this book shows that both can come together.
And come together, nicely, without fuss. Evans shows that you can pray through God's Grace, God's Plurality, God's Patience using simple everyday language. You don't need to know the details of God's Omniscience, to adore, confess, give thanks and petition his favour.
The Doctrine of God is not the hallowed ground of seminarians, it is an open green field, a garden of delights, beckoning everyone to come in. Even the youngest of children can pray through the Doctrine of God.
So that's the first reason why I like this book: it's clear on it's purpose and it delivers on it. The second reason is on what he covers in the content.
Because he is starting from the Doctrine of God, the prayers are heavenward. It's difficult to be me-centred with these prayers, because when your mind is purely on who God is, the things you pray for, the things you want, are going to be: "God, I want to be like you" or "God, I want to know more of you".
Just a quick disclaimer, I'm not saying it's wrong to pray for your own needs. It's okay to pray for finances, for money to pay the bills and so on. We can pray, "God, I want to be happy" and also pray, "God, I want to be holy like you are."
Also in this book is to be Trinitarian in our prayer. Chapter 38 is Knowing God Through the Holy Spirit. Chapter 43 is Knowing God Through Knowing His Son, Jesus Christ. Chapter 47, 48 and 49 is Knowing God through His Plurality, Distinctions and Oneness. These are categories of prayer normally not given much thought on. So it's nice to see how one can pray through God's lesser known, less appreciated attributes which are no less important.
Strangely, the attributes of God in the chapters are not complete, not complete by Evans' own measure. In Appendix B, Section 4, he lists 17 characters of God. Some in the list don't make the book. Transcendence is missing. Glory of God is curiously missing. I was so surprised by this that I even did a keyword search and the phrase does not appear in any of the prayers.
He lists God's Wrath in Appendix B, but we don't have a chapter titled, "Knowing God Through His Wrath". Although wrath is mentioned in the chapter on Mercy, Patience and Overarching Power.
These are not serious omissions because it's kind of covered within the chapters. I'm just surprised to see these important attributes missing and other attributes have multiple chapters. As I'll show you next.
One Thing I Don't Like
Let's move on to talk about the Big Big Reason I don't like the book.
The book is too long.
As I said, the book delivers on what it promises. The thing is what it promises can be delivered in a much shorter book. You don't need 54 chapters to show how we can pray ACTS through the Doctrine of God. Evans has done such a great job showing how simple it is to do it, that there really isn't any need to have so many examples.
Especially when the examples overlap. Chapter 1: Holiness. Chapter 2: Separation from Sinfulness. Chapter 7: His Desire for My Personal Holiness. You could lump those chapters together and no one would be the wiser.
Maybe he is doing that because he wants to go deep into each aspect of God? Listen to what Evans says in his introduction:
Each one [prayer] is directed toward one of 55 of His attributes. But they are also crafted to walk you through several of His characteristics simultaneously. For example, the prayer that focuses on God’s graciousness includes praise for His mercy. And the prayer directed toward God’s attribute of justice includes recognition of His great faithfulness.
The prayers don't go deep. They don't really connect and build up towards some pay off. They are independent broad prayers with the same four subsections. The prayer points overlap. When what you say sounds the same from one chapter to the next, it comes across as repetitive. That's the problem I struggled with when I was reading this book.
So I decided to turn the boring read into a bit of a game. When I turn to a new chapter, I avoid reading the chapter title. Instead I would guess what is the title. I had a sneaking suspicion that I would not be able to tell one chapter from another chapter.
Well, I was wrong. His writing is direct, he tells you, this chapter is about God's Truth or God's Justice or God's Ability to Become Wearied. Even though he mentions other qualities of God in that prayer, it's still obvious which one is the anchor.
I admit my complaints about the book is because I am coming to it as a book to be read and not as a prayer-guide to pray with. Is it too much to expect to have a prayer book that reads well?
Listen to this prayer from another book:
Lord, keep me from yielding to sin, whatever I suffer. How could I do such wickedness? How could I neglect this duty and sin against you, God? For your sake, Lord, let me not sin against you. You are good. You are kind. You are gracious. You are holy. Will I sin or rebel? For your sake, Lord, I will not do it. I will not for my own sake. In sinning against God, I sin against my own soul. Sin and death, sin and hell are linked together. Even if it were not so, Lord, I will not sin against you. You are good in yourself and good to me. You are my God and my Father.
There is more but I will stop here. That prayer is from "Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans" edited by Robert Elmer. It's a "collection of carefully selected prayers from leading Puritans".
To me, the Evans book is like a paint-by-numbers book. I don't mean that as an insult. A paint-by-numbers book directs people through a formula to create a piece of art. And if Evans can get you to pray, he has achieved his goal. So that's great.
The Puritan prayer book, on the other hand, this collection of carefully selected prayers, is not paint-by-numbers. It's a gallery showcase of masterpieces. Reading it, you sense the soul in anguish, in delight, in awe, and your soul comes alongside the prayer.
I don't like the book because it's poor reading. Good for praying, maybe. Reading, no.
And that made me reflect.
I don't like the Evans book and I like the Puritan one. Is it because I am a snob? But I tell people that when you pray, you should not put on an act. Pray as you speak. Don't put on another's voice.
Yet, at the same time, I also say that when you pray, reach deep into your heart. Go deep into your knowledge of God, go deep into the desires of your heart, and bring what you find there out into prayer. That's the part I don't see in the Evans book, it just reads like a template for everybody to pray with (which is it's aim) and not like a personal prayer of someone in deep communion with God. To be fair to Evans, he did welcome you to inject your own words into your prayers.
Rather than force a person to make a choice between the two books, I suppose the solution is really simple. Your shelf is big enough for more than one book on prayer. You can learn how to pray ACTS through the Doctrine of God from Tony Evans. You can also learn how to pray deep soul-wrenching prayers from the Puritans or the like.
For myself, I think Evans could have taken that list in Appendix B, expand on each point, then give 2, 3, 5 examples of praying through ACTS. Instead of readers praying Evans' prayers, they would reflect on each attribute and pray from there. You will get a much shorter book, maybe around 20 pages, but it would, in my mind, pack the same punch.
But others may appreciate how they can systematically pray through God's attributes, one chapter at a time. If you are that person, then this book is for you. And along with Tony Evans, I would say, if this book gets you to pray and know God at a deeper level, that can only be a good thing.
This is a Reading and Readers review of "Prayers for Knowing God" by Tony Evans. 190 pages, published by Harvest House, on February 2021. It's available in Amazon Kindle for USD6.64 but it's free from Faithlife for free for August, as part of their Free Book of the Month programme.
The next book I review is a 'handsome' piece of work. You will get an answer to the question, "Why God?" "Man, now I know". So subscribe to Reading and Readers. And get more book reviews and thoughtful reflections. Until next time, take care.
Book List

• "Prayers for Knowing God" by Tony Evans. Amazon. Faithlife.
• "Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans" edited by Robert Elmer. Amazon. Faithlife.

Culture, culture, everywhere. And not a drop of wisdom to drink. We spend, rightly spend, time and effort to read and interpret the Bible. And the Bible tells us that Jesus lived as a Jew in Roman-Greco times. And we look up from our Bibles and we wonder, "How should we live in our times?"
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review "Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends", a collection of essays edited by Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Charles A. Anderson and Michael J. Sleasman. 288 pages, published by Baker Academic on March 2007. Available via Amazon Kindle for USD19.99 but if you are listening to this in August 2022, today's book is the Logos Free Book of the Month.
If you missed the free deal, not because you didn't know Logos gives free books every month (you do) but because you didn't expect to like today's book (I didn't), then subscribe to Reading and Readers to not miss out on unexpected gems.
Yet Another Everyday Theology Book
I came to this book with little enthusiasm. The book cover is bland and boring. If I was not 'assigned' to read this book, I would not read it much less spend money on it. I predicted that a book titled, "Everyday Theology", would be another worthy attempt to convince the general audience on the importance of theology in Christian living. I am not just convinced, I am a vocal activist as this podcast can attest.
Just goes to show that one shouldn't judge a book by it's cover or title. We need to read the subtitle. It's "How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends". Whenever you are figuring out what the ending in a movie means, you are reading a cultural text. Whenever you are figuring out what to wear, you are interpreting trends. Figure out how what you watch and wear connect to your faith and you have a fair idea what this book is about. This book offers Christian interpretations of architecture, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, fantasy funerals and more.
A more academic, but less marketable, title would be, "Cultural Hermeneutics: An Introduction with Case Studies". Biblical Hermeneutics, I know but Cultural Hermeneutics, I don't. Biblical Hermeneutics is a core subject in any seminary. It's about interpreting the Bible. Cultural Hermeneutics is about interpreting the culture.
And until this book came along, I didn't know there was a gap in my mental toolbox that Cultural Hermeneutics fills.
Journey to Culture Truth
Many years ago, in my more innocent age, a friend asked whether I had listened to Eminem's new song. I thought to myself, "I didn't know M&Ms do music. I thought they only made chocolate." Soon, I figured out he was referring to Eminem, a notorious rapper.
Fast forward to today, and as a Christian, as a father, what do I do with Eminem and his angry, sometimes violent, lyrics? Is it wrong to listen? And if it is, where do you draw the line?; because most, if not all, the music we hear outside of church has no God, no Jesus, in them. If everything we do must glorify God, then is it more Christian to put aside Eminem and listen to Taylor Swift? Why?
Perplexing isn't it? Cultural norms shift so quickly and the Church gives a knee-jerk reaction, appealing more to tradition than a rigorous application of the Bible, and often betraying a lack of understanding of the music, book, film or trend. This is xenophobic, not Christ-centric.
I've been on a spiritual journey to find the truth on culture. Along the way, I have found helpful guides.
I ask, "If God, who is good, is not in non-Christians, then how can they do so much good? They produce great works of art; in architecture, literature and music." Abraham Kuyper gave me an answer in Common Grace.
I ask, "Can I read non-Christian books?" Tony Reinke absolved me of any guilt and I have adapted the reasoning in his book Lit! to movies and music.
I learnt what is a good book from Andrew Peterson in his autobiography, "Adorning the Dark". Among other things, a good book makes this world brighter, not dimmer.
And I see that in the vision crafted and fought for the childrens book series, "The Green Ember" by S.D. Smith. Oh, to be a hedge-trimmer in that world!
My journey to find the truth about culture reached a new milestone with today's book. This book surfaces questions I had but didn't know how to articulate and gives me the tools to read cultural texts. First of all to see television, movies, comic books, video games and the Internet as cultural texts.
While the earlier books were helpful to give a framework and a vision, this book, Everyday Theology, tackles Eminem head on.
Let's open the book.
Structure
The book begins with a Reader's Guide that tells us where this book began (in a Cultural Hermeneutics course Kevin Vanhoozer teaches at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School); what this book is about (how to read culture), how to use this book (which I will explain more later) and whom to thank for this book (the usual suspects, rightly acknowledged and thanked).
Following the Reader's Guide, we have four parts:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Reading Cultural Texts
• Part 3: Interpreting Cultural Trends
• Part 4: Concluding Untheoretical Postscript

And at the end, we have a glossary of methodological terms, information on the ten contributors to this book, and the usual subject index and Scripture index.
With that overview, let's go into the details.
The Method
Part 1 Introduction should be renamed The Method because that is where Vanhoozer is driving the readers towards. He makes the case for cultural hermeneutics. As befitting a Systematic Theologian who has written books like, "Is There Meaning in this Text?", he unpacks Matthew 16:1-3:
The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.”
The signs of the times can refer to the zeitgeist or the spirit of the age. We are living in an age where the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated but awaiting consummation.
If Vanhoozer's opening chapter is difficult, it's because he wishes to ensure readers are on sure footing. That what he is laying out is biblical and possesses academic rigour. Some of us may not care to learn about "locution", "illocution", and "perlocution", some of us do. Bear in mind that Vanhoozer is writing Everyday Theology for the Everyday Christian.
He writes:
Cultural texts project worlds of meaning that invite us in and encourage us to make our home there. The world of a cultural text—say, for example, the world projected by Friends, Survivor, or Desperate Housewives—unfolds a possible way of living together, a possible way of being human. But we can go further. These culturally created worlds present themselves accompanied by the whisper of their creators: “And behold, it is very good.” There’s the rub. Should we accept the invitation?
If you persist to the end, you will be rewarded with: The Method. When I read the phrase, "The Method", my mind went to Hercule Poirot, the fictional detective in Agatha Christie's novel. He often berated Captain Hastings for not using his gray cells and the lack of method in his approach. I like to read mystery novels to 'learn the detective's methods' and look forward to the final reveal. Wouldn't it be super if we could learn it and make our own reveals?
That's what Vanhoozer offers here, the secrets to reading the world: the world behind the text, the world in the text and the world in front of the cultural text. Along the way, you ask questions like:
"Who made this cultural text and why? What does it mean and how does it work? What effect does it have on those who receive, use, or consume it?"
There is more to say but we should move on. We have to move to the other chapters. I stress again that you must complete Vanhoozer's chapter no matter how tempted you may be to skip to Part 2.
Reading Cultural Texts
Part 2: Reading Cultural Texts has some of the best chapter titles I have read this year. Let me read the titles for chapters 2 to 6. We have here:

• The Gospel According to Safeway: The Checkout Line and the Good Life
• Despair and Redemption: A Theological Account of Eminem
• The High Price of Unity: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Between City and Steeple: Looking at Megachurch Architecture. A short note, written by Prekumar D. Williams, noteworthy in this collection of essays as an instructor in theology at Baptist Seminary of South India in Bangalore, India.
• Swords, Sandals and Saviors: Visions of Hope in Ridley Scott's Gladiator. A fairly recent movie when this book was published. Let me remind you that this book was published in 2007. Let me also bring to your attention that the movie "The Gladiator" was released in 2000. Yes, it's been that long, it's been 22 years since you saw Maximus commanding gladiators in the arena.

I had an impossible time choosing a chapter to talk about. Any of these topics could easily take up a whole podcast episode.
From the Eminem chapter, I could jump to today, 15 years after the book, in Christian Hip Hop.
In Shai Linne's 2017 album, "Still Jesus", the last track is titled, "Washer's Warning" and in it we hear Paul Washer saying:
I came here thinking that I would hear hip hop. I came here thinking that I would hear rappers. I heard preaching. I heard preaching. And I heard a respect for the truth, and a desire to communicate it.
Or how about another question that bugs me. In the chapter on architecture, "Between City and Steeple" we read about theaters and malls, steeples, pulpits and communion tables, what I really want to ask the author is: "Hey, you are writing from India Baptist Theological Seminary. I want to know more about that one enticing line in your conclusion: 'Vernacular forms of architecture, ... , have potential to recall a theological heritage and express the identity of a people called to witness in a given culture.' So steeples in Indian churches, yay or nay?" And as I ask this, my mind is thinking about the Haggia Sophia, that great Constantinople Cathedral now a mosque in Istanbul.
There are so many jumping points from this book but for the sake of a coherent book review, let us look into the thesis of one chapter. I made my choice and it is the movie: Gladiator.
Michael Sleasman writes:
Though it may initially surprise the casual viewer, this essay proposes that the theme of visions of hope is a hermeneutical key to the best interpretation of Gladiator. Grappling with hope gives this film deep relevance in a culture where so many are disillusioned by hopes that disappoint; there is a ripeness in the air for a hope that lasts, a hope that is eternal, a hope that does not fail, and Gladiator gropes blindly after such a hope.
Sleasman goes through The Method: In the World-Behind-the-Text, we read the influence of classical epics like Spartacus and Ben Hur, a quick analysis of Ridley's Scotts films, and the historical Marcus Aurelius and his family.
In the World-Of-the-Text, he explains the plot and characters and whether there is an overt Christian theme in the movie. Ridley Scott says no but also says Maximus dies as a martyr and saviour of Rome. While the Christian influence may be ambiguous, it is clear that Maximus is a religious character. His faith sustains him. This topic is explored in depth in the next section.
In the World-In-Front-of-The-Text, Sleasman explores various interpretations. He pointedly says that the privilege of interpretation should be accorded to the director, Ridley Scott, who has said that mortality is the central theme of the movie. But Sleasman refutes:
While Scott may have intended something less than Christian, the expression of a deep orientation toward the future may undercut that intention. If mortality were the cultural existential expressed, the question begs to be asked why meeting his family in the afterlife motivates his actions in this world, as Scott himself argues. In the end, I propose, Scott directs better than he knows.
And Sleasman proceeds to lay out the Christian vision of hope, contrasts it against what is offered in Gladiator and politely insists that Sleasman has a better interpretation of the movie than the director. He writes:
As such, I appeal to the interpretation I believe to be the most comprehensive and yet simplest, as that which resonates with the cultural existentials expressed in this cultural text. Quite possibly, Scott himself may have lacked a full vocabulary of hope to express his own vision and intention, even if this was at a subconscious level.
Quite possibly, Sleasman is a bit full of himself. Film critics. The bane of the director's existence. Let me critic the chapter.
My question is: "Is it correct to insist on your interpretation over and against the creator's interpretation?"
When I say something, I don't appreciate it when someone insists that he knows better than me on what I just said. And we all know how some people can read power politics, gender ideology, conspiracy theories into anything, even the Bible. So are we Christians guilty of reading things into the text when we read the culture?
This is a question Vanhoozer, Sleasman and every contributor in this book takes seriously.
I have come away from that question with thanksgiving. I am thankful that God is Truth, and I don't have to second-guess God's motives or character in what he says. When a man says I love you to a woman, maybe he has other motives. But when God says I love you to you and me, it is the purest and holiest of motives. So knowing God's standards are ever true, never tarnished, I appreciate what the authors of these essays do in bringing God's standards, God's word to bear in these works.
Interpreting Cultural Trends and Others
I finished Part 2, hoping for more. Part 3 gives me more but of a different kind. Now, instead of specific cultural texts, we have broader trends. Chapters 7, 8, 9 and 10, look at busyness, blogs, transhumanism and fantasy funerals. Everybody understands busyness and blogs, although Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok have since surpassed blogs in popularity and notoriety. Transhumanism is about being more than human, it is mankind's deliberate attempt to create the X-men. Fantasy funerals is a weird one because how is this a trend? I don't recognise it as anything other than a fetish subculture phenomenon. Maybe when this essay was written fantasy funerals were taking off, and all I say is thankfully it didn't.
Part 4 has only one chapter. Chapter 11: Putting It into Practice: Weddings for Everyday Theologians. He brings together everything we read, the Method and the case studies, and shows us how it applies to weddings. And in that chapter, the book ends.
I sometimes complain that books end too abruptly. Especially books which are a collection of essays. This is not one of those books. It ends well by bringing to mind Eminem, Gladiator, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, what we have learnt and what we can do as cultural agents. We end the book with a sense of closure. And I think we have the editors to thank.
Editors Rock!
Editors are the silent heroes of the publishing world. They take lumps of clay and turn it into a Michelangelo masterpiece. Or maybe it's the other way around.
Anyways, I don't normally observe the editors work but in this book I am glad to commend the editors.
Before each chapter, the editors give a editorial introduction. For example, for chapter 4 on UN Declaration of Human Rights, the editorial introduction begins with:
With this essay we come to what at first appears to be a very different kind of cultural text than the music of Eminem.
The short editorial introductions link the chapters together, highlighting the differences and commonalities from one chapter to the next. Helps readers know what to look for.
Then there are the little box inserts that serve as editorial comments. They have titles like "Behind the Text", "For the Toolkit", "Further Reflections" and "Book Link".
"Behind the Text" gives a Behind the Scenes look at the essay. For the Gladiator chapter, it spotlights how Michael Sleasman, the writer of that chapter, surveys various interpretations, assesses them, proposes his own interpretation with evidence.
In another box insert, "For the Toolkit", the editor critiques the interpretative technique applied and in "Further Reflection", the editor offers further thoughts on the subject.
The editorial comment I most look forward to is the "Book Link". It is a 300-word-or-so essay by Vanhoozer where he reviews books. For example, on the architecture chapter, he recommends Heaven in Stone and Glass: Experiencing the Spirituality of the Great Cathedrals by Robert Barron and Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth by Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson. And Vanhoozer's recommendation are a handy supplement to the further readings suggested by the essayist.
In the beginning of this episode, I lamented the lack of resources to deal with specific issues of culture. Now, at the end of each chapter, I am spoilt for choice!
With so many editorial comments, it sometimes feels like a teacher giving students helpful pointers their work. Wait. That's exactly what this book is. It's a collection of essays from Professor Vanhoozer's Cultural Hermeneutics class. From the Reader's Guide:
My co-editors and I have selected a representative sampling from the one hundred and forty-five term papers written over the past five years.
I don't know how heavily the chapters were edited from their original submission but I must commend the final product.
It's well organised, the chapters flow seamlessly, the editorial inserts can be intrusive but I don't think so and the book ends with much appreciated closure. It reads so well, as if it was guided by a single mind through multiple hands.
Conclusion
Everyday Theology is for the everyday Christian. Movies, music, politics, social media, weddings and funerals. No shallow analysis on them with the Gospel message tacked on in the end. The first chapter written by the Professor might be a bit hard reading, but the remaining chapters, the best term papers selected for the best fit, were written by individuals who have yet to develop the fine art of academic obfuscation.
One criticism is the book is a bit dated: 2007. While we can see Tom Cruise reprise Maverick, we won't be seeing Russell Crowe reprise Maximus. Won't it be sweet to see The Method applied to Top Gun? And track what has changed from 1986 to 2022 from a Christian worldview. Don't we want more Cultural Hermeneutics?
I googled Cultural Hermeneutics and there are no interesting hits. It's not that people are not analysing culture from a Christian Worldview. We have tonnes of blogs, YouTube videos, podcasts speaking for culture, against culture. The problem is we don't a critical mass to work around unlike in apologetics or soteriology or eschatology, where discussions come out of those categories. Discussions on music are labeled music, not cultural hermeneutics which makes it harder to learn the skills of reading culture.
When I first started this podcast, there was another podcast idea I was toying with, which was to analyse entertainment from a Christian worldview. Surely, I'm not the only one who sees in Spiderman's "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility" an echo of the Christian's "We are Blessed to be a Blessing".
Today's book unexpectedly showed me in book form, what I only imagined could be possible in a podcast. Do you think it's a great podcast idea? If you know anything like it, tell me. If you like the idea enough to do it, tell me and I'll be happy to be your first subscriber.
Until told otherwise, I think today's book is a most impressive and unique contribution to cultural discussions. A great jumping-off point to much that is happening around us. It keeps us on our toes to see culture as more complex, and less simplistic as so many suppose. And thus, more opportunities for Christians to be a better reader of culture.
This is a Reading and Reader's review of "Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends", edited by Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Charles A. Anderson and Michael J. Sleasman. 288 pages, published by Baker Academic on March 2007. Available via Amazon Kindle for USD19.99 and free in Logos for August and only August.
I've given so many good reviews lately that you might think I rate every book highly. I try to see the best in every book. But the next book I review is not a book I particularly enjoy. "Pray tell, what is that book?", you say. Well, subscribe to Reading and Readers and don't miss out on any great deals and book reviews. This podcast saves you time and money. Have a good one. Thanks for listening.
Book List

• "Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends", edited by Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Charles A. Anderson and Michael J. Sleasman. Amazon. Logos.
• "Common Grace" by Abraham Kuyper. Amazon. Logos.
• "Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading" by Tony Reinke. Amazon. Logos.
• "Wingfeather Saga" by Andrew Peterson. Amazon. Reading and Readers Review.
• "The Green Ember Series" by S.D. Smith. Amazon. Reading and Readers Review.

A preacher walks into a church. A church member asks him, "Can you please preach on worship." The preacher says, "Sure. I've got a great sermon on John 4:24, 'Worship in Spirit and in Truth'.". The church member says, "No, that wouldn't do. The last three preachers preached on that same verse. Do you have something else?" The preacher thought for a while and said, "Nope. I've got nothing." With today's book, you will know how other books in the Bible, verses other than John 4:24, speak on worship.
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review Biblical Worship: Theology for God's Glory, edited by Benjamin Forrest, Walter C. Kaiser Jr., and Vernon M. Whaley. 544 pages, published by Kregel Academic in February 2021. Take note, this is a very new book. The list price is USD42.99, available in Amazon Kindle for USD29.92, and available in Logos for July and only July for USD9.99. A very new book for a very low price. I don't think you will ever get this book at a cheaper price.
And yes, I know July ends in a few days but in the last episode, episode 47, I did call attention to this deal. If you missed the deal and don't want to miss another one, subscribe to Reading and Readers, and get book reviews on free or nearly free books.
Popular vs Academic
Today's book, Biblical Worship, is a Logos Book, which to some, is a signal that today's book is not a book for you. Because the Logos Books are academic, scholarly, technical books, targeting pastors, academics and serious Bible students. But wait... today's book is about worship. If it's archaeology, nobody says anything, few know, few care. Worship, everybody has an opinion.
Now, there are many good worship books written for a popular audience. Let me give you a few: "Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God's People", a 9Marks book, written by Mark Merker. Only 176 pages.
Another one by Keith and Kristyn Getty, the worship powerhouse couple, "Sing!: How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family and Church". This is also only 176 pages.
If you would prefer a shorter book, you can read "The Reset: Returning to the Heart of Worship and a Life of Undivided Devotion" by Jeremy Riddle. I got to know of this book from the "Redman & Riddle" podcast hosted by Matt Redman and Jeremy Riddle. It's like sitting in a lounge over coffee with two accomplished worship leaders tackling worship challenges with titles like: Encounter vs Entertainment or Comfort vs Confrontation or Holiness vs Helpfulness.
The point I'm making is there are tonnes and tonnes of great resources on worship so why would anyone want to read a 544 page book by boring old scholars? In fact, if you read the three books I just suggested, the total page count of those three books is still less than this one book.
Let me explain the difference between books written for a popular audience and books written for a more academic audience.
Books for popular audience like the 9Marks book or the Gettys book or the Riddle book, they are written with one eye on the Bible and one eye on how the church or the family or the individual should worship.
On the other hand, for today's book, Biblical Worship or other academic books on worship, what the writers do is they take the Bible, they tear some pages and they chew on these pages. After some years of sucking the ink off those pages, they then write about what they have tasted and it is good!
It's not that one type of book is better than the other, different methods, different audience, but I am pushing you to go beyond your comfort zone to read titles that you normally would not.
Systematic Theology vs Biblical Theology
Speaking of types, today's book is a theology book. There are two ways to go about theology: Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology. The label Biblical Theology is a bit confusing because it doesn't mean that it's more biblical than Systematic, it just means its focus is on the books themselves. That doesn't seem to explain much, so I will give an illustration because I think its important you know the difference between Systematic and Biblical Theology for you to fully appreciate what you get in today's book.
Imagine, if you will, in front of you there are 66 packs of M&Ms; those brightly coloured button-sized chocolates.
The Systematic Theologian would tear open all 66 packs and put all the red M&Ms in one pile, all the blue M&Ms in one pile and so on. Then he would study the redness of the reds, the blueness of the blues and so on. Eventually, he will tell you what is the essence of redness. This is the Systematic Theologian's training, to open up 66 books of the Bible to tell you what is the holiness of God, what is sin, what is salvation and so on. This is how most Christians understand theology.
Now, we come to the other approach: Biblical Theology. If you give 66 packs of M&Ms to him, he opens them but he doesn't put all the red M&Ms in one pile. He takes the pack, picks out the red M&Ms, and places them next to the original wrapper with all the other colours nearby. When you ask him what is the essence of redness, he picks up the red M&M in front of you and tells you what it means to be red while holding the wrapper and the other colours in his other hand. One way of doing Biblical Theology is to tell you the holiness of God in Genesis, Exodus and so on and perhaps relating the holiness of God to other attributes of God, like love or justice.
Which is better: Systematic or Biblical? That's not a good question because we need both. Biblical Theology is helpful when we want to see how a concept or idea is presented differently from one book to the next. But we still need to do some Systematic Theology to unify the elements, otherwise we risk pitting the Apostle Paul against the Apostle James, we do that when we only see the differences and not what they share in common.
I needed to explain Biblical Theology because that is the big selling point of today's book. It's a Biblical Theology of worship.
Structure
Consider the structure of the book: The book is divided into two main parts, Worship in the Old Testament and Worship in the New Testament. There are 21 chapters for the Old Testament and 13 chapters for the New Testament.
"Woah... Woah there Terence. Why are we making life so difficult? Why don't we just do a word search on the word 'worship', study those verses and we will know what the Bible says about worship."
That doesn't work because:

1. You don't know what you are missing. For example, in the Old Testament, sacrifices are a vivid, visual and fragrant, element of worship. That means when we go into the New Testament, when Paul says living sacrifice, he is using worship language. When he says he is being poured out like a drink offering, that is also worship without using the word worship.
2. What you get is not what you are looking for. For example, when the magi worshipped baby Jesus, they didn't worship him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The magi's worship is different from the Christian worship today. Thus the use of the worship there is not helpful to formulate what is Christian worship.

That's why it is helpful to study what each book in the Bible teaches about worship. Hence, why in today's book, we have 34 chapters from 36 contributors. The contributors are professors of the Old Testament or professors of the New Testament. They have written journals and commentaries. There are some recognisable names in the list. These are people who spend a life time chewing on their favourite pages of the Bible.
It's easy to see which chapters refer to which books because the chapters are subtitled worship in Joshua, worship in Judges and so on.
Some chapters are groupings of books. One chapter that looks at worship in the united monarchy, another chapter looks at worship in the divided kingdom. One chapter is on the pre-exilic minor prophets. Another chapter is on the post-exilic minor prophets.
But there is one Bible book that gets special treatment. Instead of sharing a chapter with others, it gets six chapters all to itself. Star treatment.
Guess which book would that be? Hint: This is a book on worship. Another hint: Which Bible book has the most chapters. 150 chapters.
And the answer, of course, is the Psalms.
In the New Testament section, we see groupings, the synoptic gospels is one chapter, pastoral epistles is one, prison epistles is another. The last chapter has a wonderfully anticipatory title: Hallelujah, what a saviour! Worship in the Apocalypse. The whole book ends with a short epilogue from the editors followed by a Scripture index.
From the Table of Contents, I can see that it nearly covers the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. Nearly covers but not completely. That's because there are some books missing: Proverbs, Job, James and most disappointing of all, Daniel. We don't just miss Daniel and his friends and their faith in God. We also miss out on a deeper look at King Nebuchadnezzar's worship of God. And how the nations will worship God in the last days. It's a big gap in an otherwise comprehensive set of essays.
Let's look at one chapter from the Old Testament and one chapter from the New.
Worship in the Old Testament
From the Old Testament, I have picked the chapter on Joshua, which is chapter 5 and is titled, "Trust and Obedience as Worship to Yahweh: Worship in the Book of Joshua" by J. Michael Thigpen.
The editors have instructed every writer to divide their work into three sections: context, theology and significance.
So for context, Thigpen begins by telling us how he defines worship and how definition connects with the whole theme of Joshua. The definition is important because we would other wise not connect trust and obedience to worship. Then he gives us a summary background of Joshua, which is helpful to establish the context.
Then moving to the next section, the theology of worship, he begins by unpacking Joshua 1:1-9 where God prepares Joshua to be a leader. Thigpen writes:
Joshua saw the miracles in the wilderness. He was nearby when Moses spoke with God in the tent of meeting. He had been obedient and called for the people to trust and obey at Kadesh-Barnea (Num. 13–14). Joshua had heard the law given at Mount Sinai, and he had personally affirmed submission to it. He had heard Moses’s exposition of the law just before his death. He had all the experience he needed to believe God would keep his promises, to prompt him to be courageous, to be obedient, and to spend a lifetime meditating on God’s great acts. But God never once mentions Joshua’s experiences or memories. Instead, God points him to the Scriptures that existed at his time—the book of the law of Moses. This sets the tone for the rest of Joshua, emphasizing that the word of God, the Scriptures, are the bedrock of all worship.
I'll tell you the significance of this theological insight to me.
Every Christian knows that our worship is built on the Word. But what about personal testimonies? Is it wrong? That is not the correct question. The question is where is the place of personal testimonies?
And we see here, that Joshua could have relied on personal testimonies, God could have asked Joshua to remember what he had seen. But instead, God emphasises Scripture, "This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth". God emphasises Scripture without dismissing Joshua's experience.
Thigpen tells us that this is important for two reasons. First is authentication. Israel cannot determine what is true and false from Joshua's personal experience. It can only do that through Scripture.
Second is continuity. What links Israel from one generation to the next is not Joshua's personal experience, it is Scripture.
Both of these reasons are true for us today.
You nod your head but you ask, "How is this related to worship?"
Thigpen makes the case that worship is a matter of life and death. He expounds from Joshua 2 and 7, which contain the story of Rahab and the story of Achan. Thigpen writes:
If the story of Rahab helps to confirm the life-and-death nature of worship, the account of Achan inscribes it in stone. Not worshiping the Lord, not trusting and obeying, is deadly.
Worship is a matter of life and death. You can chew on this statement for a long, long, time. And by chewing on it, reflecting on the stories of Rahab and Achan, you can draw significance in your own life and situation.
Worship in the New Testament
There is more to say in Thigpen's essay but I want to move to something from the New Testament.
My next on is Chapter 31 titled, "Grounded in Allegiance to Christ and Affection for God: Worship in John's Letters" by Andreas Köstenberger.
Unlike Thigpen's essay, Köstenberger writes only two paragraphs for the context. One paragraph to summarise the three letters of John and one paragraph to explain that John doesn't directly talk about worship and there is still something here to learn that applies to worship.
In the next section, he writes under the heading Personal Experience, Köstenberger comments on 1 John 1:1, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched -- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life".
Köstenberger writes:
John’s worship of Jesus—the Word of life—is grounded in personal experience. John had encountered the Word that had become flesh in Jesus—the life-giving Word—and had come to embrace him as the God-sent Messiah and God-given atonement for the sins of the world and placed his faith in him. This personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in turn, became the ground of fellowship with others and of the message John proclaimed (vv. 2–3). Thus, properly understood, worship — defined as recognizing the true worth of God’s gift in Jesus and a believing response to it — is at the root of Christian fellowship and proclamation.
From personal experience, Köstenberger goes on to elaborate on propitiation, love, spiritual warfare, confession, love revisited and faith.
Then he concludes the essay by summarising the theology of worship and tying it with the significance of it for biblical worship in two paragraphs. You will note that a big chunk of this essay is in the middle section, the theology of worship, which I will talk about later.
I picked Köstenberger's essay as an interesting contrast with Thigpen's essay. Thigpen says, "God never once mentions Joshua’s experiences or memories." On the other hand, Köstenberger says, "John's worship of Jesus is grounded on personal experience."
What each writes on worship for their assigned books is entirely consistent. It's when we put the essays side by side that we can see tension. Is it because Thigpen and Köstenberger are in conflict? Or, more worryingly, is it because Joshua and John are in conflict? This kind of thing happens in Biblical Theology.
That is not to say that Systematic Theology guarantees no conflicts but Systematic Theology comes with a mindset to harmonise all the data, its danger is it might interpret the data apart from where the data came from.
Another contrast between Thigpen and Köstenberger's essay is how they portion out their words for the three sections. The editors instructed contributors to organise their essays in three sections but the writers were free to write as much or as little in those sections.
Some writers wrote a lot for significance and some like Köstenberger wrote very little. As I read this book from cover to cover, it was a jerky experience. It's like watching a movie with a long draggy ending, then in the next movie, the ending just suddenly happened. You are left wondering, "Is that it? Is that how it ends? Oh."
Who is This Book Perfect For
The target audience for this book is clearly the preacher, pastor or serious Bible student. If you are going to write a paper on worship, preach on worship or teach on worship, then this is a helpful book. Recent scholarship, reliable scholars, every chapter has its own bibliography which is a source of other leads.
But I want to talk to the everyday reader who I think can benefit from a little stretching of the reading muscles. Who would normally not reach for an academic book because that's not your thing.
We all know our worship is ultimately based on the Bible. We may watch YouTube, listen to podcasts, read books, blogs and tweets but ultimately we know we get our understanding of worship from the Bible. The problem is very few of us would read the Bible from cover to cover to study worship. That's why we read the 100, 200 page books because someone else did the hard work.
What I'm saying here is instead of reading that, which is okay, it is good, why don't you try going nearer to the Bible. Why don't you read an essay on what is worship in Joshua? What is worship in the Letters of John? Get a more solid grasp of the source material.
Reading this book, or any Biblical Theology book, will help you be a better Bible reader, a better Bible thinker. You will be more familiar with the themes and outlines of the books of the Bible. You will see how the writer takes a verse and walks you to the conclusion, so that next time you can take a verse and make your own biblical conclusions. Your understanding of worship will be more than Jesus said we are to worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), you can see worship in every book of the Bible. And isn't that a worthy goal? If everybody did this, would we have worship wars?
This is not to say that this book is the definitive word on worship and everything here you should accept without consideration.
There are statements in the book that I am not fully behind. For example, in one essay it says that the Jerusalem walls in Nehemiah was purely for consecration not for defence. That's my first time hearing it so I need to study it a bit more before I get behind it.
In another essay, it says that priests and Levites, their roles are fulfilled by worship pastors today. Once, I would have just accepted that as true. Now I think you need to back it up a bit more and with more nuance. The way I understand it, you can't say worship leaders are priests because we are all priests. You have to explain how does the priesthood of all believers work in that scheme.
But overall, many of these statements are not the main thrust of the essay, so accordingly, I set them aside. These statements do not derail the main points of the essay, or the approach, the Biblical Theological approach the writers take, that we can learn.
Other Books
And if you like the Biblical Theology on Worship approach, what other books can you consider? There are two books here that were cited so often that the editors acknowledged them in their introduction.
"For the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship" by Daniel I. Block. 432 pages published by Baker Academic in September 2016.
and
"Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation" by Allen P. Ross. 592 pages published by Kregel Academic in November 2006.
If you like the idea of Biblical Theology but on other topics, you will be glad to know that today's book is part of a series called, "Biblical Theology for the Church". There are only two books in the series for now, the other topic is on Biblical Leadership. So there is more goodness to come.
There is another series of Biblical Theology that I thoroughly enjoy, which is the NSBT, New Studies in Biblical Theology. It's a wonderful series and quite a few of NSBT books were quoted in today's book. There are 53 books in this series and counting, with titles on race, prayer, redemption, covenant, death and the afterlife, and many more. I've read 7 of them and they are just splendid.
Conclusion
Today's book, "Biblical Worship" is available for the very, very low price of USD9.99 in Logos. Just go to the Free Book of the Month link, it's not the free book of the month, just scroll down pass the many good deals. I honestly don't see how you can get this book at an even lower price.
And even if you missed Logos' offer, I hope you got something out of today's book review that might encourage you to try a Biblical Theology book, if you have never tried one before. Or get away from the online chatter and just draw nearer to the Bible to know what the Bible says about worship.
This is a Reading and Reader's review of Biblical Worship: Theology for God's Glory, edited by Benjamin Forrest, Walter C. Kaiser Jr., and Vernon M. Whaley.
Today's episode is a special episode because 1) it's the first time I release four book reviews in a month, whew! It's tiring! And 2) I'm releasing this out of the normal schedule because I want to get it out before the month, and the deal, ends. If you don't want to miss book reviews on free books, or on good books, then subscribe to Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Tell all your friends and they will thank you for it. I am going to take a well deserved rest, I'll see you in two weeks. Bye bye.
Book List

• Biblical Worship: Theology for God's Glory, edited by Benjamin Forrest, Walter C. Kaiser Jr., and Vernon M. Whaley. Amazon. Logos.
• "For the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship" by Daniel I. Block. Amazon. Logos.
• "Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation" by Allen P. Ross. Amazon.
• New Studies in Biblical Theology Series. Logos.

300 years ago, many Puritans believed the return of Christ was imminent. After all, the Great Awakening was divine proof that America was the last stop in the global harvest. Alas! America today is not the America the Puritans knew. America today needs vision. Not political vision. Or social vision. But a theological vision! And who better to offer that theological vision to America than America's greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards.
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review God's Grand Design: The Theological Vision of Jonathan Edwards by Sean Michael Lucas. 224 pages, published by Crossway in October 2011.
This book is a free book of the month of July from Faithlife. You can listen to this review and get the book, or you can just get the book first. Why wait? This podcast episode will always be around but that free offer ends.
Do you know what other free offer ends? God's offer for our redemption. That also ends. One day, maybe tomorrow!, there will be a cosmic conclusion to this age. But Christians do not wait and do nothing. For the redemption we receive, we apply.
300 years ago, Jonathan Edwards saw God's redemption working at two levels: the cosmic and the personal. The cosmic story of Creation and the personal story of a Christian. This vision is found in his letters, sermons, books and published and unpublished material.
But we need someone to bring together the scattered pieces to turn it into a coherent picture. Who is that someone?
I give you Sean Michael Lucas, professor of church history at Reformed Theological Seminary. His first published work, back in 2003, was "The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards: American Religion and the Evangelical Tradition", he was one of the editors and a contributing essayist. Writing on Jonathan Edwards is no easy task as Lucas explains:

One of the things that makes the study of Jonathan Edwards overwhelming is the sheer amount of literature. First, of course, is the amount of material written by Edwards himself. While the definitive Yale University Press print edition filled twenty-six volumes, the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University has made available transcriptions of a wide range of materials online that total seventy-three “volumes.” Obviously, any attempt to master Edwards is futile, although we now have a better opportunity and access than ever before to know what he said.
So while he says any attempt to master Edwards is futile, the books he has read, the books he has written, this book we are reviewing now, shows a dedicated attempt to capture Jonathan Edwards theological vision.
Thus, the scenario before you is this: "Lucas has done the heroic attempt to distill Edwards' vision into 200 pages. Will you make an attempt at Jonathan Edwards?"
This is no trivial question. Edwards comes from a time when a book title is a sentence, a sentence is a paragraph and a paragraph is an essay. By our standards, the Puritans' writing is slow, long, convoluted, yet promising to be deep, meditative and soul-enriching. But, you say, this book, God's Grand Design is not written by Jonathan Edwards, it's written by Sean Michael Lucas, so it's easy right?
That's why you need to listen to this review.
Structure
God's Grand Design by Sean Michael Lucas is divided into two parts: Part I is Redemption History and Part II is Redemption Applied. The cosmic and the personal.
In Part I, we have four chapters, namely:

1. God's Grand Design: The Glory of God
2. God's End in Creating the World: Creation, Nature, Fall
3. The Great Errand of Christ: Redemption
4. The Summum and Ultimum: Consumation

From those four chapter headings you can see God's Grand Design. But if you were expecting a brisk walk from Genesis to Revelation, you won't get it. The book assumes you already have an outline of redemptive history, and if you don't, there are better books for that. What Lucas offers here is Jonathan Edwards' thoughts, commentary on redemptive history. That's Part I.
In Part II, Redemption Applied, we have seven chapters, starting with chapter 5: 5. A Divine and Supernatural Light 6. The Nature of True Religion: Holy Affections 7. The Dark Side of Religious Affections: Self-Deception 8. A Love Life: How the Affections Produce Genuine Virtue 9. Means of Grace: The Ministry of the Word 10. Means of Grace: The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper 11. Means of Grace: Prayer, Personal and Global 12. The Christian Life as a Journey to Heaven
The way the book is written, you never doubt that what Lucas writes is what Edwards thought. You know how helpful it is when someone makes a biblical argument, they quote the Bible verse? Lucas does the same. When he tells us this is Edwards theological opinion, he quotes an Edwards sermon or book or letter. Lucas also gets us familiar with other writers, especially in Appendix 1.
Appendix 1 is an annotated bibliography. It's so useful, you should just download this book (which is free for July from Faithlife) just for this appendix. You might never read Lucas' book, but you might read a book he recommends here. For example, he briefly reviews four biographies on Edwards: a big one, a short one, a Harvard one and an Iain Murray one. There are around 20 books in his survey.
I appreciate his candour. On Edwards book, "The Life of Brainerd", Lucas writes:
I am not a big fan of that book either. While Edwards attempted to produce a case study in piety, Brainerd strikes me as overly morose and inward.
Considering that the Life of Brainerd is the book that launched a million missions, I like how Lucas is able to critique his hero. To him, Edwards is a man like us. That's actually the title of his essay, which we can find in Appendix 2.
This essay, "A Man Like Us: Jonathan Edwards and Spiritual Formation for Ministerial Candidates" is like a biographical sketch, but he says it's not. And it's meant to encourage the reader.
So why was it that I finished the book feeling quite discouraged?
Listen to what Lucas wrote in the introduction. After briefing describing the themes for the book:
To chart these themes well means that at times this book may be rough sledding for some. Having taught on Jonathan Edwards to seminarians, I’ve walked with them through his knotty passages and complex thoughts; but these require careful thought, precise statement, and sometimes rereading.
And I was discouraged because there were sections where I didn't get. I know Edwards is saying something profound, Lucas is translating it to my everyday language, but I still couldn't understand it. Even after rereading it a few times!
That is why my early drafts for this book review was unfavourable. I felt like I didn't gain much.
Until I referred to my notes. I use Logos software to read, so it has a list of what I highlighted. As I went through the list, I was surprised by how much I actually gained. Edwards is dense so the little that I gleaned was also dense.
I include this personal reflection early in this review, to be upfront about the difficulty of grasping Edwards' theological vision, as Lucas reminds us it requires careful thought, precise statement, and sometimes rereading. But there is spiritual gold here, and I want to tell you about two gold nuggets. One from each part of the book.
Images of Divine Things
The big idea in Part I is God's glory and God's glory is the fount from which John Piper sweeps his hands wide, gasps at God's self-glorifying majesty, and invites all God's creatures to be in Christ-centred awe. That is the big idea in Part I but I won't talk about that. Instead I want to talk about one Jonathan Edwards notebook that might inspire my own version.
Lucas writes:
Because the end of creation is to reflect God’s glory back to him, it is not surprising that Edwards sought to read creation itself for signs of God’s excellency, beauty, and glory. In order to assist him in these reflections, Edwards put together a notebook that he entitled “Images of Divine Things.” In the notebook, he draws parallels between things he saw in God’s world and truths found in Scripture.
What I read next is an extensive quote of Lucas citing multiple examples from Edwards:
Roses and thorns signify “that all temporal sweets are mixed with bitter,” but even more that “the crown of glory” can come only “by bearing Christ’s cross by a life of mortification, self-denial, and labor, and bearing all things for Christ.” The ways snakes are able to charm birds in order to kill them “are lively representations of the devil’s catching our souls by his temptations.” The silkworm stands as a type of Christ in this way: “when it dies, [it] yields us that of which we make such glorious clothing. Christ became a worm for our sakes, and by his death finished that righteousness with which believers are clothed.” The waves of the ocean during a storm “have a representation of the terrible wrath of God and amazing misery of them that endure it.” Lightning commonly strikes high mountains, spires, trees, and the like; this signifies “that heaven is an enemy to all proud persons, and that especially makes such the marks of his vengeance.”
This is the sort of thing that Charles Spurgeon did. It's also the sort of thing I have learnt to avoid in preaching or teaching because these illustrations too easily become what people focus on and remember. But these illustrations are man-made, you can make anything say anything you want. There is no control. In contrast, if you stick close to the text, you are on sure ground, you are safely constrained by the text. That's what I believe and still believe.
But now, after reading Edwards, I love how he loves God so much that he sees God's truth everywhere. In the flowers, animals, weather and everyday things. This is evidence of a man constantly thinking, meditating and looking for God. And I would like to be such a man.
That's one gold nugget, now to the next.
False Affections and Evangelical Hypocrites
If Part I of this book is familiar to me, it's because of John Piper, who by the way, is the one who introduced Jonathan Edwards to me. Reading Part I, you cannot fail to see Edwards influence on Piper's ministry.
For Part II, chapters 5-8 is familiar to me because I read Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections.
I have recommended this book to young people who see a lack of emotions in some services and a flood of emotions in others and were wondering what to make of it. I suggested Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards because his thorough, meditative and precise study on this issue settled the matter once and for all for me. He wrote it so well, I thought there was nothing else that needed to be said.
At least that's what I thought until I read this book. These four chapters. And he picks up on things that that I didn't notice before. For example, in chapter 7, "The Dark Side of Religious Affections", Lucas begins the chapter by writing:
Though many people are familiar with at least some of Edwards’s argument in Religious Affections, they are probably unaware that there is another, darker side to what he was saying.
Lucas later explains:
And, as already noted, the burden of Religious Affections was to mark out what true revival and conversion look like. However, what must be recognized is that Edwards also sought to identify the characteristics of false religion; or to put it differently, he attempted to show colonial men and women that they very well might have been self-deceived about their spiritual condition.
The signs that they claim are evidence of their spiritual wellness are inconclusive. Lucas goes through each evidence one at a time.
Having extraordinary affections, emotions raised to a high pitch, doesn't mean you are converted.
Being able to speak fluently and at length of one's spiritual experience doesn't mean you are converted.
Being able to quote Scripture or have Bible verses come directly to the mind doesn't mean you are converted. I quote Lucas:
The Devil himself can bring texts of Scripture to the mind and misapply them in such a way to draw people away from God rather than to him.
A strong response to the Word may not mean anything. A free and engaged worship may also not mean anything.
Lucas writes:
All of these signs are really “not signs” of a changed life. They are inconclusive tests whether someone has truly experienced a new sense of the heart, new and holy affections that produce spiritual understanding and holy practice. Those who rest on these signs have the potential of being self-deceived about their condition. And that is because these signs can be counterfeited, produce hypocrisy, or subject the individual to “enthusiasm” in ways that cause him or her to be lost in the end.
Let us take a step back for a while why this book is helpful. Religious Affections was written in 1746. Jonathan Edwards wrote it in response to what was happening in the Great Awakening. And if you think that the Great Awakening is what happens when you just had a Great Afternoon Napping, then you are Evidence #1 on why everyone needs to read more Christian books. In the Great Awakening, there was a flood of spiritual experiences. And people thought because they had a spiritual experience, that means they are spiritual okay.
Lucas writes:
Following the seventeenth-century American Puritan, Thomas Shepard, Edwards distinguished between “legal hypocrites” and “evangelical hypocrites.” Legal hypocrites are those who “are deceived with their outward morality and external religion.” Evangelical hypocrites are “those that are deceived with false discoveries and elevations; which often cry down works, and men’s own righteousness and talk much of free grace.” Of the two, Edwards clearly saw the latter as more dangerous. Evangelical hypocrites are self-deceived, having based their confidence of eternal salvation on false signs, and yet defending themselves by claiming that they have “the witness of the Spirit”.
Guys, don't you think what I just read could so easily apply to what we are witnessing in today's church? Don't you think if they knew what these words, false affections and evangelical hypocrites, mean, they have a way of soberly reflect on their spiritual life.
Plastic flowers, not knowing they are plastic. Tragic.
So those are two gold nuggets that I mined for you. In my book reviews, I want to make sure you learn something even if you don't read the book, so I hope you will 1. see God's Truth everywhere you go, and 2. learn two new phrases: false affections and evangelical hypocrites.
Concluding Thoughts
As I go into my concluding thoughts, I am still selective of who would be a good fit for this book.
You will note that throughout this book review, I referred to Edwards and Lucas interchangeably. That's a credit to Lucas because he parks the reader in the mind of Jonathan Edwards throughout the book.
And that is also a problem because Lucas aims to keep the precise statements precise, he is reluctant to dumb down Edwards for dumb people (like me, not you).
So I would read and re-read and re-read and at one point in the book, I actually thought maybe there is something wrong with my comprehension. The words are in English and I don't understand what they mean. I got so frustrated, I skipped to the appendix just to check whether I could understand Lucas' essays. And to my relief I found that I can understand Lucas when he is using his own voice. The problem occurs when he is using Edwards-speak.
If you don't know Jonathan Edwards or are uninterested in church history or in theology or in the Puritan literature, then this is not for you. This book needs something in you to work with.
A better entry into Jonathan Edwards could be one of the other books Lucas recommends in Appendix 1. Or you could... just read Religious Affections. It's a good book. It settles an argument still relevant today, emotions in service.
Even though it was rough sledding, I am happy I finished the book. I can tick off one Puritan book for this year. Yes, I know God's Grand Design was published 11, not 300, years ago. And yes, I know the author is still alive unlike the Puritans he writes about. But 300 year old wine is still 300 year old wine, whether it's served in the original bottle or in a modern wine glass. Lucas preserves much of Edwards style and thoughts, for all the good and bad that brings.
Let me close this review with this quote. Lucas is explaining the purpose behind one of Edwards writing.
Edwards’s larger purpose was to raise his congregation’s vision from its apparently mundane and petty daily concerns to find their affections engaged by the cosmic purpose that God has in his work of redemption.
If you want a vision of God's redemption in the cosmic-sense and in the personal, through the eyes of America's Puritan Theologian, get this book.
This is a Reading and Readers review of God's Grand Design: The Theological Vision of Jonathan Edwards by Sean Michael Lucas. 224 pages, published by Crossway in October 2011. And it's available for free from Faithlife only in July, and USD12.99 in Amazon Kindle.
Before you go, normally I don't do this but I am excited to tell you about the next book I aim to review. It's Biblical Worship: Theology for God's Glory. The editors are Benjamin K. Forrest, Walter C. Kaiser Jr. and Vernon M. Whaley. 544 pages, published by Kregel Academic in February 2021. It's available for USD29 in Amazon Kindle, the list price is USD42.99. And here is the reason why I'm telling you about it now. It's only USD9.99 in Logos but only for this month, July.
The thing is I don't know whether I will be in time to review Biblical Worship before the offer ends.
I am eight chapters in and unless the remaining 26 chapters is a dud, this is an immensely helpful resource for worship. One guy writes a chapter on Worship in the Book of Leviticus. Another writes a chapter on Worship in the Book of Joshua. Another writes an entire chapter on Worship in the Book of Judges. And on it goes. If you don't know why that is a big deal, stay tuned for my next review.
If you already know that this book is for you, then get it. In Logos for July, it's USD9.99 from a list price of USD42.99. I just can't see it ever getting discounted further than that. If you like that tip, and you would like to send me your appreciation, you can buy me a coffee. Just go to www.readingandreaders.com, and click on the buy me a coffee button. That's all from me. Thanks for listening.
Book List

• God's Grand Design by Sean Michael Lucas. Amazon. Faithlife.

Every generation has an apologetics book that they call their own. Will the meme generation trust a meme connoisseur to answer age-old questions on Christianity?
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review "Why Believe?: A Reasoned Approach to Christianity" by Neil Shenvi. 272 pages, published by Crossway in June 2022.
It's available in Amazon Kindle for USD14.99. I got this book free as part of Crossways Blog Review Programme. Crossway had no influence in any part of this review.
Author
Neil Shenvi is better known as the scourge of the Critical Race Theory (CRT) movement. In his website, shenviapologetics.com, he has reviewed nearly a hundred books and two thirds of them are on race and gender. If you search "Neil Shenvi" on your podcast player, you get episodes like:

• Confronting Wokeness in the Church with Neil Shenvi
• Foundations of Critical Theory: An Interview with Neil Shenvi
• Racism, BLM, Supreme Court, and Neil Shenvi
• Social Justice, Critical Theory, and the Bible with Neil Shenvi

Today we are not reading Shenvi's book on Critical Race Theory. That book is being written, and if you follow him on Twitter, you can get near real-time updates on his progress.
For his debut, Shenvi has instead chosen to write a book on apologetics. Do we need another one when we have C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity", Josh and Sean McDowell's "Evidence That Demands a Verdict", Lee Strobel's "The Case For Christ" and J. Warner Wallace's "Cold-Case Christianity".
These books are still around. They are still relevant today. In fact, Shenvi often quotes Lewis. If he is quoting Lewis, it begs the question, why not just read Lewis? Can Shenvi do better? Let's see.
Structure
The table of contents lists ten chapters. They are:

1. Introduction
2. The Trilemma
3. The Resurrection
4. God and Revelation (Part 1): Nature
5. God and Revelation (Part 2): The Moral Law
6. Arguments against God
7. The Gospel (Part 1): The Uniqueness of Christ
8. The Gospel (Part 2): Christianity and Sin
9. The Gospel (Part 3): Christianity and Salvation
10. Conclusions

The chapter headings could have come from any good introductory textbook on apologetics.
Browsing through the chapter sub-headings, most of the material seem familiar but there are some new-ish questions. "What Caused the Universe?" is familiar. "Why is Mathematics So Successful?" is new to me.
Chapter Six, "Arguments Against God" covers three topics. The Problem of Evil is familiar. Evolution is familiar. The Hiddenness of God... that's new... to me.
If you are a young Christian, or better yet, not a Christian, and have not heard a reasoned argument in support of Christianity, then the content here will be immediately fresh and exciting for you.
But if you are familiar with this battle arena, called apologetics, is there anything for you? Apologetics, which I should have mentioned earlier, is the discipline to defend the faith.
Let me give you three reasons why I believe you should consider reading this book, whether you are a young Christian, or seasoned apologist, or militant atheist.
1. A Reasoned Approach
In this book, Shenvi plays conversational chess with us. He moves the white pawn. We counter with a knight. Then Shenvi moves his queen to capture our king. And asks us to try again.
For example, in chapter two, Shenvi quotes C.S. Lewis' famous Trilemma. Jesus can either be a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. The Bible doesn't allow the options to say that Jesus is a good moral teacher. You just can't. C.S. Lewis, who is the OG, first made the case in his apologetics classic, "Mere Christianity" and the trilemma is a favourite for Christians everywhere. If apologetics is a chess game, the Trilemma is a favourite opening. But it's not a checkmate.
Shenvi writes:
Lewis assumed that most of his hearers believed the Bible to be generally reliable. While that belief may have been common in mid-twentieth-century England when Lewis was writing, it is certainly not widespread today. Most people view the Bible as an incoherent mixture of fairy tales, moral parables, and legends—a cross between Aesop’s Fables and The Lord of the Rings.
How does the unbeliever counter the Trilemma? Easy. The Trilemma is irrelevant. Shenvi eloquently explains why it's irrelevant:
We don’t need to worry about the claims of Jesus any more than we worry about the claims of Batman or Aragorn. No one lies awake at night wondering whether to surrender his or her life to Darth Vader. Fictional figures might inspire us, but they do not demand our allegiance.
Now we come to the first reason for you to consider reading this book, and that is the "reasoned approach" we read in the subtitle to the book. If he wanted to, this book could be rewritten as a dialogue because there is a lot of back and forth in this book as we go deeper exploring the topics.
If you have read Plato's Republic or any Socratic-type dialogue, you know following arguments can be tiring. Shenvi's easy writing style, the logic statements, illustrations and tables makes the arguments easy to follow. The ease of our trail hides the effort he has made to make the complex, simple. The books and writers he quotes do not make easy reading, which goes to my second point.
2. Hear What the Experts Say
Earlier when I said Shenvi was playing chess with us, to be more accurate, Shenvi is showing us multiple chess games against other grandmasters.
If you, the unbeliever, lose an argument with Shenvi, you could say it's because you don't have the facts. You don't know how best to make the case against Christianity even when you know you are right. You could argue that a better player would crush Shenvi. You are at a disadvantage because Shenvi's is more prepared than you.
But that's not true for scientists, philosophers or experts who have made a name arguing against the existence of God in general and Christianity in particular. They are supposed to have the facts. They are supposed to know how to make an overwhelming argument against Christianity. Shenvi takes them on.
For example, after explaining the Trilemma, the Liar-Lunatic-Lord argument, Shenvi introduces Bart Ehrman, 'probably the nation's most well-known New Testament scholar'. Referring to the gospels, Bart Erhman says:
Imagine playing "telephone" over the expanse of the Roman Empire, with thousands of participants, from different backgrounds, with different concerns, and in different contexts, some of whom have to translate the stories into different languages all over the course of decades. What would happen to the stories?
Shenvi quotes Paula Fredriksen, a religious studies professor at Boston University. Shenvi introduces us to the Jesus Seminar, a high-profile group of scholars who have concluded that, "eighty-two percent of the words ascribed to Jesus in the gospels were not actually spoken by him."
If you have family or friends who were scared that you will turn into a religious nut, they have probably told you to watch YouTube videos or read books or consider arguments that ultimately came from these experts.
"Listen to the experts. It's not rational for people today to believe in Christianity."
Whether it's on the reliability of the Bible, or the science of creation, or the problem of pain and suffering, the unprepared Christian would be pummelled to the ground, if he or she is not prepared.
And Shenvi's book prepares you. It gives you the facts, the step by step reasoning and eventually the confidence to say that the Christian faith is a rational faith, it is a defensible faith. In an Crossway podcast interview, Shenvi explained that many Christians do not know how to defend the faith and many non-Christians are surprised or stunned to hear a rational defence.
The problem of pain and suffering? Non-Christians have it worse. Listen to their answers. In contrast, the Christian answer to the problem of pain and suffering is better, its clearer. Our answer matches with reality and our practice.
Or consider another one. Science shows that the way creation is, it's 'too perfect' for it to be random. Among the explanations, atheists give is the multiverse. Shenvi writes:
It seems very odd for an atheist to scoff at the implausibility of God and then to affirm the existence of an infinite, unobserved, and undetectable ensemble of parallel universes.
Let me give a quick recap on why you should consider reading this book.
Reason number one is his approach, the reasoned approach in the subtitle of the book. The back and forth draws us in. You don't need a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry specialising in Quantum Mechanics. Shenvi has that PhD, but you don't need it to understand him.
Reason number two is Shenvi brings the experts with the latest and best evidence for and against Christianity. And if what is here is not enough, you have the footnotes and the keywords for further research.
If this was a chess game, in every chapter, Shenvi is saying checkmate, you don't see it yet, but I'll show you that no matter what you do, I'll checkmate you. Jesus wins. Christianity wins.
But the victory celebration here is muted by reason number three.
3. The Best Defence is...
Shenvi says proving that Christianity is rational is not enough, we must also show that it is true. He rightly points out that few people believe in Christianity because it was shown to be rational. Rationality is a low threshold.
Let me quote my favourite part of the book. It's a long quote. Shenvi writes:
Consider an analogy: imagine I’m playing pickup basketball at a park when I suddenly collapse. A crowd gathers, but they don’t agree on what happened. Some people say I just tripped and should get up and “walk it off.” Others suggest I twisted an ankle and may need a brace to finish the game. One person runs to get ice, another to get an ACE bandage, a third to get a bottle of Advil from the pharmacy across the street. All of them offer to help me up to my feet. While I’m lying on the ground a woman rushes up to me with a look of extreme concern. She says: “I’m a doctor. I saw this man fall and I know exactly what happened. We need to get him to a hospital immediately.” She crouches down beside me and says urgently: “You can’t feel your legs and you can’t move. I’m going to call an ambulance; your life is in danger.” I immediately tell the crowd, “Do exactly what she says.”
The people around me are incredulous. They think she is wildly overreacting. They begin to question her credentials. They start to speculate loudly about her real, ulterior motives. Yet, in spite of their skepticism, I have reason to believe her. Why? Because I can’t feel my legs and I can’t move. Somehow she knew these two truths, even though no one else did. No matter how implausible her claims might seem to bystanders, I have crucial information they don’t have. I have firsthand, immediate, and undeniable awareness of my own condition. Based on that knowledge, my trust in her is justified.
Later, he writes:
This story explains how most people come to know that Christianity is true. People put their faith in Christ when they become personally aware of their own moral condition and their need for a Savior. The implicit reasoning behind their decision is easy to follow: Christianity is either true or false. If it is true, then its truth explains its unique ability to diagnose their spiritual condition. But if it is false, then it is an incredible coincidence that Christianity uniquely explains two deep, existential realities entirely by accident.
Doesn't what Shenvi describe resonate with you? It does for me.
Chapter 7 shows that Christianity is unique. Chapter 8 is on one deep existential reality: sin. Chapter 9 is on the other: salvation.
I am going to indulge myself and give you another quote. But this time from a non-Christian. Stephen Prothero, the chair of the Department of Religion at Boston University is quoted here:
While it may seem to be an act of generosity to state that Confucians and Buddhists and Muslims and Jews can also be saved, this statement is actually an act of obfuscation. Only Christians seek salvation. A sports analogy may be in order here. Which of the following— baseball, basketball, tennis, or golf — is best at scoring runs? The answer of course is baseball, because runs is a term foreign to basketball, tennis, and golf alike. Different sports have different goals. ... To criticize a basketball team for failing to score runs is not to besmirch them. It is simply to misunderstand the game of basketball. ... Just as hitting home runs is the monopoly of one sport, salvation is the monopoly of one religion. If you see sin as the human predicament and salvation as the solution, then it makes sense to come to Christ.
In this same chapter, Shenvi then breaks it down. He decisively shows that not all religions are the same because only Christianity see sin as the human predicament and salvation as the solution.
I appreciate Shenvi making explicit the connection between the gospel and apologetics. He is not the first one to discover or write or speak about it. If you read the New Testament, it's there. The gospel and apologetics go hand in hand. Distinct but not separate.
When you study apologetics, you can very quickly get lost in the details and forget why you are even doing it.
For example, a physicist, Lawrence Krauss, claims that quantum mechanics shows that something can come out of nothing.
What do you say to that? Are you a physicist? Do you know quantum mechanics? Are you willing to do a deep dive in this arcane discipline? Shenvi can defend but that's just one topic. An unbeliever can easily machine gun ten questions before you barely answered the first.
Knowing this, it's important we focus on the central apologetic thrust: The gospel. I am not talking about the virgin birth, or the miracles of Christ, or the crucifixion, or resurrection or ascension. All these are important and related to apologetics, related to the gospel, but Shenvi reminds us we need to present the gospel itself: sin and salvation, in our apologetics because it is the best defence of the Christian faith.
Gospel-Defence Training
In conclusion, this book is for everybody: Christians: young and old, non-Christians: docile or hostile.
Is Shenvi better than C.S. Lewis, the McDowells, Strobel or Wallace? Let me tell you that, hundreds of years will pass, Shenvi and all the rest would be forgotten, but C.S. Lewis, the Oxford English Professor, will still be fondly quoted.
As for the other apologists, they have their own angles. The McDowells have their evidences, Strobel the journalist has his journalistic methods and Wallace the detective has his detective methods.
Which made me wonder. What if Dr. Neil Shenvi decided to do apologetics by using his Ivy League training as a theoretical chemist specialising in quantum mechanics? I laughed at the thought. Readers would spin away uncertain, entangled and scattered.
At least that's what I thought at first. But on second thought, maybe, just maybe, the benefits of the theoretical chemist's training is not immediately observable.
Maybe God has prepared him for such an occasion as this. Maybe looking from God's perspective: You were trained to explain quantum theory, I will use you to explain who I am. You were trained to review scientific peers and their work, I will use you to review scoffers and their work. You were trained to study and present the most fundamental of science, quantum mechanics, I will use you to study and present the most fundamental of apologetics, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
By saying this, I'm not saying that God only makes use of apologists who succeed in getting published. If you read 1 Peter 3:15, the verse carved in the heart of apologists everywhere, that verse is written to all Christians not just the few. It says: "give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you." (1 Peter 3:15)
Do you believe that God prepares us through our knowledge, skills and experience? If so, then Shenvi's book and other resources could be means for our preparation. I am not saying Shenvi and his book is God's gift to mankind, I'm just saying that we should be more prepared to give a reason for our faith. And his is a good resource.
Other Resources and Concluding Thoughts
Speaking of other resources, do we have other books? Newer ones?
Well, before this book, the most recent apologetics book I read and reviewed was Eric Metaxas' 2021 book, "Is Atheism Dead?" His book has three parts: science, archaeology and atheism, tackled in more depth and unsuppressed glee. Shenvi's, in comparison, covers a wider range of topics climaxing with the gospel in a more reserved tone.
Just to warn you, to the unbeliever, Metaxas' tone is "Take that, you fool!", whereas Shenvi's tone is "Change my mind. Let's have a conversation." Which is why if you give a book as a present to an unbeliever, Shenvi is a much better gift.
As for other apologetic books I would recommend, I have been naming them all day. You will find C.S. Lewis, Josh and Sean McDowell, Lee Strobel and J. Warner Wallace in any bookshop that has a shelf labeled apologetics.
Does the rookie Shenvi unseat them? No, he doesn't. I believe he joins them. As I said in the beginning every generation needs its heroes, I mean, apologists. And as hostility against Christianity increases year by year, we can only hope that apologists will raise to the challenge each and every time.
And that's what Shenvi is doing in his debut book, facing down the challenge against Christianity.
If you only know Shenvi and don't like him because of his activism or, more accurately, counter-activism in Critical Race Theory, then I ask that you read this book to get a better sense of the man. He is a Christian who loves the Lord. By reading this, you will know how his mind works and perhaps even be convinced by what he says here.
What he offers in this book is a reason to believe and if you accept it, the world will be a bit more sane, a lot less strange and everyone will grow to be more reasonable with one other.
This is a Reading and Readers' review of "Why Believe?: A Reasoned Approach to Christianity" by Neil Shenvi. 272 pages, published by Crossway in June 2022.
It's available in Amazon Kindle for USD14.99. I got this book free as part of Crossways Blog Review Programme. Crossway had no influence in any part of this review. Thank you for listening.
Book List

• "Why Believe?: A Reasoned Approach to Christianity" by Neil Shenvi. Amazon.
• "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. Amazon.
• "Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh and Sean McDowell. Amazon.
• "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel. Amazon.
• "Cold Case Christianity" by J. Warner Wallace. Amazon.
• "Is Atheism Dead?" by Eric Metaxas. Amazon. My Review.
• "Alive: A Cold Case Approach to the Resurrection" by J. Warner Wallace. Amazon. My Review.

What happens when you get the world's top interviewer together with the world's top evangelist? You get a book something like today's.
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review Billy Graham: Candid Conversations with a Public Man by David Frost. 224 pages, published by David C. Cook in August 2014.
A Free Book, Simple
I got this book for free from Faithlife. But it's not free for you. Just me. I don't know how the deal works, maybe it's only offered to those in the mailing list because when I checked today, this book is offered for USD11.99 in Faithlife. It's USD9.89 in Amazon Kindle. So I guess the lesson here is get on Faithlife's mailing list to get free book deals? Crossway does the same thing. They just gave me two free books: "The Whole Armor of God" by Iain M. Duguid and "The Case for Life" by Scott Klusendorf.
Back to the free Billy Graham book. I'm glad I got this free book when I did. Because after reviewing a few heavy books recently: Dale Ralph Davis' commentary on Daniel, Matt Rhodes' manifesto on modern missions, Rula Khoury Mansour's theology of reconciliation, it's a welcome change of pace to read something lighter.
To read a book on "a simple country preacher who preaches a simple gospel," as Billy Graham once described himself.
On the cover, this book says:

Most people know Billy Graham the preacher. Many know Billy Graham the author. In this remarkable book, Graham reveals a personal side that few have seen before.
And the one who reveals that personal side is the man who needs no introduction, the equally famous, David Frost, the legendary TV interviewer.
David Frost the Interviewer
David who? Billy Graham I know, but who is David Frost? I realise my ignorance is showing but perhaps to some listeners, Frost is a man who does need introduction.
David Frost was a British interviewer known for history-making interviews. A British Larry King, if you like. But better because none of Larry King's interviews got made into an Oscar-nominated movie, titled Frost/Nixon. That famous interview elevated Frost and brought down Nixon who must have thought he could go no further down.
It just so happens, or as I prefer to call it, providentially, I finished today's book, the Billy Graham book, in the same week as Watergate's 50th anniversary. That was the extra push I needed to watch the movie, which I thought would be like "A Few Good Men" but on Watergate. You know that scene where Tom Cruise got Jack Nicholson to confess? Well, the British don't do it that way. As much as I am tempted, I won't review that movie, but the reason I mention it is because it sheds insight on the author.
What I saw on screen was the power of questions dramatised. Questions can be so powerful. Consider: A counsellor says, "You have told me what happened, now tell me how do you feel?", or when an evangelist calls out, "When you stand before a holy God, what will you say to get into Heaven?", or when you are all by yourself and you wonder, "Who am I?" Questions are powerful.
From what I saw of David Frost, the artistic-licensed version in the movie, and snippets of the man in his interviews with Mikhail Gorbachev, Benazir Bhutto, Paul McCartney, Ron Howard and others, they all expect Frost to ask the big questions, but they chose to be there so that they can answer them in a frame of sincerity. A private setting, two guys having a candid conversation, for a public revelation.
Now that you know more about David Frost, we can look at the book he wrote based on the interviews he had with Billy Graham.
Structure
Let's open up the book and see what we have. First, we have a foreword from Billy Graham's grandson, Tullian Tchividjian. He writes:
Reading about my grandfather’s doubts and failures in black and white offers a refreshing view of his life and his relationship with Jesus and demonstrates the unmerited grace of God for all of us. In these pages, Daddy Bill talks with David Frost about the things he wished he never said, his failures as a parent, as well as those difficult questions he feels he will never be able to answer on this side of heaven.
Next, we have a preface from David Frost, written in 1997. 1997? That's odd. This book was published in 2014. Let me check and yeah... David Frost passed away in 2013 at the age of 74. And five years after David Frost, in 2018, Billy Graham passed away at the age of 99.
Coming back. The author's preface was written in 1997. The book was finally published in 2014. Since then, we have newer books on Billy Graham. Billy Graham wrote "Nearing Home: Life, Faith and Finishing Well" in 2013. Mind you, he wrote this in his 90s. And that was not the last book he wrote. Two years later, Billy Graham wrote "Where I Am: Heaven, Eternity, and Our Life Beyond".
Thus, with newer books around, why read reflections on musty old interviews? The publisher, David C. Cook, wrote in the introduction:
Our only question was in regards to the relevance of the interviews. That is, were they still timely? We should have known better from the start. In reviewing the footage we found that far from being dated, they were more relevant now than ever.
"Far from being dated, they were more relevant now than ever." And this relevance is clearly seen in how the book is organised. It is not organised chronologically, by the first interview followed by the second, instead it is organised topically, showing what Billy Graham said on this or that topic and you can judge for yourself whether it is relevant or not.
Chapter one is titled Billy Graham on Faith in God. Chapter two is Billy Graham on Family and Marriage. And so on the pattern goes: Three is on Politics, four is on Preaching, Evangelism and the Bible, five: Pain and Suffering, six: Presidents, seven: Sin and Temptation, eight: Moral and Social Issues, nine is titled Billy Graham on Billy Graham and the last chapter is Billy Graham on End Times and Heaven.
Finally in the book, we have an epilogue and a timeline of Billy Graham's life.
Frost On Billy
This book is based on Frost's interviews with Graham but it is not pages and pages of interview transcripts.
Do you know how it's like after reading a good biography? You spend the next few days, weeks, reflecting on the person's life? In this case, instead of reading a book, Frost is reading the man. He reflects not just on the many interviews he conducted, he also comments on interviews Graham did with Larry King and Phil Donahue, speeches Graham made at the Oklahoma City bombing, for example, and books and articles others have written on Graham.
He is thinking about Billy Graham and selects excerpts from his interviews to flesh out the man to the reader. Consider this exchange:
Frost: You’ve been battling Parkinson’s disease for three years or so. Now, is God responsible for that? Graham: I don’t know. He allows it. And He allows it for a purpose that I may not know. I think everything that comes to our lives, if we are true believers, God has a purpose and a plan. And many of these things are things that cause suffering or inconvenience or whatever. But it helps to mature me because God is molding and making me in the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ suffered more than any man that ever lived, because when He was on that cross, He was bearing the sins that you and I have committed. He was guilty of adultery. He was guilty of murder. He was guilty of everything you can think of. And He was guilty of our sins. Now, He suffered in a way that we could never understand. Frost: But, I mean, for instance, I thank God for having three healthy sons. Graham: Yeah. Frost: But, maybe that’s not logical, really, because if I am thanking God for three healthy sons, should the parents of a Down syndrome baby be blaming God?
And the two continue back and forth. Frost presses the issue. He asks how should parents of a deformed child look at their situation? He asks, "If you don't blame God for ill health, you can't thank him for good health, can you?" It's not an inquisition, Frost is never hostile to Graham, or any of his interviewees, Frost is respectful but he wants to draw out a part of Billy Graham that the public may not know.
Billy on BLM, CRT, AOC and KKK
Let's look at another chapter. In Chapter 8, "Billy Graham on Moral and Social Issues", Frost recounts their interview in 1970 on the topic of race relations in the United States. Listen and let's see what you think. Graham says:
One of the things that disturbs me in the United States at the moment is there’s a certain element in the black community, a small element to be sure, that wants separatism. ... For example, I know a university right now where the dormitories are completely integrated, but where the blacks are saying, “No, we want our own dormitory; we want our own classes; we want separatism.” Now, whether this is going to be the beginning of something that will grow, I hope not, because I think the only hope for America to settle her race problem is an integrated society. But there are those today that don’t agree with that, in the black community as well as the white community, and whether they will gain momentum or not, I don’t know.
What came to your mind as you listened to this? Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory? Is Billy Graham among the prophets? Is he speaking prophetically of the future, 50 years later from where he was? Consider this exchange:
Graham: ... It seems to me that we’ve got extremists, David, the extreme right and the extreme left that are almost irreconcilable. And we’ve got a group of people now that really believe in the violent overthrow of the government. Now, they do not have any system that they would like to substitute. They’ve come forward with no plan as yet; they just want to destroy. And I don’t know whether you can carry on a dialogue with this type of person or not. I don’t—some of them I know. They’ll talk to me; some of them will. And I have met with them several times. And I just find that it’s almost impossible to reason. They’re not interested in reason. They’re not interested in dialogue. They’re not interested in sitting down quietly and talking about the problem. They’re interested in disruption, in violence, in destruction to bring down the system.
Frost: But then, if you come in a little from that, to on the one hand people like hard hats and on the other hand, you know, protesting students who are protesting violently, but really passionately against the system in some way or another, how do you bring those two groups together? I mean, given that you’ll never bring a Ku Klux Klan man together with a really violent Weatherman? You know what I mean. But how do you bring closer together a right-wing hard hat and a left-wing student?
The Bible says, "There is nothing new under the sun." Fifty years on, how true that is.
Most of the book is to be expected. Graham on Marriage. Graham on Pain and Suffering. Standard fare in any conference Q&A. Some are unique to Billy Graham. Frosts ask him on Richard Nixon. There is a whole chapter on Presidents. And he talks to Frost about being famous.
Things He Said That Make You Go Hmmm... Today
But those are all things that readers would expect. Let me now quickly tell you a few things that David Frost, Billy Graham and the publishers did not expect. Things that make us ponder a bit more in these times.
For example, Billy Graham talks about his controversial trip to preach the gospel in the Soviet Union. Graham was told, I quote, "You will get the strongest criticism from the Christian right, because they will feel somehow that you're compromising with the Devil."
Six months ago, this reference to Cold War Soviet Union would be antiquated. Today, the world finds itself wrestling with how to engage with the Soviet Union, I mean, Russia. There is nothing new under the sun.
Another unexpected turn of events is Billy Graham's grandson. The cover of the book proudly states, "Foreword by Tullian Tchividjian". At that time, Tchividjian was an upcoming evangelical influencer. Less than a year later, he resigns as a pastor from his church because of adultery.
Since the passing of Billy Graham, the famous evangelist, we also saw the passing of Ravi Zacharias, the famous apologist. Except in the case of Zacharias, his life's work, the books he wrote, the speeches he gave, the people he helped are now overshadowed by the scandals that came to light after his death.
So we have Graham's grandson Tchividjian and the famous fallen apologist, Ravi Zacharias, I read with a heavy heart what Billy Graham, the man behind the Billy Graham rule, and he said that his greatest fear was:
That I’ll do something or say something that will bring some disrepute on the gospel of Christ before I go. And I want the Lord to remove me before I say something or do something that would embarrass God.
This is a throwaway statement. Frost included it as a curiosity. Isn't it funny what Billy Graham is fearful of. He is not afraid of death, he is afraid of embarrassing God. Oh, if only we had the same fear.
The book ends on a poignant note. I won't spoil it here. I'll just say it was a surprise ending to me. There is no final reflection, concluding thoughts, from David Frost the writer. The book ends with David Frost the interviewer, David Frost sitting across a pastor. It made me wonder, after drawing out the life of Billy Graham, the simple preacher, for the public, did David Frost hear the simple gospel for his own heart and soul?
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you are a big Billy Graham fan, you have read all the books, listened to all his sermons, then I don't know how much you would gain from this book. For myself, I know the name but not so much the man. Much of what I know comes from bits and pieces and I knew more in the year he passed away with all the tributes coming forth.
This format is a nice one for the not-so-committed reader of Graham. There are many biographies of him but you may not know enough of the guy to want to hear his whole life story. Frost's book is a light read which can convince you that this simple preacher is worth finding out what all the fuss is about.
Billy Graham wrote many books on various topics. But instead of reading all those books, you can get a taste, a small sample, from Frost's book.
The nice thing about Frost's book is we read Graham's own words from those interviews. Nobody wants to read pages and pages of interview transcripts, so Frost wisely connects the interviews with his own observations. These are observations from a guy whose lifetime job was to interview the fabulously rich and famous and powerful. He clearly enjoyed Billy Graham's conversation. Read this book, you might enjoy theirs.
This is a Reading and Reader's review of "Billy Graham: Candid Conversations with a Public Man" by David Frost. 224 pages, published by David C. Cook in August 2014. Available for USD11.99 in Faithlife, USD9.56 in Amazon Kindle, at the time of this recording.
If you are looking for more candid book reviews on a variety of topics, be sure to subscribe to Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Or visit the website www.readingandreaders.com for transcripts and contact details. Contact me and let's surprise each other with a good conversation. Until then, thank you for listening.
Book List

• "Billy Graham: Candid Conversations with a Public Man" by David Frost. Amazon. Faithlife.

You look around you and you see all those kings. Call them presidents, prime ministers or supreme leaders. Whatever the title, they are people in power. Who can stand against them? Who can bend them to their knees? Whose kingdom will outlast theirs?
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers. Today I review "The Message of Daniel: His Kingdom Cannot Fail" by Dale Ralph Davis. This is a commentary from The Bible Speaks Today series, a series with Alex Motyer, John Stott and Derek Tidball as the series editor. 173 pages, published by Inter-Varsity Press Academic in August 2013. It is available for USD14.05 in Amazon Kindle but if you go to Logos this month, June, you can get it for USD1.99. Yes, you heard it right, you can get this really good commentary for only USD1.99 through Logos.
If you visit the Free Book of the Month site you will see the free book of the month and other nearly free books like today's. Whenever possible, I review the free book instead of the nearly free book. I chose not to review the free book but let me give a quick description of it because some listeners might need a bit more incentive to click on the "Download for Free" button.
The free book, "Justification: Five Views" is a collection of five essays on justification. Representing Traditional Reformed is Michael Horton, Progressive Reformed is Michael Bird, New Perspective is James Dunn, Deification is Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen and Roman Catholic is Gerald O’Collins and Oliver Rafferty. After a writer presents his position, the other four tell him how he is wrong. I mean, they tell him where they agree and disagree.
This views and response format helps readers see where the real divisions are. I cannot stress how important it is to see the real differences because, if I can loosely describe it this way, some people are friends when they shouldn't be and some people are enemies when they shouldn't be. I've personally gained from such books for other subjects and if I ever needed to study justification with reference to the New Perspective or Deification, I would most certainly read this book.
As of now, I don't feel a burning urge to do so. Hence this book is safely, tucked away, in my virtual library, ready to come to my aid when needed. I put it aside because I really want to read Dale Ralph Davis' commentary on Daniel.
Who is Dale Ralph Davis? He was a pastor. He was a professor. He has written lots of books. He comes with strong credentials but I am not giving those details because which church he pastored and which seminary he taught and how many books he wrote does not adequately describe who this man is. I like how a Facebook group dedicated to Dale Ralph Davis describes him:

Dr. Dale Ralph Davis is one of the most readable and reliable expositors/commentators of Scripture. He is a master at illustrations in preaching/expositing as well. Any of his books are a welcome read.
Everything there is true. Yet, it's too bland. So let me describe him in my terms. Let me tell you how Dale Ralph Davis' writing has impacted me.
In Episode 5 of this podcast, I mentioned that I enjoyed, not just enjoy but gained the confidence, to read commentaries after I read Davis, specifically his commentary on 1 Kings. Since then, I have read all his books in the Focus on the Bible commentary series, namely his commentary on Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings (which I have already mentioned) and 2 Kings.
I like them so much, having bought the hardcopies, I then bought the Logos softcopy versions of these same books, partly because I lost one. I had enthusiastically lent a friend 1 Kings. I told him, "You must read this book". He must have misconstrued my enthusiasm and took the book as gift. So, it's now a gift. And I got the Logos versions just in case, I ever gift his books again.
My enthusiasm explains why when I saw that Davis' commentary on Daniel at USD1.99 in Logos, I didn't think twice. I am tempted to say he is my favourite author but I might have to retract that one day. Just to be safe, I'll say that he is one of my favourite authors. And if you stick to the end of this review, I hope to make you a Dale Ralph Davis fan.
But you don't want to hear me raving on about him. You want to know more about the book. So here we go.
Structure
Structure-wise, "The Message of Daniel" begins with the series preface. The editors, Alec Motyer, John Stott and Derek Tidball intends that the Bible Speaks Today series be:
characterized by a threefold ideal:

• to expound the biblical text with accuracy
• to relate it to contemporary life, and
• to be readable. These books are, therefore, not ‘commentaries’, for the commentary seeks rather to elucidate the text than to apply it, and tends to be a work rather of reference than of literature.

Following the editor's note, we read the author's preface and our first words from Dale Ralph Davis. His first words hints at the tone he brings to this book and to all his books. I quote:
There are a number of good reasons not to write an exposition of Daniel. For one thing, going into print on the book of Daniel makes it too easy for readers of whatever stripe to assign one’s lot among either the kooks or the nincompoops. The book is an interpretive minefield and wherever one comes down on various questions he is sure to disappoint people—one fails to take an ‘obvious’ view here or finds the data too uncertain to take a ‘firm’ one there. However, with a kind invitation from Alec Motyer it seemed only right to overcome reluctance and begin. I felt it was like eating my oatmeal—it would be good for me.
Despite the editors' rejection of the commentary label, I'll stick to it because the structure follows a commentary. We have 14 chapters that track the 12 chapters in Daniel.
Navigating Word Play
Speaking of structure, it was Davis who taught me so many years ago to appreciate the literary structure of a biblical book. Before Davis, I knew that structure was important, anybody who ever wrote an essay knows that. But after Davis, I don't just know its importance, I desire to know the structure. If I don't have it, I went searching for it.
It's like when soldiers operate in unfamiliar territory. Knowing how to shoot is important but navigating more so. If you know the land, you can ambush, defend, forage for food or vanish like a ghost. If you don't know the land, you waste time and energy, going around in circle, never reaching your goal.
With Davis, you will always know the lay of the land. In the introduction, Davis shares the big structure of the book of Daniel. In fact, he doesn't just give one, he shares three proposed structures to emphasise that the complexity of this book shows that this is a book written by a single mind rather than written by a committee.
Now every commentary will give you an outline of the book and the chapters but Davis uses all sorts of tricks to get you to turn your eyes to see at the structure.
For example, in chapter 2 of the book. He starts:
Most of us probably try to avoid beginning a sentence with a conjunction. And I don't know exactly why -- maybe someone along the way has told us it is bad form.
In this paragraph where he explains the significance of the conjunction, the word 'And' in the Hebrew text, he started five sentences with a conjunction. Okay, perhaps that humour is a bit too subtle and nerdy for you. He enjoys word play. Which is why he is such a fun guy to read.
Renaissance Man of Biblical Outlines
Let's look at another way he brings out the structure.
Chapter 2 of this commentary directly corresponds to chapter 2 of Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar dreams a dream and challenges his wisemen and court magicians to tell him what he dreamt. Daniel appears to rescue the day. All glory, not to Daniel, but to God.
If you think you are familiar with this story, or any of the stories in Daniel, wait until Davis reveals the structure.
In chapter 2, he writes:
We can break down chapter 2 into broad chunks:
And he breaks it down. The focus is not the wisdom of Daniel or the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar. The focus is actually verse 28: "There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries..."
"What mysteries?" you ask. Where would be the fun in hearing it from me when you can read Davis' book for yourself?
Davis makes you a better Bible reader by showing you the 'secret' structure. It is not a secret. It's there in front of you just that you never noticed it before. In chapter 4, he writes:
Tracing the literary shape will help mentally organize a fairly long narrative. It develops like this:
And he develops the outline. After which you better understand the text.
In chapter 8, he writes:
The overall break-down of the chapter is rather straightforward; it tells of Daniel’s vision:
And he breaks it down for us rather straightforwardly. And we thank him for it.
Great artists understand anatomy. They understand how the body is structured more than the doctors. They have to in order to paint, sculpture and write Bible commentaries. What Davis does with the anatomy of the text is a work of art. Under his skilful hands, the structure outlined is not simply a practical necessity -- necessary for us to navigate the text -- it becomes a map of beauty. We appreciate the Biblical text for its literary quality, what the writer had in his mind when he wrote it.
The Writer's Mind
Which brings me to my next point. Mature Christians will rightly tell you that it's important to know what is the writer's intended meaning for the text. That is basic hermeneutics or biblical interpretation. Davis demonstrates it for us.
Let me share an extensive quote that gives you a good idea of how Davis brings you into the biblical writer's mind. Listen to Davis' commentary on Daniel 3:1-15. Here, Nebuchadnezzar sets up a statue and commands people to worship it. I quote:
Notice the vicious verbs our writer uses. The very first line tells of the image the king made (‘ābad), and Nebuchadnezzar himself uses the same verb in verse 15. In fact, for an Israelite, Nebuchadnezzar’s statement in that verse (Now if you are ready ... to fall down and worship the image that I have made) sums up the theological asininity of the whole affair. To worship what someone made! But a reader almost ducks under the machine-gun-like occurrences of the verb qûm (‘set up’); it appears nine times (1, 2, 3 [twice], 5, 7, 12, 14, 18), always in reference to the image the king had set up. Swipe the uses of that verb with your orange highlighter, then go back over the text—see if it doesn’t seem as if a kind of cumulative mockery is at work. The image is a ‘set up’ job, as we say. The writer is telling you that it’s no more divine than your knee replacement.
Later, Davis comments on the people who obey Nebuchadnezzar:
The praise band plays (7a), and the crowd gets its back sides in the air and its noses in the sand and enjoys job security. They felt they had no choice. They ‘had’ to do it. There’s a tremendous invisible coercion that comes from being among a whole mob of flattened worshipers.
If the Book of Daniel was a movie, and Daniel the Director, then Dale Ralph Davis would be the YouTuber vividly describing what Daniel the Director was doing in each scene. This is how the Director wants you to see these powerful kings. This is how the Director wants you to see those who put their faith in God. This is how the Director wants you to see God and his kingdom.
Illustration, Applications and Readability
I don't have the time to elaborate on his masterful use of illustrations. Sometimes illustrations overwhelm the message.
But not so for Davis. His use of illustrations is perfect. His choice of illustration, its length and placement leaves you wanting more which he soon satisfies when he makes his next point. The illustrations are more often than not fresh, and applied in a powerful way without detracting from the text.
I also don't have time to elaborate on his application. We naturally look for, "What do I get out of the text? Give me something that I can apply in my daily life." This is another area that preachers and writers can go off-balance, to over-emphasise on the application of the text that they unintentionally make the text become all about you.
In comparison, listen to how Davis tells us how to apply the text. As an example, I draw from his commentary on Daniel 6 which is Daniel's prayer. I quote:
Kneeling in prayer is not a matter of indifference -- it reminds you of your true position. It’s as if you say, ‘I am a servant. He is the King. I do not live in a democracy but under a monarchy. He is not my errand boy. I never present my demands. I am always a beggar at the throne of grace, and, though it is a throne of grace, I never forget it is a throne.’
But the most praiseworthy quality of Davis' writing is...
Allow me to remind you of the editor's intention for the Bible Speaks Today series. The series is to be:
characterized by a threefold ideal:

• to expound the biblical text with accuracy
• to relate it to contemporary life, and
• to be readable.

That's it. Dale Ralph Davis' book is immensely readable.
Note that John Stott is one of the editors. I love John Stott. John Stott is very readable. But to me, and this is a matter of preference so feel free to disagree, to me, John Stott is readable but Dale Ralph Davis is more readable.
If you are a John Stott fan, I imagine you rushing to object and insist I explain how I made the comparison. I did not read all of their books. However, I have read two of John Stott's commentaries in the Bible Speaks Today series. His commentary on the Sermon on the Mount and Galatians. So when I compare two of John Stott's books against Dale Ralph Davis' commentary on Daniel, all these books in the same commentary series, I like reading Davis. Stott is the guy you bring to impress your professors. Davis is the guy you bring to impress your friends. I don't think Stott intended for anyone to laugh out loud reading his commentary. I know Davis did.
Great Writing... What About the Content?
The careful listener will notice that I have made much of Davis' writing but what about the content?
First of all, The Bible Speaks Today series is not a reference series. The editors made the clear enough.
All the Daniel stories? Through Davis you will understand how they are all linked together. You will see that they are not random stories collected into an anthology. The writer has an order or structure in place to drive a specific theme: God's Kingdom.
What about Daniel's visions? The statue, the tree, beasts, horns, the ram, the goat and more horns. Davis doesn't exhaustively go through the many possible interpretations. He doesn't have the space and he says so. He gives us his interpretation and defends it on the basis of the text.
What about the really tricky passages? Like the interpretation of Daniel 9:24-27, the one on the seventy weeks. Davis dedicates a whole chapter on these four verses. But in the end, that may not satisfy the professional doomsday student. My advice: Go read a different book. This is not the book you are looking for.
The One Chapter You Need To Watch Out For
Let me tell you one thing.
If you are an average Joe who wants to understand the Book of Daniel, what you really need is for someone to explain one chapter, which is chapter 11.
I say this because the average Joe already understands the story of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, the story of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego, Daniel in the lion's den, the spooky writing on the wall and so on. You already know those stories. Davis will help you fill the gaps and connect them together.
As for the visions of the beasts and the horns, etc... would you want to know what they mean? Of course you do. The images are so fantastical, it's just natural to want to know what the beasts and horns represent. Nobody needs to make an extra effort to make you interested in understanding those visions.
And that's the difference with chapter 11. Chapter 11 is a difficult to understand vision but it's not interesting. It's boring. King of the North. King of the South. War. Lots of war. But no details. No last stands. No heroism. It is a prophecy. A fulfilled prophecy. But nobody talks about it. Looks it up. Read Daniel 11. Has anyone preached this to you? Have you studied this passage before? Do you know any song inspired by Daniel 11? Nope.
Yet, I contest that Daniel 11 is the most important chapter in the Book of Daniel. What is written here is so incredible that because of this chapter some scholars insist that the book of Daniel must have been written much, much, later than the time of Nebudchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Cyrus or Darius. They say it couldn't have been Daniel who wrote it. Because if it was Daniel writing in the time of Darius, that means God has spelled out in great, agonizing detail (read it! It is agonizing!), events that will take place 300-400 years into Daniel's future. It is as if God predicted the winning lottery numbers for 300 years. If God did that, you would want to know. But trust me, this is better than knowing wining lottery numbers.
If you get Daniel 11, the question of God's ability to foreknow the future is conclusively put to rest. And in that same deal, you get the purpose of God telling us the future. God tells us the future many times in the Bible, and he explains why to Daniel in his vision. Let those who have ears, hear and those who have eyes, see.
For you to see it, it helps to have someone who can give you a good map so that you don't get lost, someone who can get you into the writer's mind, someone to engage you with humour, confidence and ease. Otherwise you are going to feel exasperated reading chapter 11. I can think of no one better than Dale Ralph Davis to be your guide.
Final Words
My final reflection is I know that I am hyping this book up. I have not been so exuberant in my praise for any of the books I have reviewed so far.
I must admit, my enthusiasm could stem from the great debt I owe to Dale Ralph Davis. If not for his commentary on 1 Kings, today I would avoid an entire category of books, namely commentaries. Before him, I read other commentaries and they made me feel stupid. That was not the author's intent, I was reading above my level. But after him, I am the reader I am today. Not just a reader of commentaries but more importantly, I am a reader, a better reader of the Bible.
Even as I recommend today's book, "The Message of Daniel: His Kingdom Cannot Fail", which is available for the low, low price of USD1.99 in Logos for June, I would say that if you are looking for a book by Dale Ralph Davis to start with, I would go with either Judges or 1 Kings. Because Daniel is a more complex book, it has a mix of stories and visions. It has verses that spur debates, debates that will only end when the final horny man appears and Jesus blasts him with his breath. In contrast, Judges and 1 Kings is a more straightforward narrative and Davis is in his element as a storyteller.
And I have to stop here before I start reviewing those commentaries.
This is a Reading and Reader's review of "The Message of Daniel: His Kingdom Cannot Fail" by Dale Ralph Davis. 173 pages, published by Inter-Varsity Press Academic in August 2013. It is available for USD14.05 in Amazon Kindle as of this recording but if you go to Logos this month, June, you can get it for USD1.99.
In fact, I am rushing this episode out so that there is a higher chance that you, my dear listener, will go and get it. What are you waiting for? Don't you want the Bible to speak to you today? Don't you want to know God's awesome kingdom that will not fail? Isn't this why you subscribed to this podcast, so that you will not miss a good book deal? I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Thanks for listening.`
Book List

• "The Message of Daniel: His Kingdom Cannot Fail" by Dale Ralph Davis. Amazon. Logos.
• "1 Kings: The Wisdom and the Folly" by Dale Ralph Davis. Amazon. Logos.
• "Judges: Such a Great Salvation" by Dale Ralph Davis. https://www.amazon.com/Judges-Great-Salvation-Focus-Bible/dp/1845501381. Logos.

Covid is over or eventually over. You got places to go, people to meet. Before you book your trip for your next holiday, why don't you consider reading today's book? Who knows, you might get some soul-enriching ideas for your next destination.
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review "Going Places with God: A Devotional Journey through the Lands of the Bible" by Wayne Stiles. 176 pages, originally published by Regal in December 2006. The ebook version I am reading is published by Revell in 2014. Available for USD8.99 in Amazon Kindle and free from Faithlife's Free Book of the Month programme. Today's book is free for June and only June.
"Going Places with God" is a devotional book. In this book, we have a foreword from Charles Swindoll, 90 days worth of devotionals and right at the end a travelogue from the author's trip to Israel.
Author
Who is Wayne Stiles? What makes him 'qualified' to bring us on a devotional tour through the lands of the Bible? He isn't a historian or an archaeologist. He presents himself as a believer who visited Israel in the year 2000 and never recovered. The experience just filled him up and continued to do so. This book is an outlet for what he wants to share with more brothers and sisters in Christ. He presents to you the Lands of the Bible.
What You Get In Each Page
For each devotional, you have at the top of the page a Scripture reference. Read that first. Then you have 1-2 pages of Stiles' devotion material. He ends with a short prayer, a snappy quotation and references to maps which can be found in the book.
There are 90 devotionals for you to read a day at a time. I don't recommend you do what I did which is read the whole book in a few seatings. If devotions are meals, they should be slow-cooked, not microwaved.
With so many good devotionals in the market, and many freely available online and in your phone apps, why read this book? It's a devotional journey through the lands of the Bible.
Let's do a quick quiz.
Can you find on a world map, Israel? I can think of at least five reasons why you should. Moses, David, Jesus, Gaza, Armageddon.
If I give you a map of Israel, can you pinpoint Jerusalem? How about Bethel and Bethlehem? What about Jericho and Nazareth?
Now if I put a map of Jerusalem in front of you, can you locate the Garden of Gethsemane, Calvary Hill or the empty tomb?
At this point, maybe some of you are thinking, "Why do I need to know where these places are when I can just use Google Maps?" The answer is this book. Read the book and you will see how helpful geography, biblical geography is, to your faith. There once was a time when Stiles was unconvinced but that all changed.
Listen to what Stiles has to say:

For the vast majority of my Christian life and ministry, the benefits of understanding the land of the Bible remained hidden like artifacts in the sand. I possessed knowledge of the place names, but they played no role in my study of the Bible except to distract and confuse me. Because I couldn’t appreciate a site’s contribution to the biblical narrative, I dismissed the unfamiliar as irrelevant or, at the very least, of minor importance.
But when my wife and I took our first trip to Israel . . . it all changed.
I rank the experience of learning biblical geography on the level of learning Hebrew and Greek—probably even higher. I discovered an integral part of Bible study I had missed all my life. Like seeing the whole puzzle put together, I was now able to see the individual sites in light of the whole. I became aware of a cohesion and logic as to why God included geography in the inspired text. My memory of biblical events was strengthened by associating the events with their geographical locations. What I had dismissed earlier as irrelevant I began to recognize as an essential part of God’s dealing with His people.
Let me repeat for emphasis one sentence: "I became aware of a cohesion and logic as to why God included geography in the inspired text."
Cohesion? Logic? Isn't logic seen in the text? "For... if... how much more..." Pastor John Piper's life and ministry transformed when he saw the Bible not as a bunch of quotations but as a series of propositions. Logic! Now Wayne Stiles is telling us there is logic in geography.
In the introduction he writes:
... in biblical times, the place itself often played a major role in the significant events that occurred there. Beside the place where water gushed from the ground, there a man drove his tent stake—and so laid the foundation of a city. Rains ran through immovable ravines, and beside those rivers people cultivated their fields and watered their livestock. Where the easiest ground to travel lay, there a wayfarer walked—and so a highway began. Geography affects history.
And he gives examples after examples, ninety times over.
In Day 4's devotion titled, "A Strategic Move". He writes:
A thriving fishing village, Capernaum straddled the international highway that stretched from Syria to Egypt. By choosing Capernaum, Jesus selected a city that enjoyed a constant flow of people who could carry His message to many places. And that’s just what happened. As Jesus preached in Galilee, “news about Him spread throughout all Syria” (v. 24). Not only did travelers take the news north into Syria, but they also took it by other roads into “Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan” (v. 25).
This book does not aim to just serve you geographical insights. This is not a factbook of interesting trivia to share in your next sermon or bible study. You can get that from an atlas. Or a geographical commentary. Yes, such a wonderful thing exists. This is a devotional book.
If I can illustrate it for you. Imagine you are on a lifeboat at sea for many days, maybe weeks, you are delirious. Water and food is running out. Then you see land. You row towards land. You reach land. You jump out of the boat and kiss the soil. And your eyes go to Heaven and you thank God for your salvation.
Okay, that picture might be a tad exaggerated. But the idea is the land brings you nearer to God. That is clearly seen in how every devotion lands on a prayer.
For example, in the Capernaum devotion, where he describes Jesus moving to Capernaum as a strategic move, he leads the reader to pray:
Lord Jesus, rather than pursuing a place to hide where I can escape the irritation of people and culture’s corruption, help me to see my world through Your eyes. Place me in places where I can have the greatest influence for Your kingdom. Show me today how to seek first the kingdom of God—above my own preferences.
He then closes the chapter with a quotation and a map reference. The quotation is from David Livingstone:
I will place no value on anything I have or possess unless it is in relationship to the kingdom of God. —David Livingstone
You will see familiar names: Corrie ten Boom, C.S. Lewis and Jonathan Edwards and some not so familiar names: John Flavel, Thomas Adams, George Swinnock and so on. Names that hopefully will become more familiar to you over time.
Last of all, he gives you references to maps that are included in the book.
So what I just shared is an example of Day Four in this book.
I Need A Map To Find The Map
As part of my review, let me first talk about the maps. The maps are scattered amongst the devotions and the way they are placed is not helpful.
Let's go back to Capernaum in Day Four. You read about it, you don't know where it is, you check the map reference and it tells you to go to page 28, 56, 70 and 112. You have to thumb your way to the pages. The problem is the electronic copy doesn't have pages and I shouldn't need to change the setting to see the pages so that I can get to the maps. The references should be hyperlinked. I see the reference. I click on it and I jump to the map.
If hyperlinking is a problem, there is another solution which is to just group the maps and put them all at the end of the book as an appendix. That's what most writers or publishers would do. So I'm not sure why that was not done here.
Random Walk Journey
My next criticism is the subtitle is a devotional journey. Keyword: Journey. I suggest an improvement is an actual journey from one point to another. I know that can be difficult because you have the Old Testament, the New Testament and there are many stories of different people at different times in different places.
For example, at Day 10 in the book, I'm in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. In the next day, I'm at the country of the Gadarenes. Then next, I'm at the Negev. Maybe I expect too much logic or structure in my geographical devotional journey but I like how Saint Luke arranged his travelogue to progress from point to point.
I can guess why Wayne Stiles mixed the places all up in his devotion. You get variety, it's like taking M&Ms from a bag. But I just think if it's arranged as a journey or many journeys: Moses' escape from Egypt to the Promised Land or pilgrims from Jericho ascending to Jerusalem or Jesus turning his face from Galilee towards Golgotha, any of these journeys can help reinforce the cohesion and logic in biblical geography. The land we came from connects to the land we are heading towards.
Devotional
That's my take on the journey keyword. What about the devotional keyword?
Does this book help a Christian in devotion? That made me ask: What makes a good devotional?
I jotted down some answers. It's not complete. May even be wrong. But this is what I got. A devotional should direct the heart and mind and soul of the reader towards God like how the Psalms does. A devotional should help us gain a knowledge of God and our relation to God. Ultimately, a devotional draws us nearer to God.
But having said that, ultimately whether or not you come near to God depends less on the book and more on you. A devotion book jumpstarts the engine but it is not the engine. It doesn't drive the car. A devotional book is a starting point for the scatter-brain, weak-spirited, malnourished life, and this book is as good as any devotional in that regard, but for a devotional to work, the reader's heart must kneel before God. Which brings us back to the question, what makes a good devotional? Consider: What makes Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening a devotional classic? I'm still thinking on this question because I think an answer to this will help me be a better book reviewer.
Before I move on to the next topic, I leave you with this thought. A devotional that brings you nearer to God could be a devotional you write for yourself. That would be called a journal. I know many fellow believers who have gained so much from journalling. I think it's a great practice and one I encourage you to consider.
Travelogue
One form of a journal is the travelogue. Stiles has a travelogue in this book. He doesn't mention it anywhere. It's almost like an afterthought. I think it's the best part of the book.
It is his own devotional journey through the land. What I like about the book is he doesn't sensationalise the experience. Or rather I should say the experience is sensational without exaggeration. Here he writes of his journey towards Jerusalem:
This winding way snakes up nearly 4,000 feet in elevation toward the watershed of the Hill Country of Israel. And I had almost come to the top. Almost to Jerusalem. Craning my neck as high as I could, I waited to capture that first view of the city I had imagined all my life. Suddenly, we reached the crest. And there it was below me . . . a panoramic view crowned with the golden Dome of the Rock. I saw Jerusalem. I really, really saw it. But no shafts of light from heaven. No angels singing the “Hallelujah Chorus.” Not even a respectful hush on the bus of travelers with me. Just a few clicks from cameras and horns from the cars behind. I saw the city of Jerusalem . . . in all its ordinariness. And it remains one of the most special moments of my life.
The best travelogues makes would-be travellers out of readers. After this book, I am tempted to set aside money to make the trip. I tell myself I need to be fit for all those walks. I am more motivated to study Scripture, especially the land so as to make the trip more meaningful. Just like you would study your holiday destination to make the most out of the trip.
As I say all this, I am not saying Stiles' travelogue is especially well-written. He is not a literary genius painting a landscape with words. J.R.R. Tolkien, he is not.
In the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien describes Middle-Earth in ways that rouses the reader's imagination. The magic is not just from the plot. The world Tolkien imagines is a world that pulls readers in. We want to visit Middle-Earth. Middle-Earth is amazing because of Tolkien.
That is not true for today's book. Going Places with God attracts readers to the lands of the Bible. But the lands of the Bible are not amazing because of Wayne Stiles. It's amazing because of God. For God set his story onto this land.
For nearly two decades, people around the world flock to New Zealand to see the places where the Lord of the Rings: the Movie was shot. I am one of them.
For more than two thousand years, many more people travel to the Holy Land to see the places where Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul and John walked. In Bethlehem, Christ was born. He walked on the Sea of Galilee. In Jerusalem, the people welcomed him, listened to him, judged him and crucified him. On the third day, Jesus rose again and left an empty tomb.
I share one last quote from Wayne Stiles:
God used these places to mold the lives of His people in the biblical narrative. And if you will allow Him, He can use it to change your life as well. Begin to recognize that all the places God takes you—many of them painful—have nothing but His glory and your best interests in mind. The irony of going places with God is that the One who travels with us is also our destination. He takes us to these places to give us more of Himself.
"Going Places with God" is a book that will prompt you to consider a trip to the Holy Land. It's a book you can bring on that trip as you travel. And even if you are not traveling, even if there is no possibility of going to the Holy Land yourself, which is a fact for more people than not, you will appreciate what God has done through these lands and ultimately, what God has done and is doing and will do for you. Let your devotion and praise respond to who he is.
This is a Reading and Readers review of "Going Places with God: A Devotional Journey through the Lands of the Bible" by Wayne Stiles. 176 pages, published by Regal in December 2006. Available for USD8.99 in Amazon Kindle and free through Faithlife in June and only June.
Before you go anywhere, make sure to subscribe to this podcast if you have not done so. If you don't, you might miss great books at great prices. So subscribe now and listen to more book reviews coming up soon.
Book List

• "Going Places with God: A Devotional Journey through the Lands of the Bible" by Wayne Stiles. Amazon. Faithlife.
• "Morning and Evening" by Charles Spurgeon. Website.

We all like shortcuts. Why take that long hard road when this road is faster? If we can get things done in a shorter time with the same or even better results, why shouldn't we? It's a no-brainer. What if I told you there is a shortcut to missions? For the Great Commission. Would you take it? Does that shortcut even exist? Find out in today's book review.
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review "No Shortcut to Success: A Manifesto for Modern Missions" by Matt Rhodes. 272 pages, published by Crossway in February 2022. It's available from Amazon Kindle for USD12.82 as of this recording.
Full Disclosure: I got this book for free from Crossway's Blog Review Programme. They have no input on this review.
This book came at just the right time. I've been wanting to read a book-length response to the Church Planting Movement (CPM) and Disciple-Making Movement (DMM) ever since I read how some proponents trash the established church's mission work today as complacent (some truth in that!) and hopelessly outdated. They say that we cannot keep looking back to the glory days of William Carey and Hudson Taylor. Those methods worked a hundred years ago but don't work today. Look at the church in Acts, fast-growing, outward-looking, soul-saving. So get with the Church Planting Movement or Disciple-Making Movement or some other programme, and see the Great Commission in action.
I disagree that the old ways are outdated but what do I know since I am not a missionary. I have an opinion but I can't say that the old ways still work, because I don't know. But Matt Rhodes knows and he can!
Author
Rhodes is a missionary who has lived in North Africa, serving as part of a church-planting team to a previously unengaged people group. So he has credibility.
From his vantage point, in the missionary world, he sees many rushing to use Church-Planting Movement (CPM), Disciple-Making Movement (DMM) and related methods. These methods are, according to Rhodes, are attractive because they are shortcuts. But stay away, so says Rhodes. For there is no shortcut to success.
Professionalism is Good
The book is divided into two parts. Part One is titled: Where Shortcuts Have Led Us: Surveying the Problem. Part Two is titled: Correcting Our Course.
In the first chapter, Rhodes argues for professionalism. Wait, didn't Pastor John Piper write a whole book titled, "Brothers, We Are Not Professionals"? Rhodes mentions Piper's book. But the way Rhodes defines professionalism here is to excel in your field, to not be amateurish and slipshod about it. For example if you are going to reach out to an unreached people group, then learn the language. It's not enough to tell them that Jesus loves you over and over again.
Rhodes sees professionalism as contrary to the CPM-style approach. He describes CPM-style approach as follows:

1. An Overemphasis on Speed
2. An Overdependence on "Silver-Bullet" Strategies
3. An Oversized Role Given to Short-Term Mission Trips
4. An Overweening Skepticism of Intellectual Preparedness

He elaborates on each point. And reading each point, just when you think his criticism is too sharp, stabbing deep into the CPM-practitioner's heart, you read chapters 2 and 3. Yikes! Chapter 2's title is "Movements and Rumours of Movements". Chapter 3's title is "In the Scales of the Scriptures".
Before I go into some of his criticisms here, I want to point out the method behind his criticism. After briefly listing what he defines as CPM-style methods and their proponents, Rhodes writes:
In what follows, I’ll do my best to characterize each method fairly, drawing quotes from popular resources written by the known leaders and principal designers of these methods. For example, to describe DMM, I’ll generally refer to books by David and Paul Watson and Jerry Trousdale. I don’t assume, of course, that every DMM practitioner agrees with Trousdale or the Watsons in every particular.
He follows that by saying:
I should also note that there’s much to be praised in today’s most popular methods. Whenever we look at any ministry method, we must attempt to learn what we can.
That being said, I've asked a DMM trainer and practitioner to read the book, which he did. We then had invigorating conversations on the book. I'll share what I learnt from that conversation later, after I describe Matt Rhodes book.
Movements and Rumours of Movements
As I was saying, the second and third chapters are the spiciest of the book. In the "Movements and Rumours of Movements" chapter, Rhodes quotes David Watson, who wrote that in Northern India[1], DMM led to 2 million Hindus being baptised in a few short years. This then became 4 million, then 5.4 million and finally 10 million baptised believers. Rhodes asks, "Are these numbers true?"
I quote:
These amazing successes have supposedly resulted from new methods that depart markedly from the slow, thorough path I’ll be advocating. And I must admit: the numbers are enticing. What missionary doesn’t dream of such success? And who but the most hard-hearted could doubt that these stories are true? After years on the field with little tangible success, many missionaries are ready to try something new; many missions organizations, after long years in the doldrums, eagerly embrace new methods. And so they send their missionaries to be trained.
I repeat: no one wants to rain on a good parade. But if we care about the lost, we must do our due diligence.
Rhodes worked in population-based statistics for eight years before entering the mission field. He explains possible reasons for what he sees as exaggerated numbers. He shares the experience of other missionaries, including himself, who served in those areas but don't see the explosive conversion claimed in these books. He writes:
... publicists of the Bhojpuri movement acknowledge that “sometimes people travel through an area where a movement has been reported and they don’t see evidence of it” but assure us that “you can walk in a jungle and never see any animals. That doesn’t mean there are no animals in the jungle.” This may be true, but it becomes less plausible when the type of jungle animal in question is purported to have a population of 10 million and when all of the other jungle animals object noisily to its presence!
In the Scales of Scriptures
Chapter three is titled "In the Scales of the Scriptures". And no surprise, Rhodes finds the CPM-style methods to be found wanting.
He breaks this chapter down to five sections. I'll just share one. The section is titled, "Overemphasis on Rapid Growth". He references David Watson and Paul Watson's book, "Contagious Disciple Making" to write:
For example, in Disciple Making Movements (DMM), four generations of churches must be planted every three years for a genuine “movement” to have occurred. That is, within a three-year period, a new church must plant a second new church, which in turn must plant a third new church, and that third church must also plant a fourth new church. In other words, a brand new church should plant another new church in only nine months.
Rhodes makes an effort to show that he is not putting words into the these guy's mouths. He has the receipts. Chapter three consists of 40 pages and there are 133 footnotes to these authors.
He tries to be fair. He give credit where credit is due. He writes:
I love CPM-style practitioners’ desire for lots of people to come to Christ—and quickly. As promoters of CPM-style methods often point out, the church did grow quickly in the book of Acts, and the gospel did spread throughout the entire Roman world within a few hundred years after Jesus’s resurrection.
Yet in the scales of Scriptures, speed is not the over-riding priority in Scripture. Rhode writes:
Paul writes that he proclaimed Jesus by “warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28). According to Paul, then, the ability to teach “with all wisdom” is necessary to lead others to maturity. Until they gain this wisdom, new believers will be seriously limited in their ability to disciple others and plant new churches.
And later concludes this section with the following words:
We can contentedly follow the pattern of Jesus; he often avoided the crowds in order to spend time with his disciples. It was only when their maturation process was complete that he committed the growth of the church into their hands. We had better not push too hard for grandchildren before the children are fully grown!
If you have heard of CPM or DMM or T4T or other similar methods but not much more than that, then you will appreciate Rhodes reading all these books, summarising what they have in common and giving a strong critique, not as an armchair pundit (like me!), but as a missionary who cares very much for the lost and empathises with what these proponents are trying to achieve. He doesn't see them as the enemy, at most he sees them as terribly misguided. There is the question of whether he understands what he read and analysed, but I'll save that question for later.
Course Correction
Rhodes says, what is needed is a course correction. That's the title of Part Two of the book. I won't be spending as much time on Part Two of the book, not because it's less important, far from it, but because I want to get to the possible pushbacks against Rhodes.
Again, Part Two is important and I would argue more important than Part One. It's easy to destroy an idea, it's harder to build up.
Ultimately, this book is not a hit piece on CPM-style methods. Remember, the subtitle of the book is "A Manifesto for Modern Missions". He makes that point clearly, credibly and boldly in the remaining seven chapters of the book which have the following chapter titles:

• Ambassadors for Christ
• New Testament Missionary Communication
• Communicating Clearly Today
• Credibility and Boldness Today
• A Long-Term Path for Missionaries
• Equipping and Sending
• Work and the Holy Spirit

Any one or any church with an interest in missions must read these 7 chapters. By missions, Matt Rhodes is not referring to any and every activity that reaches to the lost, e.g. your soup kitchen or youth concert or personal sharing. By missions he is referring to a long term gospel work to unreached people groups. We are talking about following in the footsteps of William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson and so on.
Rhodes argues that missionaries need to learn the language, maybe even translate the Bible into their language. They need to understand the community's worldview and religion in order to best proclaim the gospel. And proclaiming gospel is the goal, not teaching English, not building houses for the poor, not starting up an orphanage. These are all worthwhile initiatives that may happen alongside gospel proclamation but we cannot let secondary objectives becomes the primary. We cannot let the good works, not the good news, become the mission.
Rhodes gets down to the nitty gritty details. Are you single, are you willing to stay single? Are you married, is your spouse willing to go into the mission field? Do you have children, will your children be safe where you are going?
How will you choose where you are going? By throwing a dart at a map? Does the Holy Spirit answer these questions by giving impressions? Is it wrong to try to figure out the answers with our minds?
What is the role of the church? What are milestones to expect? So many questions, so many answers, all from the horse's, I mean missionary's, mouth. Another title for this book could well be, "How to be a Missionary and Succeed".
So Part One questions the prevailing CPM-style methods. He writes as if his way is under threat of being overwhelmed by all these new methods, which is funny to me, because the people he is criticising tend to write as if they are the minority and traditional churches are the ones stomping on them.
Part Two, to me, is less a manifesto and more of a down to earth look at what mission should look like and how you and your church can prepare for missions.
Objection: False Dichotomy
As we now move to a critical evaluation of the book, my aim here is not to attack or defend Rhodes but to enlarge the conversation.
Let's look at one objection. Rhodes sets up a false dichotomy. The way Rhodes presents it, it is as if what is in Part Two is not part of CPM-style methods. For example, Rhodes emphasises language acquisitions. Just because some proponents dismiss the need to learn the local language does not mean that learning languages is antithetical to CPM-style methods. Some are even translating the Bible into the local language!
To be fair to Rhodes, he did say that he can't comment on the broad spectrum of practitioners and can only critique what the architects or designers have written. Be that as it may, if the movement is truly bigger than the architects or popularisers and practitioners have adapted the ideas to address the gaps, then Rhodes' criticisms weakens.
Not just on learning the local language. If other practitioners are able to show that they do not over-emphasis on speed, they do not over-depend on "silver-bullet" strategies, they do not give an oversized role to short-term mission trips and they are not skeptical of intellectual preparedness, and they agree and do much of what Rhodes suggests, then we may not have to choose between two methods. The distinction does not need to be as sharp as Rhodes writes here.
If that was true, and I can't say that it is, because the spectrum might be wider, it might be narrower, then I would like to think that Rhodes would be happy to be wrong. He would be happy to have more missionaries see and address the gaps in Watson, Garrison, Smith and others, regardless of whether he perceived those gaps accurately in the first place.
If true, then someone really should write a book-length response to Rhodes, to correct the record, so that we can feel the real tension between the two approaches. As Proverbs 18:17 puts it so eloquently:
The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.
In this book, Rhodes has given us a critical evaluation of Watson, Garrison and others, so let's hope someone comes and examines Rhodes.
Finding A Real Difference Between The Two Methods
Did Rhodes completely fail to distinguish between the essential core of the two methods, for example on the issue of language acquisition? Cause if he did, then it is a waste of time to read a poorly-researched book that gives the wrong picture of the subject.
I don't think so. Let me share one example which came as a big surprise to me. What I thought was an exaggerated description of what had happened seems to be a sought-after outcome of CPM-style methods.
Rhodes writes:
... CPM-style methods even encourage unbelievers to lead if they seem intent on obeying Scripture. James Nyman tells the story of Aysha, a woman who has read some stories about Jesus and the prophets and reports having obeyed the Bible by arguing less with her husband. Aysha is not even asked whether she has trusted Christ as her Savior — or if she even knows what it might mean to trust Christ as her Savior — before she is asked to coach Wati, another unbelieving woman, as Wati leads Bible studies with her family. As a part of this arrangement, Aysha must decide if Wati’s family “has misconceptions about faith in Jesus” in order to determine which Bible stories Wati’s family should study.
As is his way, Rhodes gives in the footnote the author, book and page number for this story. And he also pre-empts the reader's possible incredulity that this is actually endorsed by listing the endorsers:
Lest readers imagine Nyman’s approach to be unusual among CPM-style practitioners, it is important to note that his book receives high praise from David Garrison, David Watson, Steve Smith, Steve Addison, Kevin Greeson, Stan Parks, Curtis Seargant, and many other promoters of CPM-style methods.
Are you shocked? Then be even more shocked. What I thought was indefensible is actually pretty defensible. Thanks to a DMM practitioner/trainer who helped me understand what is happening here.

1. The unbeliever is not leading a Bible Study as we traditionally understand leading. A better description is facilitating. She is a facilitator rather than a leader.
2. The questions are fixed and the answers are found in the given passage. Both questions and the passage are given by the Christian mentor who is not in the group but is actively coaching the facilitator, so the unbeliever is kept, in a manner of speaking, on a tight leash.

They have more reasons for having a non-believer facilitating a Bible Study. But as I try to argue that the leader should be a Christian because only the Christian knows the high-stakes, the eternal stakes involved, only the Christian would pray for the souls of the people in the study, spiritual things are understood by the Spirit and should be conveyed by believers, as I make that case I find that I am arguing against Christians who have an incredibly high view of Scripture, a view that believes anyone who reads and understands the plain meaning of Scripture, will be open to the power of Scripture.
I still disagree, strongly, but it's not as incomprehensible or irresponsible as when you first hear it. Many famous conversions happened, for example John Wesley's, just by hearing Scripture, unmediated, without commentary. It's just strange to make it the default approach rather than seeing it as a singular, highly unusual, Road to Damascus event. Paul, Luther and Wesley, however they were converted clearly intended for Scripture to be taught and explained to believers and unbelievers.
I Like My Way Of Doing It Better Than...
As I argued with my fellow brother in Christ who sees great value in DMM, I recognised in my own heart a desire to win the argument for how I think missions should be done. So if you are like me, I want you to remember this quote from D.L. Moody.
Someone criticised his way of evangelism. Moody replied:
It is clear you don’t like my way of doing evangelism. You raise some good points. Frankly, I sometimes do not like my way of doing evangelism. But I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.
Consider this:
One day, I was listening to a Voice of the Martyrs podcast episode on Afghanistan. The interview was on what is happening to the Christians after the fall of Kabul. It was clear that the missionary being interviewed is using CPM-style methods because he was using CPM-style language.
On a different day, I was listening to Recorded, a podcast from the Gospel Coalition. The episode title was "Escape from Kabul". I listen to the story of an Afghan believer who eventually interned with Capital Hill Baptist Church, which is Mark Dever's church. Mark Dever, if you recall, is the guy who wrote the foreword to Matt Rhodes' "No Shortcut To Success". This Afghan brother has a different journey which is no less harrowing than the earlier one.
We have brothers and sisters in Afghanistan who are suffering for their faith. They are practising both mission methods. Maybe one way is indeed better, more biblical than the other. But our heart, our posture in this discussion is not I win means you lose but let us find a way to win souls together for the Lord. As Rhodes puts it rightly, "Whenever we look at any ministry method, we must attempt to learn what we can."
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you are following Church-Planting Movement, Disciple-Making Movement, Training for Trainers, or any other mission method, new or old, you should still read Matt Rhodes. You will not like what he says. You will say he got many things wrong. But since he is quoting those books, then maybe a part of the wrongness is coming from those books.
If you are serious about missions, as all Christians should, then No Shortcut to Missions: A Manifesto for Modern Missions, is a must read. It's a book, especially Part Two, that missionaries would say, "I wish I had read this when I decided to be a missionary."
This is a Reading and Readers review of "No Shortcut to Success: A Manifesto for Modern Missions" by Matt Rhodes. If you like this book review, then make sure toe subscribe to Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Thank you for listening.
Book List

• "No Shortcut to Success: A Manifesto for Modern Missions" by Matt Rhodes. Amazon.

Correction
[1]In the podcast, I said Northern Africa when I meant Northern India.

A Palestinian Christian living in Israel writes a book on reconciliation. Palestinian. Christian. Reconciliation. Put all those words together and I coudn't resist to buy, read and review the book.
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review "Theology of Reconciliation in the Context of Church Relations: A Palestinian Christian Perspective in Dialogue with Miroslav Volf" by Rula Khoury Mansour. 352 pages, published by Langham Monographs in January 2020.
How did I come across this book? The author is not famous. Yet. Maybe after this book review she will be. You won't see this book in your bookshops. It's not in any bestseller list. Yet. Again, maybe after this book review it will be.
Author
I got to know of Rula Khoury Mansour from an interview Chris Wright did. When I heard she is a Palestinian Christian, I thought, "Cool! Rare species." Listening to the interview, I learnt she wrote a book on reconciliation. That is just too many juxtapositions for me to ignore. I've got to read this book. And so I did.
We have an author's biodata on the book's cover but I like how she describes herself in the book.
She writes:

I believe I am uniquely placed to research the topic of Palestinian Baptists in Israeli and their intra-church conflicts. I approached the analysis of the data not from the unsympathetic lens of an outsider nor from the uncritical lens of an insider. I'm neither solely a woman, wife and mother, nor just a Palestinian Christian, cultural Middle Easterner, British academic, Israeli citizen and lawyer who studied in secular Jewish universities and worked as a public prosecutor in the Israeli establishment. I am all of those identities together.
Monograph
This book is a monograph, meaning it's her research thesis. I paid good money for someone's research thesis. I still find it surprising that I did this. But why should it be surprising? Instead of reading titilating trashy novels, imagine if we as a society enjoy a good monograph or two.
Don't you think the title of this book is far more interesting than any trashy novel? I keep repeating myself but come on man, a Palestinian Christian in Israel writing on Reconciliation. Surely you see how intriguing this is. But is it any good? I've finished the book and I have three words to describe it: Intimate, Practical and Critical.
It's intimate because the pastors and church members involved in the church conflicts are so exposed. She doesn't name names, she uses pseudonyms. But there are only 3000 or so Palestinian Baptists in Israel. It's a small community. How did she manage to draw out people who live in an honour and shame culture to speak of conflict which to them is shameful and to have it published for the world to read?
This is not a tabloid running a headline, "The Church War You Didn't Know in Israel". This is a practical book on reconciliation. I would like to think that the reason why the people opened up is they saw greater honour in sharing their unique perspective on church conflict that blesses the global church.
This is not a how-to book with the title, "Ten Steps to Reconcile with the Utterly Irreconcilable". This book is critical in that it takes a theologian-scholar's framework and tells us where it works and where it doesn't in the Palestinian context. It's a research monograph.
Structure
I have put off describing the structure of the book because I didn't want to scare you to switch to another podcast. This book has subheadings that only researchers would love:

• Research Question
• Choice of Qualitative Methodology and Methods Used in the Study
• Research Plan
• Research Ethics

Take heart, if you are not a research geek, there is still plenty to love in this book.
The book is divided into two parts. If you like 'gossip', you'll appreciate Chapters 1 to 5. How did the Baptists wind up in Palestine and why did they leave? And curiously, why did the church splits only occur after they left? Did money and church buildings play a part? Was the problem the old men in power, the young rebellious group, the indomitable women or all of the above?
In Chapters 6 to 9, Mansour brings Miroslav Volf's Theology of Reconciliation to the Palestinian context. Miroslav Volf has his own unique lived experience as a Croatian who lived through the Balkan Wars and has since famously contributed towards the theology of reconciliation. Mansour develops aspects of Volf's work into four chapter-length critiques namely: "Theology of Remembrance", "Theology of Forgiveness", "Theology of Justice" and "Theology of Embrace".
In Chapter 10, having identified some gaps in Volf's framework as it pertains to the Palestinian context, Mansour makes some recommendation, which includes a stronger role for the community, a place for venting, the need for rituals and dignity restoration and others.
Conflict within a Conflict
That's the overview, now let's get into the conflict in Israel. Only this time, it's not the conflict with rockets and bombs, the one debated in the United Nations, the one that arguably can be traced back to Old Testament times. We are going to study a conflict set in the background of a greater conflict. Imagine bombs exploding outside your home, while you are having a family quarrel inside your home. Welcome to the Palestinian Baptist Churches in Israel.
The Palestinian Baptists are a threefold minority.
As Palestinians, they are a minority in Israel. An unwelcome minority because Palestinians are a reminder of the greater, wider, conflict.
As Christians, they are a minority among Palestinians. Palestinians are mostly Muslims.
And lastly, as an evangelical, they are a minority among the Christian denominations. Baptists make a tiny tiny slice of the Christian population.
Adding more fuel to the mix is how successive generations have engaged with the war around them. Citing historical research, Mansour presents three generations or stages in the Palestinian community: from 1948-1955 it's the survival generation, from 1956-1988 it's the worn-out generation and from 1990-2016 it's the stand tall generation. And each generation deals with church conflict in a different way.
I can imagine some Christians getting uncomfortable reading the history of Israel from a Palestinian perspective.
For some Christians are so zealous for Zion that any news that implies national Israel is at fault is fake news. Israel is God's chosen nation, it can do no wrong or the burden of proof is so high, it might as well be.
The main theme of this book is not the Israel-Palestine conflict. That is the background that influences the conflict in front of us, the Palestinian Baptist Churches. There isn't much here to really trigger you but perhaps reading events from another perspective, from another sister-in-Christ's perspective, will help you see not just the Israeli side, or the Palestinian side, but a Palestinian Christian side.
Moving on.
Churches A, B and C
Mansour presents three churches as her case study: Church A, B and C which are pastored by Pastor A, B and C respectively. In this review, I'll pick examples from Church A just to give you a taste of what to expect as you progress through the book. This is the scenario at Church A, Mansour writes:
When Pastor A reached pension age, the church committee decided to extend his time as there was no replacement. Two years later, Pastor A and the deacons invited Pastor George to be assistant pastor for six months and then replace Pastor A. Pastor A's wife claimed that George was invited without Pastor A being informed. After six months, surprisingly, Pastor A informed the deacons that he was not ready to resign and wished to continue. He suggested George could work under his authority, but George refused. This resulted in a dispute and many heated meetings. In one meeting, Pastor A overrode the constitution and dismissed the deacons and finally the church split and church A2 was founded.
Fortunately, they are all Christians. So after a night of soul-searching, Bible-reading and prayer, the Holy Spirit touched everyone's hearts and they came crying to each other, embracing one another. Right? Nope. In church A, the conflict went on for years.
Didn't anyone work to reconcile in these churches? There was. Mansour demonstrated that there were four different approaches used to resolve the conflict. She writes:
Two approaches are cultural: (1) The Israeli alternative-legalistic approach and (2) the Palestinian traditional sulha approach; and two approaches are theological: (1) the traditional Palestinian church approach and (2) the Western-Baptist approach.
The alternative-legalistic, traditional church and the Western-Baptist approach, if I describe them, will be familiar to you. The one that is not so familiar is the Palestinian traditional sulha approach. It's alien, even exotic. When cultures collide, we become more aware of what we take for granted in our own culture, whether for good or for bad.
Sulha


Let me quickly go through the sulha approach. Let's say you offended someone. You need to form a jaha. The jaha are the respected elders of the community. A hodna or ceasefire agreement is called so that nobody is allowed to take revenge. The offender provides the jaha with a taffwid. The taffwid is an irreversible written authorisation to act on their behalf and it contains the commitment of the offender's family to obey whatever verdict the jafa reaches.
Do you see the difference? One, your family is involved. Two, you commit to obey before you know the verdict. Exciting isn't it?
The sulha not only has a different approach, it also has a different aim. In the sulha, conflict is bad, so we need to restore the status quo. In the Western-Baptist approach, conflict may be a good thing, and resolving the conflict may mean changing the status quo.
Now imagine what happens when two parties adopt different mechanisms and have different expectations. And it's not as if they write up the protocol up front. A lot of the approach and expectations is implicit, they are not explicitly stated. This research is fascinating. You should stop listening to this review and just buy the very expensive monograph.
It's Really Very Simple, We Just Need To...
I know what some of you are thinking. You are thinking that all they need to do, all every Christians in conflict should do is simply humbly go to the Bible.
Listen to this. I have edited this paragraph for brevity:
In case A, the group was given a few worksheets about biblical peace-making in preparation for the meeting. They met for two days. The purpose of this gathering was to discuss the problems and see how they could be resolved. During the meetings, there were sermons and Bible studies based on what Scripture says about unity and reconciliation (with a focus on Matthew 18). Two themes were addressed: relationships between believers and seeking the good of others over one's own desires. Around nine prayer meetings and Bible studies took place during the retreat. While one group met with facilitators, the other group had prayer meetings.
Now when I read that, I was thinking, "that's exactly how I think reconciliation work should look like. Lots of Bible and prayer.
Then listen to Mansour's explain why the Western-Baptist approach failed:
The findings show that studying Scripture together was not sufficient to deal with the conflict. Interveners (missionaries and Western-minded pastors) focused on how to act and related to God and others. However, this approach ignored the pastors' struggles, such as how to deal with feelings of rejection, anger, insult and loss of dignity. Also, it did not take into consideration that the parties were deeply related and influenced by their families, so any agreement was incomplete until approved by the family.
Frankly, Mansour has collected enough material on the conflict here to start a fire that would metaphorically burn down all the Palestinian Baptist Churches. She could, if she chose to, make one party the villain and the other, the hero. After all, many of us like our heroes and villains easily labeled. Well, I'm glad that Mansour didn't try to force an easy narrative. She isn't here to sell books, she is here to present her research. And her research shows that conflicts and attempts to reconcile are messy, painful and can be dragged on. There are no villains or heroes in this book. They are all simultaneously sinners and saints.
Volf-Time
At half-time, it's Volf-time. Here we have four superb chapters on Remembrance, Forgiveness, Justice and Embrace. What makes the Mansour's critique on Volf engaging is she uses his framework to analyse what happened to Church A, B and C. And in the process, help us think through aspects of reconciliation in ways that I did not consider before.
For example, in reconciliation we all naturally focus on forgiveness because that seems to be where the Bible focus is. In the Parable of the Ungrateful Servant, the servant was forgiven 10,000 talents of gold but did not forgive his fellow servant who owed much less. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the father forgives the son despite everything he did. So forgiveness is clearly important but what about remembering?
According to Volf, we should remember rightly. We should remember truthfully. Mansour takes this and compares against the churches in her case study.
Mansour writes:
Pastors remembered and focused on their church's past glory and their contributions. They wondered how the "rebellious groups" could forget these past contributions. Pastor A spent 90 percent of the interview describing in detail the glory of church A during the 1970s-1980s revival. Pastor A's wife told me, teary-eyed, "When I remember [the split] I get sad and so does Pastor A who has served the church all his life." Rami, an ABC leader, told me that history is still alive in people's minds; pastors expected that members would not forget their decades of service, and thus expected that their past contributions must influence the church's present decision-making.
The idea here is if you cannot remember rightly, then this hinders reconciliation. This is just one example from the chapter on remembrance. There are more insights and examples which I won't get into.
In the chapter on Justice, we consider what is the role of compensation or repentance in reconciliation. Surely, wrongs must be acknowledged and righted before we can speak of reconciliation.
In the chapter on Embrace, Volf and Mansour bring out the question of what does embrace look like, should we expect it and how can we work towards it.
I have not read any of Volf's writings but if Mansour has presented Volf's work properly, which she should since he is her research supervisor, then I appreciate how these chapters offer a brief introduction to Volf's Theology of Reconciliation.
I also appreciate Mansour's analysis against other theologians and ministers of reconciliation. For example, Mansour shows us that Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Truth & Reconciliation Committee in South Africa is less emphatic on justice compared to the other aspects.
In this book, Mansour models for us how to adopt a framework to a real-life problem: Church A, B and C, and shows us how well and how poorly the framework applies to the Palestinian context. We know we should adjust any solution or framework to the culture we are working on but we seldom get to study the friction of adopting an analytical model to a real-life culture.
This Book May Not Be For You
I like this book. I like the fact that this book exists. Its existence means there are Christians willing to share their reconciliation struggles to bless the wider Christian community. I am thankful that this is a recent monograph which means there continues to be believers studying reconciliation in the practice of the church. I am also thankful to note that the author is an unknown outside of Israel, and here I want to commend Langham for publishing books that some, most(?) publishers would not publish.
In fact, my experience with this book was so good, I bought another Langham Monograph which was available at a discount, "Interpersonal Reconciliation between Christians in a Shame-Oriented Culture: A Sri Lankan Case Study" by Mano Emmanuel. This book was discounted to USD6.27 which is a lot cheaper than Mansour's book which cost USD25.99.
Warning Dear Reader
However, as much as I enjoy Mansour's book and think the USD25.99 price tag worth the insight a Palestinian Christian in Israel offers on reconciliation, I am duty bound to warn you.
This is a research thesis. It's not written for a popular audience. Perhaps this book review would generate some well-deserved interest on Mansour and her writing, and make it her while to write a book for the everyday reader.
And if she does write another book, I hope she tells us how well her recommendations work. Taking one example, in this book I reviewed today, she successfully showed a need for the people to express the injustice they experienced or the anger and disappointments they felt. She successfully showed how other approaches that did not consider this cultural aspect failed to move the people towards reconciliation. She successfully showed how Volf's framework did not consider this aspect and she recommended venting be part of the reconciliation process, at least for Palestinian Christians.
Therefore, this leaves a big gap, a research gap, namely, does her recommendations work in the field? I hope one day to read an evaluation of these methods. It would also be amazing if we can one day read that Church A, B and C achieved reconciliation and how they are sharing the Lord's goodness with other believers. Reconciliation is possible! Do not mistake the Lord's arm to be so short that He cannot save you from your conflicts.
Other than buying the book and leaving good reviews, there are other ways we can encourage Rula Khoury Mansour and the Palestinian Baptist Churches in her case study. If you are a researcher, you can the read and cite her work and build on her work to advance the field one step further.
More powerfully, if this book has helped you reconcile with another, and what a miracle this is!, then send a note to Rula Khoury Mansour to thank her. And if it isn't too much trouble, I would love to hear it as well. You can find my contact details at www.readingandreaders.com. That's www.readingandreaders.com.
In conclusion, I found Mansour's book to be an intimate look at the Palestinian Baptist Church, so intimate that I dearly pray my brothers and sisters there would agree in the Lord and I pray that peacemakers would come forth to help them.
The book is practical. Since reading the book, I have shared the ideas on the pulpit and applied them in a real life case, specifically the need to remember truthfully and to integrate the past into the present.
The book is critical. I learnt how to take a framework and evaluate it critically in my context. When I first heard of Mansour and her book in Chris Wright's interview, I didn't know her book was a monograph. After reading the book, I realised that I can enjoy reading a monograph.
Let me close this book review with Matthew 5:9, which says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." May the Lord send his peacemakers and ministers of reconciliation to work in Israel-Palestine and the Palestinian Baptist Churches.
This is a Reading and Reader's review of "Theology of Reconciliation: A Palestinian Christian Perspective in Dialogue with Miroslav Volf" by Rula Khoury Mansour. 352 pages. Published by Langham Monographs in January 2020. Thank you for listening.
Book List

• "Theology of Reconciliation: A Palestinian Christian Perspective in Dialogue with Miroslav Volf" by Rula Khoury Mansour. Amazon. Logos.
• "Interpersonal Reconciliation between Christians in a Shame-Oriented Culture: A Sri Lankan Case Study" by Mano Emmanuel. Amazon.
• "Exclusion and Embrace, Revised and Updated: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation" by Miroslav Volf. Amazon.