Reading and Readers

The evangelical world has no shortage of scandals. But are you ready for the real scandal? The real scandal of the evangelical mind?
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 "The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind" by Carl Trueman. 48 pages, published in January 2011 by Moody Publishers. You can get the Amazon Kindle book for USD3.99 or you can get it for free from Faithlife. "The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind" is Faithlife's Free Book of the Month.
In 1995, Mark Noll wrote "The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind" where he pointed to the lack of a mind in the evangelical. 16 years later, in 2011, Carl Trueman writes "The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind" where he points to the lack of an evangel, the good news, in the evangelical. 11 years later, in 2022, Michael Reeves writes, "The Real Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind" where he points to the real scandal, which is the lack of integrity. Or at least that would be my title for Michael Reeves' book but perhaps 27 years is too long to play on a book title. The actual title for Reeves' book is "Gospel People: A Call for Evangelical Integrity", which is a more respectable, less scandalous title.
So you see from these three books, after nearly 30 years, evangelicalism remains a problem. A problem in defining what it is. A problem in moving the movement and moving it in the right direction.
How do you solve a problem like evangelicalism? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? How do you find a word that means evangelicalism. A flibbertijibbet! A Will-o-the-wisp! A clown!
Here comes Carl Trueman in his book with many a thing he'd like to tell evangelicals. Many a thing evangelicals ought to understand.
Author
Carl Trueman is the Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College. He has written many books including the much acclaimed, "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution". I've read so many good reviews on this book that I have saved this book for a special occasion, much like you would save good wine. When I have a long-ish break and can enjoy this book without distractions, I'll break it out and read it.
I first encountered Carl Trueman's writing in First Things, which states in it's website (www.firsthings.com) that it is America's Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life. Trueman's writing reminds me of G.K. Chesterton, his keen observation and playfulness in catching you off guard with the absurd. That might not be a fair comparison because:

1. I don't read enough G.K. Chesterton. I've only read one book by him.
2. I don't read enough Carl Trueman. Today's book would be my first book or booklet, by him.
3. Maybe I'm making a superficial comparison because they are both British and write in a British accent.

Structure
Let's go to the book.
After the acknowledgement and introduction, there are three chapters, which are:

1. Losing Our Religion
2. Exclusion and the Evangelical Mind
3. The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind

With a book as short as this, 48 pages, there is a real risk of giving away the whole book in a review. So for each chapter, I'll try to restrain myself to only one insight. In doing so, I'll show how a 11-year old book by a historian-theologian on a subject as amorphous as evangelicalism can explain what is wrong with people today and guide us on practical matters.
Losing Our Religion
In the first chapter, Trueman begins by listing David Bebbington's definition of evangelicalism. Evangelicalism consists of four hallmarks, namely:

1. A high regard for the Bible as the primary source of spiritual truth, and
2. A focus on the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and
3. A belief in the necessity of spiritual conversion, and
4. The priority of publicly proclaiming and living out the gospel.

Trueman then proceeds to show how that definition is weak because it groups people that should not be grouped together. Imagine a United Nations Human Rights Council with members who are the vilest violators of human rights. That would just be silly. In the same way when the composition of the group is so mixed, it questions the cohesiveness of the label.
As you read the chapter, you get a sense of frustration because evangelicalism is supposed to be a clarifying force of good. Instead it's become this mess of a definition and is neither clarifying nor good.
I'm over-indulging at this point but the song from the Sound of Music describes the amorphous nature of evangelicalism:How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?

When I’m with her I’m confused

Out of focus and bemused

And I never know exactly where I am

Unpredictable as weather

She’s as flighty as a feather

She’s a darling! She’s a demon! She’s a lamb!

She’d outpester any pest

Drive a hornet from its nest

She could throw a whirling dervish out of whirl

She is gentle! She is wild!

She’s a riddle! She’s a child!

She’s a headache! She’s an angel!

She’s Evangelicalism!

In the movie "The Sound of Music", Maria is an out of place nun. She is a singing nun that doesn't belong in this convent with the other singing nuns. By the end of the movie, she discovers where she belongs.
Belonging is a two-sided coin. To know where you belong is to know where you don't belong. There is a boundary between those two states.
And that is where Trueman leads to. Trueman argues that for evangelicalism to rise and triumph (eventually, maybe, hopefully), it needs to know where it belongs and where it doesn't belong, what is the boundary.
He writes:
Admittedly, there are good historical reasons for the wider cultural fear of boundaries. The exclusion of Jews in Germany, segregation in the American South, and apartheid in South Africa all led to great evil. Exclusion has often been based on bigotry and used as a means of control, manipulation, and worse. Seen in this light, an ill-defined evangelicalism is in tune with the cultural moment, more kind and gentle and tasteful than an exclusive movement.
However, the cultural distaste for boundaries is also connected to the cultural distaste for truth claims. Such claims necessarily exclude, and in a world where the “it just feels right to me” mentality of the Oprah Winfrey Show is more acceptable than the authoritative “Thus says the Lord!” of Old Testament prophets, affinities between the cultural mind-set and the nebulous doctrine of much of evangelicalism are clear.
He later argues:
From the time of Paul, the church has drawn boundaries. Such has been considered necessary for her well-being and even her survival. A movement that cannot or will not draw boundaries, or that allows the modern cultural fear of exclusion to set its theological agenda, is doomed to lose its doctrinal identity. Once it does, it will drift from whatever moorings it may have had in historic Christianity.
It seems to me that the definition problem is like sorting laundry. You have a pile of laundry and if you ask someone to sort it, he might sort it by size, by gender, by colour, or by any other category. But perhaps the most important category is ownership. Which of the clothes belongs to the person. And to know that, you have to know the owner. You have to hang around the owner long enough to know whether he wears hole-y jeans, or turtlenecks, or pink scarves. That is his, that is not his.
Evangelicalism ultimately (or should I say ideally?) belongs to Jesus. He is the owner.
Clothes' size is a match to the person, you can wish that that pair of jeans can fit you, but wishing doesn't make it so. In the same way, a church's doctrine or teaching needs to match to Jesus. You can try to tailor a looser or tighter teaching to fit on Jesus, but wishing doesn't make it so. If it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. The solution then is to know Jesus and thus determine which churches belong to him.
Exclusion and the Evangelical Mind
In the opening pages of chapter two, Trueman reveals the scandal of the social climbing evangelical academic who, I quote, "who never misses a chance to trash anybody who happens to stand just to his right theologically" and later Trueman continues, who "always finds something of value in, and even fawns over, those to his left."
A short diversion. I'm reading another book which is based on an honour and shame culture. And with these two books in my mind, I was just startled to see honour and shame in evangelical academia. Maybe it's obvious to you but I always thought that honour and shame cultures best describes Asian or Middle Eastern cultures, Japanese harakiri or Pakistani honour killings. If used to described the West, you would have to look back in history to Roman-Greco cultures or medieval knights. Or perhaps limited to military subcultures.
However, after reading Trueman's description of evangelical academia, the scales came off my eyes. "Hey, you professors are in an honour and shame culture. You see honour in belonging to the left and shame in belonging to the right." Honour and shame by itself is not a bad thing but it is a powerful force. In one culture, it compels fathers to kill their own daughters. Perhaps it is also compelling academics to kill their own beliefs.
That is just a diversion that comes from mixing two thoughts together. Trueman's main theme for chapter two is on the interplay between evangelicalism and culture.
When you survey the landscape of evangelicalism, do you despair? Have you wondered why evangelical churches are renouncing or reconstructing or rebranding their faith to embrace what the Bible says is wrong.
In this chapter, Trueman takes the example of homosexuality and tells us, no, remember Trueman wrote this 11 years ago, he predicts how evangelicals would surrender to the growing pressure to embrace homosexuality.
He writes:
Predictably, there will be no evangelical consensus on homosexuality because ethical consideration of it rests upon theological categories of biblical authority, creation, fall, Christology, redemption, and consummation—and there is no evangelical consensus in any of these areas. With evangelicalism no longer defined by doctrinal commitments, there can and will be no evangelical consensus on homosexuality. Marry this theological vagary to a strong desire for a place at the cultural table, and greater acceptance of homosexuality among evangelicals is all but assured.
Now I'm sure that churches who accept homosexuality will insist they are biblical. I believe they rest their case mainly on God is love. Or at minimum, they may insist the Bible doesn't speak clearly enough on the topic. It is a cultural taboo for the people at that time that is no longer valid for us today. Trueman imputes motive here. They do what they do because there is "a strong desire for a place at the cultural table".
This is a big subject. Bigger than this book review or even this book. Trueman's main point here is that evangelicals do not share an united view, there is no consensus, on social issues because there is no consensus on doctrinal statements.
My favourite part of the book is this, Trueman writes:
It is likely that the coming cultural storms will be best weathered by evangelical organizations and institutions with more precisely defined doctrinal statements, particularly statements that are close to, or identical with, historic creeds and confessions. The last one hundred years of evangelicalism has shown that minimal doctrinal bases do not provide real resistance to heterodoxy and the downgrading of doctrine. Of course, no creed can safeguard orthodoxy alone; fidelity and integrity on the part of leaders and gatekeepers are also required. But without a strong and complete doctrinal confession, gatekeeping becomes nearly impossible, even for well-intentioned and faithful leaders.
At this point of my church life, I am reviewing the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 and understanding what it means for the church. Many newer churches or movements aim for minimal doctrinal statements because they don't want doctrine to be a barrier to outreach. We don't want a high barrier to entry. We want a low barrier. So make the doctrinal statement as easy to understand, as non-controversial as possible, but still being true to what we believe.
Those are not bad aims. We do want to make it easy, we don't want it to be unnecessarily controversial and we want to make it true. Controversy is an outcome of the truth, controversy is not a goal to aim for. However, in addition to all that Trueman is right. We need a strong and complete doctrinal confession.
So it is with great sadness being so convicted of this need that I read the news. I'm reading this book in May 2022. The Church of Scotland, the church of the fiery John Knox, has just recently endorsed draft legislation to let clergy marry same-sex couples. If Albert Mohler is correct, and I heard this from his podcast, The Briefing, there was a study committee in the Church of Scotland and both proponents and opponents agree that the Bible has a negative view on homosexuality. If both proponents and opponents agree that the Bible says it's a bad thing, then how do we explain what is happening in the Church of Scotland? I am sure there is an explanation but I'm not going to do a deep-dive. If anything, this just shows that our hope is not in doctrinal statements, or church history or heroes. Our hope is only in Jesus Christ. God have mercy on us all.
The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
Compared to the first and second chapter, the third chapter is really short. This next part might be a spoiler, since I am going to quote the concluding paragraph to the chapter and thus the book. But if you have been listening intently thus far, much of what he says here is obvious.
Trueman writes:
Abandoning the myth of the evangelical movement can only help us, as it will free us to be who we truly are and to speak the gospel in all of its richness as we understand it. This is what our day and generation needs.
The real scandal of the evangelical mind currently is not that it lacks a mind, but that it lacks any agreed-upon evangel. Until we acknowledge that this is the case—until we can agree on what exactly it is that constitutes the evangel—all talk about evangelicalism as a real, coherent movement is likely to be little more than a chimera, or a trick with smoke and mirrors.
For me, the interesting part here is not him identifying the real scandal which is the lack of the evangel. By this point in the book, it's clear where his thesis lies. The interesting part is him saying, we need to "abandon the myth of the evangelical movement". Keep your finger on this phrase.
Remember early on I mentioned Michael Reeves' book, "Gospel People". I didn't tell you then, but I'll tell you now, in Carl Trueman's acknowledgement page, he dedicates the booklet to two individuals. One is Todd Pruitt, his co-host in the Mortification of Spin podcast. The other is Michael Reeves.
Let me read an extract from the description for Gospel People by Michael Reeves.
I quote:
Michael Reeves argues from a global, scriptural, and historical perspective that, while it’s not necessary to discard the label altogether, Christians must return to the root of the term―the evangel, or “gospel”―in order to understand what it truly means.
Trueman says, "Abandon the myth of the evangelical movement." Reeves says, "It's not necessary to discard the label altogether."
They are not contradicting each other.
I haven't read Michael Reeves' book. I am just pointing this book out because you may not know of the book and the connection between Carl Trueman and Michael Reeves. After reading the 48 page booklet by Trueman you might want to see what has changed or not changed after 11 years. You might want to see the points where Trueman and Reeves agree or disagree. In fact, I would love to see Trueman and Reeves interact on this issue, perhaps they have but Google or YouTube has not shown me any good results. Perhaps Elon Musk needs to buy them over.
Eternal Sunshine of the Evangelical Mind
Since I can't find it, maybe this is an opportunity for a book concept. Let me pitch it to you.
The title of the book is "Eternal Sunshine of the Evangelical Mind". We have three chapters. Mark Noll will write the first chapter. He describes the events leading to the break up within evangelicalism. Everyone just wants to forget the word evangelicalism. It's too painful. It's too heartbreaking.
In the second chapter, Carl Trueman will describe how book publishers, institutions and academics are lamenting at the loss of an easy-to-use group identifier but at the same time relishing at this entire new field of study dedicated to the death of evangelicalism. Trueman then notes how like a good funeral, the death of evangelicalism brings all these groups together again.
Then in the third chapter, Michael Reeves will describe how churches felt a keen sense of loss. Perhaps, they were too quick to wipe out that memory. There was something special in the movement and so evangelicals agree to get back together and give evangelicalism another jolly good try.
What do you think? Does it sound great? Does that describe, predict, what will happen in the next ten years? Or put it another way, don't you want to see Mark Noll, Carl Trueman and Michael Reeves talk about the scandal of the evangelical mind?
In conclusion, if you are not familiar with evangelicalism, this 48 page booklet by Carl Trueman is a good primer. And as I hope to show you through my reflections, even if you are not so invested in evangelicalism, I'm not, you can't escape from the the phenomenon. It comes out through the books we read and the politics and wider societal issues we see around us. The trick is having seen evangelicalism in the world around us and understanding how it came to be, we now navigate through this foggy landscape because we know that our hope in life and death is that we are not our own but belong to God.
This is a Reading and Readers review of "The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind" by Carl Trueman. 48 pages, published by Moody Publishers in 2011. It's available for USD3.99 in Amazon Kindle or free(!) from Faithlife's Free Book of the Month.
Do you like your podcasts to be scandal-free? A podcast that shows no lack of a sharp mind, a strong evangel and gospel integrity? So do I. Let me know if you have one. You can find my contact details at www.readingandreaders.com. That's www.readingandreaders.com. In the meantime, while we are all searching for the perfect podcast, consider subscribing to Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review scandalous, I mean Christian, books for you.
Book List

• The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Carl Trueman. Amazon. Faithlife.
• The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark Noll. Amazon. Faithlife.
• Gospel People: The Call for Evangelical Integrity by Michael Reeves. Amazon. Logos.

Every pastor who has served 50 years in ministry should be legally compelled to write a book. After so many years of faithful service to the Lord, they should be designated a national treasure. That's my conclusion after reading today's books.
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 two books. The first book is "The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart" by Harold L. Senkbeil. 312 pages, published by Lexham Press in June 2019. This book has won:

• 2020 Christianity Today Book Award Winner for Church/Pastoral Leadership
• 2019 TGC Ministry Book of the Year Winner
• 2020 ECPA Christian Book Award Winner for Ministry Resources.

This book was so good, it has a spin-off series: The Lexham Ministry Guides. This series includes published guides for:

1. Pastoral Leadership
2. Stewardship
3. Funerals

And they have two more soon to be published titles: 4. Pastoral Visitation 5. Spiritual Warfare
All these books carry the subtitle "the care of souls", tracing its roots to Senkbeil's original book.
The second book I am reviewing is "Pastoral Leadership: For the Care of Souls" by Harold L. Senkbeil, the same author as the first, and Lucas V. Woodford. 208 pages, also by Lexham Press, published in August 2021, meaning this was published two years after the first.
Two books today. Whenever I review two books, it's because I was forced to. I would rather just review one book for one episode.
Here is what happened. The Logos Free Book of the Month for April is the Pastoral Leadership book. I finished all 200 pages and found it dissatisfying. Not because it was a bad book, I'll evaluate the book later in this episode, but because it seemed like I am joining in mid-conversation. The authors are using words which I think I know what they mean but not sure.
For example, in a church setting, a young Christian hears the word 'justification' in a sermon. He thinks: "Does the word justification in the passage mean the same thing as in the sentence: Russia has no justification for war." And the answer is no. Justification as the Apostle Paul uses it is a technical term to describe a righteousness imputed on us necessary for our salvation.
Coming back to the Logos Free Book of the Month, in this book I frequently read the phrase "the care of souls". You and I could guess the meaning. We would be kind of right. But the authors clearly mean something specific by it.
At one point in the book, the author asks:
Do these stated policies enhance or hamper the care of souls in this place?
Without knowing how he defines the care of souls, you cannot answer the question. And the care of souls is not peripheral to the book, it's the subtitle of the book, spinning of from another book carrying the same name. Listen to what the authors wrote:
That’s why we wrote this book: we believe that the heart of all leadership and strategic planning is the care of souls. Pastors are not chief executive officers any more than churches are businesses. If pastors try to run a church and cultivate quality leaders without caring for their souls, that congregation is going to be spiritually dead in the water, no matter how impressive its outward metrics may be. Care for souls is love in action—the enactment of the word of God, to be precise.
If you were counting, the authors used the phrase "care of souls" three times. It is a weighty word, foundational to their ministry and writing.
Another word that appears just as often is habitus. In the preface to the series, the editor Harold Senkbeil writes:
... all pastoral work is rooted in a pastoral habitus, or disposition. What every pastor does day after day is an expression of who the pastor is as a servant of Christ and a steward of God’s mysteries (1 Cor 4:1).
While there are only five chapters in Pastoral Leadership, I finished it, seeing but not perceiving, reading but not understanding. What is this Care of Souls thing that has gripped these authors? And not just them but readers, reviewers, and book award givers, until it has spawned a mini-industry, of Care of Souls Ministry Guides?
So I felt that in order for me to do justice to this book review, I had to read the OG, the book "Care of Souls: Cultivating the Pastor's heart" by Harold Senkbeil.
This episode will review the books in the order it's supposed to be read. The Care of Souls first, then Pastoral Leadership that flows from it.
Care of Souls
The best place for you to read the Care of Souls is on a farm. Especially a dairy farm with a herd of cows moo-ing. The book offers so much earthy wisdom that it should come pre-packaged with dirt and hay so that you can smell the farm as you read it.
Senkbeil takes readers to a rustic time of the past, his past. I quote the first sentences from his introduction:
My childhood and youth were spent on a farm in western Minnesota—my father’s farm and his father’s before him. It wasn’t much by modern standards, just a tiny patch of ground. But it was my whole world, and what a wonderful world it was.
Any preacher can preach the Parable of the Sower and sound like an agricultural expert but only those who live that life can fill it with detail and surprise. For example, I was reading a section titled, "Spiritual Physicians" and Senkbeil includes this story. As you listen, I want you to know that he is describing the pastoral habitus, the disposition of the pastor towards the flock:
In the old days back on the farm, farmers learned the necessity of animal husbandry the hard way. Many of them like my dad were pretty good diagnosticians even though they’d never been to veterinary school. They learned from generations before them and gained significant practical skill by focused observation of the animals they tended, watching carefully for the peculiarities of each animal to learn how they behaved in a variety of different situations. So when they saw something out of the ordinary, they knew they had to act quickly.
Here’s one notable example. In springtime when our cows were first let out to pasture, they tended to gorge themselves on succulent new grasses and overeat. Their voluminous bellies could consume quite a quantity of legumes, and on occasion my father needed to take drastic action. When a cow’s flanks began to swell abnormally and she began to pant with increasingly shallow breaths, she was experiencing the bovine equivalent of acid indigestion. The results could be fatal if those gases in her stomachs expanded to the point of stopping her respiration. More than once I saw my dad take out a knife and plunge it into a bloated cow’s side and let out the accumulated gas to save her life. He needed to know exactly where the knife could be inserted without slicing into an artery and killing her. It was radical treatment, that’s for sure, but it was necessary for healing.
I shared this story and captioned it the lesson: "Do not overeat lest your pastor has to stick you with a knife."
Before you think this is the memoir of a Christian farmer, let me now tell you who is Harold L. Senkbeil. According to the author profile in Lexham Press:
Harold L. Senkbeil is executive director emeritus of Doxology: The Lutheran Center for Spiritual Care. His pastoral experience of nearly five decades includes parish ministry, the seminary classroom, and parachurch leadership. He is author of numerous books, including Dying to Live: The Power of Forgiveness and Sanctification: Christ in Action.
Senkbeil is a pastor's pastor. And if you are a pastor and you don't have a pastor or don't know what a pastor's pastor means, then you should read this book. While a big part of the book is the care of other people's soul, Senkbeil is just as invested in the care of your soul, the pastor's soul.
Movie Pitch
If this book was to be turned into a movie - and why not? Since it's already spawn a spin-off series of books - the setting would be on a farm.
It's like City Slickers but better. You don't know the Billy Crystal movie? You are an impoverished soul. Anyways...
A city pastor arrives at the farm to get some much needed rest. Not many people know this but he is thinking of quitting. Half the congregation is upset for all he has done, the other half is upset for all he has not yet done. He has read all the books, joined all the conferences and tried all the foolproof church growth techniques. He is the fool that proved all those foolproof techniques wrong. He is here to get some time and space to plot his next chapter of his life. He just didn't know how that next chapter was going to look like.
This movie is not in The Care of Souls book, I'm just conveying as part of my review how the book could be adapted into a movie that captures the book's essence.
The pastor meets an old man. The old man draws him in with tales of farm life. Before long, the pastor realises that the stories have a point. A pastoral point.
The pastor begins to open up in a way he never did before. Remarkably, the old man listens as if he has heard it all before. The old man gently asks, "What is a pastor?"
That's actually the title of chapter one in this book. "What is a Pastor? The Classical Model." I quote:
The premise of this book is that action flows from being; identity defines activity. Thus a clearer vision of what the pastoral ministry is will lead to a clearer understanding of what a pastor does day by day.
Later Senkbeil writes:
The classical texts of pastoral care have always called the cure of souls a habitus, a pastoral temperament or character worked by the Holy Spirit through his means.
Skippping forward, I quote:
A pastor’s habituation, or character, is what counts most in ministry. This habitus can’t be instilled merely through pedagogy or acquisition of intellectual knowledge, though instruction and knowledge remain vital and indispensable components in pastoral education.
This book, the Care of Souls is a manifesto for a return to the pastor's calling, the care of souls, by developing the pastor's habitus. This manifesto is not like some trendy political idea that excites generations of people; an idea that sounds nice in theory but is just fantasy.
Instead this manifesto to return to the pastor's calling, the care of soul, is an age old practice that is still being practiced and this book and author is proof.
Let me read one line from the book and let's see what you think:
This is the heart of the cure of souls: In proximity to the sanctifying Spirit every soul finds its renewal and cleansing.
Let me repeat it because this is an important part of the book. Every word in this line is loaded with meaning that fills chapters in this book:
In proximity to the sanctifying Spirit every soul finds its renewal and cleansing.
The implications are enormous. It's not just we have a more accurate theology. I love it when my theology gets challenged and hopefully closer to the biblical understanding.
This can help you in ministering to others. It clarifies what you do. What is ministering. It clarifies what you can and cannot do.
And thus save you from burnout. The pastor who feels the weight of the congregation on his shoulders finds relief in this pages as Senkbeil unpacks each word that I just read.
In proximity to the sanctifying Spirit every soul finds its renewal and cleansing.
Pastors, you have one job and only one job: Bring souls nearer and nearer to Jesus.
In that movie idea of mine - yes, I'm pitching a movie project in the middle of this book review - at the end of the movie, we see the city pastor waving good bye to the old man, renewed and invigorated for the next chapter of his life, the care of souls and the nurturing of the pastoral habitus.
So that's the Care of Souls. I'll now turn to the second book Pastoral Leadership. And I'll offer my concluding thoughts on both books at the end.
Pastoral Leadership
After finishing The Care of Souls, the reader will naturally ask, "What's next?" Having left the old man at the farm and having returned to the church, renewed and invigorated for the care of souls, what is pastor habitus maximus supposed to do at the church strategic meeting, or a budget meeting, or a funeral?
To find out, get the Lexham Ministry Guide on those topics! And that's where this book comes in, Pastoral Leadership: For the Care of Souls written by Senkbeil and his protege(?), disciple(?), pastor-in-arms, Lucas V. Woodford.
I'll now confess that the movie idea I pitched earlier is a artistic adaptation of Woodford's story. There are five chapters in Pastoral Leadership and the first chapter is Woodford's Coming of Habitus story, the story of before and after he met the old man, the real life Professor Harold Senkbeil.
Listen to what a wreck he was. Woodford writes:
Paranoia and uncertainty about the future of my ministry and the future of the congregation became my nightly obsession. Under the misbelief that if I worked more, tried harder, and was a better leader people would like me more, I began coming into the office at 3:00 a.m. to start my day and staying until late at night, after I had attended the last meeting of the day. Even so, landing on a common and uniting leadership emphasis for the congregation was ever elusive. Strife continued. Factions remained.
Later he writes:
I was trying to do absolutely everything by my own reason and strength. I knew the Great Commission, I embraced it, and I was trying to fulfill it, even if it killed me! But the growth wasn’t magically happening like all the church growth books said it was supposed to. Those same books said a leader looking to bring change and vibrancy to his ministry should expect all kinds of resistance and animosity and needs to be prepared to endure some misery in ministry and life. They said this was just the price you pay if you want to lead a change toward a passionate, vibrant, mission-oriented church.
Then he meets Professor Harold Senkbeil, marking the turning point in his life and ministry:
This loving professor and pastor gave me permission to see ministry in a fuller and more historic light, which included profound insight into the care of souls, not just the leading of members. Thus, I began to care more intentionally and classically for the individual souls of the congregation, giving them Jesus as I was called to do, rather than giving them myself, my ingenuity, or my next great idea. I learned that leadership and the care of souls go hand in glove when soul care leads the way.
If you are have a hankering for more rustic wisdom, we have two chapters from Senkbeil here. In one chapter he offers an all too real description of Pastoral Depletion Syndrome. If you are not a pastor be careful when you read this. After reading this chapter, you might be compelled to ask for absolution from your pastor.
At the end of the book, we have a resource chapter which is an annotated bibliography arranged in five categories: Leadership and Coaching, Emotional Intelligence, Boundaries and Schedules, Team Building and Strategic Planning. Woodford has done the hard work of curating these books so that you don't have to. This chapter alone could be worth the price of the book.
That's the end of my review on Pastoral Leadership. Now let's go to my concluding thoughts on both books.
Concluding Thoughts
I recommend both books to weary pastors, young pastors, pastors who are going to quit, pastors who are just starting. Both Senkbeil and Woodford tell it like it is. In a different era, what they both did here can be akin to airing out the church's dirty laundry in public. So much is revealed.
In a chapter they both co-authored, they present their credentials and convictions:
The two of us have been involved in the full gamut of church leadership. We’ve been in the trenches of ministry right alongside other pastors. Each of us have counseled, mentored, and guided pastors one-on-one through the whole range of pastoral experiences—from the edge of disaster to exhilarating success. More pointedly, we’ve pastored these pastors. We have the same theology and share lots of convictions when it comes to ministry, but this one conviction rises to the very top: every pastor needs a pastor.
One tip I'll give you here is you should read the Care of Souls book first before reading any of the other books in the Lexham Ministry Guide. Now I'm sure that those books can be read standalone but you will get so much more out of them if you read The Care of Souls first. Trust me on this.
With that tip, I have one warning for you: The Lutheran is very strong in these books. The way the books speak of the sacraments (Baptism and the Lord's Supper) is very different from the way I as a Baptist understand them.
Another example: Baptismal Therapy. I'm not confident that I fully understand what Senkbeil means when he speaks of Baptismal Therapy. This is something that Senkbeil speaks often and strongly. If Baptismal Therapy means getting Christians to see Romans 6 at work in their lives, then I agree with him and I was doing something like that, but I just didn't understand it in those terms. But if Senkbeil's Baptismal Therapy means something else the way the Lord's Supper means something else to the Lutherans, then I see it as a Baptist would see it, not as he means it.
The point I'm making is both books are very Lutheran which is perfect for Lutherans because even if you disagree, you know what you are disagreeing with. For those of us, like myself, who are not familiar with Lutheran theology, even when I agree, I'm not entirely sure I know what I am agreeing with. All this means is I need to make a Lutheran friend.
Clearly, Senkbeil and Woodford are Lutheran pastors who believe in what they write. I much prefer people to write their convictions clearly rather than water it down just to appeal to all peoples. Since I highlighted Lutheran so strongly, you might think that non-Lutherans should skip the book. I think that would be a mistake and I'm not the only one who thinks so.
Michael Horton, who is a Reformed, not a Lutheran, wrote the foreword to the Care of Souls. After highlighting the close kinship between Lutheran and Reformed Confession, Horton writes:
... the two confessions are different. And it is precisely in this difference that I find encouragement as well as fraternal correction and admonition. Evangelicals rarely encounter confessional Lutheran sources and this is a pity. This book constitutes persuasive evidence of the richness of distinct Lutheran emphases in relation to pastoral ministry. All of us need this wisdom.
And on that note, I will wisely end this review. You should read these books because all of us need more wisdom and there is wisdom here for the taking.
This is a Reading and Readers review of The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart by Harold L. Senkbeil and Pastoral Leadership: For the Care of Souls by Harold L. Senkbeil and Lucas V. Woodford. The Amazon Kindle price for both books are USD8.49 and USD9.99 respectively.
But if you get them from Logos for this month and this month only, The Care of Souls is USD6.99 and Pastoral Leadership is free!
You really should get the books because what are the odds of you finding an old man with a farm to turn your life and ministry around? Pastors, return to your calling to care for souls. Habitus Maximus!
Book List

• The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart by Harold L. Senkbeil. Amazon. Logos.
• Pastoral Leadership: For the Care of Souls by Harold L. Senkbeil and Lucas V. Woodford. Amazon. Logos.

Reading and Readers is officially one year old!
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Just not today. Today is a special episode where we celebrate the baby steps of this podcast.
On the 19th of April 2021, I launched Reading and Readers and for this anniversary and every anniversary afterwards, I plan to look not at the books but in the mirror. This is a behind the scenes episode. And hopefully this is the beginning of, again hopefully, a long tradition.
List of Things to Improve On
I was thinking to do a postmortem review kind of thing, where I describe three things that could be improved and three things I was happy with.
Examples of things that could improve include better proofreading. I wince at the English mistakes that get into both the recorded audio and the written post. The podcast can be improved with better editing. I would like to remove the fillers, ah, um, er, and pauses. And the most critical area of improvement, that would cover all the other improvements, would be that I record earlier and not, say, 2 hours before the deadline.
I have more in my list but I look at my list and it's boring. Boring because I'm going to say the same things next year and every year after that because this podcast is not my full time job. I have responsibilities and commitments that have only increased, not decreased, in this past one year.
Also, this podcast doesn't allow me to prepare a backlog of episodes. I review one, if not two, free books of the month. The premise of Reading and Readers is to encourage readers to get books before deals end. I get access to those free books the same time as everybody else does, which is part of the fun and part of the stress.
The quality will get better as I get more practise but honestly I'm aiming for consistency over everything else here. Just trying to knock out one episode every two weeks and sometimes if I can, I'll push one extra episode because I want to share this book I just finished.
So if going through my list of areas to improve on is boring, what should I do for this episode? Is there a different way to make a meaningful reflection on the past year?
It just so happens that I am in the middle of preparing a study on 2 Thessalonians for my church's bible study. John Stott in his comments on 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4, asks: "What should our attitude be to Christians who are doing well in some aspect of their discipleship?" He then poses the dilemma: if we congratulate them, we risk puffing them up and robbing God of his glory; If we say nothing, we discourage them in their Christian walk. Stott asks us to follow Paul's example, I quote:

Instead, we can affirm and encourage people in the most Christian of all ways: ‘I thank God for you, brother or sister. I thank him for the gifts he has given you, for his grace in your life, for what I see in you of the love and gentleness of Christ’. This way affirms without flattering, and encourages without puffing up.
When I look through my list in drafting out this episode, I ask "Where is God here?" It feels like a human endeavour absent God's providence. I could tack on "I thank God for this", "I thank God for that" but to me, the attitude that I have now, it feels like I'm doing it because I have to, it lacks depth or insight, there is nothing that leads me towards that utterance of thanksgiving. Is there a way for me to work towards seeing God in this podcast?
Then I asked myself, "Do any of the books I reviewed recently help in this?"
Two books immediately came to mind: "God, Technology and the Christian Life" by Tony Reinke and "Redeeming Our Thinking About History" by Vern S. Poythress. Reinke's book can help me think about podcasting. Poythress' book is on history and a one year anniversary is history. Poythress' proposed three aspects to history: People, Events and Meaning and provocatively suggested that we can and we should seek to tease out God's purposes in history. Can I apply what I have read in these two books to reflect on the past one year of this podcast's history?
Let's find out!
People
The first aspect is People. I asked myself, "Who made Reading and Readers possible?"
The first person that came to mind was my wife. Before I asked my friends what they thought, I asked my wife and she encouraged me. She helpfully listened as I brainstormed all sort of ideas and she helped pick the podcast cover. I preferred another version and was slightly annoyed she didn't choose my preference but looking back, she was right.
And as I reflect, I saw that I should not just look at her active and direct contribution to this podcast but also her passive and indirect contribution. She looks after the home and children so well such that I can squeeze the time to read, write and record the podcasts. God, you are so good to bless me with such a wife.
When I mention my spouse, naturally my children come to mind. And although the children have occasionally interrupted my flow of thoughts which I never regained and sometimes when I was in the middle of recording, they would burst through the room chasing each other, laughing or crying, I thank God I managed to hold back my momentary annoyance because at the end of the time, I thank God for my children.
My children have directly contributed to the podcast. Because of them I bought, read and reviewed the Green Ember series by S.D. Smith and the Wingfeather series by Andrew Peterson. (If you have children you really should get both series.) Also, I foresee that this podcast will be my legacy to my children. One day I'll be gone and perhaps they might want to hear their father's voice and thoughts, about books and the Christian life. So that thought keeps this podcast going too.
I thank God for another important group of people, the church. In my church, some are readers, most are not. But I don't want to approach this as a shared interest sort of thing: I like football, they like football, and I thank God that we all like football.
It is within the church that I can live out what I read. I talk to people and as we talk I sometimes share a nugget from something I read. A quote on cheap grace from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a story on forgiveness from Corrie ten Boom or a comment on thanksgiving from John Stott. I share from the life and work of wonderful saints to encourage the saints around me.
I don't just thank my brothers and sisters in Christ for being an attentive audience but more importantly, I have matured through the church, through the good, the bad and the ugly. The books make sense because of the experiences I went through and I can, by putting these together, help others.
For example, the book "The Peacemaking Pastor: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Church Conflict" by Alfred Poirier, is so good. I've gone to it for advice and what he has written has encouraged me to stay the peacemaking course. We cannot make copies of the man, I can't invite him to sit in for every conflict my church has, but I can buy copies of his book. It boggles the mind that a church may have solutions to their problems, but nobody knows that it's sitting on their shelves, covered in dust.
I don't want to over-promise what reading books can achieve. I'm merely pointing out that there are people who spend a lifetime, 50 years or more, making peace, studying the Bible, preaching, discipling and shining for Christ in the mission field. We are not to copy them blindly but we can learn from them. So I am thankful to God for the church, a people from whom I can draw counsel and joy and also contribute to, via this podcast and other means.
Events
The second aspect of history as defined by Poythress is Events. "What events made Reading and Readers possible?"
We have the Covid-19 event. Because of Covid, I bought a good microphone because I can justify the cost. I can use it for work, church and also for this podcast. Because of Covid, others picked up cooking or gardening, I picked up podcasting. Because of Covid, people who would previously do something else, listened to this podcast. One listener even kindly said that Reading and Readers was one of the best things that came out of this Covid.
While Covid-19 triggered Reading and Readers, what really made Reading and Readers possible is the technology behind podcasting. This is where Tony Reinke's book, "God, Technology and the Christian life" comes in.
To you and I, listening to a podcast is a simple case of downloading one app from the many apps in the store into a smartphone which holds many other apps. You press play and you hear the podcaster's voice. It's as simple as that. We don't think about the technology or events that makes everything I said possible.
I can spend an entire podcast episode just exhaustively detailing every technological advancement, but let's just do a quick sample.
Mics used to be crazy expensive. You could not plug a mic into a computer. Then you have the Internet which connects you and I together. I watched many hours of online tutorials, many many how to podcast videos, because this is all new to me. I used social media: Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to reach listeners from 33 countries. Big, big names like Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, carry my tiny little podcast. And they carry them for free! And I haven't mentioned the smartphone from which most of you are listening podcasts with.
And I've only just mentioned the individual components of the system. I have not mentioned the systems of systems that make innovation and mass distribution possible.
Let me quote from Tony Reinke's book, "God, Technology and the Christian Life":
Exploring all the implications of the Christ-centered basis of technology would require another book. Here I can simply state the glorious fact. Apart from Christ there is no art, no science, no technology, no agriculture, no microprocessor, and no medical innovation. Apart from Christ, we would have no iPhones. Nothing that now exists, visible or invisible, can exist if it first didn’t exist in the mind of the Creator.
So for this episode, as I think about all the events that make Reading and Readers possible, I can only sing, "O Lord My God, How Great Thou Art".
Meaning
Now we come to the last aspect in Poythress' three point list. After People, Events, it is Meaning. Can we determine God's purpose in history? Go read Poythress' book for a full answer on that question.
With this podcast only being one year old, a baby among podcasts, I am going to attempt the question, "What is God's purpose for Reading and Readers?"
Let us consider this. Can we say that, humanly speaking, divine purpose can only be derived from what we see and experience. When I accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, I testify that everything that happened to bring me to that point was for God's purpose. I confidently say this because it is only God who saves!
When God heals a person from cancer, we say it is God's purpose to heal. When God does not heal, we say we don't yet know his purpose. His purpose is hidden. But if we find out some years later that the doctors and nurses who tended to him became Christians because of his life and testimony, we say that maybe he had cancer in order to bring about the salvation of many.
So two points to explore here. One, humanly speaking, outside of the Holy Scripture, divine purpose is teased out from what we observe. Two, human speaking, outside of the holy scripture, God's purpose is hidden and will only be revealed in His time.
Thus to ponder God's purpose for this podcast seems foolish, arrogant, presumptous, hubris to do so. But to not make the attempt seems to ignore that God is at work in history. God did not finish the Bible, went for a holiday and will come back to work on the Last Days. God is ever present. His hand moves history. So though we not yet know the whys of history, we are told to constantly be mindful of God who is behind history.
This is no easy thing.
Consider the story of Mars Hill. If you have not listened to the podcast, "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill", you should. It is like a murder mystery but instead of a dead man, you have a dead church. How did the church die? What killed it? Great question, listen til the end.
Now, what if a one year old Mars Hill ventured to divine God's purpose for itself, based on where it was, its direction and early fruits then? It would be way off target. Even now, after the fall of Mars Hill, it's still too early to know what was or is God's purpose for Mars Hill.
And it will always be too early. Do we know God's purpose for the British monarchy or American Independence or ancient Chinese civilisation? It's still too early to say. We can only truly know after the curtain closes, when this age ends and even then, with all of history before us, our minds will not be able to grasp God's purposes for every strand of people and events. Only God can reveal His purposes.
So until then, this life is like a mystery novel, with us reading it and in it.
In reading a mystery novel, the point of the genre is to try to figure out who is the murderer. We have suspects with their motives. We have clues. Some of us may even be so diligent as to sketch out a timeline of where everybody was at what time just so that we can pinpoint who the murderer is. I never figured out who the murderer was but that doesn't stop me from reading mystery novels and trying to because that's where the fun is. And the mystery novelist welcomes us in this. The novelist is not saying, "Drat! Isn't it obvious who the murderer was? What a damn fool the reader is."
So, as I venture to the next part, I want you to know that when I speak of God's divine purpose, I speak in human terms, I speak, not the Lord. What you hear next is my bumbling guess, one year into Reading and Readers on what is the divine purpose of this podcast.
For listeners, perhaps, there are books that God wanted you to read. And this podcast gave you that extra push to read them, to delight in them, benefit and share these capsules of another person's mind. You must tell me if this happened. I'll print and stick your email on my wall.
Or Maybe you agree with me on what I think of the book and you needed to hear some affirmation. Or it could be the other way around, you disagree with me and God wanted you to consider alternate views.
Maybe you see what I'm doing here and feel emboldened to launch your own project, a podcast, maybe your own Christian Book Review podcast. If yes, please let me know.
Those are some guesses I have for God's purposes for you, the listener. For myself, I know that if not for this podcast, there are books that I wouldn't have chosen to read. If not for this podcast, having opened them I wouldn't have finished; And having finished them, I would have kept silent.
Maybe God's purpose is not in the reading but in the skills? Maybe I'm developing skills here for a future purpose that I do not know yet.
Maybe there is a book in the horizon that will just transform my life and launch me to a place I never knew I would go but having reached there, I could trace my unexpected journey to this humble podcast.
Maybe through this podcast, I'll get to know people that I otherwise wouldn't know: fellow readers, podcasters or authors. Unlikely friendships are a blessing from God.
So which one is God's purpose? Maybe all of them.
Omnirationality
This next bit is fun. I'm sure you know of God's attributes. God is omnipotent. God is omniscient. God is omnipresent. Have you heard this one: God is omnirational.
I got this from an article written by Daniel M. Johnson. The title of the article is "Omnirationality and Divine Providence".
I quote:
God doesn’t just act for some of the good reasons there are to do what he does. He acts for all of them. Baylor University philosophy professor Alexander R. Pruss calls this divine attribute omnirationality. Since rationality is the property of acting for reasons, omnirationality is a good name for the fact that God always acts for all the reasons there are to do what he does.
This means all the possible reasons for this Reading and Readers podcast, for you the listener and for me the reviewer, all those reasons or purposes could be all true. Imagine a snooker game where a single shot causes all 21 balls to be pocketed. That would be the greatest game of all time. It would stop the mouths of everybody who watches the video of that game.
When the curtain closes for this age, we will see God's omnirationality displayed. And in that God will have all the glory.
As I end, let me quote the conclusion to Johnson's article on God's omnirationality.
Since I’ve begun making a practice of looking relentlessly for the silver linings of everything that happens, I have found myself regularly rejoicing in the goodness and wisdom of God which I can now more easily perceive in the course of the world. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the fact that I am discerning his mind, and that what I can see of his mind is beautiful, its goodness demonstrated by everything good that occurs. Such a practice is bound to move us to spontaneous praise and thanksgiving; it enables us to obey the command to “be thankful in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
Similarly, we should always be aware of the fact that God has always more reasons than we can see for what he has ordained. We should live in anticipation of new reasons being revealed to us in the course of events, reasons we couldn’t have imagined while we were in the midst of the difficult circumstances that puzzle us. God’s mind is inexhaustible, so that its depths remain always unplumbed.
Or in short, Proverbs 25:2, "It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings to search things out."
This is a Reading and Reader's ... reflection on its first year. 40 episodes and counting. If you like Christian books, subscribe to the Reading and Readers podcast and tell a friend. For who knows, maybe you have been placed in this position for this purpose. Have a great day, thank you for listening.
Reference

• "The Peacemaking Pastor: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Church Conflict" by Alfred Poirier. Amazon.
• "God, Technology and the Christian Life" by Tony Reinke. Review.
• "Redeeming Our Thinking About History" by Vern. S. Poythress. Review.
• "Omnirationality and Divine Providence" by Daniel M. Johnson. Article.

I'm recording this 2 hours before I am supposed to publish. It's been a busy week. Lots of deadlines, lots of work. My to-do list looks more like a wish list. Is it possible for busy busy Christians to have a vibrant prayer life? Or is that only for monks in monasteries of the past?
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 Faithlife's Free Book for the month of April, "The Possibility of Prayer: Finding Stillness with God in a Restless World" by John Starke. 188 pages, published by Inter-Varsity Press in February 2020. The List Price is USD15.99, it's offered for USD2.99 in Amazon Kindle at the time of this recording (USD2.99 is a great deal!) and it is free for this month in Faithlife.
Finding John Starke
According to Ligonier Ministries, Starke is the lead pastor of All Souls Church New York City and an editor for The Gospel Coalition. But according to The Gospel Coalition, he is the pastor of preaching at Apostles Church in New York City. Is All Souls Church the same as Apostles Church? Is he the pastor of two separate churches?
I didn't know so I decided to fly over to New York City to visit the two churches for myself and investigate this matter for myself. Then I remembered the Internet, the indispensable tool for online detectives investigating anything from airline crashes to war crimes. So I fired up dear old Google and searched for "All Souls Church New York City".
And I got, "As a community, we work to create an anti-racist & LGBTQIA+ affirming congregation, taking action on issues like immigration, climate change, voting rights and poverty & hunger." There is also a link in this church's website to Buddhism and Mindfulness.
Obviously, I got the wrong place. I soon discovered that New York City has an All Souls Church, it also has All Souls Christian Church.
I found John Starke's Facebook page. He is currently the Lead Pastor at Apostles Church Uptown (which I also verified in the church's website). He was the former lead pastor at All Souls Church (I presume it's the Christian one, because if not, he has a great story to tell) and he is the former editor at The Gospel Coalition.
And all this serves as a lesson to us all, "always check what you read online" and "Ligonier Ministries is not always right."
I'm sure you are getting a bit restless for me to get to today's book review. You want me to quickly get to the point. But what if the point of the book is to slow down, take a deep breathe, and wait?
Realities and Rhythms
The point of the book? Let's hear from John Starke on what this book is about and how it's arranged. I quote:

A vibrant prayer life is possible for you. I know it may not seem this way, but the whole thing is rigged for triumph. That doesn’t mean that prayer will be easy or comfortable. It won’t. In fact, we should prepare for the long, slow haul of discomfort, confusion, and frustration, laced with joy, love, stability, and wholeness. There aren’t a few techniques merely to pick up so that next week the struggle for prayer will be over. Instead, there are realities that we need to grasp that lead to pathways (rather than techniques) toward intimacy with God. These realities—like the incarnation of Christ, our participation in Christ’s exalted status, and his participation in our troubled and lowly place—rearrange how we think about ourselves, God, and the world around us.
The realities we need to grasp are covered in Part One of the book, titled the Possibility of Prayer. It consists of six chapters and they are:

1. The Impossibility of Prayer
2. The Places of Prayer
3. The Invitation of Prayer
4. Outgrowing the Reactionary Heart
5. Pain and Prayer
6. Waiting and Praying

After understanding these realities, Starke introduces us to the pathways toward intimacy with God. He titles this second half, "The Practice of Prayer" which consists of another six chapters and they are: 7. Communion 8. Meditation 9. Solitude 10. Fasting and Feasting 11. Sabbath Resting 12. Corporate Worship
Normally, I pick a chapter to share with you so that you know what to expect from the book. Sometimes I pick the first chapter. Other times I pick a favourite. I had a hard time choosing.
I read one chapter and think, "This is good. I'll pick this one." Then I read the next one, and think, "What a great chapter. This is better." And on it goes. This is a good sign of a good book.
Reality of Prayer
Listen to how Starke describes prayer in the first chapter:
Prayer is calling on God for his attention. We ask him to turn away from the exploding stars and supernovas and give attention to our trouble. We ask him to show us mercy. Why would we think this is a good idea?
That last question made me stop. Why would we think it is a good idea to call God's attention on ourselves? We are sinners. He is holy. We don't go walk into the savannah calling the lion. The lion is the predator. We are dinner.
In prayer, we call God's attention to us. Did you ever stop to think about a universe where a great God listens to man? Cause there are many possible universes out there, you have the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Star Trek Universe, the Atheist Universe and many other man-made, fictional universes, with their own set of rules. What makes it possible in this world, our reality, what makes it possible for us to even pray?
If we don't see the reality behind prayer, we understand and do prayer wrongly.
Starke gives this example:
Our modern world often sees our neighbors, relationships, marriages, religion, family, and civic engagements as enhancements, like a gym membership to enhance bodily health. Things that previous societies might have seen as obligations, we see as enhancements. They are meant to add and benefit, but the minute they begin to require sacrifice, become difficult, or challenge our assumptions, we move on. They aren’t enhancing anymore. Many of us see God like that. And so we think of prayer, too, as an enhancement. But if we take the posture characteristic of what the New Testament calls us toward—poor and needy for him—then our prayers will begin to take a deeper turn.
I hope you can see there is much to unpack here, which Starke does in various parts of the book. Do you see prayer as an enhancement, something that helps you to be more spiritual. You tried it, it doesn't work, so you conclude that prayer is not for you. Or you pray but you shouldn't expect a deeply satisfying prayer life.
Can you see how that posture is different from what Starke describes? Starke argues convincingly that prayer comes from a posture of spiritual poverty. I need thee every hour, every hour I need thee.
Starke said, I quote: "Things that previous societies might have seen as obligations, we see as enhancements." Is it right to see prayer as an obligation? Do you want to read a book that increases your guilt and burden?
Let me read an endorsement from Chuck DeGroat, professor of pastoral care and Christian spirituality at Western Theological Seminary:
The Possibility of Prayer is beautiful and deeply countercultural. John isn’t asking us to layer another obligation on top of our lives but inviting us to a fundamental reorientation rooted in God’s presence. Because John pastors a busy people in a busy city, he knows the cultural obstacles and the existential hurdles. But this is a profoundly hopeful and eminently practical book. What a gift this is to all of us!
Plot Twists
I get a feeling that Starke is a guy who likes plot twists. In some chapters, he brings me down the path, and I think I know where he is going, when he suddenly goes off to show me something I know but in a new light.
When you see a chapter titled, "The Places of Prayer", what do you think?
After explaining what Jesus meant by a prayer closet, Starke writes:
Maybe early mornings feel impossible. You work late or you’re a morning monster, and for the sake of neighborly welfare you wonder if evening prayers are better. But let me give witness to what I have seen: many a friend has sought to pray later in the day because mornings seemed so hard, but they never sustained any regular habit of it. I’m sure there are any number of reasons why they didn’t keep up with a regular afternoon prayer life, but I imagine one of the most common was that once the day began, it was hard to pause the momentum of efficiency and productivity for stillness. To this I say (I, not the Lord), it may be wise to make your time of prayer in the mornings after all.
Reading this, I expected the rest of the chapter to be about prayer closets, how to block out time to pray, how to tell the children to shush while mummy flips an apron over her head to pray.
The chapter is titled "The Places of Prayer". How else would you understand "The Places of Prayer"? Places of Prayer, I thought it would be my bedroom, my office, my church, my floor, but Starke tells me the Places of Prayer are:
The Burning Bush where God meets Moses. The Throne Room of God where God meets Isaiah. The Eternal Communion of the Trinity. The Place of Prayer is where Christ is at my right hand. (Psalm 16:8). The Place of Prayer is where I am at Christ's right hand. (Psalm 16:11).
I thought I was going to one place but I ended up in another. It doesn't happen all the time in the book but enough to make it a fun read.
I give you another example of a surprise, this time marked by it's absence. If you had to write a book on prayer, what Bible passage would you include? Let me give you a hint... Our Father in Heaven... Lord's Prayer! Matthew 6:9-15.
What does it say for this Christian book on prayer that it doesn't expound the Lord's Prayer? Daring or Foolish? My take is if you are going to expound the Lord's Prayer, you should make sure it fits in the overall thesis and not just make a flitting mention for the sake of it. If it doesn't fit then leave it, and rest your case on the passages that do. This is what Starke did.
He doesn't build his book on the Lord's Prayer but that's okay, you can read J.I. Packer's book. Instead Starke builds much of his book on the Psalms, so much so, that I think he should one day write a devotion or commentary on the Psalms.
How much does John Starke love the Psalms? Near the end of the book, he writes:
I pray the Psalms at the end of the day because I want to go to bed with God’s perspective on my day that’s ending and with the hope that God has for tomorrow.
There is more that I want to share but time is running out. Before I go into Part 2 of the book let me quickly quote some portions from the chapter titled "Overcoming the Reactionary Heart".
I quote:
A reactionary life acts in response to what happens rather than out of our inner lives. We often do not know how to handle what the world throws at us. We simply react. When others hurt us, we react with anger, bitterness, and resentment, moving us to hurt back or pass the pain down the line to someone else.
He later writes:
A Christian who wants to grow out of a reactionary life and into an enriched soul and spirit must learn to pray the psalms.
See the Psalms again! But the point in the chapter is we should look at prayer life as, Starke says, "God's slow, quiet work". When life happens our response is like that of a Zen Master, wait scratch that... why Zen Master? Our response to life should be like that of a Christian Saint, more powerful than a Zen Master because the Christian Saint lives in the knowledge of divine reality.
Practice of Prayer
Alright, I need to at least say something about the second part of the book: The Practice of Prayer. As he said earlier, we need to grasp the realities, which is in Part One, so that we can know the pathways toward intimacy with God, which is in Part Two. Starke distances himself from the idea of techniques. He prefers to talk about them as rhythms:
The practice of prayer consists of primary rhythms (communion, meditation, and solitude), and secondary rhythms (Sabbath resting, fasting and feasting, and corporate worship).
He later writes:
Our personal times of communion, meditation, and solitude are enhanced by the regular rhythms of Sabbath rest, fasting and feasting, and corporate worship. And our rhythms of Sabbath rest, fasting and feasting, and corporate worship are deepened by our personal habits of communion, meditation, and solitude.
I thought I read enough books on prayer to not be surprised. I've read J.I. Packer, Tim Keller, E.M. Bounds and a few others so I found it delightful to learn completely new things. Like the connection between fasting and feasting. I haven't made up my mind about this, he gives enough biblical support to almost convince me, but I have a problem because I always saw fasting as some kind of Iron Man Challenge, not as a prelude to a feast.
Another eye-opening chapter is
The chapter on the Sabbath was also eye-opening to me. I think most Christians have reached a position on the Sabbath. I've even taught it. I thought I knew enough but it seems I did not go far enough.
Written by a Reader
Let me give my overall comments on this book.
I don't know how to explain it but, you can tell that this book was written by a reader. I don't want to exaggerate this but when he quotes Henri Nouwen, his writing takes on that persona. When he quotes Robert Farrar Capon, his writing is more witty. It could be just my impression because of the proximity of the quote made me associate the two together. And I don't mean it in a bad way. On the contrary, his enthusiasm for these books and writers is fun to read.
Listen to this:
Some years back my wife and I discovered what is now one of our favorite books, The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon. It’s a culinary reflection on joy and life. It’s a cookbook, but it’s also theology. Capon is funny but also aims to rescue us from the dangers of mediocrity in our eating life, where there’s so much pleasure to be found—even in cutting an onion! My wife and I found the book and we both wanted to read it. So over several evenings, we shared a bottle of wine and took turns reading it out loud to one another. We had so much fun. There were moments when we had to put our glasses down because we had to belly laugh or stop to consider and reread what was just said. “Underline that!” we would say. Those moments stirred intimacy and vibrancy in us.
Don't tell me that after hearing that you are not the tiniest bit curious to read the Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon.
A Book Written For Me
I have read many books on prayer. Tim Keller. J.I. Packer. E.M. Bounds. With each book, I'm hoping to learn a bit more, get inspired a bit more, maybe even guilt tripped a bit more, to have a more consistent and vibrant prayer life.
One feature of this book is he doesn't tell us about the prayer life of Martin Luther, or John Calvin, or Susanna Wesley. Not that I don't like to learn or enjoy learning from the past. But sometimes it takes a bit of effort to see how knights, castles and horses fits into my world.
In those books I love reading the past, in Starke I love reading the present.
For example, Starke writes:
Without that intentional recognition of his [God's] presence, prayer can seem distant and impersonal. Without the conscious welcome of his company (since he has welcomed ours), communion can often feel about as intimate as email.
Communion can often feel about as intimate as email. I get that. I get that praying like shooting off an email is a bad thing. I don't want that kind of communion. So in that sense, Starke's book feels like it's written for me.
I struggle to have a vibrant prayer life. I love to read and get introduced to new books and authors. I have read enough books on prayer that I don't miss an exposition on the Lord's Prayer or the prayer life of past saints. I am fairly techie and busy. I want to find stillness with God in a restless world.
I can't say at the moment that this book has transformed my prayer life to be more consistent. I don't think all the books I read has been a waste, I think they all play an important role in pushing me forward. Progress is slow. But an inch forward is still an inch. I would like to see what happens at the end of the year, when I do a long-term review to see which books made the deepest impact on me over the year.
If I could make one criticism, the book doesn't have enough doxology. With the material he is dealing with, like for example the places of prayer, you have the burning bush, the throne room of God, the eternal communion of the Trinity, as he goes through them, he could have just gone into praise. How marvelous are you O Lord. Just bursting with awe at the reality he is describing.
For a book on prayers, he doesn't end the chapters with prayer, nor does he pray much. I mean written prayer. I don't know John Starke. I've never heard his sermons, read any of his articles and this book is his very first book. Is he shy to share prayers? Or is it because spot where he could have interjected with doxology, he doesn't put his own words but instead the Psalmist's.
This is a Reading and Readers review of "The Possibility of Prayer: Finding Stillness with God in a Restless World" by John Starke.
If you enjoy today's episode, you can find more book reviews at www.readingandreaders.com, that's www.readingandreaders.com. Or you can subscribe to the podcast in your favourite podcast player. Thanks for listening.
Book List
The Possibility of Prayer: Finding Stillness with God in a Restless World by John Starke. Amazon. Faithlife.

The Gospel of Luke is a favourite for many Christians, including R.C. Sproul. In today's book he guides the reader through this beloved gospel, the way Luke wrote it, fixing our eyes upon Christ, from start to end.
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 "A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke's Gospel" by R.C. Sproul. 400 pages, published by Christian Focus in November 2011. It's available in Amazon Kindle for USD9.99. For this month or what remains of this month, it's available in Logos for free.
The Sproul Factor
My faith has been blessed by Dr. R.C. Sproul. Not because of Ligonier Ministries, which he founded. I have watched a few of their videos and teaching series but that's not the big reason. Nor is it Sproul's books. I haven't read his most famous book, the Holiness of God. I'm a bit embarassed to say that the only Sproul books that I have read are his children's books, which I got for my children. We love them. I don't watch or read Sproul. I mostly listen to him on the podcast, "Renewing Your Mind". Although Sproul passed away in 2017, listening to the podcast makes it feel like he is still alive somewhere scribbling with a chalk on blackboard, growling, grinning and chuckling.
In Sproul's case, his biggest impact on me was not the teaching, it was the teacher. He was larger than life: the humour, passion, precision in doctrine, the love of life, he loved kidding around. I've read Stephen Nichols' biography on R.C. Sproul but as much as Nichols tries, and it is a valiant effort, you can't capture the essence of Sproul in a bottle. And I think this is the problem with biographies of Martyn Lloyd Jones, or Spurgeon, or Amy Carmichael, or any other saint.
If you are a Sproul fan, you might come to this book looking forward to more Sproul. If yes, you might want to stick around for a few more minutes, before you rush off to buy the book.
I bought this book. I didn't get this book for free from Logos' Free Book of the Month programme. I got it much earlier. In late 2017, I began a preaching series on the Gospel of Luke. Chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Seeing that I was going to preach through the book over the next few years, I collected what I considered the best commentaries on Luke. After nearly 5 years of studying the Gospel of Luke and using various commentaries, I am confident to review commentaries on Luke.
If you are looking for R.C. Sproul's famous wit and deep insights, this is not the book for you.
If you are looking for a commentary as a reference, this is not the book for you.
I'll give some book recommendations early in this review.
If you want to dig deep into the language or the historical, cultural, sociological significance or the different interpretations of the Gospel of Luke then I found the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament on Luke by Darrell Bock to be the best technical commentary.
If you want to be moved, to be exhorted, to adore God in His Word then the best devotional commentary to me is the Reformed Expository Commentary on Luke by Philip Graham Ryken.
I wanted to lean on Sproul but his book offered so little. Then, Logos gave this book away for free. I have this podcast. So I gave Sproul's commentary a second look. After finishing the book, I understood what Sproul did here. And if you listen to the end, you might be surprised as I was with this book.
"A Walk with God" is a no-nonsense commentary. By that I mean he jumps straight into Luke 1:1. There is no background, no outline, not even an introduction to his book because Sproul doesn't want to talk about his book, he wants to talk about Luke's book.
The very first words in this book are:

I am sure that every Christian has one gospel that stands out as his or her favourite. If I were forced to choose, I would have to select Luke’s. I have studied and taught it in various settings. It seems that the more I read it, the more excited I get about it.
At the outset of Luke (1:1–4) there is what is called the ‘prologue’. It is very short, but contains a great deal of important information. In it Luke gives his reason for writing: ‘so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught’ (1:4).
Boring Titles
There are 24 chapters which corresponds to... guess what? Yes, to the 24 chapters in the Gospel of Luke. Each chapter has several devotions. For example, in the first chapter there are five devotions titled:

1. Introduction (I just read some parts of it)
2. Gabriel Sent to Zechariah
3. Gabriel Visits Mary
4. Mary Visits Elizabeth
5. Birth of John

You will note that there is no fancy devotion title. The devotion title is essentially the Bible heading. I'm trying to imagine the editor looking at the 104 devotion titles. No alliteration, no provocative line or question to pull the reader in. "R.C. Can't you spice it up a little? Instead of "Mary Visits Elizabeth", why not "The Virgin meets the Old Lady"?"
Everyday, somewhere there is a preacher, Bible teacher, thinking of a spiced up sermon title, chapter title. In this book, in this series of devotions, it is straight up, no-nonsense.
Mary Visits Elizabeth
Let's take a deeper look at "Mary Visits Elizabeth". I want to show you want you can expect in this book. This is a commentary on Luke 1:39-56.
This is how the devotion begins:
After the angel left Mary, she went to the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, Luke records that ‘the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” ’ As the angel greeted Mary, so does Elizabeth. ‘But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’ she asks. Young Mary would normally have paid homage to Elizabeth, the older of the two; but Elizabeth recognises that she is in the presence of one whom God had highly favoured.
Notice that the way Sproul sets the scene, there is no need for you to reach for the Bible. You have all you need here to picture the setting. He makes a quick comment on the cultural setting: Normally the younger would pay homage to the older but here it is reversed. If he didn't point it out, some readers of Luke's Gospel might have missed it.
He then moves towards the emphasis of the devotion, which is Mary's song, also known as the Magnificat. He makes a quick comment on a theological debate: Some say that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was sinless. Sproul cites Thomas Aquinas, who saw in this song, Mary confessing her sins. Sproul restrains himself from saying more. Sproul is an expert on the Reformation. He can write a whole book on Mary's Sin, not that he knew the specifics of her sin, but he knows that Mary like all of us needs a Saviour.
He moves on:
One of the reasons why Mary sings this song of praise is that she recognised something of great importance: God knew who she was. He noticed her. As a peasant of Nazareth she was not considered to be very important by anybody except her family. Yet God selected Mary to be the mother of Christ. So from the depths of her heart she cries out, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.’ Mary experienced what every human being wants to experience: a sense of her dignity.
Sproul quotes Mary's song in full. Luke 4:46-55. You don't have to reach for your Bible to read it. If you are like me, you might not know how to read or appreciate poetry. Sproul is at hand. He writes:
Imagine the pomp and circumstance of the emperors in the ancient world. They would march in procession and have slaves bearing their thrones along the way. As they were being carried along, the crowds would bow down to them. They were elevated on thrones in the air for people to admire the self-made gods. Then God would come and, with one tug of his wrist, emperors and kings of the ancient world crashed from their pedestals. This is what Mary says, ‘He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.’
After a bit more exposition of the passage, he ends the devotion with the following:
Some Christian people seem only as zealous as the strength of the memory of their last religious experience. But there are times when we are called upon to live for Christ when we don’t feel like it, when we don’t have an overwhelming sense of his presence. Every Christian knows what it means to go through the ‘dark night of the soul’. That is when we discover what our faith and memories are made of.
Even if you never experienced another blessing from God or sensed his presence again as long as you lived, you would have no justification to do anything but live each day in praise. You could do nothing but live in gratitude to God for what he has already done in your life. We easily forget, but we are fortunate that God does not forget. When he makes a promise, he keeps it. Mary understood that as she sang.
What makes a devotion, a devotion, is the way it lands. Somehow the writer must steer the mind and heart from the text, the accompanying explanation or anecdote, and bring the reader towards God. At the end of every devotion, all 104 in this book, Sproul writes with the aim that your eyes gaze up above and beyond the ceiling, to the Holy God enthroned above.
As a summary, in each devotion you can expect a quarter of it to be background or setting, a quarter is Bible verses, a quarter is the exposition and finally a quarter is the exhortation.
Some devotions are heavier on the background. For example, in Luke 2:1, the Gospel writer Luke name-drops Caesar Augustus. Sproul picks up on that to give us a history lesson on Caesar Augustus. In other history books, even Christian ones, when profiling Caesar Augustus the focus is on how great or how evil he was. Not so for Sproul. He is keenly attentive to the God behind every man. He writes:
It was in that small village [Bethlehem] that Christ was born. But notice, the only reason historically why Jesus was born in Bethlehem was because of this powerful imperial decree by Caesar Augustus.
It was no coincidence that this imperial decree of Caesar’s happened to take place at this time, forcing them to make the journey to Bethlehem. Here is the most powerful emperor in the world acting out the decree of God himself. Caesar Augustus, in the final analysis, was but a pawn in the hands of the Lord God omnipotent.
Devotions
Devotions should be read one at a time with some space in between. Give the reader time to meditate on what was just read. Spurgeon's famous devotion was titled Morning and Evening. You read one in the morning and another in the evening. If I wasn't reading this book, "A Walk with God", to review it, I would do the same. One in the morning, one in the evening. You should give yourself time to meditate between devotions.
In the entire Gospels, whether it's Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, what would be the most poignant moment to meditate on? Which part of the story of Jesus, should we pause and ask God to search our hearts? The Crucifixion and Resurrection.
I thought he could have written more; an extra devotion or two? I am not asking for emotional manipulation here. You could say that Sproul was being consistent with how he handled Luke's writings. Luke wrote this much, and so Sproul commented that much. But if we take Luke's Gospel as a travelogue, then the Crucifixion and Resurrection is the destination. Because of what these events mean for the whole book of Luke, I think Sproul could have helped the reader see this and show it by slowing, pausing and forcing the reader to meditate on the events of the Cross. Especially, when we consider who this book is for.
Who Is This Book For?
As I said earlier, I barely touched it when I was preparing sermons. That's because every insight he shares, whether it's on the language, or the historical, cultural, theological, every insight he shares I can find it in a technical commentary. And over there it would be described at length: the historical development and the multiplicity of views or interpretation. Whatever Sproul offers here is light in comparison.
In my studies, I didn't just want to know the facts, I also wanted to see and savour God. Here, the pastoral or devotional commentaries are helpful.
Forgive me but every time I talk about sermon preparation and commentaries, I have to issue a disclaimer. I don't read commentaries to find the best bits to share on the pulpit. I don't follow them blindly. I don't see them as authoritative. I approach the commentaries the same way I would approach friends. Knowledgeable, yes but not authoritative.
My problem with Sproul's commentary is if I was approaching Sproul here, with my sermon in mind, I wouldn't gain much from the conversation. Everything he says, I already know. Mary visits Elizabeth. The younger pays homage to the older. I already know that. Caesar Augustus, the history of the man. I already know that. I know, not because I am knowledgeable or read a lot, but sometimes it's because I've been a Christian long enough to pick up on these things. I've heard it, I've read it, so when I read an insight in Sproul's book, it is rarely new. For this reason, I never took it out of the shelf for the many years I had it, until this month.
Now, as I read "A Walk with God" by R.C. Sproul, not for a sermon in mind, but for itself, I can give you a profile of the ideal reader of this book.
Imagine a young man wakes up in the morning. He has to go to school. He needs to wash up, eat breakfast, many things to prepare. His mind is racing for the new day.
But he doesn't do any of that. This young man has decided to wake 10 minutes earlier every morning so that he would have time to do a devotion. His daily devotion.
For material, he doesn't want to do "Our Daily Bread". He has already done that. He found the bite-sized devotion useful but now what he really wants is to go through the Bible. He wants to read the Bible but it's so hard. And he is so busy. He doesn't have the time to do an in depth study and if we are being honest, even if he had the time, he wouldn't know how.
So this young man wakes up, opens "A Walk with God" by R.C. Sproul and reads. There are no knots to untangle. He doesn't even need to have two books in front of him. A Bible and the devotion. He finishes the devotion. Gives thanks to God. And the day kicks off.
The young man does this every day and after 104 days, he finishes the book. He says to himself, "I understand Luke! I know why he wrote what he wrote and I see God more clearly now than before."
With this confidence, he reads other books of the Bible, maybe with help or without. And he has achieved this level of confidence because a teacher once showed him chapter by chapter, what Luke wrote in his Gospel. A teacher showed him that there is nothing scary about exposition. And that teacher, R.C. Sproul wrote this book for that purpose.
Sproul's Favourite Gospel
You will remember that Sproul said if he was forced to choose his favourite gospel, he would pick Luke's. Well, he loved it so much that he has another commentary on it.
The St. Andrews Expositional Commentary on Luke by R.C. Sproul weighs in at 553 pages which is 50% more pages than the book I just reviewed. It's based on a series of sermons Sproul preached as the pastor at St. Andrews. This commentary was published in 2020 which explains why I didn't see it when I was looking for commentaries many years ago. I haven't read the St. Andrews one, but I just make a note here, so that if you are looking for a commentary on Luke by R.C. Sproul, you might want to compare the two and see which suits you better.
To conclude this review, "A Walk with God" is written for the Christian beginning his journey. If you can see the purpose, then even the mature Christian can gain from the simple re-telling of the Gospel of Luke as shared by one of the greatest Bible teachers of our time.
This is a Reading and Readers review of "A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke's Gospel" by R.C. Sproul. It's available for free. At least for the next few days. Free from Logos. If you missed the free offer, then it's available in Amazon Kindle for USD9.99.
Let's end in a no-nonsense, unembellished note. If you like books, if you like Christian books, if you like Christian book reviews, then subscribe to Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Thank you for listening.
Book List

• A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke's Gospel by R.C. Sproul. Amazon. Logos.
• Luke (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (BECNT) by Darrell L. Bock. Note that it's in two volumes. Amazon. Logos.
• Luke (Reformed Expository Commentary) (REC) by Philip Graham Ryken. Note that it's in two volumes. Amazon. Logos.
• Luke: An Expositional Commentary by R.C. Sproul. Amazon.
• Morning and Evening by Charles H. Spurgeon. Website.

Prayers don't have to be long. We can learn and grow from the short prayers of the saints. Hymns don't have to be boring. Hymns can be timeless and enriching moments even for the youngest of Christians, dare I say, especially for the youngest of Christians.
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today is a double feature. I review two books for you. The first is the Faithlife free book of the month for March, "Short Prayers to Change Your Life" at 176 pages, published by Harvest House Publishers in 2020 and the second is "Timeless Hymns for Family Worship" by Joni Eareckson Tada and Bobbie Wolgemuth. 80 pages, published in 2021, also by Harvest House Publishers.
Short Review for Short Prayers Book
Why did I feel the need to review two books in one podcast? It's because the first book, the free book, the short prayers book is really, really short. It's 176 pages but one page may have one or two sentences. The very first prayer is from Mother Teresa:

Everything starts from prayer. Without asking God for love, we cannot possess love and still less are we able to give it to others.
And that prayer is the whole page. The next page is a prayer from Martin Luther:
Pray, and let God worry.
The entire page consists of those five words. Pray, and let God worry.
In this book, all the text is stylised: big fonts and coloured. The short prayers are catchy, in social media terms, they are Instagram worthy. I don't mean that in a dismissive way. I think quotations, and so short prayers, can be formative.
When I was growing up, my father would share with me - this was a time when sharing was not a button you clicked in Facebook or Instagram - my father would get little motivation posters in the mail and give them to me.
I taped one on my wall, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." I remember a young me thinking it was a profound statement. That little quote gave me a big picture view of the little steps I was taking. It was through quotations like these that I gained an appreciation for wordcraft, the punchy, often profound phrasing that tickles the mind.
So, as a reader, I don't dismiss this book, "Short Prayers to Change Your Life". Young readers might grow to appreciate a good turn of a phrase. They may even read up on the life of Mother Teresa, Martin Luther and others who are quoted here. For older readers, this book can be a welcome respite from heavier reading. Most importantly, the purpose of a book on short prayers is to encourage people to pray. Sometimes what we need is not E. M. Bound's "Power Through Prayer", which is the best book on prayer I know, sometimes we just need a small nudge. Sometimes all we really need to hear is: Pray, and let God worry. An Instagram-worthy nudge. And this book, "Short Prayers to Change Your Life", is a book of nudges in the right direction.
I could prolong this review but it would be me just trying to fill up the time. I'd rather end the episode. But if I end the episode, I feel like I'm short changing you. So that's why I've decided to make this episode a double feature.
Free Book + 5 Discounted Books
Every month Faithlife gives away a free book but you may not know that along with that free book, Faithlife offers five other books at a discount.
This month the discounted books they offer are:

1. Love to Eat, Hate to Eat: Breaking the Bondage of Destructive Eating Habits by Elyse Fitzpatrick,
2. Mama Bear Apologetics Guide to Sexuality by Hillary Morgan Ferrer and Amy Davison,
3. Sweet Like Jasmine: Finding Identity in a Culture of Loneliness by Bonnie Gray,
4. Timeless Hymns for Family Worship by Joni Eareckson Tada and Bobbie Wolgemuth
5. Dare to Be: God is Able, Are You Willing by Charlotte Gambill and Natalie Grant.

I bought Timeless Hymns for Family Worship. The list price is USD22.99 but for February it's available from Faithlife for USD5.99. All other books I listed are at a similar discount.
Timeless Hymns for Family Worship: Bringing Gospel-Centered Moments into Your Home is written by two best friends. Tada and Wolgemuth had also written the four-book Gold Medallion bestselling series Hymns for a Kid's Heart.
Timeless Hymns
Timeless Hymns has 18 hymns, each with its own chapter. We have obvious favourites; Amazing Grace will make any list of timeless hymns. The list starts with "Holy, Holy, Holy" and ends with "Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow". The hymns are not structured in any particular order, whether alphabetical, chronological or thematic. And that's fine because each chapter is a stand alone, just flip to the hymn you like and enjoy the reflection, story, painting and song.
I was expecting the reflections to be more focused on Joni Tada's life or personal thoughts. For those who don't know who Joni Tada is, she is an artist and writer. She has 1000MW smile and is a great encourager in the Christian faith. She is God's blessing to many who suffer. Suffer? You see, when Joni Tada was 17 years old, she had a diving accident and became a quadriplegic. She is paralysed in four limbs.
I would like to read the entire foreword to this book. You will see how she writes and why this book was written. I quote:
When I was your age, my parents taught me the old hymns of the Christian faith. We sang these hymns around the campfire or while hiking or even at the dinner table after we finished our meal. We sang them so often that I easily memorized all the words.
It was a good thing. When I was a teenager, I dove into shallow water, broke my neck, and became paralyzed. When I learned I’d be in a wheelchair all my life, I felt sad and anxious. But when my family visited me in the hospital, they always cheered me up by singing our favorite hymns!
These hymns comforted me because they reminded me of God’s greatness. And they also shared great truths about God and His love for me. After hospital visits were over for the day, I sang these hymns at nighttime when I couldn’t sleep. While I sang, I focused on the wonderful themes of trusting God’s Word, holding on to His promises, and looking toward heaven. Soon my sadness and anxiety disappeared.
That all happened a long time ago, but I’m still singing all my favorite hymns, and now I’m sharing them with you in this book. You can imagine how happy I am that you now have a chance to sing hymns with your family. I’m hoping you’ll sing them so often that you too will learn all the words by heart. And I pray that each word of every hymn will comfort you as it has me!
Reading the foreword, I was expecting a memoir type of book: "Amazing Grace has helped me", "Holy, Holy, Holy is special to me", "Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow is my favourite because..." but it's not.
In one chapter, she speaks of Jehoshaphat, his big choir of singers, leading the army into battle. In another chapter, it's the story of Corrie ten Boom who was tired of the praises she was getting. Corrie found a solution. Every compliment and praise she received, she gathered them like a rosebud and in the evening, she would present this beautiful bouquet of flowers and offered them to the Lord. To God be the Glory.
For Your Family
It's not that Tada or Wolgemuth don't talk about themselves, they do. But the way they set it in this book, is they are just part of a bigger family of Christians: it's not about me, it's about us. They have all these stories to tell, and they tell them to help your family come in to the hymns.
Some say that hymns are so old, the lyrics are so difficult to understand, the music is so alien to us today, maybe we should move on from them. This is a complicated topic. There are two extremes to be avoided, hymns-only and never-hymns. Remember Joni Tada's foreword. How the hymns help her. Instead of arguing against the idea that hymns are difficult and alien, making a court case argument, she writes to the family. On the Amazing Grace chapter, she explains grace. Wonderful grace. She explains what grace is as if to a child. To your child. The hymns are a blessing to the church, to the family, she believes it and in this book, she makes them beautiful.
In addition to the reflection or devotion, there is a small box that tells the origin story of the hymn or an anecdote of the composer. I have found knowing the origin of the songs to help me better appreciate the lyrics and music.
In addition to these writings, every hymn is adorned with a painting. I can imagine children, even adults, brushing aside the paintings because every day, every app and social media is trying to hook you in with an image or a video. And I think we have lost the ability to just look and ponder. Here, it's good to remind the family that Joni Tada is quadriplegic. Show the children a video of her painting. She can't use her hands. She uses her mouth. Your children may do a double take on the paintings in this book. Wow. She did this. This is beautiful. The paintings are beautiful without Joni Tada's story but Joni Tada's story will help people stop and ponder.
We have beautiful words, beautiful stories and beautiful paintings for the purpose of bringing out the real stars of the book which are the beautiful hymns. Every chapter includes the song sheet and lyrics. You have a pianist in the home. She can play the hymn. Let everyone sing and praise the Lord, for he is good, so very, very good.
The Meaning of Songs and the Church
After I finished the book, I reflected that all of us have a story to tell of our favourite songs. When I say songs, I include hymns and contemporary Christian music. So we all have meaningful songs but sometimes, in contrast to Joni Tada and Bonnie Wolgemuth, we are not able to convey the meaning of our beautiful songs well.
Churches used to and I believe still have worship wars. People wanting very much to have their songs sang because it is more meaningful to them than other songs. I suggest that if people could convey why the songs are meaningful, something like how this book has done, I think the temperature in these worship wars can go down.
We don't say, be considerate to one another, as a way to manipulate others to give us what we want. One way to help us be more considerate is to hear how songs have ministered to people's lives, people that God has commanded us to love. Then there must be a way forward, that conveys the beauty of God's love and our love for one another.
Consider Joni Tada's story. Right now, if you are 17 years old and had an accident, you can't walk, you can't use your hands, all your hopes and dreams just vanished and you don't know how the future will be, can you sing? Do you have a reservoir of songs to sing? The hymns are powerful, not just because of the lyrics or the hundreds of years of consecration but because the old grandfather, the old grandmother in your church, in your family can sing with you. A Mighty Fortress is Our God.
Can that old grandfather, grandmother sing a contemporary song? Yes, it's not wrong to sing a contemporary song and I think it is good but we can only give what we have. And what we offer are the songs that comforted us before. If we can see God's purpose for music in the church, I truly think worship wars will be worship pillow fights.
The Meaning of Songs and the Worshipper
My second reflection after reading this book is I want worship leaders to read it. I'm also talking to the pimple-faced teenager who leads youth group worship. I would like the people who are choosing songs to think about the songs they sing. Worship leaders know the songs have to glorify God, that the theology is correct, but I suspect that exercise becomes checking the theological boxes. "If all the boxes are ticked, then I can sing it. I really want to sing this song because it sounds so good." Is there another way of choosing songs?
People say you should think about the songs you sing but what does thinking about songs mean? This book can help produce a meditative, reflective, deepening worshipful life. The examples are classical hymns but you can learn and meditate on modern hymns and also, contemporary Christian music. Instead of being labeled as the stubborn traditionalist or the shallow trend-follower, we produce worshippers who reflect on the songs we sing not just to tick the right theological or confessional boxes but also in the context of Jehoshaphat, Corrie ten Boom, introducing or explaining Amazing Grace and so much more. Worship leaders, song leaders, if you are not a reader, "Timeless Hymns for Family Worship" is an easy book to begin a reflective approach to music.
Don't Get the E-Book
After hearing my recommendations for this book, if you are thinking of buying this book through Faithlife, don't. I kind of regret getting it, even though it's a great deal. Through Faithlife it's USD5.99, in Amazon Kindle it's USD17.49. I'm going to suggest, if you can afford it, to get the hardcover which is currently sold at USD20.49 in Amazon, especially if you are buying this book for your family.
Imagine this picture. The father, mother and little children all squeezed together to read the words and look at the paintings. After reading the chapter on Amazing Grace, the father asks, "Do you now know what God's grace means?" The children hesitantly re-read the text and put together an answer, waiting for the father's approval. The family turns to the last page in the chapter, and together sing Amazing Grace. The mother closes in prayer.
The family may finish reading the book together or it may not because you know, life interrupts. But one day, many years later, in God's wonderful providence, a young lady tidies up the shelves and she spies this book, takes it out and looking at the paintings, she recalls the story of the painter. She remembers her family squeezing together, to read, sing and pray. And she takes that book, sets it on the piano, turns to the song sheet and plays Amazing Grace, for her little baby by her side.
As much as I love digital books (the premise of this entire podcast Reading and Readers is I review free ebooks every month), there are some aspects to physical books that are irreplaceable. A book anchors a reader or a family's memory in the feel, sound, smell of flipping pages. If you are going to read this book as a family, I strongly suggest you get the physical copy. If you are going to read it by yourself, then Faithlife's deeply discounted ebook is good enough.
This is a Reader and Reader's Review of "Timeless Hymns for Family Worship" by Joni Eareckson Tada and Bobbie Wolgemuth. Earlier in this episode I also reviewed "Short Prayers to Change Your Life". Both books are published by Harvest House Publishers.
Let me make a short and timeless appeal: Encourage someone to read. The two books reviewed today are breezy, no commitment books. Children and adults can enjoy them. One of the reasons I do this Reading and Readers podcast is I want to see more people read good books. For I believe a good book can nourish the soul. Until next time, keep reading.
Book List

• Short Prayers to Change Your Life. Amazon. Faithlife.
• Timeless Hymns for Family Worship by Joni Eareckson Tada and Bobbie Wolgemuth. Amazon. Faithlife .
• Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds. Amazon. Logos.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine echoes the German invasion of Europe 80 years ago. Both Putin and Hitler recite history to justify the war. When a holocaust memorial was damaged in an airstrike, President Zelensky tweeted: "What is the point of saying 'never again' for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating..." The question we pose today is "How should we think of history?"
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 "Redeeming Our Thinking About History: A God-Centered Approach" by Vern S. Poythress. 256 pages, published by Crossway in 2022. Available for USD18.99 in Amazon Kindle and, as of this recording, it's available for pre-order in Logos for USD11.99. I am reviewing a review copy courtesy of Crossway. Crossway had no input on this review.
Vern S. Poythress is a distinguished professor of New Testament, biblical interpretation, and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary where he has taught for 44 years. He has six academic qualifications, thereby establishing that he is a smart man.
His best friend is John Frame. Or at least I think he is because they both share a blog, frame-poythress.org and you only share a blog with your bestie right? I mention John Frame because if you are a fan of John Frame, then you might like this book which builds on Frame's perspectives.
Poythress is a prolific writer. Relevant to today's review is a series that began 16 years ago. In 2006, he wrote Redeeming Science, in 2011 Redeeming Sociology, 2014 Redeeming Philosophy, 2015 Redeeming Mathematics, and in 2022 Redeeming History. Or rather it should be Redeeming History instead it's Redeeming Our Thinking About History.
I love history. I love to redeem my thoughts on it. I jumped in to the book with high expectations.
Structure
The book is divided into five main parts:

1. What We Need In Order To Think About History
2. History in the Bible.
3. Understanding God's Purposes in History. (This is the main thesis of the book.)
4. What Does History Writing Look Like?
5. Alternative Versions of How To Think About History

There are 26 chapters over 256 pages. Some chapters are really short, the shortest chapter is 3 pages. Now, I will highlight one or two points from each part.
What We Need In Order to Think About History
In Part 1, Poythress argues that history consists of three aspects: Events, People and Meaning. Initially, I pushed back at the idea that people are necessary for history because the first five days of Genesis did not have people and so by his definition the study of the cosmos seems unfairly excluded. But I let it pass. It's early in the book and also because of the way Poythress links people and history: the historian is a person and for history to have meaning you must have people. Fine. Let's move on.
All history have these three aspects: Events, People and Meaning. The three aspects depend on each other, so you can't have one without the other two. And all three have God as their source. God controls all events within history. God controls all humans in history. If you have not come to terms that God is in control over everything including people, then Poythress makes a concise case to show you that it's true. As for the third aspect, you know the cliche, "There is a reason for everything"? Well, ultimately it is God who gives a reason or the meaning for history. As images of God, we try to puzzle it out and Poythress' central thesis of this book is historians should articulate God's purpose in history. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Having described the three aspects, the mutual dependencies and the divine foundation, there are useful discussions like the ethical, spiritual, component of history, the need to understand people and historical causes.
However I think there is an unnecessary distraction here. Poythress unnecessary links the three aspects: Events, People and Meaning with the Triune God. Three aspects in history, three persons in the Trinity. I won't say that Poythress draws a hard and strong connection but it felt forced and thus distracting. If you are a guy who manages to think of a fourth or fifth aspect to history, you can't propose it because you will break the Trinity relationship. It would be heresy!
History in the Bible
In Part 2, after telling us what we need in order to analyse history, he shows us history in the Bible, this wonderful book's unity, diversity and uniqueness. He is saying here, we can learn how to think about history by looking at how God thinks about history. He writes:
God is interested in each person. He is interested in history. It is legitimate for us to be interested too. The Bible also indicates that God is concerned about many other subjects. He gives us commands. He tells us about himself. He shows us the way of salvation. So we should not forget that a focus on events and their meanings—the historical aspect—is part of a larger whole in God’s purposes.
Understanding God's Purpose in History
Part 3, "Understanding God's Purpose in History" is better in posing and framing the question than it is at answering it. Let me ask you, "Is it possible for us to understand God's purpose in history outside of the Bible." For example, "Would you attempt to explain God's purpose for World War 1 and 2?" Please observe that we can explain God's purpose for Assyria to invade Samaria and for Babylon to destroy Jerusalem.
As I read Poythress' book and reflect on the news. Can we, dare we, explain God's purpose for Russia to invade Ukraine? The retired evangelist, Pat Robertson, quotes Ezekiel 38 and says, I quote, "Putin is being driven to move against Israel because God says, 'I'm going to put hooks in your jaws.'" Leave aside your response whether you agree or disagree with Robertson's interpretation of Ezekiel here. Put that aside. The question is are we sufficiently informed to know the divine purposes in history, whether it's yesterday's news or events from a thousand years ago?
Poythress shows us that we already claim to know the divine purpose. When we give thanks to God for answered prayers, we say it was God's purpose to bless us. When we tell people how we were saved by Jesus, we say it was God's purpose to save us. So in these little bits of church history or personal history, we readily recognise the purposes of God. Therefore how the individual pieces together of his or her life to glorify God is analogous to what the historian pieces together of small and great events to glorify God.
In these chapters, even as Poythress asks the historian to be more bold in describing the Divine Purpose, he also sounds caution. His favourite cautionary verse is Job's friends over-reached. They claimed to know more of God's purposes and was proven fools. In the same vein, Poythress warns on seeing God's purpose from our favourite causes, I quote here:
We all like to think that God supports our causes, our desires. Too often, sinful and biased desires begin to claim our allegiance. We give allegiance to them instead of subordinating our desires to God’s desires. “My church, my political group, my theology, my family is supported by God,” we reason. So it is easy to deceive ourselves and claim in a proud and self-satisfied way that all events favorable to our cause are expressions of God’s purpose to favor our cause.
What Does History Writing Look Like?
In Part 4 which consists of three chapters, Poythress shows how the historian can interpret the Hand of God in historical events. The easy chapter is the first one. It's on Rome. Christians against pagans. We have strong confidence to know God's will for Christians and non-Christians. The next chapter is harder, the Reformation. It's Christians against Christians. But it's still doable. When it comes to events within church history it is easier to guess or estimate God's purposes. We do it all the time when we read biographies. God has prepared Corrie ten Boom, Jim Elliot, Martyn Lloyd Jones and R.C. Sproul for a purpose. And we can trace it through the joys and trials, ups and downs of their lives. So it's easier to see God's purpose when writing history about Christians but what about for non-Christians?
That's what I was looking forward to in this chapter which is titled, "Histories of Other Civilizations". When I first opened the book, I scanned through the table of contents, and I saw this chapter heading and my mind was just waiting for it. In this chapter, Poythress writes:
What about the history of Greece before the coming of Christ? What about the history of the Incan empire before the coming of Europeans? What about the history of the Chinese empire before the time of modern missions? Even after the gospel begins to penetrate a particular culture, there are still many events that do not have a clear, direct relation to the increased spread of the gospel. There are power struggles, wars, famines, and technological advances. How do we understand such events in the light of the gospel and the manifestation of God’s glory in salvation in Christ?
If we can answer all these questions he posed we can also answer the earlier questions I posed, how are Christians to think about God's purposes in World War 2 and in Ukraine today.
And to my great disappointment, this chapter is only three pages long. His answer is hinted in the sub-heading: The Principle of Limited Knowledge. We could commend him for not over-reaching, for not speculating the mysteries of God but the way the whole book is set up, arguing boldly that we can and should describe God's purpose in history, I expected a stronger example to clinch the case.
Alternative Versions of How to Think about History
The final part, Part 5, is subtitled "Competing Ways of Doing History among Christians". In these last five chapters, Poythress is mainly interacting with Jay D. Green's book, "Christian Historiography: Five Rival Versions". It's an obvious change of pace because Poythress doesn't engage so vigorously with anyone in any of the previous chapters.
However, it is clear that Poythress is putting forward one particular way of thinking about history, and that is Providentialism. I quote:
We know that God controls events because he tells us that he does. But what are his purposes in bringing events to pass? That is a more difficult question. In a narrower sense, a “providential view” of history describes God’s purposes in events. It does not merely say that God did something, but why he did it. Let us call this kind of approach “providentialism.”
Throughout this book, it is clear that what Vern Poythress means by redeeming our thinking about history is not just seeing people as sinners and God as judge and maker of the Earth, but redeeming is to see God's purposes in history.
When it comes to Christian events, to me, it is a given. It's describing that water is wet. It is easier to see God's divine purposes in the church and individuals. But tell me how to describe God's purposes in non-Christian events.
The way he frames the question is tantalising, you want more. The way he answers the question is disappointing. It's like going to a restaurant, the waiter describes this menu item, a mouth-watering taste extravaganza, then tells you, "It's all in the chef's mind. No one has ever tasted it before."
The lack of examples, or rather answers to his own question of how to think about Greek, Incan and Chinese history is a let down. And what makes it worse is I think we can. We can trace Greek philosophy, military, economic or political thought to Christianity's history because when the two spheres overlap. But I argue, if you are a student of Incan or Chinese history, you can also see how the spheres overlap. And as soon as you can link any history to Christianity's history, we can begin to estimate God's purposes. The frustration is Poythress is content to tell us such history writing exists and should flourish but doesn't show us examples of it.
Another criticism I have for this book is it works hard to connect the ideas to Poythress and Frame's previous work when it should work harder to connect to the works of other historians. In the bibliography, there are 16 references to Poythress and 6 citations to Frame and their ideas were discussed in the book. However, there were references in the bibliography, which judging from the titles, should have been brought in as part of the discussion. The only writing Poythress thoroughly engages with is Green's Christian Historiography, citing it in the last five chapters of the book.
Providentialism, the idea of writing history with God's purposes in mind, was as Poythress describes it, "fairly common in the past, but it has become controversial." Are there any historians doing it now? If we cannot find contemporary historians doing it, can we have examples of past historians or biographers? We want to know what is a good example of history writing because we don't want to be like Job's friends, who seeing what happened to people divined the wrong meaning for those events.
Conclusion
This is the only book by Vern Poythress I have ever read but it makes me wonder about the other "Redeeming" books in the series. If the other books are like this one, then it reads like a guy who has an analytical tool or framework, which he applies to philosophy, science, mathematics, sociology and history. And there is nothing wrong with that, it's good that we can develop and learn new ways of seeing things.
In the case of this book, he sets up the case and fails to deliver. It's just missing one ingredient, show us how it's done right. Unless it's never been done right before. If true, then is Providentialism just nice in theory but impossible in practice?
Poythress makes the audacious claim that this is a God-centred Approach. That's an oversell. That's why I expected more. If anything, this book should be titled, A Providence Centred Approach. It would be less audacious and more accurate to the thesis of the book.
Has this book redeemed my thinking on history? When I was watching the documentary, "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing", Poythress was right in saying we everyone, Christians, non-Christians do inject a moral view in our history. We need to find a villain in the story. So secular history is not absent of morality, it's just absent of religious morality.
When I read on the five views of how to think about history, I was thinking how "Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History" by John Dickson, ticked all the boxes.
So despite my criticism, Poythress' book has challenged my thinking on history. The writing is accessible and he clearly wants to set his thoughts on biblical foundations. I just wished he had fully answered the question he posed, "How can we describe God's purposes in history, specifically non-Biblical and non-Christian history?"
This is a Reading and Readers review of Redeeming Our Thinking About History: A God-Centered Approach by Vern S. Poythress. Available in Amazon Kindle for USD18.99. As of this recording, it's available as pre-order from Logos.com for USD11.99. I got a review copy of this book courtesy of the publisher Crossway but they had no input on this review.
God determines Events, People and Meaning. Listening to this podcast is an event that connects you and I together. But what is the meaning or the purpose of this event? There must be meaning because we don't believe in coincidences, right? We believe in God's Providence. So perhaps, and I want to be careful here, I don't want to over-reach, perhaps the purpose of listening to this podcast, and potentially subscribing to this podcast, is for me to introduce to you books that will refresh and nourish the soul. Always remember that God's purposes are great and wonderful. May you walk in His Will. Thanks for listening.
Book List

• "Redeeming Our Thinking About History: A God-Centered Approach by Vern S. Poythress. Amazon. Logos.
• Bullies and Saints by John Dickson. Review.
• Providence by John Piper. Review.

A man walks into the ICU saying, "Help me, I can't breathe". A little girl walks in at the same time saying, "Help me, I have a splinter in my finger." The nurse rushes the girl with the splinter into surgery but tells the man who can't breathe to wait in the lobby. You ask the nurse, "Why?" She explains: "The man had a panic attack. It should go away in a while and we monitor him in the lobby in case it gets worse. As for the girl, she only saw the splinter. One look at her and I knew she was in serious trouble and needed surgery immediately." In todays book review we will look at triage not in hospitals but in the theologicals.
Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Every month I review Faithlife's Free Book of the Month, and while waiting for the next free book, I pick a book of my choice. And today I review, "Finding the Right Hills to Die On: The Case for Theological Triage" by Gavin Ortlund.

Life or Death in Triage
The purpose of medical triage is to get limited and timely help to the right people. You ask, "What do you mean by right people?" If you have many people calling for help, you first get all the people who will live -- they need medical attention but they will live -- and move them to the left. Then get all the people who will die -- no matter what you do for them, they will die -- and move them to the right. Those who are left are people who if left untended would die and it is to them, we give the limited time and resources, a shot to live.
Similarly, theological triage sorts doctrines into three levels. First level doctrines are essential and non-negotiable to the faith like the divinity of Christ. Second level doctrines separate believers into their churches or denominations. I so strongly disagree with you, such that I live out my convictions in a separate church, but I still call you brothers and sisters in Christ. For example, you believe in baptism by sprinkling, while I believe baptism is by immersion. Third level doctrines are differences that should not separate fellowship within the local church, for example young-earth or old-earth creationism. Theological triage helps us know how much time and energy to invest in a doctrinal dispute or as the title of the book says, finding the right hills to die on.
While the idea of theological triage is simple -- you just sort doctrines into three buckets -- the sorting can be problematic.
Imagine a man who was told he will die. So we are moving him to the group on the left. He says, "My situation is not as bad as you think it is. I need medical help. I might live." Or imagine a woman who is asked to go home. She says, "I'm not as well as you think I am. I need medical help. I might die." Who decides these cases? Who is best positioned to do triage? Doctors and other medical professionals. They are not infallible but we trust them - we have to! - to do the hard job of, not treating, we have not reached there yet, but of sorting.
I came to Ortlund's book hoping he can help me do triage. I have a doctrine in mind which I see as a first-level issue but some see it as a second- or even third-level issue. I think it's urgent and important, while others are indifferent. Will Ortlund help me?
Structuring Triage
The book is divided into two parts. Part one is titled Why Theological Triage? Here he makes the case for theological triage in three chapters. Chapter 1 explains the danger of doctrinal sectarianism or division. Chapter 2 explains the danger of doctrinal minimalism. In Chapter 3, he gives his personal testimony for triage.
Part two of the book is titled Theological Triage at Work. The three chapters correspond to the three levels, they are: Why Primary Doctrines Are Worth Fighting For, Navigating the Complexity of Secondary Doctrines and Why We should Not Divide over Tertiary Doctrines.
The book ends with a conclusion titled A Call To Theological Humility.
Against Doctrinal Sectarianism
In the first part of the book, Ortlund argues we all lean either towards doctrinal sectarianism or minimalism. He quotes Martin Luther:
Softness and hardness ... are the two main faults from which all the mistakes of pastors come.
Do you lean on the hard side? Do you see in every doctrine a fight, every doctrine a hill to die on? Only because all of Scripture is God-breathed and thus necessary to defend with all our might, right?
In the first chapter, we read that defending the inerrancy of Scripture does not mean all doctrines are created equal. He quotes Turretin, Calvin, Bavinck, Spurgeon and Baxter. These guys are fighters and they are saying not every doctrine is worth fighting for because, as Ortlund puts it:
The unity of the church is essential to the mission of the church.
Unity is not a codeword for surrender to minimalism. Unity is in the Bible.
While I appreciate Ortlund's reminder to not be too hard because love and unity is essential to our faith, my problem I face is not that I'm divisive. While I'm conscious of that danger, I see a creeping danger of doctrinal minimalism around me.
Ortlund writes:
I have often heard people say, “It’s not a gospel issue; it’s just a secondary issue.” And, of course, we should distinguish between the gospel and secondary issues. But if we stop at this basic distinction, we risk obscuring the significance of secondary doctrines. I worry that when people make this distinction, they mean something like “It’s a secondary issue; therefore, it doesn’t really matter.” While I sympathize with the instinct to focus on the gospel, we must recognize that distinguishing between the gospel and other doctrines is a complicated task. For example, doctrines can be “secondary” or “nonessential” to the gospel and yet still make a difference in how we uphold the gospel.
Against Doctrinal Minimalism
The bulk of chapter two is Ortlund arguing that nonessential doctrines are significant for Scripture, significant to Church History, significant to the Christian life and significant to Essential Doctrines.
I found most thought-provoking this quote from Gresham Machen: "Better to be wrong than indifferent".
If you know someone who is divisive over doctrine, ask him to read chapter 1 of this book. If you know someone who is dismissive of doctrine, ask her to read chapter 2. This means, if both parties read both chapters, we will understand each other's concerns. Just like how we can better understand Gavin Ortlund's concerns as he works out triage in his own life.
Triage in Action
Baptised as an infant, he grew up Presbyterian. Naturally, the seminary he attended was also Presbyterian. Reflecting on his journey, he writes:
There is no way I can sufficiently emphasize my gratitude for my experiences. Some of my happiest memories and deepest friendships in my life. ... combination of theological depth and relational warmth... We [Ortlund and his wife] sensed something healthy and beautiful about the theological culture at Covenant Seminary, and we have always felt discontent with pursuing anything less.
It's such a glowing review of the Presbyterians that the reader almost signs up to join them and then Ortlund tells you he is leaving.
He is not leaving because of personal dissatisfaction, he was happy, but he is leaving because of doctrinal convictions.
Triage ruined the trajectory he was heading. But it's okay, he got to write a book. In this chapter, we see triage in practice, not as detached what-ifs, a mental exercise, but as a believer wrestling to make decisions with real lasting impact. For Ortlund, that meant leaving the Presbyterians into the unknown.
I was searching for a grand old hymn to describe the tension in the triage but all I got was this:
I can hear you, but I won't Some look for trouble, while others don't There's a thousand reasons I should go about my day And ignore your whispers, which I wish would go away
What do you want 'cause you've been keeping me awake Are you here to distract me so I make a big mistake Or are you someone out there who's a little bit like me Who knows deep down I'm not where I'm meant to be
Who knew that Elsa's song from Frozen 2 would make a fitting soundtrack for triage?
Making the Main Thing the Main Thing
Now we enter Part 2, Theological Triage At Work. Now we come to the essence of the matter. How do we do triage? How do we classify doctrines into three levels?
It might surprise you to know that classification is a tough technological problem. Complex algorithms are invented to recognise voices and faces, to sort fruits into good or bad grades, to tell whether a painting is real or fake, and even which artist painted it. The way many of these technologies work is to first figure out what is the criteria and then check whether the voice, face, apple or painting fulfil the criteria.
And we do the same with doctrine.
Ortlund begins with Erik Thoennes' eight criteria on deciding the importance of a doctrine:

1. Biblical clarity
2. Relevance to the character of God
3. Relevance to the essence of the gospel
4. Biblical frequency and significance (how often in Scripture it is taught, and what weight Scripture places upon it)
5. Effect on other doctrines
6. Consensus among Christians (past and present)
7. Effect on personal and church life
8. Current cultural pressure to deny a teaching of Scripture

Notice that according to Thoennes, the Bible is not the only criteria. We also also consider put historical and contemporary thought on the doctrine and how does this doctrine affect me and my church?
Wayne Grudem asks similar questions, eight of them cited in this book. And he also warns us to not ask certain questions. We should not ask:

• Are the advocates my friends?
• Are they nice people?
• Will we lose money or members if we exclude them?
• Will the academic community criticize us as being too narrow-minded?
• Will someone take us to court over this?

To me, Ortlund's analysis on the criteria and questions are not ground-breaking. While it's helpful to put them together and to talk them through, thoughtful readers working on triage would figure them out.
What Ortlund uniquely brings to the table are well-researched and well-written examples.
If you were to go back 100 years to the Church embroiled in the biggest controversy of that time, how would you decide on it? Is the virgin birth an essential doctrine? Or is it a doctrine that fellow Christians can agree to disagree?
Ortlund brings us through Machen's defence on the importance of the doctrine of the virgin birth. Unlike justification by faith, the virgin birth seems so peripheral. Jesus never said, "I was born a virgin." Nobody taught it in Acts. Nobody mentioned it in the epistles.
Ortlund writes:
Machen distinguished between affirming the virgin birth and affirming it as a first-rank doctrine. He recognized that in his day “there are many who tell us that, though they believe in the virgin birth themselves, they do not think that that belief is important for all men or essential even to the corporate witness of the Church.” In contrast to this approach, Machen argued that the virgin birth is not a matter of private judgment but is essential to the church’s worship, witness, and vitality. To support this claim, he developed three considerations.
If you want to know what are the three considerations, you can read Machen or Ortlund.
Now imagine you are transported not 100 years to the past but 500 years. Sitting beside you is Martin Luther. Imagine he is having second thoughts. He questions out loud, is justification by faith alone worth dying for? He remains convinced that it is true but how important is this truth when the Church seems to have moved along fine for a thousand years without it? Or coming back to our time, how essential is justification by faith alone, when Christians are saved without knowing it? Ask yourself: "When you first believe Jesus is Lord, did that belief came together with an accurate grasp of sola fide, faith alone?" Ortlund covers these questions and more.
It is Complicated
In the next chapter, he navigates the complexity of secondary doctrines.
You would think and hope that after we all agreed on the criteria for first rank doctrine, it would be easy to agree on what is a first rank doctrine. No. Earlier, I mentioned the dying man who thinks he has a shot to live.
Let me give another example. Why are bats not considered birds? They don't lay eggs. Hmmm... then why is a platypus not considered a bird? It has a duck's beak and it lays eggs but it is classified as a mammal, not a bird. Curious, isn't it?
Now imagine when the platypus was discovered, an old ornithologist received news that a new bird species was discovered in Australia. He sells all he has, packs everything and plans to spend the rest of his life studying the new bird. When he realises it's not a bird, but an unique mammal, would he just lazily comment, "Curious, isn't it?"
If we don't get the category right, we can over-commit, like the ornithologist flying to Australia to study a duck face mammal. When it comes to doctrinal debates, Christians often over-commit or can't care less, falling into the two extremes. We need a middle category.
Ortlund writes:
This chapter is the most difficult and complicated of the whole book.
And I agree.
If you could name the top five controversies among evangelicals, what would they be? Ortlund wades into not one, not two but three controversies in his heroic attempt to show to us, "It is complicated."
He does not attempt to resolve them. Just how to rank them and our posture. Listen to what he writes here on the question of women in ministry:
Complementarians conceive of egalitarians as compromising liberals, and egalitarians regard complementarians as sexists who oppress women. It would be better to recognize that there are a variety of expressions of each view and to look for points of contact between the more thoughtful and careful proponents of each side, yet without downplaying the differences. There are godly and intelligent Christians on each side. We must be wary of labeling this a second-rank issue on paper but allowing it to occupy a first-rank position emotionally and practically.
The tensions exist. The differences should not be dismissed. But don't pick this hill to die on. Don't die here.
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
The next chapter is on third rank doctrines. For example, where do you stand on Creation or the Last Days? Ortlund comments:
But it is a historical irony that American evangelicals have tended to divide over the peripheral aspects of creation and eschatology while ignoring the more central aspects of these doctrines. Thus, many evangelicals focus more on the timing of the rapture, the identity of the anti-Christ, and the nature of the millennium (all, in my view, third-rank doctrines) than they do on the second coming of Christ, the final resurrection, or the final judgment (all, in my view, first-rank doctrines). Similarly, many evangelicals are intimately familiar with the “creation wars” but have never given any sustained reflection to more basic questions about the goodness and contingency of creation, on which the early church expended so much energy, and which are vital to a Christian worldview.
What I got from him here is doctrines can be sliced into first, second and third rank. Let me ask you. Is Creationism a first, second or third rank doctrine? That's a vague question pre-loaded with assumptions. You assume I know what you are asking.
But do you mean Creationism, as in whether God created the world? If you don't agree that God created the world, how can you call yourself a Christian? That's a clear first rank doctrine.
Or do you mean Creationism, as in whether the days in Genesis 1 refer to twenty-four hour days or not? Is this a second rank or third rank issue? Ortlund points out that some would argue any other interpretation undermines the inerrancy of the Bible, thus making this a first-rank issue.
Reflection on What I Read So Far
Allow me some reflection after reading this book.
What is the difference between the three levels in theological triage? In the first level: "Because we both believe in the Bible, I must do A, and you must do A also." In the second level: "Because we both believe in the Bible, I must do A, and you must do B." In the third level: "Because we both believe in the Bible, I do A, and you should accept A, or vice versa."
Ortlund's aim in this book is not just presenting the challenges and the methods to sort doctrines into different levels. More importantly, is the posture of the Christian in the three levels.
The way I put it is like this: In the first level: You bring a gun. It's demolish every argument time. In the second level: You bring a rapier. We fence, we score points, we hope to win each other over, but we shake hands after the match. In the third level: You bring a pillow. We fight but we still sleep in the same house.
If we enter into a theological conflict knowing the rules of engagement, whether to bring a gun, rapier or pillow, being clear where the doctrine sits, we can have more meaningful exchanges. Perhaps the first question to ask is not, "Why do you believe this is true?" but "Why do you believe this is important?"
As I hope you can tell from this review, theological triage is not easy and people will not agree. But that's true of doctors that's why a terminal cancer diagnosis leads to second opinions. Astronomers don't agree. Pluto was a planet since it was discovered in the 1930s. Then, in 2006, Pluto was demoted.
What is the most important attitude when it comes to theological triage? Ortlund concludes the book with a chapter titled: "A Call To Theological Humility."
Ortlund writes:
In doing theological triage, humility is the first thing, the second thing, and the third thing. It is our constant need, no matter what issue we are facing.
More Things You Can Do With Triage
After reading this book, I have this idea that maybe a listener to this podcast can take up.
Let's do a triage survey. We sort of know the positions many church leaders take. On women in ministry, spiritual gifts, millennium, creationism, virgin birth and salvation. My idea is do we know how the experts would rank their importance?
What if every pastor, preacher, theologian, missionary was to rank the millennium question as third rank? Maybe that would settle the ranking question. Or what if all of them say it's a second rank, then that is a different signal. Notice that the experts may firmly hold conflicting positions but if they all agree on the ranking, on how important it is, that helps us to reflect on our posture towards that doctrine. Whether to bring a gun, a rapier or a pillow to the fight.
Now say they don't agree. Opinions are scattered even within the same denomination. Some insist it's first, some argue it's second, and some are indifferent. I suggest that variance could be an indicator of an emerging controversy. For example, Critical Race Theory and the Church. Is it a gospel issue or is it a lot of hot air over nothing?
Let me give you another issue. Churches closing down for Covid. If you disagree with your church's position on this, is this cause for separation? Finding the Right Hills to Die On doesn't explore the Covid question but Ortlund wrote a response to Pastor MacArthur in his blog at gavinortlund.com.
In that blog you will also find chapter questions for this book. Questions suitable for a weekly small group setting or individual reflection.
So what next after this? Is there more room to explore on triage? I suggest yes.
Before this book was published I was studying theological triage on a particular doctrine: the New Apostolic Reformation or the concept of modern day apostles. I treated it like a first rank doctrine, a matter critical to the faith and requiring a decisive position in my church.
After talking with other thoughtful believers, further reflection and reading this book, my view has shifted. I remain adamant on my position on the New Apostolic Reformation, I remain fully convinced on what the Bible speaks on this matter, but I no longer see it as a first-rank issue. In my mind, it's demoted to second-rank. It's important enough for me to leave my church but not so important that I would see opposing views as heresy. It's at the boundary though. It's pushing near first-rank.
That is why I think there is room to explore in triage. I know I'm right. I just want to know how far do I take this argument. Not just in the local church but in the circles of influence I have. And that question applies to you too.
So I hope this book on triage is the beginning of a conversation that continues on. Triage is a tool for us to understand and contribute to past, present and future theological debates with the purpose to make us better Christians: quick to listen, slow to speak, humble, bold and steadfast to build up, not tear down, the Church.
This is a Reading and Readers review of "Finding the Right Hills to Die On: The Case for Theological Triage" by Gavin Ortlund.
So if you had to do triage on this podcast where would I be? Would it be:
A. A great Christian Book Review podcast that everyone you know should subscribe to. Or... B. A podcast with potential to live a good and meaningful life if it gets the care, meaning subscribers, it needs. Or... C. A dying podcast that just doesn't know it's dying yet. And if so, I'd like a second opinion. Can you get someone else to listen to this podcast? Perhaps if more listeners shared your view, I would agree.
In any case, it is quite clear, you need to tell more people to listen to the Reading and Readers Podcast. Thanks for listening.

Book List
Finding the Right Hills to Die On by Gavin Ortlund. Amazon. Logos.

Have you seen this meme before? The first picture is a boy with polio, followed by a picture of scientists working hard in a lab, and concludes with "Science cures polio". Next, we have the same picture of the boy with polio. But this time followed by a group of people praying on their knees to God, and concludes with "Prayer cures nothing". Christian, what do you make of that? Is science and technology robbing God's glory?
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, Technology and the Christian Life" by Tony Reinke. 321 pages, published by Crossway in December 2021.
Real Life Techno Priest Endorsement
First off, I didn't know there were pastors in tech companies. Listen to this endorsement:

“As both a pastor and an engineer, I continually find the need to interpret the marvels of the twenty-first century in light of Scripture. To that end, this book has been a great blessing. Tony Reinke has crafted an enlightening, balanced, and thoroughly engaging biblical theology of technology. This work is profoundly practical. All Christians should consider it, whether they live inside a major tech center or not.”
That was from Conley Owens, Pastor at Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church and Senior Engineer at Google.
There is another endorsement from Jeremy Patenaude, Pastor at Risen Hope Church Seattle and writer at Microsoft.
And another from Jose Luis Cuevas, pastor, missionary and also Director of Project Management at VMWare Latin America.
Reading the news, I get this idea that these tech companies are anti-Christian and anyone who is a Christian, much less a pastor, would not be able to live out his faith publicly in those companies. But thankfully I was wrong. You can work in tech and live out a Christian life.
Tech User + Christian = Christian Tech User"God, Technology and the Christian Life" is the latest book from Reinke. He had written Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age in 2019 and 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You in 2017. The only other Reinke book I have read was Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books. I mentioned in my review of Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson, how Lit! helped me think biblically about reading. It's essentially a biblical theology on reading. If you love reading, you've got to read Lit!. There are many books that make you a better reader, but there are not many books (I can't think of another) that would you a better Christian reader.
Similarly, there are many many resources that make you a better technology user, but there are too few resources that would make you a better Christian tech user. If you are a tech user, and you are, you must read his latest book, "God, Technology and Christianity".
You might not just be a tech user, you could be a tech junkie. Is there such a thing as a Christian tech junkie? We all know we are to glorify God in everything that we do (1 Corinthians 10:31) but can we really glorify God when we sing praises for a new gadget or invent a new time-waster? Reinke answers all these questions and more in this book.
Questions So Deep It Sounds Shallow
The book is organised around six questions.

1. What is Technology?
2. What is God's Relationship to Technology?
3. Where Do Our Technologies Come From?
4. What Can Technology Never Accomplish?
5. When Do Our Technologies End?
6. How Should We Use Technology Today?

Reading those six question, you might be forgiven to think the questions are a bit lame. The first one: What is Technology? It sounds like a lame introduction by a first grader. But seriously. The questions look trivial but they are not. It's like: Who am I? Why am I here? On one level, the answer is simply: "I'm Terence and I'm here to review a book for you." But on deeper level. Who am I? Why am I here? How do we begin to answer those questions? In this book, I reckon you have never heard the question, "What is Technology?" posed and answered the way this book does.
Those six questions, let's bring really smart people into the room to discuss them. Reinke brings twelve guys.
You know Calvin, John Calvin, but did you know that Calvin believes that the Holy Spirit inspires technological gifts of man to flourish? You know Abraham Kuyper, theological giant. Can you put his common grace theology, which is God's blessing on non-Christians, and put his 20th century outlook next to the 21st century innovator Elon Musk? Reinke did. If you are a tech reader, you must know Wired magazine. Kevin Kelly is the co-founder, a tech minimalist and open theist. Reinke quotes Kelly here:
Technology has reached a "self-amplifying" and "self-reinforcing system of creation," the point when "our system of tools and machines and ideas became so dense in feedback loops and complex interactions that it spawned a bit of independence."
Now put that sci-fi high-tech futuristic prophecy next to David's slingshot and Saul' armour, which is what Reinke did.
Reinke gathers 12 diverse thinkers and mashes their ideas and words into a discussion from a Quentin Tarantino movie.
Biblical Theology of Technology
That itself would be ambitious enough but Reinke sets a higher goal. This book is his biblical theology of technology. He tells us right from the beginning: "Don't skip the Bible verses. I know you skip them because I do too. But don't skip the Bible verses." And he is right. You must not skip them because those Bible verses are not peripheral to the chapter, they are central. In "God, Technology and the Christian Life", we see how God sees technology, nay, we see how God creates the creator, the user and the destroyer. God is everywhere in this book. Reinke worships a big, big God.
Read David and Goliath. Goliath had the big guns right? The big sword, the big armour, the big tech advantage and David did not, right? Read it again. Reinke argues convincingly that this famous battle was not high tech vs no tech. Reinke says it's between a godless Close Quarter Combat Warrior vs. a God-fearing Sniper.
Let's read Isaiah 54:16-17:
Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”
Then read it the way Reinke tells it. Reinke writes:
... here, God makes three incredibly specific claims: (1) He creates the creators of weapons. (2) He creates the wielders of those weapons. (3) He governs the outcomes of those weapon- ized warriors—the ravagers.
Reinke zips from Noah's Ark to Babel, from Tubal-Cain to Elon Musk, from the root of the tech tree to a disembodied space-faring future. He weaves the atheist Yuval Noah Harari into the conversation:
Ancient sailors, in rickety vessels and without tools of navigation, marked their perilous ocean voyages first with “propitiatory sacrifices,” then, with any divine luck, they returned home “ornamented with wreaths and gilt fillets to thank the gods” in the nearest temple. Steam ships changed all that. Steam ships “killed all gratitude in the hearts of sailors.” Safer tech offers more control, boasts greater predictability, and kills divine thankfulness.
And exhorts the Christian to thank God for all the technology, to pray:
God break me free from the idols of comfort, and fill me with God-centered awe for the gifts in this world that you have given me to use and enjoy.
He quotes Spurgeon, the 19th century preacher:
We have heard of engineers who could bridge the widest gulfs... We have seen men who could force the lightning’s flash to carry a message for them; we know that men can control the sunbeams for their photography, and electricity for their telegraphy; but where dwells the man, where even is the angel, who can convert an immortal soul?”
Do you realise it? How so many of us have put our faith in technology? Reinke sketches out this Gospel of Technology, a gospel we love to learn, love to share, love to worship. How I love my new phone! The unveiling of the next big thing is like a bright light revelation, a Damascus Experience for so many people.
Tell Me What I Think (Or Will Think)
And this is another reason why I love this book. He is like Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs is famous for telling us what we want before we want it. In this book, Reinke has managed to tell me what I think before I thought it.
Let me explain. My favourite Billy Graham moment is the TED Talk he gave. In his TED talk, Billy Graham acknowledged everybody in the room was smart, world-changing type of people. It's amazing what technology has done. But all the technology will not solve three problems: Evil, Suffering and Death.
It was the best TED Talk, not in it's style or delivery, but in its offer of Christ to the TED world. That talk left a big impression on me. It moderated all the hype, the promise on AI, nanotech, space exploration, big data and all of it. None of that can solve evil, suffering and death. But as good as Billy Graham's TED talk was, it didn't go deep enough. And I didn't know it until I read "God, Technology and the Christian Life".
Consider this question: How should we use technology today? That's the last question posed, the last chapter in the book. What is the Biblical answer to it? Wisdom. We should use tech with wisdom. It's an easy answer, even flippant in its simplicity but oh the depth of the answer here.
Reinke doesn't give us loose pebbles from the ground, he mines the Bible. He doesn't give empty Christian platitudes like, "Be wise. It's good to be wise. It's wise to be good. Blah Blah Blah." Instead he mines the revelation of God's Word, finding gold in the unlikeliest of places. I am convinced that this guy really did comb through the whole Bible to develop his theology of technology because I don't think anyone could have found the verses he did otherwise.
In this book review, I have shared many insights. So many insights that if this was another book review, I would try to cut some out in order to not give away all the best bits of the book. Don't you hate it when movie trailers are just mash ups of the best parts of the movie?
That did not happen here. There is still a lot more to this book. After finishing this book, I re-read the early pages to prepare this review and I was struck by how well Reinke has weaved everything together: Calvin, Kuyper and Musk with Genesis, Isaiah and Revelation. Steve Jobs and the book of Job!
Makers, Users and Readers
If you are, or if you hope to be, an inventor, engineer, biotechnologist, anyone who creates technology. You must read this book. What happens when the tech you create to cure cancer is used to create a killer virus? Or tech to bring out truth is used to spread lies? Reinke offers so many lines of thoughts, so many angles to help the faithful integrate with their technological self.
But this is not just to tech elite at Microsoft, Google or Facebook. You are a tech user. You are also a Christian. Read this book to understand what it means to be a Christian tech user. You may not think about the joining of these two worlds, but you should. And if you do think about it, and this book will help you think about it, you will glorify God, you will not despair at the state or the future of the world, all the technology, all of them the bad and the good, will give you cause to see God.
Reinke is a realist. Technology heals. Technology also harms. While researching for this book review, I checked Reinke's Twitter. Feb 12 2022, at the brink of an European War, Reinke tweets, "Today I stood under afterburners to test if I really believed God is bigger and more powerful than our war tech. He is. His sovereign orchestration reigns over every pilot and F-35. Even as war tensions rise, I believe it in my rattled bones."
If there is any reservation that one would have reading this book, it's how Reinke draws a line from harmful technology to the Sovereign Lord. He does deal with this big question in the book but I'm not going to elaborate it here. Questions on why bad things happen or the relationship on harmful tech and God deserve an answer with more depth than a soundbite or a meme. Just as a hint to how Reinke answers it, I'll just say, Tony Reinke is the host of the Ask Pastor John podcast. If you know John Piper's Big Big God, then it's the same as Tony Reinke's. Related to this topic, you could listen to my review of Providence by John Piper.
This book is delightful to me in a way that doesn't happen often. I started this book review podcast because I enjoy reading books, so I read a lot of books on various topics, and I come to those books with presuppositions which gets confirmed, challenged and sometimes changed as I read the book. It's not often that I get surprised. Reinke's book opens up the Bible in a new light. And it's on a topic I deal with everyday, I use it and teach it. There are moments in reading this book that I wanted to dig deeper into the Bible, even get a doctorate on what the Bible says about this aspect of technology. Biblical theology of technology is an unmined field. So many smart people develop technology, I hope there will be smart people to develop this biblical theology of technology. We must not see technology to mean electrify or put a wifi in the church, tech must edify the church.
This is a Reading and Readers Review of "God, Technology and the Christian Life " by Tony Reinke. 321 pages, published by Crossway in December 2021. It's USD15.99 via Amazon Kindle. I got a free review copy thanks to Crossway's Blog Review Programme but they had no input on this review.
Technology is so wonderful, really amazing. With one button you can start a car. With one button you can buy everything you need and get it delivered to your door. With one button, a country can nuke another country. But the most amazing thing you can do with one button today is to subscribe to Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. The technology is literally at your fingertips. Make sure you don't miss any reviews. Go on. Subscribe to Reading and Readers.
Book List
"God, Technology and the Christian Life" by Tony Reinke. Amazon.

"Surely you don't believe that the best explanation for an empty tomb is a resurrection. There must be tonnes of other far more reasonable explanations for that." Really? Well, I've got a cold case detective who says otherwise.
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 Alive! A Cold-Case Approach to the Resurrection by J. Warner Wallace. 28 pages, published in 2014 by David C. Cook. Available in Amazon Kindle for USD1.99. Available in Faithlife for free for this month and this month only.
A Detective Enters the Room
Wallace is a cold case detective. In his website it says here:

J. Warner’s professional investigative work has received national recognition; his cases have been featured more than any other detective on NBC’s Dateline, and his work has also appeared on CourtTV and Fox News.
Later it says:
J. Warner was awarded the Police and Fire Medal of Valor “Sustained Superiority” Award for his continuing work on cold-case homicides, and the CopsWest Award after solving a 1979 murder. Relying on over two decades of investigative experience, J. Warner provides his readers and audiences with the tools they will need to investigate the claims of Christianity and make a convincing case for the truth of the Christian worldview.
J. Warner was not a Christian who chose to study the Gospels and write a defence of the faith. He was an atheist. He did not believe in this Christian stuff. So when he came to the evidence box that is the Gospels, this hard-nosed detective could have concluded that it was all, everything was, a big hoax. The surprise, which is not a surprise to Christians, is the evidence does demand a verdict, and there is a strong case for Christ.
Dr. Norm Geisler, Chancellor of Veritas Evangelical Seminary had this to say of J. Warner Wallace:
“Few professions better prepare a person to follow the evidence than being a detective. And few detectives are better prepared Christians to be apologists than J. Warner Wallace.”
So that is his shtick. J. Warner Wallace wrote Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels. Including this book, he has written nine books. Today we review his shortest book: "Alive: A Cold-Case Approach to the Resurrection." The book is so short that in the time it takes for you to listen to this review, you could have read and finished it.
Natural Death, Accidental Death, Suicide or Homicide
Do you like watching CSI or Sherlock Holmes or Columbo or Murder She Wrote, remember that? I love a good mystery. I've finished multiple readings of Agatha Christie's series of novels. Every story has a dead body. And here, we have one too.
To explain how he will investigate the resurrection, Wallace, the homicide cop with over two years of experience, gives us a quick primer on how to think through the evidence.
You have a dead body in front of you. What are your options? Is it natural death, accidental death, suicide or homicide? You look at the facts. The facts will help you cross options off your list.
A reason why the cold-case investigation has been so attractive to many is because it doesn't front load it with presuppositions. Wallace is not asking you to believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Wallace comes in and just asks, "Just the facts mam."
This is the way Wallace puts it:
Dr. Gary Habermas and Professor Mike Licona have taken the time to identify the “minimal facts” (or evidences) related to the resurrection. While there are many claims in the New Testament related to this important event, not all are accepted by skeptics and wary investigators. Habermas and Licona surveyed the most respected and well-established historical scholars and identified a number of facts that are accepted by the vast majority of researchers in the field.
The Four Facts Friends and Foes Agree
Wallace found four of Habermas and Licona's minimal facts to be "the most substantiated by both friends and foes of Christianity", and they are:

1. Jesus died on the cross and was buried.
2. Jesus's tomb was empty, and no one ever produced his body.
3. Jesus's disciples believed that they saw Jesus resurrected from the dead.
4. Jesus's disciples were transformed following their alleged resurrection observations.

With these four facts, many explanations can come out of it. Wallace then says that each of those potential explanations have problems, and that includes the Christian explanation.
Wallace goes through seven explanations. I think it's fairly comprehensive or at least the main ones are here. So, there is a high chance if you are talking to a non-believer about the resurrection of Christ, one of these explanations will come up.
And that would be where this book shines. The explanations which may sound reasonable at first, it might have stumped you as an alternative and plausible answer to the resurrection, I mean, anything is more plausible than a dead guy coming back to life right? So the homicide detective tells you that actually the alternative explanations are not without their problems.
I think it's kind of fun to read for yourself what are the other possible explanations for the resurrection, so I won't spoil that part of the book. But I will give you one example, which I think is the common one.
Explanation #1: It's All a Mistake
Looking at the four facts, the easiest explanation is to just say that the disciples were mistaken. They thought Jesus died but he didn't. And that's why the tomb was empty and there was no body. Because he didn't die. That's why when the disciples believe Jesus resurrected because Jesus didn't die. And their belief, which was false, transformed the disciples.
Ta dah! Such a simple explanation. No need for a convoluted resurrection event. My my! How gullible Christians must be. I'm so smart because I thought of this. And 2000 years of an army of sceptics couldn't turn this into an open and shut case.
Yeah... about that explanation, the defence would like to call to the witness stand detective J. Warner Wallace. And the defence reminds everyone who is Wallace. He is a detective. A homicide detective. He knows dead bodies. And he tells you that everybody knows whether what they have in their hands is a dead body or a live one. Wallace writes:
It’s been my experience that witnesses who first come upon the dead body of someone they care about quickly check for the most obvious sign of life. Is the person who was injured still breathing? This test is simple and effective; everyone is capable of performing it, and even those who know nothing about human biology instinctively resort to it. It’s also been my experience that three conditions become apparent in the bodies of dead people: temperature loss, rigidity, and lividity.
He goes on in some detail to explain how those three conditions: temperature loss, rigidity and lividity cannot be faked and cannot be missed.
That's not all, this detective is thorough. Do you remember in the Gospels, the guard stabbed Jesus with a spear and there was blood and water pouring out? Wallace explains that a coroner would expect to see water when a person is injured prior to death. So the fact that this little detail was recorded goes a long way to show that the Gospel writers were recording what was actually observed.
There are other problems with the proposal. Jesus was whipped, beaten, nailed and he was walking around like a normal guy 3 days later. The Roman soldiers had one job, and one job only, and it was not a difficult job. Make sure that the guy you crucified is dead or you are next.
So that off the cuff explanation of the resurrection seems lame now. So what is another possible explanation? Wallace goes through them. Shows you the problems for all of them.
That is the main essence of the book. Remember the book is only 28 pages long. Reading this book will help you, whether you are a Christian or a non-Christian, just go through the different explanations. And well, what do you think of it? It's not so open and shut now is it?
These are the facts, facts that, I remind you, are attested by both friends and foes of Christianity:

1. Jesus died on the cross and was buried.
2. Jesus's tomb was empty, and no one ever produced his body.
3. Jesus's disciples believed that they saw Jesus resurrected from the dead.
4. Jesus's disciples were transformed following their alleged resurrection observations.

The Christian explanation is Jesus was resurrected. The problem? It is a supernatural act. But we have already explored other explanations so which is the most satisfying explanation to you?
Mystery Fans Are Suspicious of Everything
I can imagine a reader feeling cornered here. You might feel you are being led down a garden path. And perhaps you want to take a step away from this question and ask.
Who profits? That's another great question in mysteries.
Who profits? No, not about the resurrection. Is the detective, is J. Warner Wallace, truly an honest sceptic? Why should we accept his reasoning here?
Let's once again imagine the detective is at the witness stand and now the prosecution tries to throw some doubt on this witness.
Isn't it true that Wallace has profited from his cold-case books? Yes.
Isn't it true that Wallace has established himself as a credible apologist? Think of the reputation and fame that comes with it.
And if he is profiting, then why would we trust what Wallace has to say? Perhaps five years, or ten years later, he might think it more profitable to come out as an ex-believer. To disavow everything he said was true. And thus play for the other team. So why should we follow the detective's lead? He might be the untrustworthy narrator in this book. The Kaizer Soze of the mystery.
Here is the thing. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if J. Warner Wallace later proves to be just a guy out to make a quick buck. I say this to the most sceptical of readers because that would be easier to believe than to believe the resurrection of Christ.
The claim of the book is there is evidence. It doesn't matter what Wallace claims. You can check out the evidence. Lee Strobel, the journalist went to look at the evidence. He went into the evidence room as an atheist, and he came out as a believer. You don't have to take any one's words for this. That's the beauty of the Christian faith. It's not dependent on someone's dreams or visions. The cross of Christ is a historical event. And Christians claim, not just claim, the entire faith has Christians as witnesses that the resurrection is a historical event.
The Great Revelation is Not The End
But it doesn't end there. The Christian is not content with you admitting begrudgingly that okay, Christ was resurrected. The finale of the mystery or the puzzle is not to know the final answer, how all the pieces come together. Because in this story, the dead body rose. And because he rose again, as Jesus prophesied, therefore everything else he said is now true. He already did the impossible. "On the third day, I will rise," he said. He didn't mean it in a spiritual way. He did not rise in some heavenly tabernacle, not observable by the disciples. He did not rise in Peter's vision or with a visit by an angel to Mary.
Jesus appeared to witnesses. And those witnesses went to the their deaths convinced that Jesus has risen.
So this book, doesn't stop here.
At the beginning of his conclusion, Wallace writes:
It’s one thing to “believe that” Jesus rose from the dead and is who He said He was, but it’s another to “believe in” Him as Savior. Every one of us, at some point in our investigation of the claims of Christianity, has to move from “belief that” to “belief in.” I can remember when this happened for me. As a rebellious, self-reliant detective, I initially denied my need for a Savior, even though I accepted what the Gospels told me about that Savior. In order to take a step from “belief that” to “belief in,” I needed to move from an examination of Jesus to an examination of me.
He has more to say, but I really think you can read it for yourself.
Who Is This Book For?
Who is this book for? If you are a Christian, it's a refresher. You probably know some if not all of the alternate explanations, but it's nice to get reminded of this.
If you are a non-Christian, and you think you have a perfectly reasonable explanation, or you are sure there are perfectly more reasonable explanations than a dead guy coming back to life, then you should read this book.
In fact, although this book is available for free in Faithlife, you should consider just buying a bundle of this book and just giving it away.
People who would normally never read a book might want to. Wallace writes well, he doesn't demean or aggressive push the Christian agenda. He just says, these are the facts mam. And the facts say that Jesus has risen.
This is a review of Alive: A Cold-Case Approach to the Resurrection by J. Warner Wallace. It's USD1.99 in Amazon Kindle. Free from Faithlife for February and only February.
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Book List
Alive! A Cold-Case Approach to the Resurrection by J. Warner Wallace. Amazon. Faithlife.

• The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. Amazon. Faithlife.
• Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh and Sean McDowell. Amazon. Faithlife.