Archive for the ‘Book Reviews’ Category
The Problem of Our Past
Self-reflection is a tricky thing. When we feel we’ve moved on from some idea, passion, or stage of our life, we tend to distance ourselves from it, like the college student who denies he was ever a Trekkie once he realizes Star Wars is truly superior. We harbor contempt (or at least embarrassment)...
July 26th, 2010 | Book Reviews, Culture, History, Media | Read More The Virtues of Capitalism – Book Review
As a quick primer, The Virtues of Capitalism: The Moral Case for Free Markets by Scott Rae and Austin Hill does an excellent job of hitting the talking points and fleshing out some of the back-story of the world’s most powerful economic system. However, this book only offers a thin analysis of...
July 19th, 2010 | Book Reviews, Economy | Read More Because it’s too Hot for Heavy Reading
In our Summer Reading Symposium, I recommended three books for summer reading. I love these books too much to leave it at a mere ‘name dropping’. Let me try to convince you, using the opening line, my thoughts and an excerpt from each, that the three books I mentioned are really and truly worth...
June 16th, 2010 | Book Reviews, Media | Read More Re: Kindle-ing
Three years spent repairing old books in the basement of a university library can’t help but leave a girl like me with a definite bias. I love books–and I don’t just love reading them. I love the smell of leather, I love the texture of fine paper, and I love the way a well-bound volume...
May 24th, 2010 | Book Reviews, Media, Other, Technology | Read More West Oversea: Word Made Flesh Meets Myth Made Fiction
What would you do if Odin decided to haunt you because he was angry you’d left him for Jesus?
When a pagan society is Christianized, it must determine how to either leave behind or incorporate its old talismans and traditions into its new Christian faith. This is seldom an easy task, as any...
May 20th, 2010 | Book Reviews, Media, Other, Religion, The Gospel | Read More Against All Gods: An Open Invitation to ‘The New Atheism’
Anyone seeking a witticized slam of ‘The New Atheism’ should stay away from Against All Gods. The new release by Dr. Phillip Johnson and Dr. John Mark Reynolds refuses to wade into mind-numbingly circular surface arguments with writers of the new atheism. Instead, Johnson and Reynolds focus...
April 1st, 2010 | Book Reviews, Culture, Religion, Science, Worldviews | Read More Review: Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point is a studied explanation of “how little things can make a big difference.” Gladwell combines whimsy with scholarship and story with study to create a powerful page-turner that will leave the reader full, but wanting more. Perhaps the most compelling feature of this book...
March 30th, 2010 | Book Reviews | Read More A Million Miles…To Where?
If Donald Miller does something well, it is the provocative marketing of storytelling. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years displays Miller’s roundabout style of making insights by emphasizing the power of personal narratives. Both punchy and meandering, the book demonstrates that which it demands...
March 23rd, 2010 | Art & Literature, Book Reviews, Culture, Evangelicals | Read More Classics for the Contemporary Christian: Freud’s Non-Libidinal Rub
What do you want, purpose or happiness?
If you don’t think the two pursuits are exclusive, take it up with Freud, who says as much in his treatise Civilization and its Discontents.
“The idea of life having a purpose stands and falls with the religious system,” he said. “We will therefore...
March 15th, 2010 | Book Reviews, Culture, Religion | Read More Classics for the Contemporary Christian: Is Your Identity As You Like It?
If the world is a stage, we like putting on the same shows. The Matrix, The Truman Show, Equilibrium…not original. Even in Shakespeare’s 17th century comedy As You Like It, we confront the suggestion that the world is a sham and humans are the sham’s pawns.
At surface-level, the play is a ball...
March 8th, 2010 | Book Reviews, Culture, Media | Read More 



