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Patterns of Living that Lead Us into Love

You Are What You Love, by James K.A. Smith YOU ARE WHAT YOU LOVE JAMES K. A. SMITH BAKER PUBLISHING GROUP, 2016 $19.99 224 PAGES In You Are What You Love, James K.A. Smith redirects us to think of our lives as shaped not so much by the mind as by the heart. It is not learning right theology, ahem, that moves us closer to God, but right habits. And habits are learned processes. We are invited, in this text,…
February 28, 2017
Reviews

Good Company in the Valley

Rejoicing in Lament, by J. Todd Billings REJOICING IN LAMENT: WRESTLING WITH INCURABLE CANCER & LIFE IN CHRIST J. TODD BILLINGS BRAZOS PRESS, 2015 $19.99 224 PAGES I’ll confess: I was fully prepared to wince at the contents of this book. The lovely review editor who suggested it had no idea I had been going through “one of those times” until after it arrived on my porch, a mysterious gift from God that showed up on a particularly bad day…
February 28, 2017
Reviews

John Updike as Evangelist

Myth and Gospel in the Fiction of John Updike, by John McTavish MYTH AND GOSPEL IN THE FICTION OF JOHN UPDIKE JOHN MCTAVISH CASCADE BOOKS, 2016 $25 183 PAGES Readers looking for the latest cutting-edge scholarship on John Updike (1932-2009) might be disappointed in John McTavish’s Myth and Gospel in the Fiction of John Updike. McTavish, an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada, offers us instead a kind of bricolage: revisions and expansions of essays and reviews McTavish…
January 4, 2017
Reviews

Learning to Be, Not Do, in Youth Ministry

Poetic Youth Ministry, by Jason Lief POETIC YOUTH MINISTRY: LEARNING TO LOVE YOUNG PEOPLE BY LETTING THEM GO JASON LIEF CASCADE BOOKS, 2015 $21 160 PAGES Poetic Youth Ministry, by Jason Lief, is a disruptive book on youth ministry. Opening with the Disney film WALL•E as an analogy for the challenging identity-formation journey young people face, Lief examines why the “faith scripts” taught in many of our churches often end in tragedy, with our young people choosing a different faith…
Darwin K. Glassford
January 4, 2017
Barth's Church Dogmatcs
Reviews

Carrying that Weight Together

Bearing the Unbearable BEARING THE UNBEARABLE: TRAUMA, GOSPEL, AND PASTORAL CARE DEBORA VAN DEUSEN HUNSINGER WM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO., 2015 $20 179 PAGES Many mainline Protestants have a strange relationship with trauma. Our newspapers and prayer lists are strewn with stories of traumatic events. Stories of refugees fleeing war, racial aggressions on college campuses and sexual abuse of children are so common that they have nearly faded into white noise in our news cycle. But even given how ubiquitous…
November 1, 2016
Reviews

Judgment versus Community

Orbiting Jupiter ORBITING JUPITER GARY D. SCHMIDT CLARION BOOKS, 2015 $18 192 PAGES In the first chapter of Gary Schmidt's latest young-adult novel, Orbiting Jupiter, a social worker warns Jack and his parents about Joseph, the foster child they are thinking of taking in. Joseph has served time in two juvenile halls. While in one, he reportedly tried to kill a teacher. And even though Joseph, like Jack, is in middle school, Joseph has another secret that sets him apart.…
November 1, 2016
Reviews

A Peek into the Mind of Marilynne Robinson

The Givenness of Things, by Marilynne Robinson THE GIVENNESS OF THINGS: ESSAYS MARILYNNE ROBINSON FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX, 2015. $26 286 PAGES Marilynne Robinson, best known for her four novels, Housekeeping, Gilead, Home and Lila, is a prolific essayist. The Givenness of Things represents her most recent compilation of essays. A self-described theist, Robinson identifies as a Protestant and makes no apologies for assigning priority to the Christian faith. The 17 pieces in the Givenness of Things derive from talks…
September 1, 2016
Reviews

Dissecting a Suburban Exodus

Shades of White Flight SHADES OF WHITE FLIGHT: EVANGELICAL CONGREGATIONS AND URBAN DEPARTURE MARK MULDER RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2015 $28.95 181 PAGES In May 2015, I sat in an intense council meeting that would decide the fate of my church, Roosevelt Park Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan. The council resolved, and the church agreed, to give ourselves three months to achieve specific benchmarks so that we might discern if the church should continue on or not. We did not…
June 30, 2016
Reviews

God as the ‘Principal Clerk’ of the Market

Stories Economists Tell STORIES ECONOMISTS TELL: STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY AND ECONOMICS JOHN P. TIEMSTRA WIPF AND STOCK $18 191 PAGES In his essay describing the good merchant, Thomas Fuller says, “For God is the principal clerk of the market.” That is, there are three people involved in every commercial transaction. His definition reflects the ethos of an earlier world view, one pervaded by Christian thought patterns. Much has changed, especially because of the Enlightenment, but has Fuller’s formula changed? Even…
June 30, 2016