Increasingly for many Christian parents, THE question is: to Ezzo or not to Ezzo. The parenting material written by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo is causing passionate discussion in many churches. What are we to make of it?
Archives: review
Designer Cells
Review
Darwin’s Black Box:
The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
Michael J. Behe
The Free Press, New York, 1996.
For a Science book to win the Christianity Today ‘Best Christian Book of the Year’ is somewhat surprising. Despite the chatty style and simple analogies, this is a book with technical biochemical descriptions of some difficulty. What relevance has this to Christianity? In scientific detail, probably not much. The relevance is in the implications of the thesis, particularly in the highly creationist-sensitive American context. Behe claims he has found a fatal flaw in Darwinian evolution—that because of discoveries in microbiology, Darwinian evolution simply cannot be true.
Crucifying the blues
Review
There is a large number of self-help books for people coping with depression. These books use approaches ranging from psychoanalysis and dream therapy to diet-based programs of rehabilitation. Beating the Blues is one of the better books, using a well-regarded approach which aims to give sufferers more control over their thoughts and feelings (it’s known as cognitive-behavioural therapy). (more…)
Peretti: What’s the story?
Review
Walking out of the lounge room on Wednesday nights last year, I always performed a ritual of huge significance: the issuing of instructions to record the latest escapades of Mulder and Scully as they probe the unknown in The X-Files. As for many Australians, this show, with its extra-terrestrials, UFOs, supernatural occurrences, stories of the mysterious, the psychic and the bizarre has become required watching for me. Even though I have no time for the conspiracy theories and stories portrayed and implied, I’m addicted. There is something about this genre which captivates me.
Judging by its title
Review
Disciplines of a Godly Man.
R. Kent Hughes.
Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1991.
Some people collect commentaries, some people collect Christian biographies, some collect rare Bible editions. I collect books on men and men’s ministry. The reason may be quite primal and subconscious: it may be that I am searching for identity, confused in the switch from baby-boomer society to post-feminism. Maybe it’s a reaction to the kind of feminists who are throwing stones at Helen Garner. Or it maybe I’m still searching for a ‘real man’s’ Christian book.
The Best of Intentions
Review
North American scholar, Gordon Fee, is well-known among evangelicals for his New Testament scholarship. His commentary on 1 Corinthians is highly regarded, as is his manual on New Testament exegesis, and his recent large-scale volume on the Holy Spirit (God’s Empowering Spirit).
Top Shelf: Understanding Catholicism (Review)
Review
Leon Theophilus’s top shelf of books critiquing and explaining Roman Catholicism.
It is hard to overemphasize the extraordinary nature of recent developments within Catholicism. In the name of unity and peace, the Pope now prays with Orthodox, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Animists from Africa, American Medicine men and other non-Christian leaders. And in the Protestant world we hear respected evangelical leaders minimizing those things that have historically divided Protestants and Catholics, even describing them as “petty differences”.1
Top Shelf: Jesus the Man (Review)
Review
Books about the historical Jesus tend to come out of a ‘position’ about him, depending on whether or not the authors have accepted the Gospels’ presentation of the Man.
Simply convincing
Review
The Truth about Jesus
Paul Barnett
Aquila Press, Sydney, 1994.
$14.95. 164pp.
Paul Barnett has developed a reputation for thorough, persuasive and easily understood presentations of the truth of biblical history. His previous books, whether commentaries or history or apologetics, have all defended a reasonable belief in the events that the New Testament describes.
Top Shelf: Suffering (Review)
Review
Top shelf: A guide to the must-read books in important areas of evangelical thought and life.
- A .Van De Beek, Why: On Suffering, Guilt and God. Tr. J Vriend, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.
Should we write ‘Christian’ fiction?
Review
Wisdom Hunter
By Randall Arthur
I like computers. Eight years ago I bought one on which to write talks and to catalogue books and articles. Four computers later, I have disks full of talks, and have finally begun to catalogue my library. Like many computer users, I have tried out a few of the thousands and thousands of public domain or ‘shareware’ programs that are available for computer users. Basically, these programs are written by people with various degrees of expertise who then circulate their program in the public domain. If you like what they’ve done and would like to use it on a regular basis, you pay a reasonable registration fee and receive a manual and any upgrades that might be forthcoming.
Building the Christian library: A coffee-stained gem (The Everlasting God)
Review
The Everlasting God
DB Knox
Lancer, 1988.
I well remember listening to the 1979, Moore College lectures (which comprise the content of this book) and wondering how anyone could speak so quickly. I was awash with one theological gem after another. I bought the book as soon as I heard it was on the shelves, and have never been disappointed. My copy bears the tell-tale signs of coffee stain in one corner, marks in the margins, and that funny musty smell that books get after many handlings. I refer to the book regularly because it is so simply written and so clearly set out.
Commentary: 1 & 2 Thessalonians, The Song of Songs
Review
1 & 2 Thessalonians
The Thessalonian epistles are possibly the earliest Pauline documents that we have in the New Testament. They reveal to us something of Paul’s motives and methods in ministry and show particularly his teaching about the return of Christ and its implications for us. (more…)
Building the Christian library: Systematic Theology (In Understanding Be Men)
Review
In Understanding Be Men
T.C. Hammond (IVP)
There are many books on Christian doctrine, but the one to start with is In Understanding Be Men. It is thoroughly Evangelical. Hammond’s intention was to present “the main outline of evangelical thought”. (more…)
Commentary: Colossians, Philemon, Esther
Review
Colossians/Philemon
The letter to the Colossians gives us precious insights into aspects of Paul’s teaching that are only alluded to in his other writings. As the apostle deals with false teaching, he develops a magnificent picture of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and its implications for us. Most commentaries on Colossians also deal with the letter to Philemon which reveals Paul in another light, dealing with a particular problem of personal relationships. (more…)