December 31, 2006 – 3:52 pm
Book: The ESV Bible
Thanks to a late catch-up read this afternoon, I managed to finish reading through the bible (including reading the New Testament and the Psalms twice) this afternoon. I would highly recommend the M’Cheyne plan if you’re searching for a new year’s resolution along the lines of "Read my bible more" - it [...]
December 28, 2006 – 9:55 pm
Jesus and the Victory of God - N. T. Wright
I was starting to wonder if I’d ever make it to the end of this book - as was the person who generously loaned me the book these past months.
Wright here spills a lot of ink, and quotes a lot of other scholars. His purpose? [...]
December 19, 2006 – 9:49 am
Book: Defensive Design for the Web
In an attempt to return to some professional development reading, I picked up this aging classic from 37 signals, and read it overnight - there’s a lot of stating the obvious, but it all needs to be said. If you’re looking for guidelines on what messages to display to customers [...]
December 12, 2006 – 4:59 pm
How to Read and Why, by Harold Bloom.
As someone who loves to read, but doesn’t have a background in the humanities, I found this book useful in opening up a range of other titles to consider. Bloom clearly thinks that Shakespeare was the best author in history, and this thesis recurs throughout the book, but [...]
November 7, 2006 (2 weeks ago) – 10:17 pm
Book: N.T. Wright - The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture
When a Christian talks about the Authority of Scripture, they can mean a number of different things. In this short (140 page) book, Wright details something of the church history behind the concept, and in the [...]
October 24, 2006 (4 weeks ago) – 4:18 pm
Book: The New Puritans: The Rise of Fundamentalism in the Anglican Church
Dr Muriel Porter has written a work that I found hard to read; there are moments where the logic of her argument seems lacking, and it was just a case of putting forth opinions without explaining them.
At other times, there are some historical points [...]
October 5, 2006 – 11:41 am
Book: What is Reformed Theology?
Since I’m studying at a "Reformed" theological college, I thought it might be useful to have some understanding of the framework that the college uses to understand the bible. This book is aimed a little higher than a dummies’ guide - Sproul is still a professor, and as such draws from [...]
September 25, 2006 – 9:26 pm
Book: Letters from the Inside. A book for teenagers, and an easy read, but somewhat dark. Two penpals - teenage girls - correspond over the course of a year.
September 4, 2006 – 10:28 pm
Book: Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications: D. A. Carson
The more I read about the Emerging church, the more I realise that I don’t really understand the breadth of the movement. Disillusioned with the problems inherent in a church that has staled, and become out of touch with the [...]
August 10, 2006 – 7:31 am
Book: The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: Books: Julian Baggini
I know it’s been a while since I posted a book review: the nature of the study I’m doing is that I’m reading pieces of all kinds of books, but it’s rare that I get the chance to read a book in its entirety.
I made [...]
Book: Mission Minded
How to think about your church and your relationships in a way that helps you look for opportunities to tell people about Jesus. 14 years old, the book still reads as a modern book with a lot to say. Its systematic approach to relationships will doubtless grate with some - personally, I’m not [...]
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
J.I. Packer has written a work in answer of the question “If God is sovereign - if He controls everything, then why should we tell people about Jesus?”. What is the difference between the precepts of God (what God wants from our behaviour) and the purpose of God (the plans: [...]
Book: If I were God, I’d end all the pain
John Dickson on a topic he has experienced firsthand: if God is all-powerful and all-loving, why is there pain in the world. A helpful (and short!) book that I’m planning to pass on to a friend.
January 8, 2006 – 9:38 am
Book: The Turning
This one was a Christmas present: it’s been a while since I finished a book of fiction: this one is a collection of 17 overlapping short stories. Winton is an excellent Australian writer.
December 20, 2005 – 2:48 pm
Book: Fit Bodies Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to Do About It
A survey of the history of the Evangelical approach to academic thinking over the past few centuries, and in particular what is wrong with the Evangelical anti-intellectualism that has become a part of its culture. A good survey of history [...]
December 16, 2005 – 8:53 am
Book: How To Hold An Audience Without A Rope
A little gem, packed full of wisdom on how to present a talk (and specifically a Christian talk) clearly, and in an engaging way. Shame it’s out of print.
October 6, 2005 – 11:10 am
Book: Kel Richards’ Pocket Guide To Clear English
This is a tough little book to get hold of. I had to have it shipped into a bookstore for me, and when it arrived, I ended up in a conversation with not one, but two of the bookshop staff about punctuation and writing style. A lot of [...]
September 26, 2005 – 7:35 am
Book: Balancing life’s demandsJ. Grant Howard makes the case that the very notion of "priorities" is the wrong one: under God, we have a number of areas of responsibility, each tied to a particular relationship. We need to organise our life not based on which thing is the most important, but rather on making sure [...]
August 13, 2005 – 5:52 pm
Book: Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God
A theology book, written by a prominent Charismatic theologian isn’t the kind of thing I usually find myself reading through, but I found it a useful book nonetheless. I found that I agreed with much of what he had to say, in spite of evangelical prejudices - [...]
August 6, 2005 – 10:58 pm
Book: Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design
This has been sitting on my shelf for a long while, and while it’s mostly illustrations, the text - a history of instructional design (think instruction booklet, not training courses) - was one of those “I’d never thought about this before” fields. A range of ideas, and approaches [...]