Our friend Dr. Gene Edward Veith has a new book out, Family Vocation: God’s Calling in Marriage, Parenting, and Childhood.
I probably won’t be reviewing it myself, this subject being outside my sphere of expertise, but if you’re a normal person, you’re likely to find the book useful. Dr. Veith is a wise and godly man.
The remarkable growth on Christianity in Africa “has been tainted by an American-style prosperity emphasis that focuses on health and wealth at the expense of sin, redemption, and repentance.” Nigerian Femi Adeleye is fighting back in his book, Preachers of a Different Gospel: A Pilgrim’s Reflections on Contemporary Trends in Christianity, drawing clear distinctions between biblical gospel with the message of self-satisfaction.
I respect Dr. Edward Welch from some of his earlier works (a good example, Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest
Whatever answers we give to these questions point to what we worship, and that’s the heart of the matter.
I look forward to giving my daughters this book to help guard them against the fear of men, which I still find threatening. It’s probably the main reason I don’t feel as if I’ve fully grown up yet.
NPR has a good report on Susan Cain’s new book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, noting that modern workplaces are often designed for extroverts. My office is a comfortable place for introverts, but I feel the pressure of the extroverts in the desire to collaborate on work that doesn’t seem very collaborative to me. I appreciate what she says about leadership training, even though I’m not a leader and don’t know what it will take to become one. Perhaps the problem is my definition of leadership.
Get Cain’s book here: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
In short, we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ Jesus’ atoning work on the cross. As Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” When Christ said on the cross, “It is finished,” he truly conquered death and overcame sin for all who believe. His resurrection from the grave proves it. Many Christians do not struggle with this concept as a doorway into heaven and the church, but we frequently misunderstand that this is the path to holiness as well as salvation. We believe that Jesus is Lord for the purpose of saving us from damning sin, but not for the purpose of making us righteous today. For righteousness, we believe we must “work out our salvation” on our own (Philippians 2:12). “The spiritual reality is that it is God who is in us doing the work,” Jared explains. “The gospel is not just power for regeneration; it is power for sanctification and for glorification [as if these ideas can be separated-pw]. It is eternal power; it is power enough for life that is eternal.” Continue reading Gospel Wakefulness by Jared Wilson
“What’s the thing that’s supposed to captivate Christians, above all else?” Aaron Armstrong asks at the start of his review of Jared Wilson’s new book, Gospel Wakefulness
Back when I was in college, there was a TV miniseries (I never actually saw it myself) called “Sybil,” starring Sally Field. It told the story of a woman who suffered from Multiple Personality Disorder, induced by horrendous childhood abuse. It was based on a “fact-based” book, with names and locations disguised.
Still, the word got around as to what the (supposed) facts were. The real Sybil was a woman named Shirley Mason, and she’d grown up in the little town of Dodge Center, Minnesota. Dodge Center is a neighboring town to my own home town, Kenyon. I remember riding through Dodge Center around that time, thinking, “It all happened here.”
Only it didn’t. Continue reading Multiple Falsehood Disorder
[Personal update: I stayed home from work again today. Still no voice. Maybe I’ll make it in tomorrow. I really don’t want to pass this nightmare on to the students, though.]
The conviction prevails, in privileged circles that, if we study history without reshaping it to our contemporary prejudices, history will corrupt us. May I suggest that the opposite is true?
…Those who deny history die of myth.
In that quotation from his Introduction, Ralph Peters sums up much of the lessons he propounds in his 2010 collection of essays and columns, Endless War
Our great mistake, as I read him, is our insistence on “understanding” our opponents. That’s not a bad thing in itself, but the way our academics and academically-trained soldiers do it is so informed by postmodern secularism that they end up violating both fact and logic. Better than academic anthropology and political theory, these people should read original historical and religious texts, and myth. Our enemies are fighting for a dream, not an ideology.
Peters (who is also the author, under the name Owen Parry, of the Abel Jones novels which I’ve often praised in this space) expresses some iconoclastic opinions on our current struggle. Contrary to what you’ve read, he says, Iraq was the “good war,” and Afghanistan (following the original incursion, which should have been more massive) is a waste of time. Afghanistan, he says, has no strategic importance, is impossible to govern, and was only the base for the 9/11 terrorists because they’d been kicked out of every other safe haven. In Iraq, he maintains, the terrorists chose to make their real stand, and Saddam Hussein was genuine military threat. Control of Iraq also gives us considerable strategic advantages.
Having read Endless War, I feel a little better informed than I was, though the whole question remains Endlessly Complex.
The only major problem I had with the book was one essay (can’t find it now) in which he said he was as afraid of Christian fundamentalists as of Muslim fundamentalists. That’s a remarkably “conventional wisdom” kind of observation for a thinker of Peters’ originality. He doesn’t repeat it, so perhaps he thought better of it later.
Full disclosure: I got this book free for my Kindle through a special offer.
Endless War is an extremely readable, highly original, and penetrating analysis of the struggle between East and West. Recommended.
J. Christian Adams, formerly of the Department of Justice, has a book on his experience there, arguing that the current administration has refused to enforce laws they do not agree with. Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department
The art and history of Carthage isn’t as well known as we would like, because an ancient mob boss put the hit on them. Ed Voves reviews Richard Miles’ book Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization
“Carthage, however, was not merely conquered by Rome. As the title of Miles’ book asserts, Carthage was destroyed. In three brutal wars, Carthage’s military power was annihilated by the legions of the Roman Republic. The city was ransacked and burned, down to its foundations. The people of Carthage were massacred or enslaved. The literature of the city was put to the torch. Not a stone was left upon a stone.”
Looks like a great book for ancient history readers.
