When I was growing up one of my favorite Biblical stories was David and Goliath. Okay, so it didn’t work out so well for Goliath or the Philistines. But it’s a story a kid can understand and appreciate. And the message was clear: David was an underdog who overcame a giant enemy through his faith and trust in God. Right?
Well, maybe. Renowned author and thinker Malcolm Gladwell has come out with the new book David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
So here we are, nineteen months after my first post in the series on 25 books that influenced my life. I’ve described a wide range of books, from comics to textbooks, from classic novels to business books. Now it’s time for the top book on my list.
A lot of people expect the number one book to be the Bible. But at the very beginning, I said the Bible was not part of the list. Truth is, the Bible is a series of books, letters, songs and poetry. Besides, it’s such an obvious answer and I tend to dislike predictability.…
Other than my top 25 list of books, most of my book reviews are on a separate page of this blog because readers would be overwhelmed getting updates all the time. And it would turn this blog into a book review venue instead of the wide range of topics that I like to cover.
But sometimes I read a book that strikes me hard. It seems to rise above the rest and deserves special mention. God Is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China
The author, …
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Hardly the uplifting or encouraging words you might expect from a book that influenced my life. But Dietrich Boenhoeffer didn’t pull any punches when he wrote The Cost of Discipleship
The first time I heard about Bonhoeffer was in college. My narrow lens of inexperience showed as I questioned whether I could learn anything from a German Lutheran theologian. His name sounded vaguely …
It begins with, “In the beginning, God…”
It concludes with, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.”
And in between is a whole lot.
It’s the Bible, and it’s really long. Sixty six books — or at least letters — and over 1000 pages even without the notes. Over 700,000 words total.
In the last 90-days, I have read it all. No, not listened to it. Not perused it. But actually read it. It’s like reading the entire of book of Romans each day, plus a bit. About 30 minutes a day for me.
A friend and …
Helen Rhee is a religious studies professor at Westmont College. I do not know her well but have admired her from afar. When I heard that she authored Loving the Poor, Saving the Rich: Wealth, Poverty, and Early Christian Formation
As the title implies, this book explores how the early Christian Church came to understand wealth and poverty. That was not an easy task, and the shaping of an understanding of wealth/poverty took hundreds of years to work out. In part this was due to the blending of …
A friend recently took on the challenge of reading through the Bible in 90-days. It seemed overly ambitious to me, but it had the appeal of an outrageous idea so I decided to give it a try.
I am two weeks into the three-month journey. It has forced me to read parts of Scripture that I normally overlook. Usually this is a chore – it’s not very interesting to read all the begets!
Yet in the midst of the tedious parts are little jewels. Take Bezalel and Oholiab. Not exactly household names, are they? Yet they receive special mention in …
The first time I read a novel or any work of fiction it’s all about the story. Who did what, where, when and why. If the story is compelling I will fly through it, eager to see how it all ends.
If the book is exceptional I will read it again a few years later. This time I will look for the beauty of the book, the stories within the stories, the metaphors and allegories, the character development, and perhaps even the word choice of the author. Since the outcome of the story is already known, this second reading is …
