Craig A. Evans. Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels. IVP, 2006. 290 pp.
This book is offered as an exposé of sorts, revealing how certain scholars—among them, James M. Robinson, Robert Funk, Bart Ehrman, Karen King, Morton Smith, Elaine Pagels, John Dominic Crossan, and collectively the Jesus Seminar—“distort the gospels” and thus mislead the public to historical conclusions at odds with traditional Christian claims. Evans also takes aim at various popular authors, such as Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code) and Michael Baigent (The Jesus Papers), for creating what he calls “hokum history” (204). Finally, it is an apologia for the New Testament Gospels: “this book is written to defend the original witnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. When put to the test, the original documents hold up quite well. Despite their having been maligned, even ridiculed, and pushed to the background, it is time to give them a fresh hearing” (17).
Reviewed by Stephen J. Patterson.
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Mark Batterson. In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars. Multnomah, 2006. 182 pp.
What do you get when you combine fear, opportunity, history, distractions and doubt? A typical Christian who ignores a chance to do something significant for the kingdom of God due to insecurity and lack of genuine faith in God.
Mark Batterson has been released from the grip of fear and doubt by the experiences God has granted him. This young pastor writes about his insights in this simple but helpful book that harps on one theme: we have been called to take risks in our effort to transform the world for Christ. The author, who is one of the emerging voices in the post-Boomer church scene in America, provides numerous succinct thoughts about the real meaning of life and how to make the most of it.
Reviewed by George Barna.
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Edward Gilbreath. Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s View Inside White Christianity. IVP, 2006. 207 pp.
Upon completing seminary, I was hired by a small evangelical Bible college. While teaching during the 2000 election cycle, I suggested that I might not cast my vote simply based on the issue of abortion alone. “You mean you would vote for Gore?” asked one student, who then remained after class to lecture me for 45 minutes on how I could not possibly be an evangelical if I voted for anyone other than George Bush. As outwardly patient as possible, I attempted to share with this student how I might see the need to consider issues in addition to abortion, especially as one who served among ethnic believers who still see issues of race as moral issues with great political ramifications.
I have yet to tell anyone how I voted that year. Nevertheless, I have shared this story many times in order to enter a dialogue on race with fellow evangelicals. Now, Edward Gilbreath has provided a means of entering and furthering the discussion by sharing similar experiences to a broader evangelical audience.
Reviewed by Eric C. Redmond.
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Thom S. Rainer & Eric Geiger. Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples. B&H, 2006. 257 pp.
Simple. It’s what everybody wants these days. Just ask Google with their 20-40 word homepage, Papa John’s with their streamlined menu, or Apple with their infamous single-button I-Pod. In an increasingly overcomplicated world, simple is in high demand.
However, according to Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger the ’simple revolution’ has also found its way into churches. Congregations once over-inflated with myriad programmes have now become streamlined disciple-making centres. At the same time, churches which are failing to make the switch are tending towards stagnation or decline.
Reviewed by Colin Adams.
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R. C. Sproul. A Taste of Heaven: Worship in the Light of Eternity. Reformation Trust, 2006. 173 pp.
Though he has written more than 60 books for a variety of publishing companies, A Taste of Heaven is Sproul’s first for Reformation Trust, Ligonier Ministries’ own publishing imprint. Subtitled “Worship in the Light of Eternity,” this book “examines the key components of prayer, praise, and sacrifices that God gave to His people in the Old Testament.” It turns to the Old Testament to find there principles that can direct our worship even in this New Testament era. Of course Sproul is insistent that we cannot simply import Old Testament worship into the church today or we might be guilty of missing the shadow for the reality, the elements that pointed forward to Christ rather than Christ Himself. . . .
Reviewed by Tim Challies.
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N. T. Wright. Evil and the Justice of God. IVP, 2006. 176 pp.
Woody Allen famously pointed out that the problem is not that God doesn’t exist, but that he is an underachiever. The philosophical tendency for at least the past three centuries has been to assume that the human estimation of God is more significant than the divine estimation of humanity. And “evil” names the extent to which, in human estimation, God’s purposes have invariably been found wanting.
In a lucid treatment of this perennial conundrum, N. T. Wright argues that pondering the “problem of evil” is an activity that displaces us from the business of implementing the healing, restorative justice of God. The problem of evil is philosophically located in theoretical analysis of an inherently distant God—that is, the deist God of the Enlightenment. . . .
Reviewed by Dr. Samuel Wells, Duke Divinity School.
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Paul S. Jones. Singing and Making Music: Issues in Church Music Today. P&R, 2006. 315 pp.
What is one more book on music and the church? The area is admittedly becoming a kind of “burned over district” of the contemporary American church, and if this were a popularity contest, the conservatives are surely losing. For those whose sensibilities are still somewhat entrenched in tradition, Paul Jones’ 2006 title Singing and Making Music: Issues in Church Music Today (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2006) (Buy: Westminster|Amazon) will be a welcome volume containing not only an apologetic for conservative music but also a practical guide for how both large and small churches can get there.
Reviewed by Ryan Martin.
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John Ensor. The Great Work of the Gospel: How We Experience God’s Grace. Crossway, 2006. 192 pp.
In the Introduction, John Ensor lays the foundation of the book by fleshing out and describing The Human Experience of God’s Outworking Grace. He gives three reasons for doing so: “because the problem is the greatest of all problems,” “because the solution is the most excellent of all solutions,” and “because the change it produces is the most extreme change possible.” He defines the terms and sets the parameters that will guide and drive the discussions throughout the rest of the book. He lists the ingredients with which he will craft an incredible feast for the mind. So we too will experience the, “the sin-forgiving gift of it, the guilt-removing power of it, the soul-satisfying joy of it, the cross-suffering mystery of it, the conscience-cleansing experience of it, the life-transforming quality of it, the muscular faith-building impact of it, the eternally reconciling splendor of it.”
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David Crump. Knocking on Heaven’s Door: A New Testament Theology of Petitionary Prayer. Baker, 2006. 345 pp.
With a glut of books on prayer in the Christian market, here is a scholarly addition to the mix, worthy of the serious reader’s time. The books on prayer tend to be light and devotional in nature, like Murray’s classic With Christ in the School of Prayer, or the more recent and popular The Prayer of Jabez and Secrets of the Vine. The recent popular works especially tend to promise more than they can deliver, or are products of the “Health and Wealth” television preachers.
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Craig Groeschel. Chazown: A Different Way to See Your Life. Multnomah, 2006. 240 pp.
Even without the hint presented by the subtitle, just picking up a copy of Craig Groeschel’s book Chazown gives the reader a suggestion of something different. To begin with the title itself looks like a made up word. Chazown, Groeschel explains early on, is the Hebrew word (pronounced khaw – ZONE) that the writer uses in Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (KJV, emphasis mine). The word, he says, can be translated “dream, revelation, or vision.”
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