Category Archives: Christianity

book reviews, Christianity, Wesley

Book Review: “The Journals of John Wesley”

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For the second time in just a few months, I ended finished reading three books at about the same time—in this case just a day apart. I finished The Potter’s Wheel one day, What If Jesus Was Serious the next, and The Journals of John Wesley, Vol 2 the day after that.

I bought a full set of the Wesley Journals, the edition edited by Nehemiah Curnock about twenty years ago when I was thinking of writing a small-group study about Wesley. The writing project died, and the journals sat on a shelf in the basement, all eight volumes. Sometime about three or four years ago, I decided it was time to read it, and pulled out and read Vol. 1. As best as I can remember, I kind of enjoyed that volume. Then, early last year, I pulled out Volume 2 and decided to read it for my morning devotions. I quickly found out that this journal, maybe especially this volume, didn’t real work well as a devotional.

I could find only one set of the Curnock edition for sale on Advanced Book Exchange. Mine will be $80 chapter than that one.

The book really consists of a mix of Wesley’s journal and his diary, along with many notes by editor Curnock. I tried to read the diary and journal chronologically. I was able to do that, but found it tedious. The diary had entries pretty much every day, whereas the journal had entries maybe every few days. Keeping track of where I was was tedious. As was reading the diary. There wasn’t much devotional about the diary, which was bland entries on what Wesley did those days. Both would be of great interest to a biographer, but they didn’t make for inspirational reading.

A typical page in the journal, where the reader has to juggle the diary, the journal, and the copious footnotes.

Actually, there wasn’t much devotional about the journal either. During the period of this volume, 1738 to 1742, Wesley was in the early days of the Methodist movement. He visited the Moravian Church in Germany, then got into disputes with them about worship practices and the fine points of salvation doctrine. He started field preaching at the suggestion of George Whitefield, then got into disputes with him over salvation doctrine. He also disputed with some early Methodists, who came to believe something different about salvation. It’s hard to take inspiration from a man who is mainly disputing with everyone.

Toward the end of the volume was a change. The diary ceased (Wesley’s biographers figure Wesley still kept a diary volume, but that a books of it is missing). The journal seemed to expand and deal more with the inspirational moments of the growing Methodist movement and less about disputes. It became much more pleasurable reading. It makes me wonder how the next volume is.

But I’m not sure I’ll find out. I’ve decided I won’t read the rest of them. I have too many things to read to think I’ll ever get to Volumes 3 through 8. Right after I post this, I’m going to put an ad up for selling the set, for a pretty penny of course. But while waiting for them to sell, maybe—just maybe—I’ll read a little of Vol. 3.

But how do I rate this series? For devotional purposes, 1-star. For historical purposes, 5-stars.

Bible study, book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: “What If Jesus Was Serious?”

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Interesting but simple doodles helped Jethani illustrate his points;

Over a year ago, our pastor did a sermon series based on concepts in the book What If Jesus Was Serious by Skye Jethani. The book is based on the Sermon on the Mount. Up until that series, I had never heard of the book or of the author. Pastor Jeni’s sermon series was very good. So when the pastors of our church put together a space where we can borrow some of their books. I checked, this one was available, so I borrowed it. And I’m glad I did.

The book consists of seventy-two chapters, each two pages long, dealing with a small part of the sermon. Jethani’s point is that, if Jesus was serious in what he said, and we really think about what each point means, we will have to change our lives. Each chapter includes a sketch—a doodle—at the start that illustrates the point.  A number of these doodles are on the book cover.

The Sermon on the Mount is worth studying over and over. To see it from different eyes, hearing a little different take on it, is good. Jethani brought out points I never thought of, so that’s good. I found only one area I disagreed with him on. In Chapter 21, he said that guardrails (i.e. self-imposed barriers to our behavior) are good, but living at such a higher plane that you don’t need guardrails is better. I’ve read too many accounts of Christians in the limelight have benefitted from having established rigorous guardrails for themselves to agree with Jethani. At the same time, stories of Christians who haven’t established and lived by guardrails have had moral failures. Maybe Jethani is right, and not needing guardrails is superior to living by guardrails, but I’m not convinced.

The main thing I didn’t like about the book was the short chapters. I think I’d have liked 3 or 4 page chapters with a little more examination of the scripture point. On more than a few chapters, I was left a bit confused at Jethani’s point. Some more explanation would have benefitted me.

Oh, and I must say that Pastor Jeni’s sermons were much better than the book. Of course, she had more time to go into each point than the books did. And, no, the sermon series was not seventy-two weeks long.

My rating? If I could put 3.5-stars, I would. But, sticking to whole numbers, I give it 4-stars. Since I read this in a borrowed book, whether or not it’s a keeper isn’t a question. But I won’t be acquiring a copy for my library.

book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: “The Potter’s Wheel”

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Printed in London in 1897. But other books have the same or similar titles.

In the further interest of decumulation leading toward downsizing, I’ve been looking for books in the house that look like they would be good reads but which I wouldn’t likely read a second time, or want to keep. I found several right in The Dungeon that meet the criteria. One I finished a few days ago is The Potter’s Wheel, a 1897 book by John Watson, D.D.

This book falls into the category of not knowing where I got it. The book I have was printed in 1897 and may be a first edition. It’s also severely water damaged. How did that happen, and where did I get this book? Did I buy it used with this water damage? Was it on one of the four bookshelves that took some water damage when our hot water heater sprung a leak while we were on vacation? Don’t know. I thought I got this book about ten to fifteen years ago from Lynda’s cousin whose father-in-law had been a pastor. But the book doesn’t have his name in it, nor any markings you would expect to see in a pastor’s study book. So where I got it will remain a mystery.

The water damage isn’t real obvious in this photo, but it’s real.

Another mystery is what this book is about. I mean, it’s a book about the Christian religion, but toward what end? As I read it, it was somewhat good as a devotional book but not as a discipleship book. What was Watson’s intent? What did he hope readers would take away from reading this? I found this discussion at a place where a used copy was for sale.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work…Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Well, after reading that, I feel rather stupid at not recognizing the apparent brilliance of this book. At another site where the book is for sale, I found this.

One of Canada’s foremost early philosophers instrumental in the Hegelian movement that dominated Canada until WW1 and one of the most influential academic figures in Queen’s University history, introducing the disciplines of Psychology, Economics and Political Studies to the curriculum.

Now I’m confused. But to add to the confusion I found this description at yet another site.

The Potter’s Wheel is a novel written by John Watson and published in 1897. The story revolves around the life of a potter named David Grant, who lives in a small village in Scotland….

Except that last one is actually a modern novel by a man named Jeremy Benson, and the selling site did a poor job listing the book.

So yes, I’m confused. The book talks about the Christian life, with little hints of how God, as the skillful potter, will mold us from lumps of clay. Except that purpose for writing didn’t come through clearly in my read. And I read this on my noon reading time, in an undistracted way.

So how do I rate this book? Very readable. But loses points for failure to achieve a clear purpose. Overall, only 3-stars. I wish I could rate it higher, because I feel like I’m missing something that I should have gotten. But this is not a keeper. It goes up for sale tonight.

book reviews, C.S. Lewis, Christianity

Book Review: C.S. Lewis and the Bright Shadow of Holiness

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This 1999 book is likely of interest only to the staunchest of Lewis students.

In June we made a trip to Lake Jackson, TX to first watch two of our four grandkids and family pets, then to pick up grandson Ezra to spend a week with us. While there, I went through their shed and found books gathering dust. I brought two back with me: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and the Bright Shadow of Holiness by Gerard Reed. I’ve always intended to read The Hobbit, and have put it in my reading pile. I have other Tolkien items to read first. The other I couldn’t resist, being a Lewis fan. It came to the top of the pile in late October, and I finished its 177 pages in about 15 days.

I’m not sure that I got everything out of this book that I hoped to. It was kind of hard to understand the author’s purpose, and so I didn’t think that helped in my understanding.

This won’t be a long review. I’ll return this to my son-in-law on the next trip to Texas. I don’t plan on reading it again. I give it 3-stars. On to my next Lewis read, which will be an attempt at The Allegory of Love.

Christianity, Faith

Thinking About Faith, Part 1

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I’ve sold a few dozen of these, one of ten highest sellers.

I’ve been thinking about writing a series about faith. I’ve hesitated to do so because I should do a bunch of study first and plan out the series. But, what the heck. I think I’ll just wade in, start writing, and see where this goes.

Of course, I wrote a book about faith, comparing the faith exhibited by people in the Bible to Christians throughout church history. The book has sold fairly well (according to comparative sales of all my books, which isn’t saying much). I published that in 2019, so obviously I’ve been thinking about faith for a while.

Even after it started to gel for me and I wrote the book, it came home to me again when I read a book of Bertram Russell’s writings. It was a book of Russell’s letters responding to people who had written to him. I picked up the book at a library sale out of town, and moved it to the top of my reading pile. I reviewed it here. I was about 1/3 through it when I thought it was possible Russell made reference to C.S. Lewis, since they were, to some extent, contemporaries, though on the opposite side of the belief in God issue.

Then I saw the book had an index, and, sure enough, Lewis’s name was in it.  I flipped to that page and read the letter. Someone had asked Russell about faith as discussed in some of Lewis’s writings. I didn’t keep the book, so I can’t go back and read Russell’s exact answer, but it was something to the effect he would rather put his trust in facts as determined by science rather than in faith based on myth. I tried to find that quote, or a similar quote by Russell, but I can’t, in my internet searching. But fortunately, I wrote a post about this here.

This got me thinking to the idea of trusting in science vs trusting in God. Science, for sure, is based on objective experimentation that is repeatable. But sometimes assumptions are necessary. Sometimes science starts out as theories that await hoped-for rigorous experimental data at a later point. Russell’s theory sounds good. You should be able to trust data based on rigorous experimentation as the highest and best data.

Except, I keep thinking back to freshman year chemistry (at college). Our professor looked like a 50-year-old-ish man. He said that his own chemistry professor, two-some-odd years before, said, “Forty percent of what I teach you will be proved wrong withing 25 years.” My professor was implying that some amount of the things he taught us would be proved wrong years hence.

I’ve never forgotten that. That also gives me pause whenever someone say, “Trust the science.” I want to respond, “You mean the imperfect science as we know it today, or the better science we’ll have in the future?”

But surely that’s not true of every branch of science. The things Isaac Newton learned in the 17th and 18th centuries have been proven again and again. We can certainly trust that, and many other areas of science.

But this post started out as about Bertram Russell. As I quoted him in my previous post:

I think that all religions consist at least in part of believing things for which there is no evidence and I think that in face of such beliefs loyalty to evidence should be substituted.

In other words, make all your decisions based on evidence, never on faith.

And I thought, how sad for Russell, to not have faith in something.

But, this post is too long. I’ll write another about faith on Friday.

Bible study, book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: Astronomy and the Bible

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A good, short read, I highly recommend it.

Lynda and I are in the process of selling books. Not books I’ve written, but books in our personal inventory: books we inherited from parents or bought though the years. One man who bought one book from me wanted to browse what we had. In a box tucked away in our basement storeroom was a book Astronomy and the Bible. It was published in the 1980s, but I don’t remember seeing it before.

The author, Donald B. DeYoung, is a scientist and university professor of physics and astronomy. In his years of teaching and speaking at many events, both academic and Christian, he’s had to answer many questions. How are star distances measured?  Has the earth’s tilt changed? What is a quasar? What is the Anthropic Principal? The book consists of these questions and DeYoung’s answers.

I found the book fascinating, and easy reading. The format of questions and answers facilitated quick reading, DeYoung’s answer style also made for easy reading. I was able to finish the book before the buyer came to pick it up.

Since the book was published in 1989, the two deep-space telescopes have been implemented by NASA. We know a lot more about the universe than we did at the time of publication. A few of his answers would be somewhat different in 2024 than they were in 1989. But except for that, the book seems accurate even today.

DeYoung is a professing Christian, and a believer in a young earth. He says there is some evidence in the cosmos for creation about 10,000 years ago. But he does a good job of presenting both old earth and young earth evidence. The reader can decide, taking DeYoung’s answers with other works, both scholarly and popular, and come to their own conclusions.

I give this book 5-stars. It’s a short read, and a good read. But it is sold, so I will likely never read it again. If you’re interested in the subject, and happen to find a used copy of this 35-year-old work, go ahead and read it. I recommend it.

Bible study, book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: Two Books About The Apostles

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Two books covering the same subject in different ways.

Among the books we have in our house are those that belonged to my late mother-in-law, Esther Cheney Barnes. She didn’t have a huge library, maybe 150 books or so. They have been in boxes the last ten years, I looked at them a couple of times, but didn’t want to mess with them.

Over the last six months, Lynda has been going through her mom’s books, sorting into keepers, reads and discards, duplicates of ones we might already have, and get rid ofs without reading. Two small books among those covered the same subject: the lives of the apostles. One was The Master’s Men: Character Sketches of the Disciples, by William Barclay. The other is Thirteen Men Who Changed the World, by H.S. Vigeveno. Both books are short, under 160 paperback pages. That was perfect, I thought, for taking on our last trip.

The two books, while covering the same subject, handle the source material very different. Barclay’s book is essentially a topical Bible study. He looks at what we know about each apostle from the gospels and Acts. Besides the Twelve, he includes a write up about Nathaniel and James son of Alpheus. But he does not include Paul the apostle. After giving the Biblical record, Barclay give information contained in early church records. When he does this, Barclay is careful to separate legend from info biblical accounts.

Vigeveno’s book reads more like creative non-fiction than a Bible study. He takes the same tact as Barclay, first presenting what we know from the Bible than adding what we know from legend. But Vigeveno tends to accept the legends as truth and incudes legendary information in the character sketches. He writes well, and the book is engaging, but Vigeveno’s book is a little less reliable than Barclay’s is.

1959 and 1958 were the dates of publication of the two books. The paperback books I read were from 1973 and 1980. So I think it’s fair to say those of you reading this review are unlikely to run across either of them. If you do, should you read them? I say yes. They are both entertaining short reads about a biblical topic.

But are they keepers? In my mind no. I don’t ever see myself reading them again. So off to the sale/donation pile they go.

Christianity, family, travel

An Eventful Week

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A fun time at the library. Elijah is the one in the gray t-shirt in the middle.

Some things you can’t post to your blog, no matter how much you want to. This is one of those times.

The “gig” I referred to in my last post is watching grandkids and their pets in their home. Their parents and the two middle children are on a mission trip to Belize. They have their own difficulties, dealing with a severe water shortage resulting in their camp having running water only one hour a day. The pictures sent out show them doing good work.

75 pound dog named Nuisance tests strength of restricting gate, Details at 5.

Us, at the home front? It’s going. A few moments of excitement:

  • Yesterday, a coral snake (venomous) in the front yard. The dog found it, but fortunately I wasn’t the one walking it this year. My shoulder still hurts from last year’s snake-dog interaction.
  • Also yesterday, an altercation in the house between the dog, affectionately nicknamed Nuisance by me, and a cat or two resulted in a gate that restricts the dog’s access to the second floor. Took me a half hour to put it back in place.
  • Monday, as the mission team was leaving, a wallet went missing in the house. After an all hands search, they had to leave without it. Five minutes later we found it (a long story) and we rushed it to the rendezvous point so they could make it to the airport on time.
  • The dish I made on Monday we are still eating. The trying-not-to-be-seen teenager ate only one meal of it, then has been having cereal.
  • Found a missing library card. It was in the garage. I found it while gathering up recyclables yesterday. No idea how it got there.
  • Elijah and I went to the library Tuesday for a program, only to find I misread the schedule and it was on Wednesday. So we went back Wednesday. It was a good program and Elijah liked it.
  • Tomorrow we go to a 1:00 p.m. program at the local planetarium. If it’s good, we might go back Saturday and Tuesday for other programs.
  • Meanwhile, I’ve been unable to get much writing done. I won’t make my goals for this month.

So that’s the news about my gig. We’ll still be doing it on Monday, when no doubt I’ll have more excitement to report.

Christianity, family, travel

Got A Gig

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It’s watching two of our four grandkids, the four cats, one nuisance of a dog, and the house. Cook, taxi, housekeeper. Doing okay, though I keep forgetting about one step down from the entry to the living room, which is dark and dangerous. May have to put a rug down or something.

Saw our daughter, son-in-law, and two middle grandkids off this morning on a 10 day mission trip to Belize. Here’s hoping all goes well on their end, and ours.

Tried to write today but couldn’t get much done after the hubbub of this morning. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

And hopefully my Friday post will be better as well.

book reviews, C.S. Lewis, Christianity

Book Review: “God In The Dock” by C.S. Lewis

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An excellent anthology of Lewis’s essays.

I continue to work my way through the writings of C.S. Lewis, hoping to get through them all in my lifetime. I got a late start on it, so am having to read them a little faster than I would like. Thus, I’m not sure I have the comprehension I want of his works.

The most recent book of his I completed was God In The Dock. This is a collection essays Lewis wrote over his lifetime, many of which were published in magazines, a few being pulled from things never published. The book itself was published posthumously by Lewis’s editor, Walter Hooper. The book is divided into four parts: theological essays; semi-theological essays; and essays on ethics rather than purely Christian. The fourth part to the book is excerpts from a number of letters that Hooper felt made a good addition to the book, consistent with the other subject matter.

I read this book in three different time spans, one each for parts 1 and 2 and a third for parts 3 and 4. I think this was a good way to do it. It kept me from becoming bogged down reading the same kind of things all over again. And the short nature of essays made it easier to concentrate on what Lewis was saying in them, as compared to his longer works that caused me to zone out.

One essay that particularly stood out to me was “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment”. Lewis wrote it in 1949 when the U.K. was debating whether incarceration should be retributive or healing. Lewis makes a good case that maintaining a prisoner in jail until he is “healed” can be a form of tyranny. Never declare the patient healed and you can hold him forever. The article, which was published in an Australian magazine, prompted response letters and a rejoinder by Lewis. Oh, he did live to argue and debate! I intend to study this sequence of article and letters more to get a better handle on the subject. It’s always good when you can

I think Hooper did a very good job in putting this anthology together. But it does get a little confusing. The version I had was in an even larger anthology titled The Timeless Writings of C.S. Lewis. But God in the Dock was also published as a stand-alone book. But as I look at the contents, it seems that several essays varied depending on the edition of the book.

Also, Lewis had one specific essay titled, “God in the Dock”, from which the book title is derived. That creates some difficulty. When someone says, “Lewis said this in God in the Dock, are they referring to the essay or the anthology? And which essay within the anthology? It makes citing the work somewhat difficult.

I give the book 5-stars. Although some of the essays weren’t stellar, that will be true in any anthology. I’m keeping the volume in my growing C.S. Lewis collection. Most likely I’ll never read it again cover to cover, but I’ll re-read different essay in it and perhaps write my own in response.