Reading Update

(8) The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates that Define and Inspire Our Country - Howard Fineman

This is one that I have some difficulty in reviewing.  The book takes the reader through thirteen issues that are debated heavily in our country.  Things like presidential powers, who is a person, war, etc.  The author tries to show both sides of each issue and why the debate is important.  He does this quite well I think.  The problem with the book is in some of the examples the author gives of each debate.  Throughout the book, he takes a person from one side of the issue and tells a story of how that person fits into the debate and I see that the journalistic ideal (he is a journalist by trade) of pure fact is set aside as he tries to get behind the man.  He speculates too much about peoples' motives for being involved in the debate, often with little evidence to back his claims.  I think the book is helpful in the identification of the issues we face, but I would only recommend it to those with a serious interest in these things who can discern when the author is presenting fact and when he is presenting opinion. 

Reading Update

(7) Night - Elie Wiesel

In this autobiography, Weisel tells the story of his deportation as a teenager from his home in Transylvania and his subsequent imprisonment at Auschwitz during WWII. The book is fairly slim, coming in at only 115 pages, but those pages are packed with powerful, tragic memories. As I read this book, I had to frequently pause to ponder the things I was reading, otherwise I would not grasp that the things actually happened to this boy. It is easier to just drift into that place where you believe it is only fiction that you are reading. That is certainly our tendency, to push the vile things, the instances of pure evil to the periphery, or to chalk them up as nothing more than fairy tales. This book brings them back into focus, and forces us to think about bigger things: God, injustice, suffering, human nature, evil. I highly recommend it.

Reading Update

(6) A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

I really think it would be pointless to review this one.  I'll just say if you haven't read it, read it and if you have read it, read it again.

On the Lookout for Scapegoats

"Seeing, therefore, that the flesh is continually on the alert for subterfuges, by which it imagines it can remove the the blame of its own wickedness from itself to some other quarter, we must diligently guard against this depraved procedure, and accordingly treat of the calamity of the human race in such a way as may cut off every evasion, and vindicate the justice of God against all who would impugn it."

- John Calvin, The Institutes, Vol. 1, Ch. 15.1

Reading Update

(5) Easy Chairs, Hard Words: Conversations on the Liberty of God - Douglas Wilson

In this short and very readable book, Wilson answers some of the big questions surrounding the exhaustive sovereignty of God.  Wilson writes the book as a fictional dialogue between a young man who is struggling with some things he is reading in his Bible that seem to contradict the theology he has been taught while growing up in what can only be described as a thoroughly Arminian-leaning church and a man from across town who pastors the church known pejoratively as the Calvinist church.  The young man returns week after week seeking the counsel of the pastor on things like faith, election, perseverance, sovereignty, theodicy, and even the use of systematic theology.  

I found the book very easy to read, saturated with Scripture, and to the point.  I have been looking for a good overview/defense of the doctrines of grace and I think I've found it here.  Those who have studied these issues at length may not find a wealth of new material, but they will find the presentation refreshing.  And those who have only heard mischaracterizations of the doctrines will gain a fresh understanding.

Reading Update

(4) God of Promise: An Introduction to Covenant Theology - Michael Horton

It was not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination, but the struggle was well worth the time and effort.  Melanie and have been working through this one together and I think that we both benefited greatly from it.  

It is, as the title suggests, an introduction to covenant theology.  Horton starts by showing the history of covenants in the Near East and then works out a biblical understanding of covenant.  Melanie and I both found the final chapters, which were chapters that showed the practical outworking of a covenantal biblical worldview to be especially helpful.  In those final chapters Horton helps the reader to better understand baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the purpose and use of the Law.  The book is recommended. 

Reading Update

(3) Economics in One Lesson  - Henry Hazlitt

I took an economics class in high school, but I doubt I was paying much attention and that was quite some time ago.  So I decided to read something on economics and this book was recommended.  The book's thesis is summed up in the first chapter when Hazlitt explains that, "The whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson . . . The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups."

This is the message that Hazlitt sets out to prove true in his book.  Hazlitt is certainly a free-market economist.  He is opposed to nearly all government intervention into economic affairs and frowns on things like minimum wages, subsidies, and social security.  His argumentation is sound and convincing and his writing is easy to read.  He takes a look at many practical areas of economics and shows how the failure to heed his one stated lesson has caused much damage.

The book is a good introduction to economics and certainly gets one thinking about the potential long-term effects of certain government policies currently under consideration.