Andrew's Book Reviews

Johann Christoph Arnold, Seventy Times Seven: The Power of Forgiveness (Farmington, PA: Plough Publishing House, 1997) 169 pgs.
Arnold, the leading elder in the Anabaptist Bruderhof communities, has written an extremely pastoral and effective work on the need for and power of forgiveness. The book draws support largely from true accounts of hurt, anger, and forgiveness in the lives of members of the Bruderhof, as well as several other people the author is acquainted with. It is divided into chapters that pretty well cover all the bases of forgiveness as practiced in life: the dangers of bitterness and unforgiveness, forgiving when reconciliation is impossible, forgiveness in marriage, overcoming hatred and anger, going through confession, forgiving ourselves, forgiving God, etc.
Good: The true stories of forgiveness are touching and powerful. Examples include.... a boy who was kidnapped, shot, and left for dead, who met and was reconciled with his abductor 22 years later; ...a holocaust survivor and former Israeli army member who was able to forgive by realizing his own need of forgiveness; ...a former Vietnam war pilot who, after being haunted for years by his past napalm raids, met and received forgiveness from a Vietnamese woman who was one of his victims.
Bad: As Mumia Abu-Jamal's afterword points out, the book neglects the political and structural aspects of oppression that create some of the situations requiring forgiveness.
Opinion: This is a wonderful book. It helped me immensely in understanding and forgiveness issues in my own life. I think everyone should read it.
Rating: 4.5 stars

George Barna, A Step-by-Step Guide to Church Marketing: Breaking Ground for the Harvest (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1992) 345 pgs.
This volume begins with a defense of church marketing principles that includes some references to scripture. Then Barna jumps into the basic steps of marketing a church, beginning with data collection, and moving to development of a vision and construction of a marketing plan. The appendices at the back give specific examples of the materials and work involved, from surveys to marketing resources.
Good: This book is a very easy read. Instructions are clear and plenty of charts are used to give a good understanding of the process, including a sample marketing plan.
Bad: Much of the criticism church marketing has received is justified, and the faults are seen in full force in this book. Barna basically pastes business promotion principles to the church and justifies it by proof-texting carefully selected scripture passages. If the church caters to the felt-needs of the larger culture its values will become just another reflection of the culture. Rather than transforming the world, it will be transformed by the world (Rom. 12:1-2).
Opinion: There's lots of useful information for church outreach in this book, but ultimately it compromises too much. Jesus never took surveys of the culture He ministered in. The danger Christianity encounters when working in a capitalistic culture is the temptation to become customer-service oriented. Barna completely caters to that mindset: surveys are prescribed to determine what the public desires, and a "marketing plan" (which hinges on a business-type of "vision statement" and "mission statement") is created to meet these desires. This book may be helpful if referenced by church leaders, but only with a strong measure of caution.
Rating: 2.5 stars

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1972 reprint) 344 pgs.
Bonhoeffer was a brilliant German Lutheran theologian who was martyred by the Nazis. This work is an intense exposition of his understanding of Christian discipleship. After an initial section dealing with grace and discipleship (in which he presents his classic dualism of "cheap grace" and "costly grace"), he jets into highly descriptive interpretations of the beatitudes and other key Matthean passages on discipleship. The last portion is a discussion of the church and its functions in the world.
Good: This is thoroughly uncompromised Christianity at it's finest. Watered-down Christianity does little good to anyone. Bonhoeffer writes, "If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering." The whole book is like that: true discipleship is presented in full force.
Bad: Bonhoeffer is so intense in his preaching that it's hard to soak in everything he says. This book will be best understood when readings are spread over a period of time. This guy is an old-style Lutheran who uses no illustrations or sermon-helps. A quick read of it will do you little good.
Opinion: Perhaps the most famous quote from this work is this one: "When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die." This book is much more interesting given the backdrop of Bonhoeffer's life: he deliberately passed up several opportunities to flee Nazi persecution for his own safety, choosing instead to stay in his country and attempt to stop Hitler's oppression. This clearly was a man who practiced what he preached.
Rating: 5 stars

John A. Buehrens and F. Forrester Church, Our Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989) 195 pgs.
This book gives a solid introduction to the Unitarian Universalist faith. Some portions focus on the historical and doctrinal roots, while others draw on the experiences of the authors (who are both UU ministers) as well as contemporary understandings and practices of the UU faith.
Good: This is an easy read and for a short volume seems to cover all the basics of UU well. The experiences of the authors are particularly helpful. A good example is that of Buehrens' marriage to an Episcopal priest. He says, "The truth is that most of our debates are rather more mundane: the unholy trinity of checkbook, chores, and children, not the holy one."
Bad: The authors sometimes contradict themselves by proclaiming the virtues of being all-inclusive, and then highlighting their perceived inadequacies of orthodox Christian understandings. For example, Church writes that "[James Freeman] Clarke and [Jenkin Lloyd] Jones helped to expand Unitarianism beyond a liberal Christian faith to a faith that might best be described not as non-Christian, but as more than Christian." To most of us in other religions, Christian or otherwise, the UU faith is not "more than" anything but a hodge-podge collection of bits and pieces that fails to embrace the fullness of any of the world's religions.
Opinion: A quote from William Schulz in the introduction sums up the essence of Unitarian Universalism: "Born Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Muslim, or into a secular or 'mixed' household, when it came time for us to affiliate with a religious institution we sought one that fit our own thinking, not one that imposed its thinking on us." To those of us who view religious discipleship as letting go of our own ways of thinking in order to grow closer to God, this view is inadequate. It does not do us well to create a god in our own image.
Rating: 3 stars

Donald A. Cabana, Death at Midnight: The Confession of an Executioner (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996) 195 pgs.
Although this book has been marketed with a focus on the capital punishment issue, it basically is a biographical account of the author's work in corrections, spanning a 25 year career and culminating in the 1987 execution of Connie Ray Evans. The first and last chapters are the most passionate, detailing the events immediately leading up to Evans' execution and the completion of it. The middle chapters cover the history of Cabana's criminal justice work, beginning in Massachusetts, and moving through Mississippi, Florida, and Missouri.
Good: The sheer brutality of an execution is vividly displayed here, as is the fierce emotional toll it takes on the criminal justice professional who performs it. Cabana described Evans' execution as a "personal hell," and this book takes you through it step by step. Particularly hard-hitting are the accounts of his visit with Evans' mother and the grisly descriptions of the killing itself.
Bad: The chapters in the middle dealing with Cabana's career advancement and work in criminal justice are probably of moderate to little interest to folks who aren't directly involved in that line of work (unlike myself).
Opinion: It's very easy to talk about the morality issues of capital punishment when one is distanced from the act itself. I've heard people say things like, "The executioner is acting as an instrument of the state; it's not the same thing as murder." Well, Cabana's experience says something different. He writes, "In spite of telling myself many times that I was just 'doing my job,' as [Edward] Johnson's date with death loomed closer I increasingly felt the crush of events. The planning and meticulous attention to the detail paid off, however, and Edward Johnson's execution came off flawlessly. There was just one problem. Afterward, I felt dirty. I remember standing in the shower at three o'clock in the morning, scrubbing as hard as I could. No matter what I tried, nothing seemed to put my mind at ease. The rest of the world could afford to be matter-of-fact, I thought; they had not strapped a man in a chair and killed him. I would remember every detail about Edward Earl Johnson - every wrinkle, every blemish - forever."
Rating: 4 stars

Tony Campolo, Carpe Diem: Seize the Day (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994) 234 pgs.
Campolo has dozens of books out there; his writing style appeals to lots of readers. This one focuses on passionate enjoyment of life. After discussing the problems of materialism and life disillusionment that are predominant in our culture, Campolo unpacks the solution: living as God created us to. He challenges his readers to dream dreams and dare to live them out, embracing the fullness of life, including God, nature, work, and all the things around us.
Good: As with Arnold's book, this one has a lot of good stories and illustrations that powerfully convey the themes of the book. One example is of a man who has turned down high-paying opportunities in legal work in order to live in a one-room flat while working for civil rights -- the very thing he enjoys doing. Another is of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who, when facing a mock execution, learned to savor every bit of life around him.
Bad: This book might be a bit cheesy for some people. Also, the danger with this kind of teaching is that some may interpret it to mean, "If it feels good, do it." This is not Campolo's intention, but it could be read that way. It's important to interpret a vision of fulfilled living within the context of the reign of God.
Opinion: My fourth-grade teacher once said to our class, "Today is February 6, 1980. This day will never happen in history again." She tried to teach us to appreciate everything around us and enjoy the offerings of each new day. It took awhile, but I've finally caught on to this truth. In this book Campolo has successfully delineated what it means to be truly "living".
Rating: 4 stars

Jimmy Carter, Living Faith (New York: Times Books, 1996) 257 pgs.
After reading this book you can see why Carter is renowned as a Sunday School teacher. This work began with material from lessons he has given in his Southern Baptist congregation. He enlivened it with examples from his life and how he has tried to live out the teachings of his faith. The result is a very warm, personal, and powerful biographical account of Christian discipleship in practice. This book is not entirely gloss though; he also deals with times in his life when he struggled with his faith, and a few contemporary subjects like the "Jesus seminar" and the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Good: The stories from his life are inspiring, particularly of his work against racism in the south in the 60s and his current work in mediating international conflicts as part of the Carter Center. I also was touched by the "personal edge" that this book brings. Carter talks openly about his marriage, conflicts with his sons, his career changes, and personal discovery of God's leading for his life. It's powerful.
Bad: Occasionally he gives excessive focus to justifying some of his political situations in the 70s. But this is just a small fault....
Opinion: As someone who can identify both with Carter's political/social views and most of his spiritual understandings, I found it to be wonderful reading. In recent times the Bible has been widely misused by the political right to justify all sorts of heinious public policies, and those of us who differ have often been derided as less than Christian. In this context Carter's book is extremely refreshing. It's by far the most inspiring read of the year. The book is rather pricy ($23.00 in hardback), but well worth it in my opinion.
Rating: 5 stars

Charles G. Finney, Revivals in Religion (Virginia Beach, VA: CBN University Press, 1978) 493 pgs.
This work is considered a classic in Christian evangelism. Finney, who also served as President of Oberlin College in Ohio, is widely remembered as being one of the 19th century's greatest revivalists. In this series of lectures he explains his principles and methods of revival, and you can see why he was so successful. After a couple chapters defining the basics, he covers the necessary spiritual preparations, with an in-depth focus on prayer. The succeeding chapters give specific "how-to's" of doing a revival, including means of addressing sinners, preaching the gospel, methods for dealing with converts, combatting hindrances, avoiding backsliding, and growing in grace. Finney leaves no ground uncovered; he lays out all the specifics in detail, from prayer meetings to preaching techniques. He clearly believes that his instructions will bear fruit when put into practice.
Good: Finney's focus on the spiritual conditions of the ministers and churches initiating revivals is excellent. A substantial portion of this work is focused on spiritual preparations within the body of believers. He recognizes that a good measure of faith and prayer in the right spirit is needed to begin such a work. He also recognizes that prayers out of self-interest don't work, and that the revival declines if people get boastful and the focus is taken off of God.
Bad: Finney is so evangelistic that sometimes he lacks in pastoral qualities. This is most evident in his lecture entitled "False Comforts for Sinners"; he is so swallowed up by the subject's need for immediate repentance that he shows little willingness to let that person express the other things on his/her heart. Conversion in the Wesleyan tradition is centered more around God's work in the believer's heart. Finney lacks patience in this area. Also, his use of scripture is very selective and involves little exegesis; he doesn't always give fair attention to the texts he employs.
Opinion: In spite of its drawbacks this book is still a masterpiece. It is critical reading for understanding the Great Awakening of the 19th Century. In terms of contemporary practice, the only reason it's not more widely read is because of Finney's extensive critique of seminaries. Many of his criticisms are still valid, and the powers-that-be don't like to hear them. Too bad, since it is very important reading for church-folks who want new spiritual fires to be started as they were in Finney's day.
Rating: 4.5 stars

Al Franken, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations (New York: Island Books, 1996) 349 pgs.
Franken admits that he came up with the title for this book before writing it. This is a hilarious collection of essays targeting the politicial right wing. The book kicks off with a chapter that pokes fun of Limbaugh's hypocrisy, weight, and political/social stances. He writes, "It's way too easy to quote him: 'It's time to start championing old-fashioned virtues like... self-restraint, self-discipline' and then write STOP EATING!!!" Much of the book is like this; spoofs on right-wing hypocrisy alongside exposures of some of their more asinine remarks. (e.g.- Rush Limbaugh: "Have you ever noticed how all newspaper composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?" Pat Robertson: "The feminist agenda....is not about equal rights for women. It's about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft and become lesbians." Newt Gingrich: "If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections... On the other hand, if combat means being on an aegis class cruiser managing the computer controls for twelve ships, a female may be again dramatically better than a male, who gets very, very frustrated sitting in a chair all the time because males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes." Franken retorts: "Two images come to mind. The first is of the grasslands of Africa. During the Neolithic Period. Rush, Newt, and Bill Bennett, all 825 pounds of them, are trying to run down a giraffe. The giraffe is thinking, 'No problem here.' The second image is of Newt, about fifteen years ago, explaining to his thirteen-year-old daughter that she just got her first 'infection.'") Subsequent essays cover a range of political figures and issues. My version, the new paperback edition, also includes a postlude of "New Dirt on the Nutcase Right". There aren't many Jay Leno-type one-liners in this one. Instead, the essays have the strange mixture of building into hilarity while enraging you.
Good: This book is a quick, funny read. The best essays are the ones that target specific characters, particularly the ones on Limbaugh, Newt Gingerich, Phil Gramm, Pat Buchanan, and Pat Robertson.
Bad: A couple of the essays drag a bit, particularly the fictitious "Operation Chickenhawk".
Opinion: This one is hysterical! I laughed out loud regularly while reading it. It's definitely nice to see someone giving Limbaugh a taste of his own medicine. Franken stops at nothing, and in my opinion has definitely established himself as one of the nation's premier political comedians.
Rating: 5 stars

Charles Kuralt, Charles Kuralt's America (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995) 279 pgs.
When Charles Kuralt retired from CBS he decided to do something enjoyable.... spend a year vacationing at his favorite places in the country. He selected twelve places, and spent one month in each place in it's peak season to visit: January in New Orleans, October in Vermont, August in Maine, etc. Each chapter gives a 20-30 page account of his experiences in each individual location.
Good: Kuralt is just an excellent writer. After reading each chapter you feel like you've visited each place yourself. In my opinion his most interesting visits were Twin Bridges, Montana; Ketchikan, Alaska; Key West, and New Orleans. He gives brilliant, flavorful descriptions of the sights, sounds, smells, and personalities he runs into in each part of the country.
Bad: Kansas wasn't included in his travels. Also, it would be interesting to see how someone from my generation would do a book like this. Kuralt's perspective seems more geared towards his own generation. But that certainly didn't keep me from enjoying it......
Opinion: This book is a great retreat for those of us who would like to travel to the wonderful places this country has more often but have neither the time nor the resources to do so.
Rating: 4 stars

Dr. Karl Menninger, The Crime of Punishment (New York: The Viking Press, 1966) 280 pgs.
Karl Menninger, Topeka's own nationally-renowned psychiatrist, tackled the many difficult issues of remedying the American criminal justice system in this old book. Ten chapters cover the ins and outs of it, including the criminal process (with special analysis of arrest, jailing, the trial, sentencing, imprisonment, and release), tensions between the legal and psychiatric professions, the nature of violence, the public's demands, and the punishment vs. rehabilitation issue.
Good: Two points about the legal system stick out in my mind as being especially brilliant. The first addresses its lack of understanding of the psychological foundations of human behavior. Menninger sums it up: "The law assumes that when a person, regardless of his earlier experiences, reaches the age of discretion, he sees the wisdom - as it were - of being discreet, and so exercises appropriate control of his behavior except when overcome by passion or temptation. He and all other men are 'equal' in the eyes of the law. But [Sigmund] Freud showed that men are extremely unequal in respect to endowment, discretion, equilibrium, self-control, aspiration, and intelligence - differences depending not only on inherited genes and brain-cell configurations but also on childhood conditioning." His expertise in psychiatry exposes a number of crucial tensions between his field and the legal arena. The second concerns the inequities of the legal process and the way they jeopardize the goals of the system. Again he writes, "The adversary system assumes that the best way for a court to discover the facts about any matter is to have each of two opposing sides strive as hard as it can, in a keenly partisan spirit, to bring to the court's attention the evidence favorable to its side. But this system also assumes that both sides will be represented with equal skill, and have equal amounts of luck. Is it justifiable to put men on trial for their lives under a system in which skill and luck so vitally influence the outcome?"
Bad: This book is very old. It would be interesting to see what revisions Menninger would make on a new edition, were he still alive. I'm sure many (if not most) of his criticisms would still be valid in current criminal justice structures, but it's tough to discern without having a deep, overall knowledge of the American corrections system.
Opinion: Certain parts of this book struck me more than others, perhaps because they are visible flaws I encounter regularly myself. On the whole, though, this work has rightfully been considered a landmark volume in criminal justice reform. We need to continue to move in this direction. As a preacher, I especially appreciated his moral insight. This is his best quote: "...just so long as the spirit of vengeance has the slightest vestige of respectability, so long as it pervades the public mind and infuses its evil upon the statute books of the law, we will make no headway toward the control of crime. We cannot assess the most appropriate and effective penalties so long as we seek to inflict retaliatory pain."
Rating: 4 stars

Thomas C. Oden, ed., Phoebe Palmer: Selected Writings (New York: Paulist Press, 1988) 325 pgs.
Phoebe Palmer, a 19th Century Methodist laywoman, was one of the most influential persons in the development of the holiness movement, from which the Church of the Nazarene, the Free Methodist Church, the Salvation Army, and the Wesleyan Church draw their roots. This work is a selected collection of her writings, from the age of eleven until shortly before her death. Consisting of selections from her journals, letters to friends and family, writings on spiritual development, and even a few poems, along with interspersed comments from the editor, this volume does a good job of chronicling her life's work and tremendous contributions to American spirituality.
Good: Mrs. Palmer's life is in many ways a model for spiritual growth and leadership. Her reliance on God after the successive deaths of her three small children is particularly noteworthy. (She wrote, "God keeps our treasure in heaven, that our heart might be there also.") Other impressive milestones in her life include her own experience of sanctification, the accounts of her marriage, her leadership in the Tuesday night meetings for the promotion of holiness (which turned into a national movement), and her national and global travels in the Lord's work. Her example is very inspirational.
Bad: Sometimes the writings tend to get a bit tedious. From a theological perspective, the scattered nature of the content across the chronological span of her lifetime is a bit frustrating. It shows her spiritual development well, but it makes it hard to study the overall character of specific portions of her theology. Also, Oden tends to over-comment at times.
Opinion: I don't buy her theology of sanctification completely, but reading this work definitely gave me a new appreciation of Mrs. Palmer. I had previously viewed her as someone who watered down Wesley's doctrine of holiness/sanctification. Perhaps there's some truth to that, but her writings reveal a very active, intelligent, and deeply spiritual personality, with a extremely deep sense of faith in God. The world needs more people like that today.....
Rating: 4 stars

Ronald J. Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: A Biblical Study (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1977) 225 pgs.
This book has a become a classic, and rightfully so. More recent editions have been issued; I think a 20th anniversary edition came out a couple of years ago, holding the same basic principles but with a few revisions, including up-to-date statistics. If you're going to read this it would be better to get one of the newer editions, rather than the older one I completed. In my copy Sider follows a three-part structure: The first part is aptly titled "Poor Lazarus and Rich Christians", and the title reveals its contents. Full statistics are given on the extent of global hunger, and the wealth of global Christianity, particularly in North America and Europe. The second part is an in-depth Biblical study on the importance of helping the poor and the wise use of possessions in Christian living. The third part offers some suggestions for living out these Biblical principles.
Good: All three sections are solidly researched and every assertion is fully supported, from both a Biblical and a social/statistical perspective. The impacts of hunger are particularly hard-hitting. It's hard for me to imagine someone reading this book without being fully convinced of the following: 1) Hunger is a BIG problem; 2) Christians have the resources to stop it; 3) Caring for the poor is presented in the Bible as a paramount issue for Christian discipleship; and 4) We need to do more, and there are things we can do.
Bad: This older edition kind of damages its credibility a bit in the introduction by giving a possible 1985 nuclear war scenario with hunger as the pivotal issue.
Opinion: This book very bluntly presents the hard truth for Christians: we're not doing what God has called us to do, in terms of taking care of the needy. No Christian should pass this book by. The issues are overwhelmingly Biblical and too critical to ignore. At this point I'm embarrassed that I didn't read it sooner.
Rating: 4.5 stars