Ron’s #22: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

I have wanted to read this book for some time, so I threw it in my backpack for our Memorial Day camping trip to Zamami Island, Okinawa. I thought I’d never have time to read it with all the snorkeling and hiking I was going to do. Since it rained miserably, I read more than I wanted to. There is something about reading a book about an arduous adventure while sitting cramped in a screen tent trying to stay dry and read.

As you probably already know, A Walk in the Woods is Bill Bryson’s account of his planned five-month hike of the 2150-mile Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine, with his out-of-shape and cantankerous friend, Stephen Katz. Much of this book is laugh-out-loud funny, with descriptions of the strange people they meet along their journey (one particularly funny interaction is with the bizarrely verbose Mary Ellen from Florida). Bryson and Katz struggle through the trail, and the book captures the pain, difficulty, and joy of this trail.

Relatively early in the walk, the pair decides to skip out of the Smokey Mountains and ride to Virginia to pick up on the trail there. For me, something changed in narrative when they made this decision. The book wasn’t as funny. The humor was mostly replaced with too much history of the upkeep, the ornithological life, and the past murders on the trail. I found it interesting, but it appeared that it was the point Bryson and Katz no longer enjoyed the trail; they now just complained and looked for small-town restaurants.

I love the idea of doing something epic as portrayed in this book. I, too, would love to do something that takes all my planning, energy, and strength to accomplish. I don’t think it will be the Appalachian Trail. If anything, this book is a good apologetic why one would not want to embark on this superhike.

There must be something like that for me to try. For now, I suppose it is reading a book a week. That certainly takes much less energy, and there is no danger of bears.

Ron's #21: Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey

“Christianity is not a series of truths in the plural, but rather truth spelled with a capital ‘T.’ Truth about total reality, not just about religious things…Biblical Christianity is Truth concerning total reality – and the intellectual holding of that total Truth and then living in the light of that Truth.”        ~Francis Schaeffer, 1981

The book begins with an excellent quotation from Charles Spurgeon, “The gospel is like a caged lion. It does not need to be defended, it just needs to be let out of its cage.” Nancy Pearcey’s Total Truth shows how Christians have been quite content with letting the lion remain in the cage; in fact, we may be the ones who put it there in the first place.

This 500-page tome reads like an American history of ideas and worldviews, and what the implications are for us today. Part I: What’s in a Worldview? presents the idea of the two-story theory of truth, with “objective” truth on the bottom as foundational, and value-based truth on the top. Pearcey shows how this chasm blocks the religious worldview from entering into discussion in the public marketplace of ideas merely because it is religious. If Christianity is true, she argues, it is true for all issues and discussions, and not just ones related to values. It is a total Truth.

She next tackles the Darwinian naturalism worldview in Part 2: Starting at the Beginning. This was not the usual evolution book that arguing from small pieces (e.g., the problem of the eye) against Darwin’s theory; rather, she addresses the problems and results from the worldview in its entirety. If naturalism is true, how can we have free will, morals, altruism, love? While the smaller pieces in the argument are necessary when discussing this issue, seeing the bigger picture of the worldview is far more valuable to see the logical consequences of it.

The third part titled How We Lost Our Minds is a history of American Evangelicalism, tracing modern churches to the First and Second Great Awakenings. While I enjoyed the history lessons and connecting two time periods, this book felt more like a textbook. One of the chapters, “How Women Started the Culture War,” was a clear perspective of the advent of feminism, but it seemed out of place from the scope of the book.

Throughout each chapter, Pearcey provides ample references and footnotes, some so fascinating that I wondered why they were not in the text itself. My only real criticism (and it is hardly that) is that she shows too much love for Francis Schaeffer. She cannot contain her giddiness in recanting her times at L’Abri in Switzerland. I appreciate Francis Schaeffer’s contribution to Christian philosophy, apologetics, and interaction with culture, but Nancy Pearcey really, really loves Francis Schaeffer!

Total Truth is one of those books that I know that I will read again, one that I feel that I must read again. It has a weight to it that I have not felt with other books lately, and I liked that. This is certainly not the book I’d recommend to one seeking to understand what Christians believe and why. There are other books I’d suggest for that (Tim Keller’s The Reason for God is one). This is one for Christians who are interested in thinking rightly about worldviews, and who want to interact with the world around them.

Christianity is not a fairy tale that needs manicuring and placating; instead, it is a vigorous system of beliefs that can hold its own in the marketplace. We Christians need merely to let it out of its cage so it can engage.

Books to Build Your Christian Library

A friend recently asked which books would I recommend for the top ten must-reads for Christians. Here are my picks, in no particular order:

1. Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
2. Desiring God, John Piper
3. The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer
4. The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer
5. How To Read the Bible for All Its Worth, Gordon Fee
6. Knowing God, J. I. Packer
7. Putting Amazing Back into Grace, Michael Horton
8. The Reason for God, Tim Keller
9. Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem
10. Expositor’s Bible Commentary, NT Set, editor, Frank Gaebelein

Am I leaving any out?

Ron’s #20: Letters to a Young Conservative by Dinesh D’Souza

The title is misleading on this book. Letters to a Young Conservative is a book for all those who would like a primer on American conservatism, regardless of age or political party. In the milieu of political labels and name-calling, I wonder if the average American knows what it means to be a conservative. Dinesh D’Souza’s book will help you understand what it means and what its implications are.

Since it is a collection of personal letters to a college student named Chris, the main focus is what it means to be a conservative in the university setting today. One can see the difficulties in how such students are harassed and belittled and silenced in the academic realm. D’Souza offers insight in why this occurs, along with reasons to fight against the liberal machine as “conservative radicals.”

Letters to a Young Conservative is more than a book of advice; it is a treatise on how conservatism is a better answer to political issues and problems facing America, whether racism, immigration, or “family values.” He offers two powerful chapters on polarizing issues of abortion and gay marriage that clearly define an alternative viewpoint than The New York Times offers.

Being a minority and immigrant himself, Dinesh D’Souza’s discussions of race and affirmative action were especially interesting and helpful. Those chapters alone make this book a worthy read.

You may disagree with his conclusions, but at least this book explains American conservatism more accurately than Keith Olbermann does. Unfortunately, liberals allow Olbermann’s and other clownish TV commentator’s antics to define what the other side believes. This book clarifies conservatism beyond mere mockery.

This is an excellent resource for high school seniors to read as they prepare for not only college but also for their first voting opportunity. As a teacher, I envision using chapters to help define the political philosophy to foster healthy, productive discussions of American politics.

I hope that I did not make this sound like a stuff textbook. Dinesh D’Souza often has a humorous style of writing that will engage and equip the reader.

Ron’s #19: Flight by Sherman Alexie

I hesitant to offer an honest review of a Sherman Alexie work. I posted a critical review of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian on Amazon.com a couple of years ago, and I was excoriated for it, evidental because I am not a “brown person” or that I have no understand of Indians. (Read my review and the follow-up comments here). I’m starting to think that Alexie is one of those authors that you cannot criticize without impunity. However…

Flight has an excellent premise: a lost, lonely half-Indian teenager meets a Jesus-like young man in a youth detention facility, and he begins to time travel through important events in America’s Indian history. From both sides of the U.S. Calvary, to an FBI agent in Red River, to his own father, Zits gains a larger perspective of who he is, and what comprises the Native American in modern society.

Alexie creatively inserts some aspect of “flight” in each of the narratives, whether flying through time, airplanes, or running away, Flight uses flight as a symbol to describe Indians, teenagers, orphans, or all three.

Some of the time stops seemed out of place, or simply were dull. Jimmy the pilot was one what did not add to the story (other than to discuss adultery and a departing wife?), and it seemed to take up too much of the story.

Midway into the book, I predicted some cliché parts, such as time-traveling into his own father (as if that was to be a surprise?), the foster home at the end, and even the last line of the book. All too predictable and plain.

I still count myself as a Sherman Alexie fan. Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Reservation Blues, and Ten Little Indians are all wonderful. I love both of Alexie’s movies, and I’ll even buy his newest book, War Dances. But, Flight and Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian are both common stories that do not stand out as unique, no matter who the author is.

Ron’s #18: The Good News We Almost Forgot by Kevin DeYoung

As my friend Buddy likes to say, the subtitle of a book means more than the title. That is certainly true of Kevin DeYoung’s newest book, The Good News We Almost Forgot. The add-on is, “Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16^th Century Catechism.” See what I mean? Buddy was right.

I feel like C. J. Mahaney when he states in his review, “I’m sure this will be the best book on the Heidelberg Catechism I’ve ever read. I know it will be the first.” Like most people, I have never read a book on this or any other catechism. I’m glad I did, though.

For those of you who have not heard of the Heidelberg Catechism, it was published in 1563 as a way to help with a systematic study of the teaching of the Bible. It takes readers through important theological concepts framed within the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Apostles’ Creed. Ladened with Scripture references, the Heidelberg Catechism helps Bible students to get a bird’s-eye view of Reformed Christian doctrine.

As for DeYoung’s book, it is organized in a similar format as the Catechism. DeYoung divides the Catechism into 52 readings, one for each Lord’s Day. In addition to the original text, he provides a short, 2-3 page commentary exploring the themes and offering practical applications in an engaging, readable way. From the virgin birth to the resurrection, from the Trinity to divine providence, from the Sabbath to justice, this book offers a brief discussion on a variety of topics pivotal to the Christian life.

The one point of criticism that I have of this book is the chapter on infant baptism, and it is not because I’m a believer-baptism proponent. I am eager to find out why others believe in infant baptism, and search for lucid pieces that explain it. This was not one of them. DeYoung falters here in his confusing, rambling, and (in my opinion) illogical connection of circumcision to paedo-baptism. He has to make too many logical jumps and assumptions about entering into “covenantal communities” that he appears to ignore too many passages in the New Testament about baptism. As I reread what I wrote, perhaps my critique is more with infant baptism as a whole rather than DeYoung’s defense of it.

While it may be odd to read a commentary of a commentary of the Bible, but I highly recommend this book for devotions, public reading, or as an introduction to Christianity. I think that you’ll enjoy this work, and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of both the Heidelberg Catechism and the Bible.