Ron’s #44: Evidence for God by William Dembski and Michael Licona, editors

Here’s a book that most Christians should read in order to understand their faith better. Evidence for God’s subtitle is “50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy, and Science.” It’s a collection of fifty short, 2-3-page essays exploring many aspects of and challenges to the Christian faith.

In the introduction, we are told a story about Bart Ehrman challenge to his class, “My goal this semester will be to change everything you Christians think you know about the Bible and about Jesus.” We also hear the results of a survey stating “any evangelical Christian is an unthinking bigot and therefore a fundamentalist.” The goal of this book is to prepare the Christian to be a thinking Christian. These essays will prepare believers to understand some of the issues at hand in order to discuss them more intelligently.

The four sections are:

1. The Question of Philosophy (deals with the cosmological and moral arguments for God, naturalism, suffering, etc.)

2. The Question of Science (evaluating Darwinism, role of science, Intelligent Design)

3. The Question of Jesus (Did he exist? How can we know what he did? Did the resurrection occur?)

4. The Question of the Bible (Can we trust that this is reliable? What is inerrancy?)

The strength of this book is the ability to read a few essays in one sitting. In only two or three pages, the content will not be exhaustive. Rather, it can whet the appetite, introduce the reader to new authors, and allow for continued thought and discussion. Some of the essays are better than others, although the ones that appealed to me may not appeal to you. The sections on Jesus and the Bible were my favorites. I enjoyed the science section, but at times, it was simply too technical for me.

Evidence for God is a book to work through as you continue to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Ron’s #43: Zero to Sixty by Gary Paulsen

Gary Paulsen is a man in his late 50s who discovers his own mortality in his “heart disease” (we never really know what that means). In order to “suck the marrow out of life,” Paulsen buys a Harley-Davidson and rides from New Mexico to Alaska with his buddy Larry. It’s a bit like On the Road (although I haven’t read it!) meets The Bucket List.

I’m not sure what it was about this book that drew me to it, and eventually to enjoy this moto-journey, as I have no interest in Harleys or even road trips. I felt similar about an earlier book I read, Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. I enjoy reading what others say about such an arduous undertaking. As for Paulsen, he is an interesting storyteller, Hemingway-style. I loved his young adult fiction, Hatchet, in how it addressed serious issues told in a powerful way. Zero to Sixty captures a man zooming towards the end of his life, finding new memories to add while reminiscing on ones that are already real and vivid and permanent.

One of the stories Paulsen recounts is the time when he was caught trying to break into a neighbor’s garage. He was caught by the local cop, a salty-tongued man named J. D. As a young hoodlum, Paulsen was tossed into the back and driven out of town.  When a few miles out, J.D. made Paulsen walk back in the cold, following behind him slowly from the warmth of the automobile. When they arrived back in town, J.D. bought Gary a meal, and thus a friendship began. The cop became a father-type in Paulsen’s life, and they met for regular dinners together. After Paulsen went into the army, he received word that J.D. was killed when he was shot in the chest with a high-powered rifle fired from a drunken teenager. Chapter four of the book is the strongest, as it demonstrates the power of personal connections that we have with those around us.

Zero to Sixty is a good read about the journey and life. Whether it’s on a motorcycle, a walk in the Appalachian Mountains, or Forrest Gump’s marathon jogging session, Gary Paulsen says it best in his last line of this book: “The run would never end.”

Ron’s #42: A Mind for God by James Emery White

A Mind for God by James Emery White is a book that I wished I could write. It makes a solid case for the active life of the Christian mind. Christians are often (and sometimes fairly) caricatured as backwoods simpletons who eschew logical thought in exchange for the ease of lazy faith. White describes the need for Christians to crave to develop our minds for the glory of Christ. We ought to seek to deeply understand our faith, our culture, our world. Living passively, whether a Christian or non-believer, is a wasted life.

The first step to engage our minds is simply to read. White makes a passionate plea to read often and read broadly. He tells an interesting story about a family trip to Disney World when, during a calm period between visits to the park, his family sat in the lobby reading books for an hour or so. A passerby commented that she wishes her family would do this ritual. His solution is simply to create the habit of reading. How often do we carve out time to intentionally read? I think of all the distractions and responsibilities that vie for my attention which take away my reading time. I need to heed White’s advice to make reading a priority in my life over television, the Internet, and other trifles. My favorite chapter in this book is titled, “The Library as Armory.” This puts reading and books in their proper perspective in our lives. Too often, we arm ourselves with pop-culture foolishness, and those weapons will never win a war. Reading hard books provides the proper training needed to interact with our culture today.

Another aspect of this book that I appreciated is the chapter titled, “Sacred Thinking.” In it, he describes the art of self-reflection between what we read and other areas of our life. It is incorrect to think that our thinking is compartmentalized. What we watch on television, what we read for pleasure, what we discuss over coffee, and what we hear in the Sunday sermon are not distinct areas of study. Do we allow ourselves time to contemplate how these areas fit together or how they are incongruent? This self-reflection is important in all circles, Christian or non-Christian. It’s an aspect that I want my students to do in a variety of readings in class, and I should do it with what I read as well.

The appendices are worth the price of the book alone. White offers three book lists to begin our quest toward a mind for God. The first list is “Ten to Start,” books that offer a basic overview to reading and to the Christian faith. Adler, Lewis, Packer, etc. The next is called “Twenty-Five Books Toward a Christian Worldview.” The third is “Entering the Great Conversation,” a compendium of great books that offer a broad education in world literature. These three provide readers of all levels to begin their diet of important texts to develop their minds for God.

I recommended many of the books on this list, but A Mind for God is really one of the best for an introduction to the importance of reading, learning, and thinking. If you are like me, you’ll appreciate the reminder to read and think more.

Ron's #41: Candide by Voltaire

In a satire against the optimism of Leibniz, Candide has its young philosopher traveling the world searching for his love and attempting to see if his tutor Pangloss is correct in that this world is the best of all possible worlds that God could have created.

The story begins as Candide is expelled from the Edenic castle in Westphalia for his scandalous kiss to the baroness, the fair Cunegonde. He travels across continents meeting a variety of common people and royalty; priests and sinners; wealthy and poor. Candide continues to struggle with the question of whether Pangloss (and ultimately Leibniz) is correct that this world, the one filled with greed and murder and hypocrisy and cruelty, is the best possible one out of the mind of God. He fights with what he believes and what he sees, and cannot justify the two. Candide is left to “cultivate his garden” rather than waste any more time thinking through these issues.

For the Christian, this book explores one of the key objections to a theistic faith: how can a good God allow suffering in this world? While that question is not specifically addressed, is it at the heart of Candide’s uneasiness. What happens when our world is filled with pain, disappointment, and horror? Can we reconcile a God with our life experience? This is a topic that Christians must not only address to those around who question the claims of Christianity, but we must also have an answer for ourselves when the horrors come.

It would be the height of hubris to state a simple answer to this issue, but we must begin our search for one in the gospel itself. We must remember that God the Father knows suffering and murder, as his Son hung on the cross to die for the sins of the world. He watched as Jesus was tortured and killed to become the payment for sins that we not his own. When we are trying to justify a good God with suffering, our question must begin with God himself. Candide met a cast of characters spewed from the bowels of humanity, but never discussed sin.

Christian doctrine teaches that Adam’s sin brought this world from perfection to the wastelands with people corrupted in the downward spiral. Leibniz’s optimism is wrong: this world is depraved and men have the capability to act like animals to one another. Candide’s observations should bring us back to the God who has provided his Son as a sacrifice to restore humanity to our true image-bearer state. The murderers, the rapists, the thieves in Candide’s journey point us back to a God, one who is perfect because we see that man is not. Corrupt men in the world show a moral structure beyond us that defines what corrupt men act like.

Candide’s decision to focus only on his own garden shows a hopelessness that Christians ought not have. Even in the light of pain and difficulty, we should see our “gardens” in light of the larger garden, the only that has the Tree of Life swaying. Because of this, we can have hope in that other world that is the best of all possible worlds.

Ron’s #40: Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson

Take Francis Chan’s living-on-the-edge-by-faith message in Crazy Love and combine it with John Eldredge’s be-a-real-man-and-go-skydiving-for-Jesus philosophy in Wild at Heart. Shake in some quotations and discussion questions, and presto! You now have Wild Goose Chase.

I’m sure that Francis Chan, Mark Batterson, and John Eldredge are all a bit offended at that recipe. I can almost picture Eldridge sharpening one of his Braveheart swords now. But as I read, it felt like those two books, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I agree that we must avoid the comforts of “safe faith” and also that we should live out our God-created masculinity. Even though it is familiar ground, I enjoyed this quick read.

Batterson frames his book with six cages that we put ourselves in that prevents us from partaking in the “wild goose chase,” supposedly what the Celtics call the Holy Spirit. These cages are ones that we can all relate to: cages of responsibility, routine, assumptions, guilt, failure, and fear. While the image of the “wild goose” is too flimsy (and tiresome) to use as a conceit throughout, the cages provide a better structure for the message.

Like the other two books I mentioned, Wild Goose Chase is filled to the brim with anecdotes about people who are on this chase, or ones who are not pursuing it. These were the strongest parts of the book. Another strength was the end-of-chapter discussion questions. These are useful to reflect over the reading privately, or to use as discussion starters.

I’ll end with one of my favorite images in the book that I hope I remember: Batterson writes about the majesty of a bus ride through Ecuador. Driving at 12,000 feet and above the clouds, he was in awe of the mountain peaks. These are the places on earth that the Celtic Christians referred to as thin places, moments in our lives where heaven and earth seem to touch, “the natural and the supernatural collide.” It’s a great image, and helps me to look for these thin places in my own life.

Ron’s #39: Tartuffe by Moliere

Written in 1664, Tartuffe tells how a conniving, smarmy man weasels his way into the hearts and home of Orgon’s family. Using religious phrases and trite retorts, Tartuffe gains the admiration of Orgon, the paterfamilias, much to the disbelief of the rest of the family. The action of the play is how the family attempts to show Orgon Tartuffe’s true nature, which includes scheming, hiding, and shouting. The play is a prime example of a French farce, but it often felt like an episode of Fraiser in rhyming couplets.

Moliere attempted to point out the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church in his day, and he was successful. In its day, the play was attacked for its anti-Catholic sentiment. Modern-day readers will not think it is that controversial since we have been raised by television-evangelist, con-artist types as duplicitous villains.  A sneaky, sweaty, oversexed religious guy as a caricature is old news.