The Little Friar

Last week the New York Times published an article -- " A Voice of Hate in America " -- about a normal young man who identifies with white supremacy.  The article and the outcry against it hint at something we should have known for a long time:  Evil isn't a problem because it has grand objectives.  Evil is a problem because it is so, well, banal. Banal:  Common, ordinary, conventional. That's right, evil is trite. In 1963, Hannah Arendt published an article in The New Yorker magazine, " Eichmann in Jerusalem ".  In that article (which later became a book of the same title ) she investigated the "ordinary" case of Adolf Eichmann, who had been masquerading in Argentina as factory worker Ricardo Klement, after having fled Germany at the end of the War.  Eichmann, you see, was an an obedient Nazi bureaucrat, had risen to Obersturmbannführer (a rank equivalent to lieutenant colonel) in the Schutzstaffel (SS), a branch of the state secret polic...

Andrew Le Peau's Mark through Old Testament Eyes:  A Background and Application Commentary is one of the best one-volume commentaries currently available on the Gospel of Mark.  Here, Le Peau models what should be true of every commentary writer:  That preaching and teaching properly belong together.  Readers will find one of the most accessible introductions to the task of biblical interpretation from a real amateur -- one who loves what he does -- through easy-to-understand explanations of the more difficult rhetorical and intertextual parts of Mark.  Le Peau frequently breaks down the various chiastic structures in order to angle how one ought to read more difficult texts.  In so-doing, he also rights many poor interpretations taken out-of-context (for example:  He dismantles the common evangelical reading of "moving mountains" as having to do with "overcoming obstacles" and replaces it with a more text-centered engagement with Jesus as the ...

Chip Gaines' Capital Gaines:  Smart Things I Learned Doing Stupid Stuff gives us a glimpse into Chip Gaines' life -- the man mostly known as half of the popular show, Fixer Upper .  Gaines shares his successes and his failures.  He's incredibly and characteristically honest about his shortcomings and shares times when things could have gone significantly different than they did. The book shares a variety of lessons from life -- from the origin of his wishbone scare on his forehead to the significant people who taught him those invaluable lessons. Gaines highlights some of the differences between him and his wife, Joanna.  His love for her and his family is especially evident throughout Capital Gaines .  In fact, towards the end of the book, he shares that he and Joanna are calling it quits with their show, Fixer Upper , after the fifth season.  They want to spend more time devoted to their family -- something those of us who've followed the show ...

Keep your Church alert, Holy Spirit, ready to hear when you are calling, and when you challenge us. Keep us hopeful, Holy Spirit, knowing that Christ will come again. Rouse our spirits, Lord Jesus, that whenever you come to the door and knock you may find us awake, ready to admit and serve you. Stir up, O Lord, the wills of your faithful people that, richly bearing the fruit of good works, they may by you be richly rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This week, for our Friday's Finds series, I've selected Geoffrey Wainwright's For Our Salvation:  Two Approaches to the Work of Christ .  It brings together two lecture series that Wainwright gave in the 90s.  "Senses of the Word" is my favorite.  In it, Wainwright teases out the ways in which the Incarnation transforms the human senses in order to experience revelation, particularly in the liturgy.  Given the reality of sin, Wainwright holds that the liturgy is where we are training our senses to have a proper role in relationship with God. Wainwright's is one of the most important approaches in systematic theology, and this book is one of the places where you see him engaged in a constructive theology.  It's well worth the read.

Ashleigh Slater's Braving Sorrow Together:  The Transformative Power of Faith and Community When Life is Hard is a word fitly spoken in a world where the cultural motto now is "Me, too".  Here, Slater gives us a spate of shared stories, and some personal wisdom gleaned from community experiences, about the power of faith and community when dealing with difficult issues pertaining to jobs, health, relationships, laying down dreams and so much more. All of us have stories of loss, and Slater's beautiful book reminds us that God is able to transform that loss into something new, something evangelical, within the community of those who have learned the stories of loss to be stories of resurrection, too. Braving Sorrow Together weaves together Scripture, personal stories, practical thoughts, and guest entries to comfort the suffering and encourage hopeful grieving.  This is a must-read and -share book. ______________________ I received a free copy of this book ...

  Marvin Olasky's World View:  Seeking Grace and Truth in Our Common Life speaks to the world in which Christians live and move, and our calling to speak the truth in love.  In this collection of articles from previously-published material, Olasky gives us a glimpse of what Jesus has in mind for followers who live out the commands of the Sermon on the Mount -- Christians who are the salt of the earth, who know how to live salty lives in a dry and tasteless world. While deeply committed to the biblical truth of Scripture, Olasky offers hope for Christians who want to live lovingly and truthfully.  His is a vision of the vocation of Christians to lives of humility, kindness, and mercy.  That makes this collection a must-read for our political and cultural times. ______________________ I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.

Champ Thornton's Pass It On:  A Proverbs Journal for the Next Generation gives us an opportunity to create a new family legacy -- one where parents and children can share in their reflections about the Book of Proverbs, passing on not only the wisdom gathered from the text but also the difference that wisdom makes in real lives. Biblical wisdom and virtue are difficult things in our culture.  Pass It On means to make both not only shared from generation to generation, but becomes a tool in the hands of the faithful to transform entire families into obedient children of God.  Written with a Christ-centered focus, Pass It On is a beautiful leather-bound journal that would be ideal as we head into a new year, a gift for any parent to focus on the biblical wisdom found in these sages and in that way pass it along to the next generation. This is a gift any person can treasure and pass along.  _________________________ I received a free copy of this book from th...

This week I'm highlighting two books together -- Jennings' The Vocation of the Theologian and Jones & Paulsell's The Scope of Our Art:  The Vocation of the Theological Teacher .  Both are a collection of essays meant to highlight the various ways in which theologians approach teaching as a theological act.  What has always stood out at me is how these essays together feature two primary truths about teaching theology:  The transformation of the student (which is obvious) and the transformation of the teacher (which usually isn't).  Teaching theology is composed of a number of different disciplined formative practices, like prayer and meditation. I first read Jennings' book at Duke, in a seminar entitled "Thinking Theologically".  While that class was frustrating at the time, it's come to mean a great deal to me over the years.  And The Scope of Our Art features essays from a couple of different teachers over the years (I still pick up the bo...

What is the classroom?  It's a place where people come together and start to learn something.  Then, sometimes, they start to love what they are learning, and they are changed by that love.  Real work in the classroom is, therefore, transformative, in the way that love transforms the lover and the beloved. Really the teacher is a kind of midwife to love.  I can't force anybody to love the doctrine of the Trinity.  All I can do is help students to take a look at that doctrine for themselves.  I can challenge some of their prejudices and assumptions.  I can question some of their hasty conclusions.  I can help them to slow down a bit, just long enough to pay attention.  If they give this doctrine their attention, if they really start to look at it, then sometimes their hearts will respond spontaneously.  They might start to love what they see, and then to look even more closely, and to love even more. When this happens -- whe...

Almighty God, you teach us in your word that love is the fulfilling of the law: grant that we may love you with all our heart and our neighbors as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Save us, Jesus, from hurrying away, because we do not wish to help, because we know not how to help, because we dare not. Inspire us to use our lives serving one another. Jesus Christ, you have taught us that what we do to each other, we do to you; make us quick to help and slow to hurt, knowing that in our neighbor it is you who receive our love or our neglect. Amen.

I (Still) Believe is this week's Friday's Finds selection.  I became a scholar (or teacher, or pastor) because of my professor, Professor x.  Now I imagine it wasn't difficult to fill in the x.  Now imagine spending an extended session with them, to hear how their scholarship has affected their faith. That's what I (Still) Believe actually does.  This is one of those deeply personal yet prolonged conversations about how several note-worthy scholars have had their faith enriched by scholarship.

Skye Jethani's Immeasurable:  Reflections on the Soul of Ministry in the Age of Church, Inc. means to refocus ministry away from all those silly business metaphors we pastors hear regularly, and place it back on the work of God in Jesus Christ for the world's sake.  If you're like me, and you grow weary with all the consumerist microwave-esque cultural trends in church leadership, Immeasurable is the book you need to read. Here, Jethani encourages pastors to take a look at what they are doing and reflect on the benefits of what they are doing.  Jethani argues that our churches have succumbed to the consumer culture rampant in America, and that it's causing pastors to be overworked and burnt out.  We've begun to build our churches after business models.  We've created programs and services to grow numbers, but are we growing disciples?  Jethani brilliantly captures a truth that most of us know in our hearts, but seem unwilling or unable to com...

Asheritah Ciuciu's Unwrapping the Names of Jesus:  An Advent Devotional places the focus on all our Advent preparations where the focus should always belong:  On Jesus.  While lots of Advent devotionals focus on Christmas past, and recapturing some of the magic in that past, Ciuciu's book allows the four weeks of Advent -- that season of preparation for Christmas -- to focus exclusively on the way in which Jesus is named throughout Scripture. Each week has a theme -- Hope, Preparation, Joy, and Love -- with five days' devotions on the names of Jesus.  Christmas Day, of course, receives its own separate attention, precisely because Advent is meaningless without the celebration of God's Incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth.  Each of the days has its own Scripture for devotion, as well as tasks that are meant to make this book a corporate experience (for families or small groups, particularly). All in all, this is a physically beautiful book with the message of ...

These past few weeks have kicked me to the turf.  This weekend in front of me, I still have a number of reviews to write, essays to edit, and sleep -- hopefully lots of full sleep -- with spending quality time with Kendra in the mix, as well.  (That's not even to mention the book I started writing  months ago but still haven't made it half way through chapter 1 -- sorry, Marisa.)  I promise to return to regular blogging once this flurry of busy-ness is behind me. Well, "promise" in the way Charlie Brown always promises he'll not miss the ball this time ...

Lucinda McDowell's Ordinary Graces:  Word  Gifts for Any Season is a devotional collection in which she takes a word from Scripture and fashions a one- or two-page reflection with spiritual depth and pastoral insight.  Ordinary Graces introduces us to grace gifts from God to strengthen our soul and offer courage to live adventurously. Since each entry is only two pages long, Ordinary Graces makes for a quick, daily read. The book is divided into four sections:  Grace, Strength, Gratitude and Life.  Each section has thirty entries.  Pick a word and dive in.  Or, follow the numbers. McDowell's writing style is open, honest, funny but constantly spiritually deep. Be sure to grab a copy for yourself -- and a few to share with your friends. _____________________ I received a free copy of this book from Abingdon Press in exchange for my honest review here.

Rachel Dylan's Deadly Proof is the first book of her new "Atlanta Justice" series -- and it's a wonderful page-turner, complete with plot twists that will leave readers guessing until the end.  While I'm not normally a big fan of "whodunit" fiction, Dylan's writing is enough to make me reconsider.  Deadly Proof will leave you guessing as to who the bad guys are, because the novel is filled with plot twists that involve murder, dirty corporate tricks and sabotage. Kate Sullivan is a legal eagle for a plaintiffs' law firm in Midtown Atlanta.  She has a big case against a pharmaceutical company that will take all of her know-how and expertise.  But threats from the other side and sabotage from within her law firm make it especially difficult and dangerous.  Luckily she has ex-Army Ranger, Landon Jones, on her side investigating and providing protection -- and the promise of a sweet romance for this career-oriented and high-powered attorn...

This week's selection for the Friday's Finds series is my copy of Barth's Epistle to the Romans .  While it's certainly not a commentary in the usual sense of that word, this important book is also not a textbook in Christian doctrine, politics, or philosophy -- in the way that lots of Barth's later books might be construed.  Instead, Epistle to the Romans is a pastor's attempt to allow the "strange new world of the Bible" to transform the Church's life in this world, for the sake of the Kingdom. I suppose if one were to start reading Barth, this is the place to begin, because so much of what Barth has to say is said here in a way that will preach.  (Not that Church Dogmatics won't preach -- but it will be more of a struggle for pastors who preach Sunday in and Sunday out.)  This is certainly the first of Barth's book I ever read, as a college sophomore.  And it made all the difference in how I learned to allow the biblical text to n...

Deepak Reju's She's Got the Wrong Guy:  Why Smart Women Settle is a book that every single person -- woman and man -- should read.  This is a tool, filled with spiritual wisdom and written with a pastor's heart.  What you won't find in She's Got the Wrong Guy :  A list of do's and don'ts.  What you will find:  Hope from one who has spent years in counseling ministry with real people in real relationships.  God's grace covers a every human endeavor, so it's little surprise that God's grace is the focus on this book.  Reju tenderly guides readers through that grace, which equips us to live faithfully in our intimate relationships. This is a book I would give to every graduating student in the Church. _______________________ I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.