This is the main fault line at the root of the current debate—the epicenter of the Big One that, when it finally shifts with all its force, threatens to split evangelicalism right down the middle. Our problem is a lack of clarity and charity in our debate over the place, priority, practice, and definition of …
Continue reading The Social Justice Fault Lines in Evangelicalism
My four-year-old and I are nearly finished reading The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos, so I’m going to go ahead and set down some of my thoughts about it. Without hesitation, this has been my favorite book to read this year. Of course, much of my enjoyment is related to the fact that this …
The Expository Genius of John Calvin is the first book in the Long Line of Godly Men Profiles series, which is edited by Steven Lawson. It is my fifth volume to read in the series (the others being on Lloyd-Jones, Luther, Watts, and Owen). If you are not familiar with the series, they are not …
“The basic thesis of this book is that deacons–rightly understood and deployed–are an irreplaceable gift to Christ’s church” (21). Matt Smethurst’s Deacons: How They Serve and Strengthen the Church certainly accomplishes that goal in the opinion of this reader. Deacons is one of the two newest releases in the already wonderful Building Healthy Churches Series …
“A totalitarian state,” writes Rod Dreher, “is one that aspires to nothing less than defining and controlling reality. Truth is whatever the rulers decide it is” (pp. 7-8). He notes that this should not be confused with an authoritarian state, which “is mere dictatorship” (7). Totalitarian states are driven by ideologies under which reality itself …
For being the second most widely sold book of all time (behind only the Bible), John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress seems to be falling on hard times. Despite allegorical imagery that can easily capture youthful hearts and attentions, I never even heard of the book until I had reached adulthood, even though I was raised …
Andrew Peterson is a singer-songwriter and author, who has composed some of my favorite songs (Is He Worthy?, Dancing in the Minefields, and You'll Find Your Way to be specific). The first two redesigned hardcover editions of his fantasy series, The Wingfeather Saga, are sitting on my bookshelf, waiting for me to finished reading the …
Continue reading Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson | Book Review
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160178371X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bcnewton-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=160178371X&linkId=f029758145080b0a7613153cd02d97d5 As the subtitle suggests, Saxton is drawing from a deep well of Puritan thoughts upon this subject. While Eastern forms of meditation are becoming ever more pervasive today, few associate meditation with Christianity; the Puritans, however, "regularly wrote, taught, and exhorted God's people to a life of meditation" (2). They are, therefore, a rich …
Continue reading God’s Battle Plan for the Mind | Book Review
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300050607/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bcnewton-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0300050607&linkId=f96ebbb86eb4eed82d2146e275ca6610 The Democratization of American Christianity was published in 1989 by Nathan O. Hatch, who was at that time a professor of history and vice president for Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Notre Dame. Through this study of history, Hatch aims to describe how “the wave of popular religious movements that broke …
Continue reading A Review of The Democratization of American Christianity by Nathan O. Hatch
B. C. Newton 