Review: Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture
Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture by Lesslie Newbigin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Newbigin’s premise is to look at western culture from the cross-cultural perspective typically used by those evangelizing a foreign culture. There was a time when westerners would think this approach unnecessary and maybe even ridiculous. How about now? In just the last 15 years, western culture has quickly become opposed and hostile to biblical Christianity. We have codified and institutionalized discrimination against Christians to set the stage for more aggressive persecution.
Bible-believing Christians are now so out of step with the culture that we are no longer speaking the same thing. We cannot count on common currency in thought and language that we once took for granted. We are now babblers and setting forth strange gods to this culture (Acts 17:18). Newbigin’s book does give us some help in this regard. It was written in the mid-eighties, so it’s a little dated. Nevertheless it can still help to give us a change in perspective.
Review: The Baptists and the American Revolution
The Baptists and the American Revolution by William Cathcart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cathcart is a well-known church historian and this brief work centers around the activities of a number of Baptists around the time of the American war for independence. He highlights their actions and influence at the time and particularly in the fight for religious liberty.
This aspect of history is not well known by many today. The commentary is interesting concerning living in a place with authorities who are hostile and antagonistic toward the true Christian faith. We will do well to reach more into history and acquaint ourselves with the circumstances of our predecessors in the church. I certainly recommend this book.
Review: Blood Feud: The Hatfields and the McCoys: The Epic Story of Murder and Vengeance
Blood Feud: The Hatfields and the McCoys: The Epic Story of Murder and Vengeance by Lisa Alther
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I came to this book with the typical mythos of the Hatfield-McCoy feud. I had heard the caricaturized and stereotyped, cartoon-like version of the feud. So I thought it was all about moonshining hillbillies fighting over a hog and the tragic love story of two young’uns wanting to intermarry between the families. Well it wasn’t quite like that and the real story, at least as close as we can get to it, is far more serious, complex, and tragic than many realize.
Alther, the author, has some connection with the feud in her ancestry and grew up in the mountains not too far from where the historic feuding took place. I suppose these things converged to inspire her later in life to take a more detailed look at the history and the result is a valuable contribution to American history in general and Appalachian history in particular.
I appreciate the integrity she brought to this book and that’s what makes it so valuable for the history it covers. She did not oversimplify the feud or the time in which it took place. She considered the socioeconomic aspects that were contributing factors to some extent. She minimized conjecture and speculation and pointed out areas where there were conflicting accounts and missing information such that we will never know all that happened.
Alther discusses other feuds from the region and time period as well. Some of those were worse in some respects than the Hatfield-McCoy feud. She asserts that the Hatfield-McCoy feud got more press though because it was easily stereotyped and caricaturized because it was among the uncouth, uneducated hillbillies where some of the other feuds involved some from higher ranks of society like doctors and lawyers. She makes a good point but it’s hard to say with certainty.
More could be said but I will leave it with a good recommendation to read this book. This book covers one of the most well-known events of American history that we actually know very little about in terms of the truth.
Review: The Journals of Jim Elliot
The Journals of Jim Elliot by Elisabeth Elliot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Jim Elliot’s journals were compiled together by Elisabeth Elliot for publication. These are dated, chronological journal entries, so they read that way and not as a cohesive idea development. These journal entries do tell a part of Jim Elliot’s life story, obviously from his own perspective. Some entries are mundane but mainly the book is full of insights, thoughts, struggles, and more. I found it amusing how he thought Elisabeth too skinny in the early going but as his love for her grew, he seemed not to notice what he previously thought were flaws.
Jim Elliot’s journals give a different yet valuable perspective on mission work. He knew he could die in the effort to reach the Auca’s and in the end the five men chose not to defend themselves and sealed their witness with their blood. I highly recommend this book. The book is large but journal entries are brief and it lends itself to reading in a devotional manner.
Review: Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot
Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot by Elisabeth Elliot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the biography of Jim Elliot written by Elisabeth Elliot. It covers much of the same material as “Through Gates of Splendor” but gives much more background from Jim Elliot’s perspective. She drew on her personal knowledge and Jim’s journals to put this book together.
Jim Elliot and his missionary companions willingly laid down their lives for the spread of the Gospel in Ecuador among the Auca (Waorani) tribesmen. This account is gripping and powerfully moving. You should put it on the top of your list if you haven’t read it.
