Review: The Texan Scouts: A Story of the Alamo and Goliad
The Texan Scouts: A Story of the Alamo and Goliad by Joseph Alexander Altsheler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this historical fiction novel. I’m not sure off the top of my head about how accurate some of the historical details were. The author created a fictional character and set him in the historical setting in order to tell the story from his perspective, which is common in the genre.
Overall it’s a good story. If you like historical fiction and frontier type action and settings, I’m sure you will enjoy this book. I found out after I read it that it is the second book in a series. But I also found out the author wrote them to stand alone so you don’t have to read them in order.
Review: How To Exasperate Your Wife and Other Short Essays for Men
How To Exasperate Your Wife and Other Short Essays for Men by Douglas Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I heard a story about a group of soldiers who were tasked with cutting down trees to build a bridge to cross a creek. Men with lab coats and clipboards would have quickly concluded they did not have enough men nor all the right and best equipment. They toiled on slowly and made little progress, which was surprising given that a duty-serious corporal watched them closely and told them continually with a loud clear voice what they ought to do.
A man with a serious face rode upon the scene on a horse, which we can only assume had an equally serious face. It would not do for a serious-faced military man to ride atop a horse that looked as if he had a secret sorrow. The man questioned the corporal whether he had enough manpower for the job, to which the dutiful non-commissioned officer responded in the negative. When the corporal was asked why he didn’t lend a hand to the work, he indicated the absurdity of the notion by exclaiming his rank.
The better-apprised horsemen dismounted his charge and threw himself into the work alongside the toiling soldiers. He grunted and sweated with them all until the trees were all cut down and the bridge was built. With the sweat of accomplishment causing his face to shine like the seat of a bus driver’s trousers, he remounted his horse and saluted the corporal. He then assured the corporal that should he find himself short of men to accomplish his work, he should call his commander-in-chief, and he said, “I will come again.”
That rider of horses, feller of trees, and builder of bridges was General George Washington. Imagine the encouragement the men in the trenches received that day. This is the way I see Wilson writing on marriage and the way I’m encouraged by it.
One would think the world pretty well stocked with blogs, articles, magazines, books, seminars, sermons, infomercials, talk shows, televisions, and movies about marriage. We are so up-to-our-ears in it that we expect any offering opining on marriage must be thoroughly preceded by an apology and compelling justification for its production. The major portion of that pile though is just plain wrong and the glut we’re dealing with in that department proves it’s ineffective, like diet books.
When it comes to marriage advice, we have many finely-uniformed corporals shouting orders from a close distance and very few generals who roll up their sleeves, spit on their palms, and grab the wooden handle to work. This book is of the latter sort. It’s full of biblical horse-sense, the kind of wisdom that comes from experience, and real helpful advice.
All of this isn’t to say that I wouldn’t nitpick here and there. I would. It’s kind of like when I look at George Washington I see we would have some differences. I personally would prefer more beard and less powdered wig, but we all have to agree that a fresh-faced and wigged George Washington is better than no George Washington at all.
Get the book and read it. It is written to and for men though I don’t doubt that women could glean from it as well.
Review: What Is Biblical Theology?: A Guide to the Bible’s Story, Symbolism, and Patterns
What Is Biblical Theology?: A Guide to the Bible’s Story, Symbolism, and Patterns by James M. Hamilton Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is an excellent book. It will help you understand the Bible’s big story and how the smaller stories fit into the big picture. He gives a good primer on understanding how symbols, figures, and patterns work in the Bible. I highly recommend it along with reading the Bible start to finish.
Review: Benaiah
Benaiah by Cliff Graham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a good short story. It’s a companion to the author’s “Lion of War” series. This is my first read of Cliff Graham and I hope to read more in the future. He writes unsanitized biblical fiction about the war era of King David. This is a unique and manly approach to the Christian fiction genre. You can pick these up cheap on Kindle and you’re not out much if you don’t like it. I have a feeling you will want more though.
Review: Myth Became Fact: Storytelling, Imagination, and Apologetics in the Bible
Myth Became Fact: Storytelling, Imagination, and Apologetics in the Bible by Brian Godawa
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I have been reading Brian Godawa for a few years to some profit. His literary analyses are insightful. His understanding of the art and craft of story, coupled with his ability to communicate, makes for informing and educating reading.
This book is a collection of essays loosely dealing with a literary interpretation of the Bible. It is not a unified single work given to declaring, developing, and defending his thesis. That’s somewhat limiting but he is very clear about that in the preface so it’s best to take it for what it is and not what it is not. Being a collection of essays, which were aforetime published at sundry times and in diverse ways, the book as a whole varies in its usefulness.
The hermeneutic espoused interprets the Bible in a highly symbolic fashion. It doesn’t outright deny that the Bible presents historic, objective facts, but that the objectivity of those facts is not utmost important. For instance, he sees the Genesis 1 and 2 account of creation as not being about God’s literally creating the universe but more symbolic of God’s sovereignty over creation and His covenant with created beings. In this view, it’s not important whether God literally created the universe and whether or not He did it in 6, 24-hour days.
He decries the post-enlightenment, human grid for interpreting the Bible and I would agree with him in this. However, I would argue that he simply rejects one human grid for interpretation in history and replaces it with another from an earlier historic point. His efforts amount to interpreting the Bible through the grid of ancient near east mythopoeia. Though he decries postmodenity his view still removes meaning from the text and results in the same difference.
Interpreting the Old Testament through ANE mythopoeia is not a new concept, but I believe it’s a proverbial chicken-and-the-egg problem. Are the pagan mythologies similar to the Old Testament or is the Old Testament similar to the ANE mythologies? Redemptive analogies in pagan cultures should not surprise us. They are signs of the remnant of the imago dei in man and the and the human lineage going back to Adam and Eve and being divided at Babel. They have been corrupted and sometimes lost over time.
The Old Testament writers did not write in the language and symbols of neighboring cultures, but rather were inspired of God and spoke as they were moved (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21). Furthermore, it’s not a question of which human grid is right, and whether one is better than another because it is closer to the original writing. The Scriptures are revelation and only rightly understood through the revelation of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14; Matthew 11:27). God’s Word is eternal and all else is a counterfeit, so it doesn’t surprise us to find similar symbols and analogies in other cultures.
In the end I’m still unconvinced of this hermeneutic. It leads to a loss of clarity and not new insight. I certainly do not deny the historical context and its importance in interpretation, but the Scripture cannot be broken and it all must stand together as a whole. I don’t believe the Bible is a scientific textbook, nor that it claims to be. It’s is God’s revealed Word to man. It is the word of truth–objective, historical, transcendent, absolute truth.
