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Theology
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The Case for a Creator
by Lee Strobel
Strobel, whose apologetics titles The Case for Christ and The Case
for Faith have enjoyed strong popularity among evangelicals,
approaches creation/evolution issues in the same simple and
energetic style. The format will be familiar to readers of previous
Case books: Strobel visits with scholars and researchers and works
each interview into a topical outline. Although Strobel does not
interview any "hostile" witnesses, he exposes readers to the work of
some major origins researchers (including Jonathan Wells, Stephen
Meyer and Michael Behe) and theistic philosophers (including William
Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland). Strobel claims no expertise in
science or metaphysics, but as an interviewer he makes this an
asset, prodding his sources to translate jargon and provide
illustrations for their arguments. At times, the interview format
loses momentum as seams begin to show between interview recordings,
rewrites, research notes and details imported from his subjects' CVs
(here, Strobel's efforts at buffing his subjects' smart-guy
credentials can become a little too intense). The most curious
feature of the book—not uncommon in the origins literature but
unusual in a work of Christian apologetics—is that biblical
narratives and images of creation, and the significance of creation
for Christian theology, receive such brief mention. Still, this
solid introduction to the most important topics in origins debates
is highly accessible and packs a good argumentative punch.
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What God Wants :
A Compelling Answer to
Humanity's Biggest Question
by Neale Donald Walsch
Be careful. This book is dangerous. It explores with startling
freshness the most important question you could ever ask, and offers
with breathtaking courage the most extraordinary answer you could
ever imagine.
That answer is so theologically
revolutionary and so spiritually empowering that it could change the
course of human history. If embraced, it most certainly will change
your life.
There are people and institutions in the
world, long in place and long in power, that want neither of these
outcomes to occur. They would rather that you put this book down
right now.
It's up to you. |
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The Sins of Scripture :
Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate
to Reveal the God of Love
by John Shelby Spong
Spong (Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism), a retired
Episcopal bishop and prominent spokesperson for liberal
Christianity, focuses this book on "terrible texts" which have been
used to justify such "sins" as overbreeding, degradation of the
environment, sexism, child abuse and anti-Semitism. These biblical
texts, according to Spong, are not the incontrovertible Word of God,
but flawed human responses to perceived threats. An incendiary
example of this is Spong's assertion that Paul was a closeted gay
man whose anti-gay statements were motivated by little more than his
own self-loathing. Spong does not stop there; in the course of the
book he suggests that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married; that
none of the supernatural events described in the Bible took place
(including the resurrection); and that theism itself is a
misunderstanding of God. Interestingly, readers who do not endorse
Spong's radical reinterpretation of Christianity will still find
much in this book they can affirm. His explanation of the roots of
Christian anti-Semitism is fascinating and much less challenging to
orthodoxy than many of his other claims. Unfortunately, Spong leads
with his weakest section, which features a variety of poorly
constructed arguments claiming, but giving inadequate evidence for,
a strong causal relationship between biblical injunctions and both
overpopulation and environmental problems. Nonetheless, this
absorbing book has much to offer readers of all persuasions.
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God's Politics
by Jim Wallis
Secular liberals and religious conservatives will find things to
both comfort and alarm them in Jim Wallis's God's Politics.
That combination is actually reason enough to recommend the book in
a time when the national political and theological discourse is
dominated by blanket descriptions and shortsightedness. But Wallis,
editor of Sojourners magazine, offers more than just a book
that's hard to categorize. What Wallis sees as the true mission of
Christianity--righting social ills, working for peace--is in tune
with the values of liberals who so often run screaming from the idea
of religion. Meanwhile, in his estimation, religious vocabulary is
co-opted by conservatives who use it to polarize. |
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