Common Grounds Online

Tullian Tchividjian's new book: "Unfashionable"

Tullian Tchividjian is the pastor of New City Church in Florida and his new book, Unfashionable, is soon to hit bookstores. I'm reading a pre-release copy and enjoying Tullian's thinking and writing a great deal. 

Here's why I like it:

1. Tullian's love for Jesus and His Word is manifest throughout the book. He is thinking theologically, reverently, and passionately for the people of God to joyfully live out their calling in our mixed up world.

2. Also, Tullian drinks deeply from the works of several thinkers (David Wells, Os Guinness for just two of them) who happen also to love Jesus and to pursue their academic vocations with excellence. These thinkers don't supplant the primacy of Scripture in Tullian's book, but rather they complement his analysis of Scripture. 

All to say, there is a lot to feast on in this book. And Tullian does a good job of translating the insights of academics into accessible material for everyday folks.

3. Tullian doesn't bow before the idol the spirit of the age. Being against the world for the world is a theme that runs through this book, and that means Tullian is full-throated in his call for the Church to be faithful to the Bridegroom, and simultaneously passionate for lost people to find their lives in the way of Christ. Both goals, Tullian shows, are accomplished by the Church being against the world, for the world.

For more on the book, check out this video from Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds.

To pre-order the book, click on Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World By Being Different

Leigh McLeroy - Book Review, The Gospel of Ruth

Carolyn Custis James' The Gospel of Ruth has been spurring lots of conversation among friends and colleagues who are seeing this old story through a sharper lens thanks to Carolyn's dedicated scholarship and lively writing. My own copy of The Gospel of Ruth is ink-marked, page tipped, and sticky-note glutted – and one corner of the spine has been gnawed a little, thanks to Owen, my Cavalier King Charles. I have asked questions of this manuscript, wrestled with it, and been tutored by it…a lot. Here Carolyn responds to a few of my sticky-note questions related to her newest book. Perhaps you'll have a question or two for her as well. Leigh McLeroy

You describe The Gospel of Ruth as the book you were “born to write.” What drew you to the story of Ruth, and how can you see God’s providence in the timing of its writing and publishing?

The Book of Ruth changed my life. I grew up hearing and loving the story of Ruth. But as an adult, although I read and taught it many times, I never felt personally drawn to the story. The “happily-ever-after” ending always bothered me. You don’t get over the kinds of losses Naomi and Ruth suffered, no matter how many good things happen later on. Then too the book always seemed like a theological lightweight next to the weightier stories of Abraham, Moses, and David, or the writings of the prophets.

Then, I started hearing what OT scholars were saying as they continue digging in the book of Ruth.

Matthew Pipkin, A Review of In Defense of Food

Upon our pastor’s recommendation, my wife and I recently read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. In this book, Pollan tackles the problem of the Western Diet (i.e., all of our diets) and the chronic diseases that plague our nation (obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, many types of cancer etc.). Specifically, Pollan attacks the approach of “Nutritionism,” the idea that we can understand and engineer better food if we break it down into its many parts. Such an approach defines much of our current food wisdom, from cautionary tales (fat and cholesterol are bad), to health food promises (“Now with more fiber!”) and fad diets (no-carb). Unfortunately, this approach leads to highly processed and manipulated foods. Take a gallon of skim milk for an example: when you remove all of the supposedly bad fats you also get rid of the healthy vitamins and nutrients, and these have to be added back in at a latter point in the process. The result is a product that is fat-free and vitamin rich, but it is also a far cry from actual milk.

Ben Witherington Reviews "The Shack"

Ben Witherington, a well-regarded professor at Asbury Seminary, reviews The Shack in some detail.

Click here for the whole article.

Amy Lauger, Review of The Collected Works of John M. Frame, Volume 1: Theology

Lately I have been pouring over quite a gem, The Collected Works of John M. Frame, Volume 1: Theology, available on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. As an RTS/ Orlando alum, I had the distinct privilege of being taught by Dr. John Frame, and I certainly cannot imagine going through seminary without his considerable contribution to my formation. Dr. Frame is one of the most brilliant Reformed theologians of our day, and also one of the most gracious men I know. So when I heard about this software, I knew I must get it!

Dr. Frame defines theology as the application of Scripture to life. One cannot walk away from Frame’s writing and teaching without a much clearer grasp of how to do precisely that. Frame’s wisdom, graciousness, insight, clarity and winsomeness will leave you hungry for more. And you’ll have plenty to feast on here. Included in Volume 1 are the full versions of several of Frame’s books on theology, including The Doctrine of God, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, Salvation Belongs to the Lord, and No Other God: A Response to Open Theism in addition to many of his shorter works on theology and audio files for 70 hours of lectures on various theological topics.

Summer Reading List 2008, Non-Fiction

Non-Fiction

 Catherine Claire
The Gospel of Ruth, by Carolyn James.
I just finished reading The Gospel of Ruth on a recent plane trip. It is the crown jewel of her career and the best book I’ve read this year (and I read a lot of books!). Carolyn opens new windows on the book of Ruth. It is not the simple love story you thought it was, it is a dramatic story of extravagant grace.

End of Memory by Miroslav Wolf.
A close second for me this year was The End of Memory by Miroslav Volf. Volf explores the question of memory in relating to past wrongs and to the ultimate question of whether the mantra of Never Forget in a post-holocaust, post-genocide culture squares with the teachings of the Scripture. Fascinating.

 Cody Chambers
Exploring Reality: The Intertwining of Science and Religion by John Polkinghorne
The clergyman-physicist John Polkinghorne moves easily between theology, particle physics, and ethics in this book.  His novel ideas are fascinating to read, and he encourages believers to hold scientific inquiry dear alongside a vibrant faith.  His theories are worth considering, if not adopting, for anyone investigating the intertwining of religion and science.

 Mac Richard
The Reason for God by Tim Keller may be the most essential read for any person of faith or for someone considering the Christian faith. If you’re a Christ-follower, you’ll be strengthened and equipped, convicted and encouraged; if you’re not, you’ll appreciate Keller’s low-key, non-dogmatic arguments for the man called Jesus, and perhaps even a little surprised by some of his admissions re: religion’s failures, pitfalls, and hypocrisies. But, know also that he won’t patronize you by not pointing out failures, pitfalls, and hypocrisies of atheism, pluralism, and universalism as well. He’s too kind for that.

Paul Yanosy
The Reason for God, Dr. Timothy Keller
Dr. Tim Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC.  Beyond his sermons, this serves as his foray into the contemporary dialogue on faith and culture.  Publishers Weekly and others highlight Keller’s intelligence and ability to weave together material from classics to philosophy to anthropology; however, two other aspects make this book even more significant.  First, Keller engages in the dialogue as one who listens well.  He knows his audience, respects those with whom he is in conversation, puts forth their best case and acknowledges a well-put critique.  Second, he engages as a pastor.  His purpose is not to win an academic debate, it is to present good news that engages even to the depths of the deepest critique, so that we are changed.               

Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton
The story of Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set against the backdrop of apartheid South Africa. The story explores themes of justice, faith, family, mercy and hope and how these find meaning across cultural fault lines of race, wealth and poverty, rural and urban life and traditional culture versus modernity.  And the prose is beautiful.  "There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills.  These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it."

 Matthew Pipkin
Sidewalks in the Kingdom by Eric O. Jacobsen
A great introduction to New Urbanism that explores the ways in which urban design influences community and everyday life.  Jacobsen lays out the Church’s call to city ministry and finds we would do well to consider many of the  ideas and principles promoted by the New Urbanists.

 Zoe Sandvig
Walking on Water Madeleine L’Engle The well-loved author of A Wrinkle in Time offers her theological and mystical musings on writing as a way of life. It’s similar to Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life but with all the weight and focus of writerly appreciation for Christ as the greatest Storyteller.

 Les Newsom
Christ and Culture Revisited by D. A. Carson
Don Carson gives one of the more helpful, less reactionary treatments of one of the stickier religious questions about how to be a Christian in the world. Even if you’ve never heard of Neihbur, this book will challenge you to pray for more wisdom before we speak about the cultural impact of Christianity.

Carolyn Custis James
Simply Christian, by N.T. Wright is one of the most hopeful books I’ve read in years. I was powerfully drawn to the overarching vision of Gods purpose to restore through Jesus the world He created and loves and to carry out that work through His image bearers who are here to look after things. As always, Bishop Wright will make you think and give you a bigger picture of Gods call on your life.

Tim McConnell
The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God, Robert Louis Wilken.  A sweeping engagement with the beginnings of Christianity that lets you see, taste, and feel the thought patterns and culture of the Christian Fathers.  Reading this book is an opportunity to measure your own patterns of Christian life with the community of saints.  You will leave feeling that you have walked through the ancient Church and met a number of new brothers and sisters in Christ.  Informed by a profound depth of scholarship, but written in a style easily read by the layperson.

Thomas F. Torrance: An Intellectual Biography, Alister McGrath.
T. F. Torrance passed away in December 2007 in his home in Edinburgh, Scotland, marking the worldly end of one of the 20th century’s most important theologians who faithfully served Church and University simultaneously, won the John Templeton Prize for Science and Theology, and began one of the most fruitful and theologically valid ecumenical campaigns since the Reformation.  You will be encouraged by the biography of Torrance in the first half of the book as McGrath puts Torrance’s biggest life decisions on display through unmatched access to personal papers and letters. 

The second half is an introduction to Torrance’s theology which will be of particular interest to an informed reader of the Reformed tradition who wants to understand why Karl Barth might matter for an evangelical and how modern science and theology still interact.  This may be a challenging read, but it pays off.

 Kelly Monroe Kullberg
Brave New Family by G.K. Chesterton has me thinking about my family and home as a valuable work of art and culture.

 Scott Armstrong
The Rise of Christianity, Rodney Starks.  Starks is a sociologist who began with the question, "What explains the explosive rise of Christianity from an obscure sect to a worldwide faith?" and parses out the question through an exploration of history, sociology and more.  A must read for any student of church history.

 Todd Bragg
The Reason For God, by Tim Keller, is a must.  Keller  answers difficult questions about Christianity that we often avoid or pray we never have to answer, and does so with respect, intelligence, humility, and grace. This book is up there with Mere Christianity 
by C.S. Lewis for me.

A Walk In The Woods, by Bill Bryson.  This book will wet your appetite for hiking the Appalachian Trail, whether you are an avid long distance hiker or you just like to get outdoors once in a while. I laughed out loud many times reading the well written account of Bill’s experiences on the AT.  I am surprised that I  enjoyed this book as much as I did, but it’s great and I think you’ll think so too.

 Jim Broyles
Another Sort of Learning, by James V. Schall
Check out this sub-title: Selected Contrary Essays on How Finally to Acquire an Education While Still in College or Anywhere Else: Containing Some Belated Advice about How to Employ Your Leisure Time When Ultimate Questions Remain Perplexing in Spite of you Highest Earned Academic Degrees, Together with Sundry Book Lists Nowhere Else in Captivity to Be Found.

The title really does say it all, if you can follow it.  Schall, a political philosophy professor at Georgetown University, writes about the looming questions to be found at every stage of life, subsisting to the intellectual giants for framework and answers.  If you are interested in philosophy, pick it up. This book is worth the book lists it references alone.

 Also of note for CGO readers
Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Seminary and an evangelical voice in the public sphere, has produced another excellent Summer Reading List, with excerpts. Mohler’s theme this summer is history, and he recommends and comments on some books that look superb. I recommend checking out both of his lists.

 Mohler’s Summer Reading List, The First Five

 Mohler’s Summer Reading List, The Second Five

 Hat tip: Justin Taylor, at Between Two Worlds

Summer Reading List 2008, Fiction

[Editor’s Note: I asked Common Grounds Online Contributors to suggest books for a 2008 Summer Reading List and the following are their recommendations. Some of the books are the same as recommended by other Contributors in our 2005 Summer Reading List, which suggests they have some durable quality.

 Also interesting is that three different Contributors recommended Tim Keller’s new book, The Reason for God. Each of the three Contributors’ remarks about Keller’s book are included.

We would enjoy hearing from readers!

If you’re a CGO reader and you have some suggestions for the 2008 Summer Reading List, please add your suggestions in the comments.]

 Fiction 
Mac Richard
So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger. So Brave is just a great story well told. Enger writes disarmingly but genuinely of redemption, second chances, and consequences for decisions made. It’s not neat and tidy, but it rings true. Maybe, it rings true because it’s not neat and tidy.

[Editor’s Note: Leif Enger’s award winning Peace Like a River was recommended by Contributor Doug Serven in our 2005 Summer Reading List. Peace Like a River is a wonderful read.]

Matthew Pipkin
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
This book follows the life of Jayber Crow, a small town barber from rural Kentucky. While that might not sound like the most thrilling premise, Berry is a brilliant writer with an uncanny ability to make his readers care about things that would ordinarily be overlooked or considered mundane. This story is a beautiful depiction of community and what it looks like to walk through the joys and sorrows of everyday life.

Zoe Sandvig
Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt Anne Rice The first post-conversion novel by a former vampire writer, Rice takes on the boyhood of Christ. It’s a novel, not a theological treatise, so it is chock full of speculation, and some theological inaccuracies, but it makes you ponder with new eyes the humanity, especially the youthful humanity, of the second person of the Trinity.

 Les Newsom
This American Life by Ira Glass (podcast)
I know, I know...it’s not a book, but it’s like reading for your ears. Ira Glass oversees some of the most masterful storytelling that I have ever heard in this always riveting, often fascinating podcast. One episode a week is free. Back episodes can be purchased from iTunes and are as well worth the money as anything you can find there. 

Carolyn Custis James
Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize winning Gileadis on my summer reading list. Slow moving, thoughtful, and beautifully written, this book about fathers and sons and spiritual battles is praised as an increasingly rare work of fiction, one that explores big ideas while telling a good story.

 [Gilead was also recommended on our 2005 Summer Reading List.]

 Tim McConnell
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut.  You only know the water your swimming in when someone gives you a ladder to climb out of it and look back.  Nobody does that like Vonnegut.  Powerful and profound in the accounts of the holocaust, and superficial and light in satire of the whims of human life, Vonnegut’s most celebrated novel yanks the reader into a different world. A little bit of bad language and sexual content probably makes this book PG-13, or even R, but it’s a healthy engagement with a totally different perspective on life.  A good book to read for a Christian who wants to get into a different way of life and feel it from the inside. 

Kelly Monroe Kullberg
The War Against God, by David Kullberg, my husband!
Available on Amazon by July.
It’s a Reformed correction to the Left Behind books -- a theological and political thriller, first about the Kingdom here and now, but with some political and romantic plot veins.  It has me learning about guys like George Soros, and what/who he’s funding (including a "ministry") to confuse and diffuse the Church.

 Scott Armstrong
Safe At Home, Richard Doster.  Doster’s first novel swings for the fence.  Through the fictional town of Whitney, Doster explores the tensions of race and the changing racial climate of the 1950s south and the role that baseball played in integration. This may be a fictional account but every page is based on real history that reminds us of our universal, sinful penchant to divide and hate and how love responds.

 Jim Broyles
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  To be read beyond high school reading lists!  Great summer read.

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Previous CGO posts and comments on book recommendations

Summer Reading List 2005, Fiction

Summer Reading List 2005, Non-Fiction

The Book Meme, 2005

David Wayne Reviews Kelly Monroe Kullberg's Finding God Beyond Harvard

David Wayne, who is a Presbyterian pastor and runs one of the famous "God-blogs" known as Jollyblogger, has reviewed Finding God Beyond Harvard by CGO Contributor Kelly Monroe Kullberg.

Read the whole review here.

I'm biased-- I loved Kelly's book-- so I was thrilled to see David's positive review.

Timothy McConnell, Book Review: The Bait of Satan

John Bevere's book, The Bait of Satan, is now in its third printing, originally written in 1994 and revised in 2004.  Bevere has hit a target of deep need in the Christian community with a direct, and thoroughly Biblical look at the necessity of the practice of forgiveness.

Yesterday, in my devotions, I read 2 Corinthians 2:10-11:  "Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. And we do this so that we may not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs."  Immediately, I remembered Bevere's book, which came to me at at time when I felt deeply wronged, and hardened against forgiveness.  Do we really know Satan's designs?  I fear I'm often in a position to be outwitted.

Bevere leads his readers through a process.  In a series of chapters on possible wrongs a person might suffer, and surely he could not cover them all, he allows the reader to feel the pain and the anger of being wronged.  But he begins to gently lead the reader toward the practice of forgiveness.  Bevere's basic premise is that when we fail to forgive, we hold a grudge in our heart that lends toward a sense of personal entitlement.  I am one who has been wronged, so I deserve...And into that gaping whole, Satan moves in.  Our sense of entitlement and just desserts justifies our basest vices.  Ouch.

Steve Halliday Interviews Leigh McLeroy, "The Sacred Ordinary"

I asked author,  editor, publisher and preacher Steve Halliday if he would interview Leigh McLeroy, who recently published The Sacred Ordinary: Embracing the Holy in the Everyday.  Previously Leigh collaborated with pastors on a number of books, and last year published the simply wonderful The Beautiful Ache, which I love to re-read.

The following is an email interview between Steve and Leigh:

1.  You often connect the ideas of “beauty” and “holiness.” How are the two related, in your view? And why does our culture seem to see such a vast chasm between the two?

Both beauty and holiness are “other than.” In their “otherness” they have the ability to transport and transform. They move and change us, evoking in us powerful response. When the prophet Isaiah saw his breathtakingly beautiful vision of the Lord’s holiness he was moved to say “Woe is me!” and then his guilt was removed and his sin atoned for with a searing hot coal. Thus transformed, he enlisted in the Holy One’s great cause by saying “Here am I. Send me!”

In the same way that God’s holiness transformed and inspired Isaiah, true beauty moves us to reflect, to examine ourselves, and to respond – in creative endeavor, in words of praise, even in awe or gratitude or tears. As you point out, our culture seems to be adept at “divorcing” beauty from holiness. True beauty (not the artificially contrived stuff our culture tends to glorify) always points us God-ward. We instinctively know that beauty has to be “connected” to something more…but we live in a culture that denies or ignores God’s active presence and power.

I wrote in The Beautiful Ache “We hunger for beauty because we know [that] we have secrets, and we have fallen far from grace. We ache for our lovely, unfallen state; we pine for the pristine perfection of Eden.  We don’t get them here – but we long for them just the same.” The late John Paul II called beauty “a key to mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savor life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of created things can never fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God.” In Jesus, mankind has seen, touched and handled (see I John 1:1) the Beautiful One, and not only lived to tell, but found in Him the promise of a triumphant return to our – and the earth’s – former, unsullied state of being and beauty. He is beauty…and only He makes us (and all things) beautiful.

2.  You begin the book with a quote from Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God—but only he who sees takes off his shoes.” What does this      mean to you? And is it a different thing to say, “only he who takes off his shoes, sees”?

I love this bit of poetry. To me it means that even the most common things are infused with the divine…we just don’t often notice. I was talking to an artist friend recently who asked me if I knew what the “golden ratio” was. I didn’t, but she explained it briefly to me as a mathematical proportion that is aesthetically pleasing to the human eye, and told me that many classical works of art “mimic” it with great result. Artists can “copy” it – but it is built into nature itself. The proportions of the human face, the arrangement of leaves on tree branches, the skeletal structure of animals…all reflect this “divine mean.”

If God created all that is, and if we are created in His image, it makes sense that we should be able to “spot” Him – or His hand – in the things we encounter in our everyday lives. The Sacred Ordinary is about spying out those things…and considering what they can teach us. I say in the intro to the book “I mean to be one who sees. One who watches for crepe myrtles to combust, expecting now and then to spy heaven hidden in the mundane. ” So, to answer the second part of your question, is it different to say “only he who takes off his shoes, sees,” yes. But the two are still related. I believe we become better at seeing and responding to the sacred in our lives when we begin to expect it and look for it. Maybe “taking off our shoes” in advance of seeing says “I expect to see you break through, God, and I’m watching for you.” I didn’t write this book to show others how I see – I want them to learn to see for themselves!