Rid of My Disgrace by Justin and Lindsay Holcomb
April... isn't this a little late to post? Well, all for good reason. As I was reading Rid of My Disgrace, I knew this work needed a full review. I emailed my friend, Jeff Shaw, who started a hotline for trafficking victims in Atlanta called Out of Darkness, to see if he would post a full review on his website (www.outofdarkness.org). He was gracious enough to accept my offer and I am thankful he posted it. The book review can be found here. Rid of My Disgrace by Justin and Lindsey Holcomb is a tender, compassionate and biblical response to help sexual assault victim. The book is so much better than the review. If you know anyone who has this painful experience in their past, or anyone who helps those who do, this book is the place to start. I give the book a 10 out of 10.
Light for the City by Lester De Koster
There are three streams of Reformed Theology flowing out of the Reformation: doctrinalist, pietistic, and culturalist. Light for the City seeks to explain and expand Calvin's influence from the third. The author reads Calvin's major work, the Institutes, backwards pulling only from a few sections of Book IV, this work overemphasizes a small slice of Calvin's influence. Calvin is portrayed more as a politician than a pastor, a statesman than a preacher. Calvin (and Calvinism) is a city builder and preaching the Word was his mechanism. Furthermore, it seemed the author reads history backwards as well. His logic is, "Look! There are Calvinist/Puritanical cities all across Europe and America. This means Calvin lived and died to make it happen." The cart before the horse? Or, how Marx and Calvin are somehow best friends? Really? My question for myself is "have I been reading Calvin improperly?" Or, "is this a misguided caricature of John Calvin wrapped in masterful stitched prose?"
There is much in this volume about Calvin's kind of preaching which was outstanding. Here is a great quotation, "At least, for now, this for the preacher: just be brave enough to give vocalization to the Word incarnate in the Bible, text by text--preaching what God through his Word declares and implies. Behavior will follow. Thus Cities can be created. And were" (79). All and all, the 130-page book could have been three good, long chapters on Calvin's preaching. That would have been worth my reading. I give the book a 4 out of 10.
Jonathan Edwards on Beauty by Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney
The second installment in the Essential Edwards Collection and the topic this time around is beauty. Most people do not understand Christianity, and the God behind it, in terms of beauty. Edwards did. Truth included more than historical events or propositional sentences for Edwards, but seeing God for who He really is and being utterly awestruck through truth. Staring at God's excellencies (Edwards' word) displayed in who He is (being), what He revealed of Himself (His Creation in general and in Christ particularly), and what He reflects to (His Church) like capturing a human smile or taking in a breathtaking sky is the task of the Christian. The Christian is given a "divine and supernatural light" in their very heart which awakens true beauty, the source being God himself. This little book captures a slice of Edwards' vivid works on the beauty of God. Like the first book, it is relatively short and is packed full of Edward's quotation, helpful commentary and application. I give the book a 8 out of 10.
April... isn't this a little late to post? Well, all for good reason. As I was reading Rid of My Disgrace, I knew this work needed a full review. I emailed my friend, Jeff Shaw, who started a hotline for trafficking victims in Atlanta called Out of Darkness, to see if he would post a full review on his website (www.outofdarkness.org). He was gracious enough to accept my offer and I am thankful he posted it. The book review can be found here. Rid of My Disgrace by Justin and Lindsey Holcomb is a tender, compassionate and biblical response to help sexual assault victim. The book is so much better than the review. If you know anyone who has this painful experience in their past, or anyone who helps those who do, this book is the place to start. I give the book a 10 out of 10.Light for the City by Lester De Koster
There are three streams of Reformed Theology flowing out of the Reformation: doctrinalist, pietistic, and culturalist. Light for the City seeks to explain and expand Calvin's influence from the third. The author reads Calvin's major work, the Institutes, backwards pulling only from a few sections of Book IV, this work overemphasizes a small slice of Calvin's influence. Calvin is portrayed more as a politician than a pastor, a statesman than a preacher. Calvin (and Calvinism) is a city builder and preaching the Word was his mechanism. Furthermore, it seemed the author reads history backwards as well. His logic is, "Look! There are Calvinist/Puritanical cities all across Europe and America. This means Calvin lived and died to make it happen." The cart before the horse? Or, how Marx and Calvin are somehow best friends? Really? My question for myself is "have I been reading Calvin improperly?" Or, "is this a misguided caricature of John Calvin wrapped in masterful stitched prose?"
There is much in this volume about Calvin's kind of preaching which was outstanding. Here is a great quotation, "At least, for now, this for the preacher: just be brave enough to give vocalization to the Word incarnate in the Bible, text by text--preaching what God through his Word declares and implies. Behavior will follow. Thus Cities can be created. And were" (79). All and all, the 130-page book could have been three good, long chapters on Calvin's preaching. That would have been worth my reading. I give the book a 4 out of 10.
Jonathan Edwards on Beauty by Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney
The second installment in the Essential Edwards Collection and the topic this time around is beauty. Most people do not understand Christianity, and the God behind it, in terms of beauty. Edwards did. Truth included more than historical events or propositional sentences for Edwards, but seeing God for who He really is and being utterly awestruck through truth. Staring at God's excellencies (Edwards' word) displayed in who He is (being), what He revealed of Himself (His Creation in general and in Christ particularly), and what He reflects to (His Church) like capturing a human smile or taking in a breathtaking sky is the task of the Christian. The Christian is given a "divine and supernatural light" in their very heart which awakens true beauty, the source being God himself. This little book captures a slice of Edwards' vivid works on the beauty of God. Like the first book, it is relatively short and is packed full of Edward's quotation, helpful commentary and application. I give the book a 8 out of 10.
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