Review: Sacred Pathways

Sacred Pathways by Gary L. Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This has to be among the books I consider to have revolutionised my Christian worldview. After having read the title once through in the library, I purchased one to keep (as a bible school student, we have to be extremely selective in the books we choose to buy/keep otherwise we would end up with many books that we would never pick up again).

I felt that the feeling of condemnation was lifted when I discovered that God designed us such that we uniquely worship/connect to him through different "pathways." Instructing every new disciple that reading the bible alone is the only way to worship God probably could turn out to be a terrible disservice to him.

Alongside with McIntosh & Rima's Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership, I use Sacred Pathways (compiling the questionnaires at the each chapter into a single MCQ Test) as a starting point for my christian friends to better understand their divine design.

I heartily recommend this! Thomas' "Sacred Search" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...) is another title that I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend!

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Review: Heavy Rain: How to Flood Your World with God's Transforming Power

Heavy Rain: How to Flood Your World with God's Transforming Power by Kris Vallotton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With exegesis being my default and most comfortable form of hermeneutics (method of bible interpretation), I was quite unsure what to make up of the numerous bible passages that Vallotton cited in support of his substantives. However, the target audience being Charismatics, would probably not find it as great of an intellectual wrestle.

I thoroughly enjoyed the real life accounts, of the failures (like how the hostility and disrespect Vallotton and supporters gave to Planned Parenthood's proposal to set up shop in their area actually titled the city council to issuing a green light), of the hard fought victories (of how Bethel adopted the convention center, refurbished and paid rent on it - all whilst maintaining it as a secular venue) and of the miraculous (of how he was almost mistakenly killed by a policeman deceived by a mad tailgating man). I also would say an emphatic Amen to his highlighting of the prevalence of "denominationalism" (covered in the opening chapters) and to the positive eschatological position (in contrast to the doomsaying position; covered in the closing chapters).

Most significantly, I felt encouraged and once again grappled with how comfortable (or uncomfortable) I am with citing Scripture out of context (outside of my devotional reading; in the public spheres of teaching/preaching). The bible passage that comes to mind alongside my wrestling and deliberation would be from Acts 10 - that of Peter being confronted repeatedly through vision of a theological position that was in direct conflict with what he understood Scripture meant. As far as I can tell, I disagree with the Vallotton's methodology of biblical handling and yet stand behind in emphatic support of his vision, passion and heart for mentoring the generations to come. The call to action is clear, and the reader is sure to be inspired to journey ever closer with the Lord by this master communicator.

I received this book from the Baker Publishing Group's Chosen Blogger Review Program for the purposes of providing an unbiased review. All views are my own.

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Review: Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices

Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices by Frank Viola
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was a highly distressing book to read on two levels.

First, many of Viola's and Barna's criticisms of the institutional church are resonate with me. We would do well to examine if they are biblical and beneficial to the body of Christ today:
• Is it helpful to continue utilising “church” to refer to a place or building rather than a gathering of believers?
• Is the church service Christ-glorifying or man-centered?
• Is the service structure so rigid that there is no room for spontaneous (yet somehow orderly) leading of song, prayer, sharing of the word, testifying?
• Has church become a spectator activity?
• Do the weekly sermons by seminary trained preachers impede the ability of the congregation from learning how to interpret, understand and apply Scripture?
• Is it sufficient to send would-be pastors to bible college without arranging for their ministry experience?
• Do Christians rely solely on paid clergy to minister to themselves and to others? Does drawing a salary from the congregation render a pastor at their mercy to their whims and fancies?
• Do Christians journey through life together beyond the weekly meetings?
• Are we using a proof texting approach to justify certain practices like quoting Mal. 3:8-10 out of context to mandate compulsory tithing? Does the congregation adopt the eisegetical method in their own bible study?

Yet on the other hand, I sensed that they have an axe to grind in the extensive proof texting to justify their organic church model. While they claim to love the church, I would believe that the average reasonable person would sense that they hate the institutional church with great fervour. For all the emphasis of doing "church" just like the early church, I had expected to read that the organic church movement practiced the selling of property, sharing everything in common and meeting daily as per Acts 2:42-7. But I did not, because they are not honest enough to admit their own clipboard (picking and choosing Scripture) approach to church.

I found Trevin Wax's review (https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/trevinwax/2008/01/02/book-review-pagan-christianity/) extremely helpful as I sought to reflect on the upsetting themes covered in the book - it would probably provide more ammunition for individuals already disenchanted with the institutional church. Rather than drive these individuals toward the organic church movement, I worry whether the effect would be toward a walking away of the Christian faith or toward atheism or anti-christianity.

It perhaps could have been a really great book, if the authors wrote more objectively and not sought to provide quite puzzling opposition to practices like (i) the pagan dressing up nicely for sunday service and how the conduct of the Lord's Supper and Baptism have somehow had pagan mystic origins. I was not quite sold on these points. I found the objections to sunday school, youth pastors and seminary education quite laughable on their ground they were modern inventions.

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Review: The Lost World of Scripture: Ancient Literary Culture and Biblical Authority

The Lost World of Scripture: Ancient Literary Culture and Biblical Authority by John H. Walton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The two or three months took to finish this book is a relatively long time (I usually read books in a single sitting). If reading a popular level book is like wading along the seashore, going through this book was like going deep sea diving. The immense depth of content often left me amazed as I realised how naive my presuppositions were and how so far removed I am from the context of the world that Scripture was written in.

Walton and Sandy have indeed done a fine job in "not to deconstruct inerrancy but to put on surer footing by carefully accounting for the worldview of the biblical world, which is different from the worldview of modern Western culture" (p303). In contrast to my snobbish attitude of how written was superior to oral communication, I have a new found appreciation for the latter. The brilliant final chapter summary was like a scoop of refreshing ice cream, an exhilarating reward to the persistent readers who had fought hard to journey through the dense jungle of the book - it helped to remind me of what I had read through and saw how they all fit together.

While the more scholarly reviewers probably give it a no-brainer 5 stars, I found that the book would reach a much larger audience if it weighed in at 200 (rather than 300 pages). That would mean the omission or shortening of much of the book, and maybe a new version of the book could be released to cater to a larger audience. While brevity is a luxury when we deal with such an important topic, I struggled to retain interest in the content, especially at the beginning and towards the end.

I received this book from InterVarsity Press for the purposes of providing an unbiased review. All views are my own.

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Review: Forgiving and Reconciling: Bridges to Wholeness and Hope

Forgiving and Reconciling: Bridges to Wholeness and Hope by Everett L. Worthington Jr.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'd imagine that a reader picking up this book would approach it in a similar manner to myself - I know that I ought to forgive, yet I do not feel like doing so, and even if I wanted to try, my entire being would resist it. I never felt preached at, spoken down to, or guilt-tripped at any point; rather, I was winsomely persuaded to consider the beauty of forgiveness from both ends the theological-psychological spectrum. This book exemplifies what it is like when the Word of God and the Works of His Hand is explained, understood and then (hopefully) for the reader, applied to life. Because if it is true, these two will be in agreement.

Having graduated as a psychology student, I appreciate how Dr Worthington explains (and even coaches us readers in a step-by-step fashion how to apply it to ourselves) without employing any jargon. As an academic myself, I relate that it is so much easier to communicate with the technical language; conveying in lay-man lingo is truly a challenging and tedious task. His use of simple vocabulary and easily comprehensive commentaries to the psychological concepts and processes were top-notch. Dr Worthington does it so so very well.

An often used but usually poorly executed writing tool would be to reveal a person story in an attempt to come across as authentic or to connect with the reader. Dr Worthington's recounting of his mother's murder is nothing like that. The sincere pain and subsequent struggle pulled a few cords on my heartstrings. His citation of Scripture was never eisegetical and the flow of the book's thesis was logical and highly fathomable. If it didn't make sense, I would have been compelled to examine the fallaciousness of my stubborn attitude. I often found myself having to pause at moments (instead of speeding ahead to finish the book) to consider what I had just read because I realised that I had to wrestle with God's truth presented before me. It was also very comforting and reassuring to learn that the memories of past events that arose emotions of anger are a natural occurrence; so one does not have to question oneself about the validity of one's forgiveness toward an offending party.

This is truly a masterpiece of a book and I heartily recommend it. A caveat would be that for the copy I received, the print was blur. The difficulty in reading was circumvented when the excellent staff at IVP provided me with a kindle edition to utilise.

I received this book from InterVarsity Press for the purposes of providing an unbiased review. All views are my own.

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Review: They Say We Are Infidels: On the Run from ISIS with Persecuted Christians in the Middle East

They Say We Are Infidels: On the Run from ISIS with Persecuted Christians in the Middle East by Mindy Belz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As the war in the middle east went out, most of us have unconsciously become numbed to the often repeated occurrence of violence and death reported in the media. Even if so, I've somehow have never come across journalism that focused specifically on the lives of the Christians in the conflict. I felt that the only way to cope with the shocking realisation of the immense suffering was to numb myself and try not to emphatise, otherwise, it'd be far too much for me bear. I came away with a snapshot of how these persecuted Christians, with physical and sexual violence and death in their face, would feel so rooted to their country that they would do their utmost to stay against insurmountable odds.

The start of the book was really intense and attention gripping; I could not stop myself from wanting to flip the page. However about halfway into the book, I was really puzzled as to how did all the content mesh with the title. It was only to the end of the book that ISIS came into discussion. So I'm not in favour of the rather misleading title, perhaps done to generate sales.

Towards the 200 page mark, I felt that the book had become rather too long, and laboured to finish reading. If I did not have to write a review, I'd probably put the book down much earlier. If in subsequent revisions the book became a 150 or 200 page title, which would mean keeping only the best content, then a larger audience could possibly be attracted. With the misleading title and longwindedness cleaned up, I would be easily persuaded to revise my rating from 3 to 5 stars.

I received this book from the Tyndale House Publishers' Blog Network Program for the purposes of providing an unbiased review. All views are my own.

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