Posts Tagged ‘book review’

2 Dec

Book Review: Manly Dominion

Posted by tyrellh in Book Review, Christianity. Tagged: , , .

I heard a lot of hype about ‘Manly Dominion’, but was excepting just another book written to Christian men, going over the passages we have all considered and strive to live up to as Christians; I was surprised. Chanski does go over Biblical truths most men know (and a lot that’s not so well known), but he does an excellent job of applying them to life in a way that is both convicting and encouraging.

Chanski starts by giving a biblical foundation and perspective to the theme, obviously the major theme is taken from the early passages in Genesis where man is told to ‘take dominion’.  He then goes on to apply this dominion taking to vocation, decision-making, spiritual-living, husbanding, child-rearing and romance management.

With probing questions and gripping illustrations Chanski asks the hard questions, and tells men to be men in a thoroughly Biblical way. This book is a really important read for men out there; I would highly recommend it as one of the best books I have read this year, especially appreciating the highly practical nature of the book.

What really brings the book to life is the many examples Chanski uses, this is no mere commentary on a few passages, this is extremely applicatory. Knowing what it is to be a man in the this day and age, and seeing the effects of our emasculated culture I think this is a very timely book, one you would do well to read and give to other men you know. Don’t pass it by!

20 Sep

Book Review of: The Power of Integrity

Posted by tyrellh in Book Review. Tagged: , , .


It’s been a while since I picked up a book by John MacArthur, and I am glad I picked up this one. ‘The Power of Integrity’ is a short book, some 158 pages of reading, it is devotional in tone, light in reading, convicting in quality and encouraging in nature. What I love about MacArthur’s writing in general is his use of Scripture and his systematic attention to portions of Scripture, very much like a good expository sermon, this book is a typical MacArthur expository read.

The book is broken up into three sections; the essentials of integrity, the examples of integrity and the ethics of integrity. It’s a good read for a new Christian, or for someone who is more mature in the faith but needs the reminder of basics as they so easily escape us. I found some extremely convicting parts of the book, dealing with passages I know well, yet they were brought home in a real and applicable way once again.

One thing I really appreciated about Macarthur’s writing is that while much of what was said was convicting as he brings God’s Word to bear on certain areas of life, it didn’t leave me hopeless, but rather spurred me on to deal with those areas of weakness by the power of Holy Spirit.

‘The Power of Integrity’ starts off by giving the reader a helpful look at why integrity is such an important thing, really how valuable it is. It then expands by dealing with integrity in doctrine which is often an area that we don’t consider when we think of integrity. How does our theology match up with our lives? After which it deals with how to pursue this kind of godliness typified in the word integrity.

In the middle section of the book we are given the examples of Daniel, his three friends and Paul to see integrity under pressure, which is when integrity is most often seen. The book ends by giving Biblical motivation and instruction toward integrity in all of life.

To be sure, if more Christians were aware of the Scriptural teaching this book highlights and practised it, there would be a far greater witness from the Church to the world. I really appreciated the accessibility of the book; though MacArthur does occasionally go on his grammatical explanation of Greek parsing, as a whole the book is easy to read, it’s not the kind of book which bogs you down with information, but perhaps sometimes with reflection on the nature of your walk with the Lord.

13 Sep

Book Review: Histories and Fallacies

Posted by tyrellh in Book Review. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Histories and Fallacies is one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time, partly due to the topic, which is not really one relating directly to my task as a Pastor and Theologian, so it was really outside my normal milieu of reading. Histories and Fallacies is a book about the historical method, it is about helping people become better historians by aiding them in seeing their own blind-spots, in asking the right questions, and thus effectively honing their skills in understanding historical events/actions.

The book is written in a way that makes it accessible to someone with even a tertiary knowledge of history and the issues surrounding its interpretation, and yet I think it would be helpful for someone who perhaps has been working in this field for a while.

One of the most helpful aspects of this work is that it is not dry academia, Trueman writes in a vibrant and clear way. His illustrations are instructive and bring to life the concepts he tries to explain. One such example that I appreciated was the illustration of the difference between a historical method and philosophical commitment; Trueman showed how Marxism asks some helpful questions, that had you not understood something of a class struggle you would not have asked, and yet at the same time Marxism falls short of being a really meaningful historical method and falls into the realm of philosophical pre-commitment since it is unfalsifiable. What Trueman means by this is that all historical methods should be open to scrutiny and falsification (we can prove it wrong), however when Marxism is confronted with historical facts that contradict its basic tenant of dialectic progress, they deny it calling it ‘false consciousness’.

Trueman spends much time going through various fallacies that plague the historian as he tries to grapple with history, yet he does this in a humble and memorable way. He also demonstrates how the right question can lead to a better understanding of events, for example, he shows how the remarkable aspect of Luther’s writing on the Jews was not so much his anti-Semitic works written later in his life, that reflected a strong anti-Semitic feeling already present in Europe at the time, but rather Luther’s earlier work which was extremely favourable towards the Jews; asking questions about the earlier work is far more instructive in understanding Luther, since his second work was nothing new for that period of history.

Trueman does an excellent job in helping one think more critically and effectively about history and about the over simplifications people sometimes make in an attempt to explain human actions; in one place he does this by showing that the categories of race were not really big issues in the 15th century when Luther wrote, but are rather a 19th century category, thus to explain Luther’s anti-Semitic work as the basis for Nazi racism is to read back into Luther a category which Luther was not thinking in, Luther thought in religious categories, not so much racial ones.

Histories and Fallacies provides tools that would help anybody in beginning to think through a field that they may not have given much thought to before. It was an informative, engaging and extremely helpful read.

17 Jun

Book Review: Christ of the Covenants

Posted by tyrellh in Book Review. Tagged: , .

‘Christ of the Covenants’ is a great book for someone who has a very basic knowledge of covenant theology, but is looking for a somewhat technical and relatively thorough look at the subject.  Although Robertson does deal with some technical issues this book does serve as a great way to become acquainted with the Covenants as an overview.

The book is divided into three parts, the first part serves as an introduction to the concept of covenants. Robertson comes to the conclusion in this chapter that ‘a covenant is a bond in blood’, and the goes about showing this in the various covenants. Probably the most challenging part for him, was demonstrating how the ‘blood element’ of the bond was seen in the covenant made with Moses.

In part 2 of the book Robertson explains the covenant of creation, and makes a number of interesting observations i.e. the continuing nature of the Sabbath.

In part 3 Robertson explains all the covenants that fall under the covenant of redemption, arguing for the unity and ongoing nature of them all. Towards the middle of the book, halfway through his dealing with the covenant of law the book tends to become very heavy going, and very wordy, though still helpful if you can push through.

The end of the book deals with a comparison of dispensational and covenantal structures of the Bible, where I think Robertson deals fairly, if not somewhat superficially with dispensational views. But it must be granted, if he had to go more in detail the book would have been at least 3-4 times the size (just a speculation).

As a Baptist I feel that perhaps Robertson’s argument for the continuation of the covenant to descendents of believers is a bit strained and week when it comes to the New Testament. His treatment of the unity and disunity (continuity and discontinuity) is a bit weak in dealing with the extend of the covenant going to children of parents who are part of the covenant. He does not deal with the prophecies in Ezekiel about the New Covenant with regards to the writing of the law in the heart and how that pertains to an unregenerate child.

However, my Baptist prejudice aside, Robertson does give a clear understanding of what can be a difficult subject, especially considering the length of the book (just under 300 pages)

If you want a better grasp of the structure of the Bible, or even are just looking for a good overview of the Bible, this may be the book for you. If you come from a Baptistic church, this may be an extremely necessary read to expose you to something Reformed Baptists should know (the covenantal structure of the Bible), that we tend to steer clear of due to the pedobaptist [miss]use of it (no offence to my pedobaptist brothers).

 

 

4 Mar

Book Review: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Posted by tyrellh in Book Review. Tagged: , , .

Or Brief Faithful Relation Exceeding Mercy God Christ his Poor Servant John

Click on the image to order this book

Most people know John Bunyan as the author of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’, who has had the second most influential book in Christendom. Bunyan spent time in prison for refusing to preach; he wrote extensively and fought in the English civil war. ‘Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners’ is Bunyan’s auto-biography, he tells of how in his early years he enjoyed his sin so much to come to God and lived like an atheist.

Privately he struggled with terrible dreams, but to everyone else he appeared to love his life of sin, and seemed to have everything together. Bunyan nearly died a number of times, yet even after this he did respond to God’s call. Later he married, this served to make him more externally religious, he became a professional hypocrite, living good on the outside, yet still doing totally as he pleased. One day after he had been at church, he went to relax with some sport and his friends, while there he heard a voice say, “Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell?” John saw this as God’s anger on him, this resulted in a sinking into despair, desperation and turmoil; he was striving to save himself, trying to earn God’s favour. Bunyan explains his struggle with temptations and doubt for years. It is such a blessing to see one of the most used men by God, and realize that he also struggled with many sins, and inner turmoil as God used worked in His life to draw him to Himself. We read how Bunyan reasoned his way around things, made excuses, and attempted to justify himself. Bunyan exposes himself, is very open and vulnerable, he shares everything about his wrestling with being a confident sinner to a religious hypocrite till his final conversion. One of the most helpful aspects of this book is how Bunyan shares that after his conversion he struggled for long to find assurance of Salvation, and finally came to it by prayer and Bible reading.

This book will fulfil what the title suggests, you will see how God’s grace can abound to a wicked sinner and instead of abounding in evil one can swim in an ocean of God’s grace.

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