I have really been getting back into the works of Walter Brueggemann recently, his two newest books are fabulous ( An Unsettling God and Journey to the Common Good — click for our reviews) and I just picked up a used copy of his classic The Land while I was in Grand Rapids.

So, I was excited to find out about this six-part series (each segment is about an hour long) that Brueggemann gave last Fall on the book of Daniel and what it means for the people of God to be a holy people.   (H/T:  Ragan Sutterfield)

• Part 2 – October 7, 2009
  
• Part 3 – October 14, 2009
• Part 4 – October 21, 2009
• Part 5 – October 28, 2009
• Part 6 – November 4, 2009

This is the first in a new and intriguing series of little biographies from Thomas Nelson.

Jane Austen.
(Christian Encounters Series).
Peter Leithart.
Paperback: Thomas Nelson, 2010.
Buy Now: [ Amazon ]

A Review of

Worshiping With the Church Fathers.
Christopher Hall.
Paperback: IVP Academic, 2010.
Buy now: [ ChristianBook.com ]

[ Read an excerpt of this book here... ]

Reviewed by Chris Smith.

Worshiping with the Church Fathers is the third volume of Christopher Hall’s four volume work on the Church in its earliest centuries.  This new volume, looks specifically at the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, the practice of prayer and the spirituality of the desert fathers.  His objective is:

To present as clearly as possible the fathers’ understanding of what worship is and what it isn’t.  I have tried to allow them to speak for themselves, to present their case and then to encourage readers to make their own decisions as to the validity of the particular patristic viewpoints.

Hall does a fine job both of achieving his stated goal of letting the Church Fathers speak for themselves and of providing enough context through which the reader can understand the writings of the Fathers.  The book’s first two chapters explore the roles of baptism and the Eucharist respectively, with a particular emphasis on the sacramental (and material) nature of both practices.  Hall explains that the material nature of the sacraments is rooted in the incarnation of Christ:

(more…)

Today is the birthday of the late author and illustrator Theodore Geisel (aka, Dr. Seuss).

Here are two articles on Dr. Seuss  from Mental Floss magazine with stories that offer a deeper look at his life and works:

• 10 stories about Dr. Seuss’s most beloved books
• 5 stories about Dr. Seuss himself.

And here is the movie of one of our favorite Dr. Seuss books, The Lorax:

“Putting the American Dream to Death”

A Review of

The Hole in Our Gospel.
Richard Stearns.
Hardback: Thomas Nelson, 2009.
Buy Now: [ ChristianBook.com ]

Reviewed by Chris Smith.

[ Win a FREE copy of this book!!! ]

Richard Stearns’ recent book, The Hole is our Gospel is a testimony in the old-fashioned sense of the word, the story of a life transformed by the good news of Jesus.  Stearns recounts how he rose to prominence in corporate America, and eventually – after much resistance – became the president of World Vision.  In parallel with the story of his career, Stearns also tells the story our how his understanding of the Gospel was transformed.  He explains this shift in the book’s introduction:

[B]eing a Christian, or follower of Jesus Christ, requires much more than just having a personal and transforming relationship with God.  It also entails a public and transforming relationship with the world (italics retained from the original).

Stearns proceeds to describe the Gospel in terms of feeding the hungry, healing the sick, clothing the naked and liberating the slaves, and draws upon the rich biblical tradition of justice in order to do so.  When Stearns went on at length about his own story in the opening chapters of the book, I was worried that the Gospel that he would eventually describe while arguing for social justice would still leave much leeway for individualism and consumerism, which are themselves at the roots of widespread injustice in the world.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case!  Stearns is convinced that churches (and not just individual Christians) are essential to God’s redemptive work of restoring justice to all creation.  He says, for instance: “I love the Church and truly believe that it is at the center of God’s plan for world.”  And indeed, in his final section of the book, which is written for churches, he pulls no punches, even going so far as to proclaim death to the American dream.  Stearns speaks powerfully and prophetically of the sins that impede churches in the United States, and I pray that his message will be heard.  However, I wish he would have fleshed out in more detail a practical vision of what it would look like for churches to repent of these sins and to move forward in obedience to our call to be the tangible body of Christ in the world.  The Hole in Our Gospel is clearly intended for evangelical audiences, and I pray that it will be read and prayerfully reflected upon, especially Stearns’ insistence that Jesus’s Gospel of Justice is not just for individuals, but churches.  Its message of repentance makes it perfect reading for this season of Lent.  May Stearns’ prophetic words lead us to our knees, to tears, but ultimately to transformation!

This week we are giving away a FREE copy of : The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns (which is reviewed above ).

How to enter to win this book:

1. Announce the contest on Twitter, Facebook or your blog: I just entered to win a Richard Stearns’ book THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL from The Englewood Review.  You can enter too: http://ow.ly/1awAY
2. Post a comment to this announcement with your name and a link to your post for #1.
3. You may enter one time per day for the duration of the contest.
4. We will pick a winner at random from the eligible contestants and notify them this weekend.

The contest will end at 4PM ET on this Friday February 26.

Here is a recent video of Wendell Berry reading and commenting on his short story “Making it Home” (found in That Distant Land), in a talk given at the Wisconsin Book Festival.

If you enjoy this video, you will want to check out our recent reviews of a new Wendell Berry book and audiobook from last Friday’s issue:

• Our Review of Imagination in Place: Essays
  (Counterpoint Press, 2010)
• Our Review of THAT DISTANT LAND audiobook
  (ChristianAudio, 2010)

This is a long video, and if it keeps stopping and buffering, you might want to hit the pause button for a few minutes and let most of it load.

An excerpt on the value and price of food from the new book

TERRA MADRE:
Forging A New Global Network of
Sustainable Food Communities.
Carlo Petrini.
Paperback: Chelsea Green, 2010.
Buy the book: [ Amazon ]

A Brief Review of

Living the Christian Year:
Time to Inhabit the Story of God.
Bobby Gross.
Paperback: IVP Books, 2007.
Buy now:  [ ChristianBook.com ]

Reviewed by Chris Smith.

As tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the Church’s season of Lent, my mind turns again to the calendar of the Church year and my own struggles to submit my life to be formed by the calendar of Church and not the secular, consumerist calendars of mainstream culture.  I know in my head that the way in which we mark time is a function of the primary stories that give meaning to our lives, and yet it never seems to work out so simply in my own life or that of our church community.  As I was reflecting on these struggles, I encountered Bobby Gross’s recent book Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God (IVP Books 2007).  Gross’s book is a grace-full introduction to the church calendar, particular for people like the author and myself, who did not grow up with any sense of time marked in remembrance of God’s story of redemption.  After introducing the book by telling a little bit of his own story of struggling to submit to the church calendar, Gross steps season-by-season through the church’s calendar, introducing each of the seasons and then going week-by-week through each season offering prayers that challenge us to submit ourselves to the story of God’s redemptive work, as well as brief but thought-provoking reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary passages for that week.

Maybe your church already has practices in place that point people in the direction of the church calendar, but for those churches out there, who don’t, or who are only beginning to re-encounter the seasons of the Church year, Bobby Gross’s Living The Christian Year is a great resource to be read and discussed in your church community. To get a flavor of this wonderful book, you can enjoy the following excerpts that IVP has posted on Google Books:

[ Click Here for the excerpt of LIVING THE CHRISTIAN YEAR ]

This week as we enter the season of Lent, we are giving away a FREE copy of two recent books from IVP: Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross (which is reviewed above ) and The Ancient Christian Devotional edited by Thomas Oden and Cindy Crosby (Courtesy of IVP Books).

How to enter to win one of these two books:

1. Announce the contest on Twitter, Facebook or your blog: I just entered to win a FREE book on the Christian Year from The Englewood Review.  You can enter too:  http://ow.ly/180Je
2. Post a comment to this announcement with your name and a link to your post for #1.
3. You may enter one time per day for the duration of the contest.
4. We will pick two winners at random and notify them this weekend.

The contest will end at 4PM ET on this Friday February 19.