Series: Book Reviews

May 31, 2017

Christian Standard

I”m So Glad We Had This Time Together

By LeRoy Lawson The time has come. Nearly 10 years ago I submitted my first “From My Bookshelf” manuscript, wondering with fear and trembling, Is this what the editor wants? Is it something Christian Standard readers will read? I like talking about books whether anyone is listening or not. Would you listen? You did, and you kept on listening for almost a decade now. We haven”t always agreed, you and I, but ours were civil disagreements between friends. In today”s rancorous political climate, that civil friendship is to be treasured. I have enjoyed writing for you. Here”s why: You made

May 25, 2017

Christian Standard

Other Worlds, Fond Memories, and Lessons

By LeRoy Lawson The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum Grand Haven: Brilliance Audio, 2016 The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World Edward Dolnick New York: HarperTorch, 2011 The Shepherd”s Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape James Rebanks New York: Flatiron Books, 2015 OK, go ahead and laugh. Here I am, a great-grandfather, hanging on to every word of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, without a child nearby to provide cover for me. Maybe there”s truth in this “second childhood” charge after all. Or, the hypothesis I prefer, maybe there”s something special about the story.

April 28, 2017

Christian Standard

Personal Dramas, Universal Issues

By LeRoy Lawson Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Atul Gawked New York: Metropolitan, 2014 The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Questto Arm an America at War A. J. Jaime Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2014 There”s a Sheep in My Bathtub: Birth of a Mongolian Church Planting Movement Brian Hogan Bayside: Asteroidea Books, 2008   Atul Gawande”s Being Mortal is a book for everyone. But everyone won”t like it. It”s for everyone because it”s about dying and dying is for everyone. Everyone won”t like it because it”s about honestly accepting dying, even if you”re a doctor

March 31, 2017

Christian Standard

Good Funerals & Neighbors, Troubled Times

By LeRoy Lawson The Good Funeral: Death, Grief and the Community of Care Thomas G. Long and Thomas Lynch Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2013 A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens First published in 1859 The Neighboring Church: Getting Better at What Jesus Said Matters Most Rick Rusaw and Brian Mavis Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2016 The Good Funeral is about the importance of funerals in “getting the dead where they need to go and the living where they need to be.” Authors Thomas Long and Thomas Lynch like this maxim of Lynch”s father so well they made it the theme of

March 2, 2017

Christian Standard

The Devil, the Disbeliever, and the Politicians

By LeRoy Lawson Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted Richard Beck Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016 Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense Francis Spufford New York: HarperOne, 2014 The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan Rick Perlstein New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015 What should we do when faith falters, either our faith in God or our faith in no God? Either loss is a life-changer. Like most serious believers, I have had my own doubts. I am not alone. Some of my best friends have

February 2, 2017

Christian Standard

Divine Encounters, Good Good-byes, Genes Seen

By LeRoy Lawson What”s in a Phrase? Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause Marilyn Chandler McEntyre Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014 A Faithful Farewell: Living Your Last Chapter with Love Marilyn Chandler McEntyre Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015 A Long Letting Go: Meditations on Losing Someone You Love Marilyn Chandler McEntyre Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015 The Gene: An Intimate History Siddhartha Mukherjee New York: Scribner, 2016 When I learned of Marilyn McEntyre”s 2014 book What”s in a Phrase? I had to add it to my “must read” list. Earlier I had read her Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies. Her purpose in

December 31, 2016

Christian Standard

These Speakers Are Writers

By LeRoy Lawson Unashamed: Drop the Baggage, Pick Up Your Freedom, Fulfill Your Destiny Christine Caine Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016 The Scent of Water: Grace for Every Kind of Broken Naomi Zacharias Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011 Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World Bob Goff Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012 The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters Sean B. Carroll Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016 I had the good fortune to attend the 2016 North American Christian Convention in Anaheim, California. I can”t remember an NACC that was more upbeat, more focused

December 1, 2016

Christian Standard

A President, a Poet, and Prescriptions for the Church

By LeRoy Lawson Eisenhower in War and Peace Jean Edward Smith New York: Random House, 2012 For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet”s Journey Richard Blanco Boston: Beacon Press, 2013 Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore: And How 4 Acts of Love Will Make Your Church Irresistible Thom and Joani Schultz Loveland: Group Publishing, 2013 Why Nobody Wants to Be Around Christians Anymore: And How 4 Acts of Love Will Make Your Faith Magnetic Thom and Joani Schultz Loveland: Group Publishing, 2014   Dwight Eisenhower was America”s president during my teen years. To this Oregon adolescent he loomed

October 28, 2016

Christian Standard

Reconsidering Lawrence, Rediscovering Conversation, and Recently Recommended

By LeRoy Lawson Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East Scott Anderson New York: Anchor, 2014 Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age Sherry Turkle New York: Penguin Press, 2015 Above the Waterfall Ron Rash New York: Ecco, 2016 Fools Crow James Welch New York: Penguin, 2011 (originally published in 1987) For a reader, seeing is never enough. Neither is being there. You have to read up on it, get another”s point of view, reflect on and modify previous impressions. That happened with a vengeance earlier this year. My wife, Joy, and

October 7, 2016

Christian Standard

Culture, Country, & Christ

Books to shed light on conventional notions of God and country By Jim Tune “Is the United States an exceptional nation? Of course it is. . . . Though not everyone may like the way the United States has used its exceptional status over the course of the last two centuries, it is hard to deny that it has been . . . extraordinary.” So says John Fea in his foreword to John D. Wilsey”s American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion. Personally, I”m inclined to agree. In my research, the authors of the books I surveyed are, for the most part, in agreement

September 29, 2016

Christian Standard

To Kill or to Keep an Intriguing Idea?

By LeRoy Lawson This Idea Must Die: Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress John Brockman, editor New York: Harper Perennial, 2015 The Hunt for Vulcan: . . . And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe Thomas Levenson New York: Random House, 2015 The Cross and the Lynching Tree James H. Cone Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2013 (reprint) So you are running into resistance to change in your church, are you? So you believe religion alone is the great resister of new ideas, do you? So you”ve been thinking science, on the contrary, is always based on objective, bias-free research and

August 20, 2016

Christian Standard

Discovery and the High Cost of Finding

By LeRoy Lawson How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life Changing Wisdom of History”s Greatest Poem Rod Dreher New York: Regan Arts, 2015 Water to Wine: Some of My Story Brian Zahnd Spello Press, 2016 High Price: A Neuroscientist”s Journey of Self-Discovery that Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society Carl Hart New York: HarperCollins, 2013 The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade Thomas Lynch New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2009 Today”s column is about discovery, with what happens when the lost becomes found””and the high cost of the finding. Let”s begin with Rod Dreher”s How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life Changing Wisdom of

August 1, 2016

Christian Standard

Car Talk, Gay Marriage, and the Death Journey

By LeRoy Lawson The Reckoning David Halberstam Available via Kindle; first published in 1986 God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships Matthew Vines New York: Convergent Books (reprint edition), 2015 A Long Letting Go: Meditations on Losing Someone You Love Marilyn Chandler McEntyre Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015 For decades America”s automotive industry dazzled the whole world as it drove itself to the pinnacle of creative, organizational, and mechanical success. No other nation could compete. Detroit ruled supreme. That was then. This is now. David Halberstam”s The Reckoning was published 30 years ago. It still captivates a reader

July 7, 2016

Christian Standard

Miracles, Marvels, and the Vulnerable Minister

By LeRoy Lawson The Miracle of Dunkirk Walter Lord New York: Open Road Media; for Kindle, 2012 The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon Brad Stone New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2013 The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry Mandy Smith Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2015 Just about everything I thought I knew about the “evacuation” of Dunkirk (read “retreat”) was wrong. Or at least wildly romanticized. I could picture the thousand-plus boats of all sizes and types crossing the English Channel to rescue soldiers fleeing for their lives from the Nazis. My mind”s eye saw them push up against the

June 13, 2016

Christian Standard

Read More About Religion, Racism, and Practical Steps Forward

Compiled by Travis Hurley Divided By Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America, by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) “” Despite its age, this remains essential reading for anyone looking to get a grasp on evangelical religion and the problem of race in America. There are helpful historical summaries of the church and race in America in early chapters, and once you understand their explanation of the “white evangelical tool kit,” you”ll start to see how using these tools actually hinders reconciliatory progress before it even begins. Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical”s

June 3, 2016

Christian Standard

Lawlessness and Poverty, Freakonomics, and Strategies for Succession

By LeRoy Lawson The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence Gary A. Haugen and Victor Boutros New York: Oxford University Press, 2014 Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner New York: HarperPerennial, 2009 SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner New York: William Morrow, 2011 Think Like a Freak: the Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner New York: William Morrow, 2014 Next: Pastoral Succession that Works William

April 28, 2016

Christian Standard

Life and Death, Racism, and Responsibility

By LeRoy Lawson   Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery Henry Marsh New York: Thomas Dunne, 2015 The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America”s Great Migration Isabel Wilkerson New York: Random House, 2010 To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility Jonathan Sacks New York: Schocken Books, 2007 So what do you think of Obamacare? Has any topic in recent years generated more sound and fury, or more heat and less light than America”s medical care? (OK, maybe immigration policies, or same-sex marriage, or. . . . You get my point, though, don”t you?) For years

March 31, 2016

Christian Standard

Empires, Philosophies, Biases, and Jesus

AUDIO BOOKS I, Claudius Robert Graves The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries Neil deGrasse Tyson History”s Greatest Voyages of Exploration Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius The History of Ancient Rome Garrett G. Fagan Will to Power: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen Higgins (narrators) TRADITIONAL BOOKS Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People Mahzarin Banaji & Anthony Greenwald New York: Delacorte Press, 2013 I Knew Jesus Before He Was a Christian . . . and I Liked Him Better Then Rubel Shelly Abilene: Leafwood Publishers, 2011   By LeRoy Lawson Heard a good book lately? I confessed in an earlier column that sometimes (regularly) I read with my ears,

February 28, 2016

Christian Standard

Wrestling with Faith and Disagreeing on the Bible

By LeRoy Lawson My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer Christian Wiman New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013 The Civil War as a Theological Crisis (The Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War Era) Mark A. Noll Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, reprint edition, 2015 When a speaker is teetering on the brink of death, ravaged by bone marrow cancer, you pay attention. When he is poet Christian Wiman, sharing his personal insight into the Bright Abyss, readers””religious and nonreligious alike””ponder his every thought. Wiman is struggling””against death, against the danger of being

January 22, 2016

Christian Standard

Evangelical Warning, Improbable Convert, Uncommon Ministry

By LeRoy Lawson The Great Evangelical Recession: 6 Factors That Will Crash the American Church . . . and How to Prepare John S. Dickerson Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2013 Good God, Lousy World, and Me: The Improbable Journey of a Human Rights Activist from Unbelief to Faith Holly Burkhalter New York: Convergent Books, 2013 The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected Nik Ripken Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2013 John Dickerson”s The Great Evangelical Recession is depressing reading. Being told the truth isn”t always an “upper.” This book tells the truth. At least it tells the truth as things stand

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