I have been taking advantage of this development to read some interesting e-books from a variety of genres and authors.  And over the next few days I want to take a moment to offer my quick impressions of these shorter works.

First up is a e-book that was actually free: The Flinch by Julien Smith.

A book so important we refuse to charge for it.

Julien Smith has delivered a surprise, a confrontation, a book that will push you, scare you and possibly stick with you for years to come.

The idea is simple: your flinch mechanism can save your life. It short circuits the conscious mind and allows you to pull back and avoid danger faster than you can even imagine it’s there.

But what if danger is exactly what you need?

What if facing the flinch is the one best way to get what you want?

Here’s a chance to read the book everyone will be talking about, before they do.

What are you afraid of? Here’s how to find out.

I saw this on Twitter and decided to check it out. After all, it was free.  It turned out to be a sort of digital pep talk.  It has an interesting hook and some useful challenges even if it is somewhat repetitive.

I think your reaction depends on a lot on your worldview, perspective, place in life, etc. Reading the reviews you can see that some people thought it was BS while others found it very helpful. I think it is a bit of both. If you need a pep talk to get you out of your rut and start thinking about achieving the things you have always claimed you would, this can be a helpful book.

I think it can be a useful way to realize that success isn’t going to be easy for most people and if you are constantly hesitating and avoiding risk you are unlikely to achieve all that much.

On the other hand there is a lot of repetition and pop psychology that will turn a lot of folks off.

It is not the greatest thing I have ever read but I think it was a helpful wake up call of sorts for me heading into 2012.

But again, it doesn’t cost a thing so what it the risk?

Related articles

• Flinch Harder (chrisbrogan.com)
• The Flinch – A Dangerous Read (cc-chapman.com)

Listen Here.

The concerns were thankfully unwarranted, as Jared has written a wonderfully engaging and challenging book on the gospel and its place in our lives.  With wisdom, compassion and humor he outlines what it means to be alive to the gospel in your life and have it infiltrate every area of that life.

Do you ever feel like your desire for God is waning? Are you numb to the routine of church? What does it mean to be truly awakened to the wonder of the gospel?

Jared Wilson contends that we must be regularly engaged and engaging others with the good news of the sacrificing, dying, rising, exalted person of Jesus Christ. Wilson reminds us of the death-proof, fail-proof King of kings who is before all things and in all things and holding all things together, and of the Spirit’s power to quicken our hearts and captivate our imaginations. The message of Gospel Wakefulness will make numbness the exception (rather than the norm) and reawaken us to the multifaceted brilliance of the gospel.

But it is another one of those deep and meaty spiritual books that I am simply not going to have the time or focus to review properly.  But if you are seeking a deeper and sustained faith and looking for a book that will both inspire and challenge you, then I recommend you read this book.

A book of this sort can easily come off and as a tired combination of verses and platitudes – the same old, same old dressed up as a revolutionary way to understand orthodox theology.  Or seemingly profound spirituality that quickly wilts under sustained examination.

But Wilson avoids that for two reasons.  He has lived it and it shows; and he keeps it simple.  Not simple in terms of ease but simple because he doesn’t over think it.

Because Wilson has lived this out and struggled with his own demons and doubts his writing has an authenticity that is refreshing and encouraging.  He also has a passion that comes off the page; a powerful sense that he believes in the power of the gospel and he is not just writing to prove how clever he is.

I made dozens of notes throughout the book, but here is a section that should give you sense of the book:

One of the marks of gospel wakefulness is the failure of anything else to thrill the soul like the gospel.  When the heart treasures Christ and savours his power, sin grows bitter.  Even good gifts that God made delicious recede to their proper flavors.  Good things we have made “god things” don’t cease to be good; in fact, they continue to provide pleasures and satisfactions, but they keep their proper functions and blessings, in service to the common grace the God of Glory ascribed to them.

Gospel wakefulness doesn’t lead to asceticism.  it does not lead to a withdrawal from society and simple pleasures into a monastic religious regimen.  Rather, gospel wakefulness is foremost about orienting your spiritual system around the sun.  When the sun is at the center of the system, the planets and moon don’t cease to exist.  in fact, they exist more securely, more beautifully, in their proper positions and proportions.  With God at the center of your universe of worship, with gospel at the center of your life, all other good gifts – people and pleasures, thoughts and things – take their proper place and proportion in our lives.

After outlining and unpacking the term gospel wakefulness, Wilson then moves on to discuss the impact this has on things like worship, spirituality, depression and church and results in a new approach to sanctification and increased confidence for the believer.

Along the way Wilson adds in stories from friends about how this has played out in their lives.  Many of these are compelling and some quite powerful.  The confession of someone who dealt with depression and struggled with Easter week was one of the more powerful expressions I have read in some time.

At its most basic this book is about not taking your eyes off what is truly important; not thinking that seemingly simple things are not deep enough to sustain the deepest of faiths.

Jesus is big enough to fit into infinity. He is the true light of the world.  He is the risen King, the exalted Lord.  He is before all things and in him all things come together.  All things were made through him and for him, that he might be preeminent to them and supreme over them.  He is the radiance of God;s glory.  One day we won’t need the sun, because he will be the lamp of the new heavens and the new earth.

Why in the world do we fix our eyes on anything but him?

If you find your eyes and mind easily distracted, Gospel Wakefulness will get you back on target.

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday’s edition of Coffee & Markets featured Jordan Ballor discussing Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art a collection of the writings of the theologian Abraham Kuyper.  Pejman Yousefzadeh and I spoke with Jordan about Kuyper’s unique life, his ideas and the challenges of cultural and political engagement for people of faith today.

Listen Here.

Fairy tales and fantasies are as old as the world. This is an easy thing to forget.  It is easy to see only the stories we tell today – fresh and shiny – and then assume that they came from nowhere, that they have no ancestors, and no narrative parents whatsoever.  But today’s fantasies are built on a rich imaginative heritage, a global heritage.  As long as there has been language, there have been stories.  And as far back as we can trace, those stories have been about dragons and magic and sacrifices, fools and wise men and wizards, fate and luck and love.  What we call realism in storytelling is a relatively new concept.  It is the sapling in the wood surrounded by towering moss-covered giants as old as history, giants grown up out of myths and legends.  Fantasy.

I mention this because I have been avoiding posting on The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited for this reason for quite some time. I am not sure I can do it justice or engage the real meaty issues it touches on. But the good folks at Net Galley and Zondervan didn’t send me a review copy so I could fret about my self-esteem … So. Some thoguhts below.

First, what is this all about anyway? Publisher synopsis:

Contemporary evangelicals have built a ‘salvation culture’ but not a ‘gospel culture.’ Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to the message of personal salvation. This book makes a plea for us to recover the old gospel as that which is still new and still fresh. The book stands on four arguments: that the gospel is defined by the apostles in 1 Corinthians 15 as the completion of the Story of Israel in the saving Story of Jesus; that the gospel is found in the Four Gospels; that the gospel was preached by Jesus; and that the sermons in the Book of Acts are the best example of gospeling in the New Testament. The King Jesus Gospel ends with practical suggestions about evangelism and about building a gospel culture.

This is a powerful examination of what it means to speak of the Gospel and how our understanding of it impacts our “Gospeling” or evangelism. McKnight argues forcefully that to present a plan of salvation, or soterian, gospel is to miss the larger picture of scripture and God’s plan for the universe.

As noted, there is a lot packed in there and a lot you can, and should, debate.  But for now, a few thoughts …

I think the aspect that McKnight is absolutely right on is the plan of salvation focus on current evangelicalism.  This is exactly the environment I grew up in: one focused on making a decision about personal salvation.  Not that there wasn’t an attempt to connect the Old and New Testament, or that spiritual growth beyond salvation wasn’t discussed, but that the gospel was very much seen as personal salvation and the lens through which we saw everything else.  It felt like to me that this was the point.  McKnight calls this focus soterian from the Greek word soteria which we use for salvation.

For McKnight the Gospel is the story of Israel being completed in the story of Jesus who is the Messiah King. This is the Apostolic Gospel and the Gospel Jesus preached. If we lose our focus on this larger story and the context it provides we end up with an individualistic “get saved to avoid hell” type gospel not one focused on the larger Kingdom of God; of how God is writing our story even now.

McKnight presents this very well and uses stories from students and the perspectives of some pastors to highlight how this view has come to dominate. He then outlines how 1 Corinthians 15 is the Apostolic Gospel and the earliest form of the Gospel in the church.  From this start he outlines what this means and how we lost our way.  He then goes on to explore whether Jesus preached the Gospel. Peter’s perspective on the Gospel and how we approach evangelicalism and the Gospel today.

I really feel like I need to read this again to get a strong grasp on the argument and the deeper issues involved.  But the one thing that I absolutely agree with McKnight about and belive deserves to be highlighted is how the big story of the Gospel is so often lost today – the way the plan of salvation approach leaves out the wider lens of God’s action and plan for all of creation – and how the content and style that results from this mindset fails to develop disciples and build communities.

Scott McKnight has down us a valuable service looking at a central aspect of our faith, clearing away the cultural, theological and historical ruble and forcing us to think in a fresh way about what we mean when we talk about the Gospel.

The King Jesus Gospel is a challenging but necessary and, in many ways, refreshing book.

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Pejman Yousefzadeh and I are joined by Peter Schweizer to discuss his book Throw Them All Out detailing how politicians get away with insider trading, sleazy land deals and more.

Related articles

• SCHWEIZER: Warren Buffett’s Also Cashing In On Congress Insider Trading (businessinsider.com)
• NightSide – Peter Schweizer Author Of “Throw Them All Out” (boston.cbslocal.com)

For most who live,
hell is never knowing
who they are.
The Singer knew and
knowing was his torment.

Recalling the popularity of  The Singer: A Classic Retelling of Cosmic Conflict by Calvin Miller when I was younger, and having a vaguely positive recollection of reading and enjoying it as a teenager, when I saw it for a dollar at a library sale I snatched it up.  Seeing it as a quick and potentially inspirational read, I read it read it that same week

It is a rather unique book (the first of a trilogy), a sort of poetic narrative – some poetry, prose – that re-imagines the Gospel in the form of a classical myth or fairy tale of a troubadour compelled to sing the song that points man back to their creator.  His opponent is the World Hater who seeks to keep mankind enslaved and unaware of the song.

And even after all these years, it stands up very well. A little forced in places and certainly “artsy” in a sense but with beautiful and evocative language that re-imagines this timeless story in a way that knocks the dust off and allows us to see it fresh.

What struck me most was the way the story could help explore both the universal and simple nature of the Gospel in terms of love and redemption but also how the aphorisms at the start of each chapter were thought provoking and somehow fragile – if you thought about them too much or for too long they fell apart, but if you glanced at them they seemed quite profound.

I also really enjoyed the way the relationships played out.  The emotions involved in how the Singer interacted with God, his mother and the people he encountered really seemed to capture the Christ of the Gospels in a fresh and insightful way. This simple prose poem somehow cleared away the clutter and allows you to see the arc of history and Christ’s sacrificial love as the touchstone of that arc.

To give you a taste, here is an aphorism or poem that introduces a chapter:

Oftentimes Love is
so poorly packaged
that when we have
sold everything to
buy it, we cry in
finding all our
substance gone and
nothing in the tin-
sel and the ribbon.

Hate dresses well
to please a buyer

As noted above, I find this introductions very interesting. There is a sense of the profound about many of them and yet they are hard to nail down and unpack. They sort of hit you on an almost subconscious level.  They give the larger story a philosophical and spiritual weight.

I am sure there are many who might find the poetry to heavy handed or the allegory too thin; a work such as this has a lot to do with taste and style.  I am no expert on poetry or poetic narratives but I found it thought provoking and at times powerful.  Something different and daring even if it doesn’t always succeed.

If you enjoy poetic language and storytelling this is a Christian Classic worth revisiting.

Young Adult Fiction

A large chunk of my reading this year was YA (30 of 79 books were roughly in this category) so I had a lot of books to chose from in 2011. So here are ten of my favorites in no particular order:

1. 

   Cover of The Wednesday Wars

   I am going to cheat a little and put two books by Gary D. Schmidt on the list, Okay or Now and The Wednesday Wars.  ”Great stories, great characters, imaginative settings and clear writing make these two books great reads. I highly recommend them.”

2. I am also going to put N.D. Wilson here because I can’t choose just one of his wonderful books I read this year: The Dragon’s Tooth (start of the new Ashtown Burials series) and the entire 100 Cupboards series)  ”… if you like large, complex and imaginative fantasy series this one is a must read.”
3. Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby “Kirby weaves a great tale. There is historical detail, psychological insight, mystery, intrigue and more.”
4. Skellig by David Almond “It is a simple and yet powerful story of friendship, family, compassion and faith.”
5. The Search for Wondla by Tony DiTerlizzi “The world DiTerlizzi has created is captivating and mysterious enough that you want to keep reading; not just to see the next illustration but to dig a little deeper into the mystery.”

Non-Fiction

I also read more non-fiction in 2011 (25 books) so this a large list to choose from as well.

1. Love Wins by Rob Bell – The most controversial book of 2011 – and of recent years – in the evangelical world. I have avoided reviewing it because of the difficulty of covering all of the various issues and debates but it is a powerful book (I read it three times).  ”… the overwhelming reaction I had to the book was one of inspiration and deeper thought. Few people I have read challenge you to rethink your ideas and reshape your perspective better than Bell.”
2. Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football by John U. Bacon  “… if you are simply a fan of college football, or interested in big-time college athletics more generally, it is a fascinating read. “
3. God Is Red by Liao Yiwu.  ”If you feel sorry for yourself, read this book. If you think American politics are bad, read this book. If you need some inspiration for your faith, read this book.”
4. James Madison by Richard Brookhiser  ”Brookhiser writes popular history as it should be: learned and insightful but not exhausting; with sharp writing not afraid to offer an opinion but not polemical for the sake of scoring points; with prose that is clear and a joy to read.”
5. American Grace by Robert Putnam, David E. Campbell  ”… a fascinating and informative look at religious life in America.”

Adult Fiction

I read very little “adult” fiction this year and so don’t have much to recommend. One of my goals for 2012 is to read more and better fiction.

1. The Magician King by Lev Grossman “Even if you don’t think he quite pulls it off I think he will keep you entertained and intrigued about the process; make you think about your expectations and conceptions of genre and story.”
2. The Break by Pietro Grossi “… further proof that you don’t need a thousand pages to create evocative and beautiful prose – or to create a compelling story.”
3. Little Elvises by Timothy Hallinan “… another enjoyable romp through Los Angeles with a memorable cast of characters, Hallinan’s dry and wry sense of humor, and a twisting plot that leaves you rushing to figure out the mystery at the heart of the story.”

What books were your favorites from 2011?