Award winning illustrator Lisbeth Zwerger’s career seemingly lies at this very intersection.  So I am always on lookout for her books when I browse used bookstores or library sales. And I have been able to find some amazing books for just a few dollars.

My first children’s book illustrated by Zwerger was The Selfish Giant which I loved.  Since stumbling on that volume I have become more fascinated and enamored with this artist and her work adding more of her books to my collection. Over the next few days I will be sharing my thoughts on these great books

The first book I came across after Selfish Giant was Stories from the Bible a beautiful combination of excerpts from the King James Bible and Zwerger’s illustrations.  But as the School Library Journal notes, this is not really a book likely to appeal to children:

These excerpts, taken verbatim from the King James Version of the Bible, are divided into six groups. The Old Testament sections include stories of the Beginning, the Fathers and Mothers of Israel, the Deliverance out of Egypt, King David, Psalms, and the words of the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. The New Testament sections are the birth of Jesus and the beginning of His works, Jesus’s words about His mission, experiences with Jesus, the message of Jesus, the Passion and Resurrection, and “Unto the Ends of the World” (Acts and Revelations). Coverage of Genesis, Exodus, and Jesus’s life and teachings is passable, although there are substantial gaps. The other selections are very limited. The work is imaginatively illustrated with occasional full-page paintings, usually but not always associated with the accompanying text, and a number of decorative vignettes. Often they have an almost surreal quality. In the scene of Moses in the bulrushes, Pharaoh’s daughter watches from a distant riverbank and is accompanied by jackal- and falcon-headed Egyptian gods. The principals may be dressed in modern clothing or carrying suitcases. Colors are muted and the artistic styles vary from meticulously detailed to abstract. The perspectives are sometimes dramatically skewed. With its use of the elevated King James language, its very selective choice of material, and its sophisticated paintings (some illustrations are not readily comprehensible), this title is more a coffee-table art book than a collection of Bible stories for youngsters. There are many anthologies available with friendlier language and more accessible pictures for children.

I agree that the book is more coffee table art book than children’s Bible, but that within that framework it is a beautiful book.  And this doesn’t mean you can’t read it with you children.

Publisher’s Weekly reflects this perspective:

Best shared between adults and children, this stimulating presentation of major stories from the Bible will startle readers into fresh insights and appreciations. Internationally renowned for her elegant, somewhat intellectual style, Zwerger here offers subtle visual accompaniment for extracts from the King James Bible. Where most Bibles offer heavy ornamentation, this airy oversize version points up the virtues of understatement. A single vignette conveys Pharaoh’s decadence: as he mocks Aaron and Moses for wanting to let the Israelites “rest from their burdens,” Zwerger shows him posing idly, holding a pet leopard by a leash. The artist lets individual images suggest defining moments: an elaborate trumpet stands in for the giving of the Ten Commandments; a wine bottle and 13 glasses evoke the Last Supper. In her full-page compositions, Zwerger sometimes summons tradition (e.g., a Sistine Chapel-like hand of God conjures the beasts of Creation), but more often her approach is personal. The Wise Men, dressed in clerical garb, kneel before a modern-dress Mary as she holds her baby; she stands in a bare room, a cherub hovering over her head, a few suitcases in the foreground, a white sheep nestled against a white wall. Tthe New Jerusalem is an open window in the sky. Rather than illustrating sacred episodes, these immaculately executed works prompt readers inward, to achieve their own visions.

I agree. Zwerger prompts imagination and reflection. These are no mere illustrations – just the events of the text in visual form – but more evocative art inspired by the text.

One of the effective things about the way this book is laid out and illustrated is the amount of white space and the font size. This makes the scripture passages the focus and the text easy to read.  The Bible can be intimidating both because of its language and because of the often dense text in some versions.

But here the text is presented as literature – thus the classic King James Version – but that formality is lessened by the large text, the generous white space, and the beautiful but not over-powering illustrations.  The stories become more accessible and digestible. You can approach them with imagination rather than just intellect.

It all comes together to be a inspirational and thought provoking book. Whether you want to approach the texts as scripture or as a classic piece of Western Literature and culture this beautifully illustrated volume is a wonderful book to enjoy. And you can read it straight through, flip through its pages taking in the small illustrations and full page art, use it for story time, or a combination of all three.

It is a classic sure to never go out of style.

N. T. Wright has undertaken a tremendous task: to provide guides to all the books of the New Testament, and to include in them his own translation of the entire text. Each short passage is followed by a highly readable discussion, with background information, useful explanations and suggestions, and thoughts as to how the text can be relevant to our lives today. A glossary is included at the back of the book. The series is suitable for group study, personal study, or daily devotions.

I had previously read the volumes on Romans for a Bible study we did at church and found it very useful. For a variety of reasons, I recently developed an interest in the Book of Revelation and, as luck would have it, this volume was being released this month.  And through the fine folks at NetGalley I was even able to get an ARC for my Kindle. I tried to read at least a chapter a day and so get through it relatively quickly.

It was an enjoyable and insightful look at this most complex and potentially confusing of books in the Bible.

This volume, like the others, follows the patter of a section of scripture (translated by Wright) and then a section unpacking and discussing that passage. Wright generally takes an experience from his life, or a common human experience, and uses that to illustrate or flush out something in the text.  He seeks to give the reader an understanding of the symbols and history that would resonate for the books intended readership but also a spiritual focus for us today. Without getting too deep into the weeds he attempts to sort out possible meanings for difficult passages and is honest about what is unclear.

Now, I have neither the time nor the competence to outline and explain the various perspectives on how to interpret the Book of Revelation.  But to place this book in context allow me to steal from Wikipedia which offers four basic views:

• Historicist, which sees in Revelation a broad view of history;
• Preterist, in which Revelation mostly refers to the events of the apostolic era (1st century);
• Futurist, which believes that Revelation describes future events; and
• Idealist, or Symbolic, which holds that Revelation does not refer to actual people or events, but is an allegory of the spiritual path and the ongoing struggle between good and evil.

Wright falls in the Preterist/Idealist category.  But if you are looking for a book that discusses these views and/or arguments about which one is correct this is not the book for you.

Instead, Wright’s focus is on making sense of the passages, keeping the larger narrative in mind and not missing the insight into God’s character and plan for the world because we are focused on the apocalyptic symbolism and imagery.  Wright of course is making an argument in a sense because he is explaining the book without connecting it to possible future prophecy. Wright provides a sort of stage map which outlines the narrative of Revelation, the author’s style and perspective, and the historical context.  He then places this within the even larger arc of scripture and history and suggests important ideas and nuggets for modern day readers to wrestle with and think about.

And this is where I think the book is useful in demystifying Revelation to some degree. Wright helps tie the writing to both the Old Testament (particularly Daniel and Isaiah) and inter-testament literature and to the history of the early church.  The conflict that arose between the church and the Roman Empire, and the resulting suffering and persecution, helps provide context for the symbolism and imagery but it’s also a recurring theme throughout history; and thus is part of the unfolding of God’s plan for the redemption of all of creation. Christians throughout history are forced to choose between empires on earth who claim powers and loyalties due only to God and their faith. These empires subvert justice and promote suffering in the name of power and are not slow to crush those who stand in their way.

Christians are called to resist being integrated into these systems and are reminded that doing so will result in suffering and persecution.  What Revelation tells us, however, is that God is in control and ultimately he will prevail. Evil will not triumph and death itself will be defeated.

Faithful believers throughout history have clung to this hope. Wright reminds us that we can too.

Related articles

• Mercury Falls by Rob Kroese (collectedmiscellany.com)

An entertaining narrative voice, personal reflections from the author’s life and insightful interpretations combine to produce this accessible and lively new addition to Genesis scholarship. Coats, a former parish priest and management consultant, cogently applies source theory—the hypothesis that four separate documents went into the first five books of the Bible—to familiar stories whose ethical and spiritual DNA seeps through Western culture. Through his approach, the author makes complex biblical scholarship comprehensible, while challenging the reader to examine the actual text. Asserting that biblical characters are rather relentless in their mirroring, Coats uses second-person hooks (Imagine yourself as the first human being) to invite readers to use their own perspective to interpret the text. Cheeky chapter headings entice and inform; First, about the ark, which is most definitely not a boat begins his analysis of Noah and the flood. While cultural references from Maimonides to Mae West spice up the narrative, Coats’s exploration of how his own history and self-understanding inform his interpretations makes the most compelling reading. His reflections on his own aging and his analysis of the stories of Noah and Abraham prove compelling and thought provoking.

This is not usually the sort of book I read.  But having read the introduction I was interested enough to push on. And in the end I found it an interesting read despite disagreeing with his fundamental assumptions in many ways.

If you are not familiar with source theory and Biblical criticism a lot of this book will surprise you. If you are threatened or uncomfortable by a sort of revisionist history of scripture some of it might upset you.  As I find Biblical scholarship fascinating I was intrigued and interested.

The weakest part of the this aspect of the book, however, is when Coates lays on the psychology a little too hard. But in an interesting twist, Coates own history becomes a big plus.

I am usually not a fan of books that mix genres to a large degree – and this one is part scholarship, part argument, part memoir and part cultural commentary. But Coates uses his own experience to both break up the close reading of scripture and to strengthen his theme that stories are a part of what it means to be human (as well as a tool to understand that humanity).  Somehow this tactics, mostly because of his voice and personality, adds to rather than subtracts from narrative.

This is one of the books that I found interesting and enjoyable even as I disagreed with the author and often found his points questionable.  In the end, Coates is a good story teller and than makes him worth reading.

Publishers Weekly

An entertaining narrative voice, personal reflections from the author’s life and insightful interpretations combine to produce this accessible and lively new addition to Genesis scholarship. Coats, a former parish priest and management consultant, cogently applies source theory—the hypothesis that four separate documents went into the first five books of the Bible—to familiar stories whose ethical and spiritual DNA seeps through Western culture. Through his approach, the author makes complex biblical scholarship comprehensible, while challenging the reader to examine the actual text. Asserting that biblical characters are rather relentless in their mirroring, Coats uses second-person hooks (Imagine yourself as the first human being) to invite readers to use their own perspective to interpret the text. Cheeky chapter headings entice and inform; First, about the ark, which is most definitely not a boat begins his analysis of Noah and the flood. While cultural references from Maimonides to Mae West spice up the narrative, Coats’s exploration of how his own history and self-understanding inform his interpretations makes the most compelling reading. His reflections on his own aging and his analysis of the stories of Noah and Abraham prove compelling and thought provoking.

Cover via Amazon

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

I will confess I have always been a little defensive about books that approach economics or American society and faith. Far too often, from my perspective, these books easily move from relevant spiritual issues into garden variety leftist critiques of capitalism, etc. In this way they turn me off from the message by delving into politics – and usually poorly at that.

Radical by David Platt may seem to be headed toward this territory. After all, the subtitle is Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream. Title and subtitle would seem to indicate  that this book comes from the less talked – and fretted – about religious left.

But Platt takes no such turn and as a result it is a much stronger book. Don’t get me wrong. Platt doesn’t get into conservative politics or economics either. He plays it straight and sticks to his Biblical and spiritual points without getting sidetracked into politics or economics.

Here is a quote from the publishers blurb:

In Radical, David Platt challenges you to consider with an open heart how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple–then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a “successful” suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus.

My thoughts below.

This is a very challenging book for any Christian who takes the Gospel and their faith seriously.

Quite simply Platt asks his readers to think about how they might live if they really believed what they read in the Bible. He argues that churches have accepted too much of the culture of individualism and materialism and turned Christianity into a comfortable life choice and therapy program instead of something that demands everything you can give.

With hundreds of thousands of innocent children dying without adequate food and water Christians need to wake up and think about these needs not their own comfort. With millions of people unreached by the gospel Christians need to wake up and think about the Great Commission. He challenges you to think about what is comfortable and convenient and what is real faith.

And in a very helpful step, in my opinion, at the end he offers a year long program to begin the process of re-orienting your life and faith: pray for the entire world; read through the entire Word; sacrifice your money for a specific purpose; spend time in another context; and commit yourself to to a multiplying community.

The writing is a big awkward at times as he switches between anecdotes, theology, cultural criticism, and memoir rather frequently and not always smoothly. The chapters are not tightly argued point as much as conversational and anecdotal descriptions mixed with arguments.

But the message is powerful and, in my opinion, one that needs to be heard.

- You can download the first chapter here

- Also check out the compact and challenging companion The Radical Question

So when I saw that he had come out with a daily reading orientated work, A Year with God: Living Out the Spiritual Disciplines, I knew I should check it out.  I am glad I did as it turned out to be just what I needed: a short but insightful and inspirational daily reading.

Here is the publishers description:

Many people are longing to find the footprint of God in their daily lives. This beautiful daily companion is comprised of 365 selections of scripture, commentary, meditations, and daily exercises to help readers see how they can bring their entire life into a life with Immanuel – a God who is with his people. In Richard Foster’s best-selling book, Celebration of Discipline, he explored the “classic disciplines,” or central spiritual practices of the Christian faith. Foster showed that it is only by and through these practices that the true path to spiritual growth can be found.

In A Year with God, the spiritual disciplines are presented in such a way that does not destroy the soul but enables the reader to enter into a transforming life with God. Through daily spiritual exercises and meditations, A Year with God explores eighteen spiritual disciplines. The inward disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study offer avenues of personal examination and change. The outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service help prepare one to make the world a better place. The corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration bring one nearer to others and to God. Each discipline will be given twenty days of readings, beginning with scripture and followed by commentary, a meditation, and a spiritual exercise. Practicing these spiritual disciplines will help readers live intentionally, contributing to a more balanced spiritual life and a reformation of the inner self.

For more of my thoughts, see below.

The challenge of any daily reading source is the balance between too little and too much. Too little substance and it feels like fluff – which in the long run will keep you from using it. Too much substance can be a time challenge and also has the danger of discouraging use or follow through.

A Year With God balances this tension very well. It is well laid out, has a specific perspective (The With God Life) and offers enough depth to make the short reading worthwhile. It also has a cumulative effect in that each day and section builds on each other – instead of seemingly random meditations that other readings often have.

If you have read other Foster works – or are using the Renovare Bible- it has the added benefit of blending in well.  if you have not read Foster, it strikes me as a great introduction.

I have been able to use this resources for over a month so far and have felt I wanted to read it every day and that it was worth taking the time to do so.  And that is worth something.

I am afraid I am going to offer one of my truisms again. What you think of it will have a lot to do with what you expect and the attitudes you bring to it.

Here is Publishers Weekly:

In this entertaining gem of religious satire, Breen, an AP journalist, skewers American Christianity from every imaginable angle. Calling himself the ‘Internet Theologian,’ Breen romps through the Bible, religious history, denominational differences. Halloween, contemporary Christian music and spectator sports, among other topics. Some of the book is pure silliness, but other sections achieve that elusive ‘perfect storm’ where humor is sharpened by raw intelligence and a keen knowledge of history and theology. Even Breen’s glossary of terms is hilarious. Heck, even his endnotes are funny and not to be missed. (One says merely, ‘Seriously. Wasn’t Calvin a nut?’) Readers seeking irreverent, laugh-out-loud musings on the sometimes ludicrous intersections between faith and pop culture will want to read this insouciant guide.

If you want satire, there is plenty of satire. And there is lot of humor that I found quite funny – from laugh out loud to quiet chuckle. But the larger question is whether the satire and humor adds up to something more than entertaining reading.

My take after the jump …

Dictionary.com defines satire as follows:

–noun

1. the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

2. a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.

3. a literary genre comprising such compositions.

But let’s turn to the Wikipedia entry on satire as well:

Although satire is usually meant to be funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humour in itself so much as an attack on something of which the author strongly disapproves, using the weapon of wit.

The problem is that it is not always clear what Breen is skewering because he strongly disapproves of it and what he is simply using as a comedy foil.

The introduction notes that while pop culture may seem like oil and water they are actually deeply intertwined today:

Americans, in other words, have take to Christianity the way we’ve taken to everything else – with an orgy of scatter-brained, well-meaning-but-crazy exertions that ultimately leave everyone feeling exhausted and slightly queasy.  And when these exertions find a public expression, that expression is what Americans do better than anyone in the world: pop culture.

As a result, today’s Christianity is first and foremost dynamic. It is not merely something people are guilted into doing on Sundays by their nagging, churchy spouses.  While that may have been true for our boring parents and their irrelevant forms of worship, today the varieties of religious expression include not just church, but rock concerts, skateboarding competitions, wrestling matches, video games, bestselling novels, major motion pictures, and tiny comic books telling you the Devil invented trick-or-treating as a way to lure unsuspecting children into eternal damnation.

And a chunk of the book makes fun of – and criticizes by extension – the extremes of this “everything must be relevant” obsession of too many churches.

But another theme of the book seems to be that popular culture and Christianity have always intersected in both positive and negative ways. And for a long period in Europe and the West Christianity was the dominant culture. The two ideas sometimes seem to clash depending on the issue being satirized.

Sometimes Breen seems to be making fun of things simply because they are funny.  For example, the sections dealing with Christians and holidays are hillarious to anyone who grew up hearing the debates about Christmas , Halloween, etc. Breen notes that an increasing number of Christians are shunning October 31 because of its pagan roots:

This may come as a surprise to those Americans who, as children, associated it with primarily the Hershey corporation and, as adults, thinkof it almost soley as an opportunity to see young women dressed as naughty nurses. But, ironically, it’s a conviction shared by many Christians and pagans, and one backed up by a great deal of poor scholarship. Exactly the kind of scholoarship most appropriate for the Internet Theologian, in other words.

But some are more effective at using humor to make a more serious point.  The chapter on A Field Guide to the Major North American Jesuses also successfully skewers the various cultural attempts to rub all the rough edges off of Jesus; to make a Jesus of one’s own. The next chapter notes the hippie mindset that underlys so much of the seeker culture in the modern church.

Which brings me to central question with the book.  The best form of satire, in my opinion, offers not just biting humor but insight into the thing being mocked. And Breen’s shtick – even if over-the-top at times – is funny, and he successfully highlights some of the absurd cultural traits of what might be called the evangelical subculture, in the end you aren’t left with much besides jokes. He doesn’t help the reader understand the conflicts and tensions very much.

The “Dispatches” of the subtitle is important here. The book has the feel of essays and blog posts combined into book form. While the jokes – including footnotes – build on each other (the mock anti-intellectualism, etc.) the sections don’t really add up to more than the disparate parts.

As I read I enjoyed the humor and chuckled at the asides and silliness but after I finished I couldn’t really offer any particular insights or deeper points made by Breen. It has an empty calorie quality to it.

And in the end I think, as noted above, what you are looking for determines your enjoyment. If you just want to read some funny satire of the Christian subculture you will enjoy this book. And in many cases, the more you are familiar with the issues and attributes the funnier you will find it.

But if you are looking for more than skewering – if you are looking for a more serious underpinning to the satire – I think you will be slight disappointed.  To my mind Breen simply doesn’t offer anything coherent in terms of a response.

Christians can be funny, and anti-intellectual and ahistorical and even un-Biblical in their pursuit of smorgasborad faith that is relevant and integrated into pop culture (or in building a separate culture). But why this is dangerous and to be avoided is not exactly spelled out in any clear way. And how the various problems inter-connect is also left unclear.  Readers are instead mostly left to come to their own conclusions about what it all means.

Perhaps I am just expecting too much out of humor book but I think many readers will be looking for more than just laughs – particularly those who take these issues seriously. Of course Breen might just call them eggheads …

But despite the countervailing habits when I heard about John The Baptizer by Brooks Hansen I was immediately intrigued. Here is the publishers description:

Traditionally, John the Baptist is seen as little more than an opening act—”the voice crying in the wilderness”—in the great Christian drama. In presenting the epic of John’s life, novelist Brooks Hansen draws on an extraordinary array of inspirations, from the works of Caravaggio, Bach, and Oscar Wilde to the histories of Josephus, the canonical gospels, the Gnostic gospels, and the sacred texts of those followers of John who never accepted Jesus as Messiah: the Mandeans.

Gripping as literary historical fiction, and fascinating as a diligent exploration of ancient and modern sources, this book brings to eye-opening life the richly textured world—populated by the magnificently sordid, calculating, and reckless Herods, their families, and their courts—into which both John and Jesus were born. John the Baptizer is a captivating tapestry of power and dissent, ambition and self-sacrifice, worldly and otherworldly desire, faith, and doubt.

A straightforward historical portrayal of John might be interesting in and of itself, but the unique and creative mix Hansen offered put this one on the top of my reading list.

Most of the time the publishers blurb has an element of hyperbole to it – depending on the quality of the book in question this can be annoying or flat out deceptive – but in my opinion this one really does capture the book.

More on why below.The first paragraph relates to the second.  Hansen’s use of a wide variety of sources – and the gnostic Mandeans in particular – are what give the work its unique flavor or perspective.  Hansen doesn’t simply bring a historical view to the story.  Yes, his skillful writing brings the ancient world to life; to the point you almost feel like you are reading a primary source not a novel. But he weaves into this historical story a mystic, spiritual, almost dream like element.

And on a number of levels it is in contrast that the novel builds its power.  There is the dual elements noted above that surround John’s story: the historical and political context of his time and region, and the simple ascetic nature of his life and mission, are contrasted with the mystical and supernatural nature of his life from a birth under a star to his time spent with Nasurai.

In the same way, John’s story and mission is stands in stark contrast with the history of what Kirkus so aptly describes as “the semi-pagan Herod clan.  A tempestuous, incestuous convergence of two royal Israelite dynasties produces Herod the Great.”

This altering between a history pregnant with spirituality and a history full of debauchery, between the simple asceticism that emphasizes self-sacrifice and the gaudy, greedy and power hungry trappings of royalty, pushes the novel forward as everyone familiar with story knows that the two will meet in a violent climax.

This mix might not be attractive to everyone, the Kirkus review concludes:

A curious melange of the sacred and profane, but always captivating when the sinners are onstage.

But I think Publishers Weekly has it right:

The juxtaposition of stark realism and religious loftiness has its perplexing moments, but it’s precisely what will keep the pages turning.

To me Hansen balanced these two aspects to incredible effect.  The contrast of the sacred and the profane – and how often they mixed in provocative ways in the ancient world – are what drove the story.  And it is only by presenting this wider lens on the connection between John and gnosticism, and other by now largely forgotten sects, that Hansen offers more than just a fictionalized history of John; takes it from history to art/literature.

Which is why I found the novel as advertised:

Gripping as literary historical fiction, and fascinating as a diligent exploration of ancient and modern sources … a captivating tapestry of power and dissent, ambition and self-sacrifice, worldly and otherworldly desire, faith, and doubt.

It might seem to odd to describe a literary exploration such as this as gripping but I was pulled into it and wanted to spend all my time reading it; “a captivating tapestry” is a perfect description.

I should note that obviously orthodox Christians will not agree with many of the theological elements found in the story.  Classical Christianity did eventually declare gnosticism heresy after all.  And some might find the interaction of John and Jesus – or more specifically the disciples of John and Jesus – provocative.

And the supernatural element is clearly not historical in the academic sense.

But to get hung up on these issue is to miss the nature of the work.  This is not a thinly disguised catechism, or a loosely fictionalized history, but a work of literature with all the complexity and provocation that can involve.

No matter your faith background, or lack of it, or your knowledge of the Bible, or lack of it, I highly recommend John The Baptizer.  Its blends the historical and the literary in ways that defy genre and subject matter to create a powerful story.