Being an editor for an online magazine affords me the pleasure of receiving more books than any one person could read and review in an expected time frame. But I remain hopeful that every book that quietly sit, jaggedly stacked in the corner next to my bookshelf will one day soon, be reviewed before becoming media for the historical archives.
The one book that caught my eye and seductively lured me in its direction was “Not the Religious Type: Confessions of a Turncoat Atheist.” I’m not familiar with Dave Schmelzer, a former playwriter and atheist, now pastor in the Vineyard heritage somewhere near Cambridge, Mass., but he has an interesting “no-bar, open style of writing.”
In one chapter headed “How M. Scott Peck Saved My Life” Schmelzer has some interesting analogies on the ‘deeply religious’ and the ‘not-so-religious’ who end up in therapy. He comments that often the deeply religious leave their religion after being helped while the not-so-religious find faith as a result of being helped. Schmelzer spends the remainder of this chapter unpacking his discovery. Interesting stuff.
In the not too distant future you’ll be able to read a complete review of this book at New Wineskins Magazine. Also in the May-June issue of New Wineskins (Politics and Faith) will be my conversation with Newt Gingrich.
Files under Interviews, book review, politics |
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There are a couple of challenging reads I want to suggest to the readers out there. The first is a short 16 page download. You can get it for $1.00. Not bad.
Here’s a brief review:
The line between American culture and Biblical conviction has been irrevocably blurred since the Pilgrims and Puritans made landfall on our shores. The sad fact of Christianity in the United States is that our theology has been more informed by the culture than the reverse. If anyone has any doubts, Fred puts them to rest using the example of our country’s preoccupation with alcohol consumption. When we have otherwise intelligent scholars trying to convince us that Jesus turned the water into the oxymoronic “non-alcoholic” or “non-intoxicating” wine, it is high time to acknowledge that our culture is driving our theology rather than our theology being based on sound Bible study. –Rick Chromey; Kentucky Christian University
Abstinence or Moderation? : Liberty or Law? [link to a dollar download]
The second offering is a 116 page book that
Jim Henderson of Off The Map called the “best missional book on the market.” It an easy read with lots of stories and one of the first books by an emergent that can claim to be more a construct than deconstruct. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. You can find a link to the book on the left side bar near the bottom of this page. Just start scrolling down…
Files under Culture, bible, book review, missional |
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