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CALVINISM IN THE LAS VEGAS AIRPORT:
Making Connections in Today's World
Richard J. Mouw
Zondervan,
144 pages, $14.99

Someone once asked Richard Mouw, "How can a Calvinist like you survive—especially as the president!—at a school as diverse as Fuller Theological Seminary?"

Mouw, who says he thrives on the interaction, has learned to allow for a "certain degree of messiness" in his theology. "What does Calvinism have to say to our present world?" he writes, adding, "How can I best be a Calvinist in the 21st century?"

Using a scene from the 1979 movie Hardcore as a springboard, Mouw looks at how it is possible to draw on the strengths of Calvinism to navigate the complexities of contemporary life. Mouw admits that the Calvinist tulip doctrines (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints), when stated bluntly, "have a harsh feel about them." To articulate them with gentleness and respect to someone outside the fold, he writes, takes effort.

A refreshing humbleness of spirit marks the book. "In … dealing with many of these mysterious things, all I can do is acknowledge God's sovereign purposes," Mouw writes, "while at the same time reminding myself that this God calls me to be obedient to those things that are clearly within my grasp to understand."

STREET SAINTS:
Renewing America's Cities
Barbara J. Elliott
Templeton,
320 pages, $24.95

Who are the modern-day Good Samaritans? They are the "street saints," according to Barbara Elliott, the founder of the Center for Renewal in Houston, which serves faith-based groups working mostly in the inner city.

Street saints are those willing to go where there is pain and suffering and be a presence of healing with love, she writes. This absorbing overview provides an in-depth look at how individuals and faith-based groups are helping to solve urban problems: crime, addiction, racism, elder care, unemployment, and grinding poverty, among others.

A particularly compelling section details faith-based prison programs and the impact they have on recidivism. Among them is Indianapolis's Craine House, where convicted mothers and their young children remain together.

The key in all programs is not so much reformation as transformation. "The most successful faith-based groups have healed hurting people by addressing both body and soul together," Elliott writes. Photos help personalize the text.

This thought-provoking book has the potential to mobilize churches and individual Christians, making long-lasting differences in their communities. An appendix offers contact information for all the groups profiled.

HEAVEN
Randy Alcorn
Tyndale,
544 pages, $22.99

Forget the harps and eternal boring worship services. Heaven, according to Randy Alcorn, will engage our talents, free us from many of our limitations, and keep our unique personalities and bodies (in their purest form) intact.

In this richly detailed account of heaven, Alcorn says the new heaven and earth will include remnants of the originals. Despite biblical assertions that this heaven and earth will pass away (by Jesus in Luke 21:33, Peter in 2 Pet. 3:10, and John in Rev. 21:1), Alcorn strongly argues—from Scripture, word studies, and historical theology—that the "destruction" of the current heaven and earth will be temporary and partial.

He mines the writings of many authors, including C. S. Lewis, Bruce Milne, and Anthony Hoekema (yet strangely asserts that Christians "have failed to explore and explain the Bible's magnificent teachings about heaven").

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February 2005, Vol. 49, No. 2