Books to Note - Christianity Today

Tribulation

The Land Between

Finding God in Difficult Transitions Jeff Manion Zondervan, 2010 224 pp., $12.99

Between a Rock and a Grace Place

Divine Surprises in the Tight Spots of Life Carol Kent Zondervan, 2010 240 pp., $16.99

Manion lost his mother at an early age and has since walked with many others through painful trials. He invites readers to enter into the biblical narrative of the Israelites in the wilderness as a way to find God. The backdrop of Kent’s book is her son, who is serving a life sentence for murder. Kent weaves letters from her son with other “grace place” stories to underline hope and joy in Christ.

Christianity

Everything You Know about Evangelicals is Wrong (Well, Almost Everything)

An Insider’s Look at Myths and Realities Steve Wilkens, Don Thorsen (Baker) Baker Books, 2010 224 pp., $11.99

The Next Christians

The Good News About the End of Christian America Gabe Lyons DDay Religion, 2010 192 pp., $13.99

Wilkens and Thorsen do a good job of explaining what evangelicalism is and isn’t, exploding some myths and reinforcing the reality that the movement is much more diverse that the media let on. Lyons, coauthor of the popular UnChristian, argues that younger Christians are trying to forge a new way of being Christian that rejects a lot of what evangelicals (or, à la Wilkens and Thorsen, a segment) currently represent.

The Mind

Think

The Life of the Mind and the Love of God John Piper Crossway Books & Bibles, 2010 192 pp., $14.99

Apologetics for the 21st Century

Louis Markos Crossway Books & Bibles, 2010 256 pp., $13.99

Has Christianity Failed You?

Ravi Zacharias Zondervan, 2010 208 pp., $11.99

Ultimately, argues Piper, there is no dichotomy between thinking about God and experiencing God, for thinking is “indispensable when it comes to having a passion for God.” Markos summarizes some of the most cogent albeit popular thinking about the faith—that of Schaeffer, Lewis, Chesterton, Lane Craig, and Strobel—on the way to defending the faith today. Zacharias answers questions from skeptics in his usual engaging manner.

Evangelism

NetCasters

Using the Internet to Make Fishers of Men Craig von Buseck B&H Publishing Group, 2010 192 pp., $10.99

Shepherd would probably eschew Markos’s “neatly packaged answers,” for she favors a probing listening as a kind of “spiritual accompaniment” to encouraging people into the faith. Von Buseck guides readers in how to use blogs, chat rooms, Facebook, Twitter, and other tools to share the gospel in the virtual world.

Justice

Exodus from Hunger

We Are Called to Change the Politics of Hunge David Beckmann Westminster John Knox Press, 2010 192 pp., $11.99

The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor

Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus Mark Labberton Intervarsity Press, 2010 224 pp., $14.99

Beckmann, president of the Christian nonprofit Bread for the World, lays out his case not just for the priority of dealing with hunger, but also for the need to deal with it with political solutions, not just through charity. Labberton argues persuasively that engaging injustice in the world must go hand in hand with a renewal of our hearts.

Spirituality

Ancient Paths

Discover Christian Formation the Benedictine Way David Robinson Paraclete Press, 2010 234 pp., $12.99

Journey with Jesus

Discovering the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Larry Warner Intervarsity Press, 2010 260 pp., $13.99

Spiritual Formation

Following the Movements of the Spirit Henri Nouwen, with Michael Christensen and Rebecca Laird Harperone, 2010 192 pp., $17.99

Forgiving As We’ve Been Forgiven

Community Practices for Making Peace L. Gregory Jones and Célestin Musekura IVP Books, 2010 156 pp., $11.99

Both Robinson and Warner mine the riches of Catholic spirituality for readers of a non-Catholic persuasion. Christensen and Laird make lectures of the late Henri Nouwen accessible. And Jones and Musekura buck the trend and set spiritual formation primarily in a community context.—Books reviewed by Mark Galli