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• Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim © 2009
• Alfred A. Knopf
• 268 pages

Angel Time is the story of an assassin who repents and teams up with an angel to do God’s work at various times in history. Rice envisions a number of books for this new character.

Here a disclaimer before I continue: I’ve never read Interview with the Vampire, or any of her other works in that genre. I started reading Rice when she wrote her Christ the Lord books (Out of Egypt, The Road to Cana) and her spiritual autobiography, Called Out of Darkness. When I heard she wrote a supernatural fiction from a post-conversion perspective, I was intrigued. Could this be the Roman Catholic Frank Peretti?

I wanted to like this book, but found it quite average. While I was interested by the theological nuances of the text, they did little to move the plot or character development along. It was almost as if Rice wanted to use her familiar genre to explain her new-found faith.

This book isn’t bad—it’s just not as good as I’ve come to expect from Rice. I’ll still eagerly await the next volume.

Here’s a line from Klosterman’s Eating the Dinosaur. He’s speaking about the lunacy of David Koresh:

Anyone who reads every line of the Bible as non-metaphoric text has limited credibility.

This chapter transitions us from what we don’t know to what are overwhelmed with. As much as Paul assumes most of Jesus’ life, he makes explicit the significance of his death as a key part of the substance of Gospel.

. . .

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• Love Alone Is Credible © 1963 (German Edition)
• Trans. D. C. Schindler © 2004
• Ignatius
• 153 pages

Logic looks for a place where it can pull everything together. That place can not be found in creation—even in the creation of humans. It can only be found in the revelation of God. The center of God’s revelation is love: the only thing that is credible. This is the foundation of von Balthasar’s dense little book.

This book is brilliant. Almost every page has some striking insight that makes you want to put the book down and meditate. If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that I’ve posted a number of quotes from this book as Weekend Wisdom:

• Theologians or Lovers?
• Miraculous Beauty
• You Lived to Die
• Damn It All To . . .
• What is Love?

I’ll be the first to admit that there were times when I felt like I was barely keeping my head above the water. Von Balthasar’s a highly gifted philosopher as well as a theologian. Thankfully, there is a recapitulation at the end of the book: four pages that summarize the flow of his argument. You would do well to read that first, then keep referring back to it as you read through the book to constantly situate yourself in his logic.

This book will stand up to many readings. It’s a treasure well worth the effort.

• The Selfless Gene: Living with God and Darwin © 2009
• Thomas Nelson
• 283 pages

The Selfless Gene is a side-splitting call for moderation. Foster contends that it’s possible to believe in God without sticking your head in the sand when it comes to science. In pursuit of this belief, he disarms and jabs young earth creationists and uber-Darwinists like Richard Dawkins with equal ease.

One of the most interesting themes Foster dealt with was the charge that God is a sadist. Animal violence in the natural world cannot stem from the Fall—indeed, it predated it (Some might not agree with the preceding sentence—read the book and rethink the data). I won’t give away the solution to this quandary in a review—suffice to say it’s quite inspiring.

Another fascinating chapter concerned the idea of altruism and natural selection. The process is inherently selfish—how could it promote a creature who acts for the benefits of others? Foster doesn’t only give his opinion, he surveys the mains schools of thought in the process. You can make up your own mind.

“This book will have something in it to frustrate and annoy everyone,” said Foster in the introduction. He was right. Fortunately, he doesn’t stop there. This book provides fuel for thought and progression in the relationship between science and religion. Anyone who’s interested in these ideas should give this compelling book a try.

Disclaimer: I received this book as a member of Thomas Nelson’s BookSneeze program.

I’ve finished reading von Balthasar’s Love Alone Is Credible, so this will be the last Weekend Wisdom post from him. I know I’ve gone to him a lot lately—he’s just that good. Here’s his simple-yet-profound definition of love:

Love is unconditional assent to and readiness for God’s will.

PS: I’d like to offer my apologies to everyone with this in their head now.

• The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate © 2009
• IVP Academic
• 192 pages

Controversy surrounds anyone who decides to talk about Genesis one. Young Earthers, Old Earth Creationists, Literary Readers and Gap Theorists form their identity by battling each other. Walton brings something completely new to the argument with compelling clarity. Here’s a brief summary:

We assume that when the Bible uses the verb “create” it means to create material. A closer look at the Hebrew usage of the term shows us that create is more functional than material. (E.g. We can speak of creating a business when nothing material has happened.) When scripture speaks of God creating in Genesis 1, he’s essentially giving function to the elements of the world—giving them purpose. This doesn’t deny ex nihilo—that doctrine just cannot be found in Genesis 1. On the seventh day, God takes up residence in his Temple (that is: cosmos). This functional reading of “to create” places Genesis firmly in the realm of other ancient cosmologies and allows us to read the text more faithfully. Once this view is explained, Walton goes on to challenge all the other creation views as inadequate.

This is a remarkable book that should be read by anyone interested in forming a biblical understanding of creation. Walton’s made a compelling case that must be answered by any other view of Genesis going forward.

This week I found a nugget from a hymn of St. Ephrem (in Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns):

Truth and love are inseparable wings—for truth cannot fly without love—and love cannot hover without truth.

• Once an Arafat Man: The True Story of How a PLO Sniper Found a New Life © 2008
• Tyndale House
• 233 pages

People can change—Saada is living proof. Once an Arafat Man is the story of how Tass Saada was transformed from a violent hate-filled PLO sniper to a humanitarian committed to the peaceful reconciliation of the Jewish and Palestinian people. This is a story about the life-altering power of God in action.

You might expect someone with such a sensational background to play up the details for a more sensational narrative. Fortunately, Saada resisted this temptation. He wrote about his forgiven past with humility and honesty.

The last two chapters shift focus from biography to a “Road Map to Reconciliation”. While I could point out a few minor theological quibbles, I was overwhelmingly impressed with his perspective. He eschewed political master-plans to focus on the heart. In the end, land is of secondary importance:

To his Jewish audiences: “A soul is worth more than land. To bring a single Palestinian soul to Jesus is more important than hanging onto acerage.”

To his Arab audiences: “So far, most Jews are not finding their true Messiah. For us to bring them in that direction is worth far more in God’s eyes than proving our point abou the land.”

We can all benefit from that insight.

Disclaimer: A review copy of this book was provided for free by Tyndale Publishing House.

Here’s my fourth Weekend Wisdom post on von Balthasar’s Love Alone Is Credible. I just can’t resist. In today’s installment he speaks about how we understand hell:

Soaring in the air, I also necessarily experience the abyss below, which is only part of my own flight. Similarly, I can speak of hell only in relation to myself, precisely because I can never imagine the possible damnation of another as more likely than my own.