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The Christian Writer’s Market Guide – 2012 © 2011 Tyndale House Publishers xix+552 pages This book is pure motivation. Every time I flip through the pages, I think of something new to write about. Here’s how this 500+ page book breaks down: A list of Book Publishers. This section is organized by category, so you [...]

What’s lost is nothing to what’s found, and all the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup. —Frederick Buechner, Godric, 96.

The Pastor: A Memoir © 2011 HarperOne 317 pages In my personal hierarchy of “Most Important Books I’ve Ever Read”, two always rise to the top: Mere Christianity (C. S. Lewis), and A Celebration of Discipline (Richard Foster). Everything else suffers by comparison . . . until now. Meet the most important book I’ve read [...]

Christian faith occurs in the encounter of the believer with him in whom he believes. It consists in communion, not in identification, with him. —Karl Barth, Evangelical Theology: An Introduction, 99.

Performing the Faith: Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Nonviolence © 2004 Brazos Press: Baker 252 pages Hauerwas is always challenging and thought-provoking. This work on Bonhoeffer is no different. In Performing the Faith, Hauerwas uses Bonhoeffer’s life to show how Christians can be creative in their practice of non-violence (of course, that’s an extremely reductive [...]

Do not trust yourself to your own opinions, but take them to Christ and see whether they are in conformity with the faith (Rom. 12:7) and the Word of the holy Gospel. I, too, occasionally have beautiful and splendid thoughts, and I believe that the Holy Spirit inspired them. But when I judge them in [...]

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us © 2009 Riverhead (2011) 272 pages I’m torn about how to write this review. I think I’ll have to proceed with two perspectives: 1. The Idea. Despite the mild hyperbole in the subtitle (“The Surprising Truth”), the thesis of Pink’s book is inspirational and well-grounded. Motivating people [...]

It is extremely important that we know where our sins have been disposed of. The Law deposits them on our conscience and shoves them into our bosom. But God takes them from us and places them on the shoulders of the Lamb. —Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 22: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John [...]

For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge Of Time – A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics © 2011 Free Press: Simon & Schuster xvi+302 pages Like a lot of people, I was introduced to Walter Lewin through his compelling physics lectures from MIT, which are freely available [...]

Love is not a general human possibility, but a gift. More exactly, the possibility of love is given as a gift which must be repeatedly realized by the believer. —Rudolph Bultmann, The Johannine Epistles, 1 John 3:24 (59).