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An Introduction to the Old Testament © 1994 (Note: I read and reviewed the first edition. The link above connects to the second.) Zondervan 473 pages While I don’t often read reference books cover-to-cover, I made an exception with this volume. I treated this book as a supplement to my regular Bible reading. Every time [...]

To be homeless the way people like you and me are apt to be homeless is to have homes all over the place but not to be really at home in any of them. —Frederick Beuchner, “The News of the Day” in Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, 250.

  Chapter 12: The War of the Lamb Summary 1972: With our focus on Jesus and Paul, other biblical witnesses have been left out, notably Revelation. Christian social ethics is obsessed with discovering the meaning and direction of history. It turns out this is no easy task because of the plethora of free agents in [...]

As One Devil to Another: A Fiendish Correspondence in the Tradition of C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters © 2012 Tyndale House Publishers xi+192 pages [At the end of this review, you'll have an opportunity to win a copy of the book.] In 1941, The Guardian magazine published a series of letters from Senior Devil [...]

The odd thing about wisdom is the more you use it the more it grows; and the more you share, the more you gain. You’d be amazed how few understand that. —Lloyd Alexander, “The Foundling” in The Fantastic Imagination: An Anthology of High Fantasy, 270.

  Chapter 11: Justification by Grace through Faith Summary 1972: One major objection remains to the premise that Jesus’ social ethic was active and important in the early church. The primary message of Paul has been understood to be justification by grace through faith, especially since the Protestant Reformation. Works (i.e. social ethic) has nothing [...]

Killarney Provincial Park La Cloche Silhouette Trail Guide © 2006 Friends of Killarney Park x+150 pages This spring I’ll complete my third circuit of the 73 km hiking trail through Killarney Provincial Park. I already know the trail well. I was hoping that this guide might provide a little extra inspiration for late-winter training. I [...]

“I can see your face. It gives out light.” … The fact was, that the moment he began to love Alice, his eyes began to send forth light. What he thought came from Alice’s face, really came from his eyes. —George MacDonald, The Wise Woman and Other Fantasy Stories, 148.

  Chapter 10: Let Every Soul Be Subject: Romans 13 and the Authority of the State Summary 1972: Romans 13:1-7 has traditionally been appealed to in order to support the God-ordained role of the state to wield the sword. It follows that if the Christian is enlisted by the state, a God-ordained structure, then the [...]

The Light Princess and Other Stories © 1980 Eerdmans 171 pages This is the third of four volumes Eerdmans put together in 1980 to collect all the short fantasy works of George MacDonald. I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that MacDonald, whose Victorian novels span six to eight hundred pages, is able to develop [...]