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Welcome to StephenBarkley.com. This is where I post all the stuff I've been thinking, praying, speaking, and writing about. Thanks for reading.
Consumer Detox: Less Stuff, More Life © 2010 Zondervan 265 pages Consumer Detox is a breath of fresh air (pun intended: Powley is also the founder of the Breathe) network. Powley has managed to write a non-legalistic (indeed, liberating) manifesto about freedom from consumerism. Zondervan’s done a fine job marketing it, too. They’ve managed to [...]
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived © 2011 HarperOne 224 pages Rob Bell sure knows how to create a stir! Like Jesus turning over the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple, Bell has turned over some hot-button doctrinal issues held by the evangelical (and [...]
Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals ©2010 Zondervan 592 pages It’s quite a pretentious act to review a prayerbook. I believe that God loves talking with his children no matter what sort of liturgical language they use, so who am I to say these prayers are “good” or “bad”? Here’s another problem: It’s next [...]
Sabbath: The Ancient Practices © 2009 Thomas Nelson 213 pages This was unexpected. When I started to read a book whose purpose is to promote modern-day Sabbath keeping, I fully expected the modern approach, “let’s not be legalistic here…” Instead, Allender based his book in the fourth commandment: remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. [...]
One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow © 2010 Zondervan 202 pages I can’t think of a better refresher for North American Christians, on the eve of the new year, than McKnight’s latest offering: One.Life. He begins by shooting down the sub-par version of Christianity that’s so prevalent in Western evangelicalism: that being a Christian means accepting [...]
The Soul of C. S. Lewis: A Meditative Journey through Twenty-Six of His Best-Loved Writings © 2010 Tyndale House Publishers 323 pages C. S. Lewis’ writing prowess is legendary—especially in Christian circles. His economy of language and knack for choosing the perfect metaphor to make any point made him one of my favourite authors from [...]
Following Jesus © 1994 Eerdmans 114 pages I bought this book from Amazon.com under the mistaken impression that it was published in 2009. There’s still nothing to indicate different on the website. Just to be clear, this collection of sermons which was loosely transformed into a book was first published in 1994. The Eerdmans paperback [...]
The Faces of Jesus: A Life Story © 1974, 2005 Paraclete Press 97 pages The Faces of Jesus is Buechner’s brief survey of Jesus’ life. He takes the reader through the important moments of Jesus’ life with a poet’s eye for beauty. Unfortunately, the style of writing that so amazed me in Now and Then [...]
Prayer (50th Anniversary Edition) © 1952 Westminster Press 78 pages I’m no expert on Barth. I have, however, read Luther and Calvin on the Lord’s Prayer. This book was a nice little survey of their thought set in a devotional tone. It’s actually the translation of an adaptation of three lectures Barth gave at Neuchâtel. [...]
Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting © 1989 Eerdmans 217 pages Keeping the Sabbath Wholly is a window into how Marva Dawn practices the Sabbath. She focuses on the four elements of the subtitle (ceasing, resting, embracing, feasting) as critical attitudes for robust Sabbath-keeping. The book is filled with personal anecdotes and stories [...]
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