Book review: Afraid to Believe in Free Will by Carl E. Begley

This book is a bit of an odd one, because I can’t quite nail it down. I suppose I was expecting a comparison between Calvinism and Arminianism, and this is definitely not that. It’s quite academic in flavour, looking at the philosophical and psychological history of belief in free will along with an analysis of societal contexts within which a stronger belief in free will would help.

First things first: I found this pretty interesting. I’m sure I’ll bring up stuff I’ve read here in conversations, and it definitely got me thinking. I’ve never put any time or effort into thinking through the ideas of whether or not we have free will, or whether or not belief in free will makes any difference, and this book has kick-started that thought process for me.

However, it’s fair to say that I don’t really get this book. It’s very academic in everything except the overall structure, which is frustrating – it took a while for me to understand where the author was going with this, and after having read it I’m not sure I get it even now, other than him saying that we ought to believe in free will. To say it’s branded as a Christian book that Christian input is fairly quiet throughout, and even when it comes in it’s analysed in the same way as any other philosophical source. The Bible’s quoted to back up Begley’s arguments and not to initiate thought, so I certainly didn’t feel like I’d learnt ‘the Christian view’ of free will here.

What particularly frustrated me was the way that the book looked at a couple of examples to demonstrate how belief in free will affects society, but the focus then shifted too far (in my eyes) onto the author’s own view of those particular situations; apparently offering financial support to the unemployed makes them lazy and reliant on good, hard-working citizens; of course communism is an idea from the devil himself; and scientific evidence shows that child abuse isn’t as harmful as society tells us it is. Yes, that last one is perhaps slightly skewing what the author says, but the particular chapter it’s in is long story about the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association and the confusion between the two – I still have no idea what the difference is, and I still have no idea how that relates to a belief in free will.

So in conclusion this has started some good thought processes, but I don’t think it’s done the best job at it – it’s got an academic tone without an academic objective, it gets too bogged down with the examples without explaining fully what we should conclude, and it doesn’t reinforce a Christian focus enough.

I got this ebook for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

Book review: 20,000 Days and Counting by Robert Smith

The Bible tells us to ‘number our days’. Robert Smith took that literally, and when he realised that he had been alive for 20,000 of them he decided to take 48 hours out to make sure that every day he’d do everything in his power to make it count. This short book is basically him communicating the lessons he learnt during that time, encouraging the reader to make each day count and ‘echo in eternity’.

Most of my opinions about this book stem from the fact that it’s so short – some chapters are only two pages long. On one level this makes it very approachable and not at all scary to read, but on another it means that some ideas are not communicated as clearly as I’d  have liked. Because of the nature of the book being something requiring such personal application, I think the book could perhaps have done with some questions for application at the end of each chapter, particularly as it was so short.

On the whole I found the content to be inspiring, challenging and exciting, but at times hard to apply to my own life; Smith tells about how it worked for him (e.g. calling 30 people per day to sell something led to several ‘no’s but the all-important ‘yes’ as well), but it wasn’t immediately apparent how I might be able to put that into practice myself. This led to the book feeling like [a] it was Robert Smith telling me how great his life is (not that useful), and [b] it could have done with being a bit longer.

So if you’re looking for something quick that will give you food for thought, you could certainly do a lot worse than this. But if you feel like you perhaps need a bit more hand-holding through it, I’d probably push you more in the direction of Craig Groeschel’s Chazown, or John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life.

I got this ebook for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

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Book review: The 5 Money Personalities by Scott and Bethany Palmer

This is a book for married couples who encounter conflict around money (i.e. every married couple). It suggests that there are 5 Money Personalities (Saver, Spender, Risk Taker, Security Seeker and Flyer), that we all relate to two of them, and that it’s our differences in Money Personality that cause conflict in marriage. It’s not a how-to guide on budgeting or getting out of debt, but it’s not intended to be.

It’s healthy for every married couple to honestly discuss money, and this book gives one good structure for this, with lots of capitalised activities (you have a Money Personality, a Money Relationship, you have Money Huddles…). By working through it as a couple it will unlock doors to understand where conflict is coming from, and to improve the quality of a marriage. Good news.

The book is definitely quick and easy to read and the chapters are short, so it’s reasonable to expect even a book hater to be able to read a chapter and discuss it. There’s a website connected to the book, themoneycouple.com, which has a bunch of extra resources on it, but I couldn’t get that to work.

The style is straightforward, related to real life, and funny, but at times got repetitive; why use ten words when a hundred will do? There’s also a really good appendix (which I think would have fitted perfectly well within the book) giving practical advice on how to cope with your spouse’s Money Personality, although the conclusion seemed to be ‘agree on a budget’ (key word being ‘agree’), which does seem to be the only answer.

Overall I did find the book interesting and it sparked thoughts and conversations in my marriage, but I’m not sure how strongly I’d recommend it if I’m honest. If you’re experiencing conflict in your marriage, definitely buy this book. If you’re not, I think you’ll find the majority of it a bit irrelevant.

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

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Book review: Dirty God by Johnnie Moore

The title of this book makes it sound like this is going to be some controversial ‘the secret hidden message of Jesus that makes all of historic Christianity a joke’ books, but thankfully it’s not. It certainly is controversial, but for all the right reasons; it’s controversial because Christianity is controversial. From beginning to end this book’s about grace. It’s split into two parts, the first a detailed breakdown of grace shown in the life of Jesus, and the second a challenging encouragement for Christians to also live lives of grace.

To be honest, I found some things a bit annoying about this book at first. I’m not sure if it was just my copy or what, but there were some really weird text errors (like, half a paragraph appearing a page early) – there were too many for it to have just been a typo and they stopped halfway through, but that was pretty annoying. Also, the writer’s style is to make us realise that Jesus was a real person (something I appreciate), but at times it felt to me like he was trying a bit too hard for my liking.

That out of the way, I genuinely got a lot out of the book. At the most basic level it is ‘just another book about grace’, but the fact that Jesus is presented as a real person rather than some holy character really brings it to life, and to my mind the book got stronger and stronger the further I read. The book finishes with the author giving a vision for the global church which is absolutely massive, and that’s wonderful. What a joy to be called to be part of it!

I’d recommend this for anyone, Christian or not. It’s easy to read, fast-paced, and deeply challenging. Read and apply liberally.

I got this ebook for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

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Book review: Who Do You Think You Are? by Mark Driscoll

This book is essentially a sermon series in book form, walking through the book of Ephesians from start to finish. The subtitle is ‘Finding Your True Identity in Christ,’ which captures the theme that runs through the book, but there’s a lot more in it than simply a redefinition of identity.

I’ve read most of Mark Driscoll’s stuff, and my thoughts in the past have always been that his writing style seems so close to his preaching style that it doesn’t really lend itself to doctrine-focussed books (which is what most of his previous ones have been) – I read this expecting to like the content, but not be too enamored by the presentation. It turns out he’s struck a winning formula in this one.

Although perhaps not as funny as some of his other books, this is a solid, Driscoll-style presentation of Ephesians, taking a few verses and breaking them down in each chapter into a number of easy-to-digest points, with challenging and practical ways to apply the lessons learnt throughout. He’s a massive fan of footnotes and endnotes, which means that it’s easy to find out what Bible passage to look up to follow an idea through, or which book to buy next if you want to explore an idea.

In short, I don’t think I’m going too far to say this is Driscoll’s best book out there. It’s easy to read, thoroughly biblical, and contains an important message that people need to hear. With some insignificant reservations I’d recommend it to anyone, but particularly new Christians, and Christians who don’t think they need to read it. That might be you!

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

 

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Book review: The 360 Degree Leader by John Maxwell

The 360 Degree Leader is a book about leadership for people who are firmly in the middle of their organisation chart – supervisors, assistant managers, managers and so on. Looking at the challenges of leadership and management, the lies people believe, and a whole lot of strategies for growth, it’s John Maxwell at his best.

I’ve read quite a bit of Maxwell, and this is typical of him: tonnes of clever acronyms and catchy phrases coupled with a lot of personal illustrations and a heavy dose of empathy (and cheese), but essentially the same message as all his other books: leadership is nothing more or less than influence, so if you’re nice to people, particularly those who already have influence, your leadership skills and opportunities will grow.

It’s not quite a career planning handbook, it’s more about developing the skill of leadership wherever your career has found you, but if you’re looking for something about career planning this is a pretty good start.

If you’ve read Maxwell and you didn’t like the experience, this book definitely isn’t for you. But if you’ve never read any of his stuff, this is a really good one to start with – it sums up a lot of his other books well so you may as well get this one. That said, the content is very much suited to those ‘in the middle’, so if you’re a CEO or a trainee it won’t be as helpful for you as it would be for an assistant manager.

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

Lifted By Angels by Joel J. Miller

This book is a study of who angels are and what they do, drawing on the Bible and early Christian teaching. It looks at the different roles of different angels, including the fall of Satan, guardian angels and the eternal future.

It’s well written in that the style is pretty straightforward, and it’s clear where Miller is taking his information from. There aren’t that many good books about angels out there, so if you’re looking for one this is a reasonable bet.

That said, I wasn’t in awe of it. Because of the heavy use of early Christian writing there are several words used which I simply didn’t understand (maybe I’m just not academic enough) so had to revert to the dictionary on more than one occasion. The chapters are separated into sections with numbers as the headings, for no good reason that I could see, and due to the source material it’s sometimes hard to determine what’s biblical truth and what’s interpretation.

So I liked it, but I didn’t love it I suppose. It’s definitely good as a collection of the early church’s view of angels, but I doubt I’ll be returning to it for anything more than that.

I got this book for free from Booksneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

The Fantasy Fallacy (a 50 Shades of Grey response) by Shannon Ethridge

This is a pretty unique book. Based partly on the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon but mostly on a prophetic picture Shannon Ethridge received, it’s a review of what sexual fantasy is, what it does, and whether it is (or can be) good or bad.

First things first. Although the front cover of this book claims it to be ‘A response to the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon’, it definitely isn’t. If you’re looking for something that takes the series and essentially concludes on whether to read it or not, you won’t find that here; Ethridge clearly dislikes it but doesn’t go so far as to say ‘don’t read it’, and barely talks about it (there’s probably no more than a couple of pages on it in the entire book).

So that’s misleading, but the book isn’t really about that. It’s about the fact that almost everyone has sexual fantasies, and what we should do with them. She’s careful not to be judgmental yet at the same time not to ‘allow’ it, and I think does a reasonably good job of talking about something that the Church simply doesn’t talk about. She’s particularly strong on understanding why we have particular fantasies, how we ought to respond to them, and how they can be redeemed for the good of our marriages and for the glory of God. I thought the chapter on pornography was one of the strongest I’ve read.

That said, I didn’t love this book. In her desire to not be too left-wing or right-wing I found her at times to sit on the fence and simply not communicate; at one point she seems to suggest that someone who fantasizes about violently raping a child should tone down the fantasy by increasing the age of the child and by imagining that the child enjoys it rather than getting pleasure from another’s pain. To a certain extent I can see where she’s going (one step at a time seeing our fantasies becoming those of us loving our spouse better) but I felt that she stopped short of saying that clearly enough, which left me thinking a reader could justify their fantasies. I also felt that she wasn’t as strong as I’d hoped when talking about fantasies regarding incest or homosexuality.

If you’re really squeamish or are feeling offended by some of the content of this review, this book probably isn’t for you. At points the book goes into perhaps a touch too much detail which is appropriate within the context but to my mind would restrict this book to married couples.

Overall, if you want a good, honest, biblical look at sexual fantasy you can’t really go wrong with this one. It wasn’t outstanding so I’d normally go for four stars but the fact that the Shades books were barely mentioned and the minor frustrations I had with it I’m having to go three stars this time.

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

The Blessing by John Trent and Gary Smalley

The subtitle for this book is ‘Giving the gift of unconditional love and acceptance’, and it basically outlines a strategy for improving family relationships, quality and length of life through doing just that, enacting ‘The Blessing’. The book contains four parts, answering (1) why the blessing is important, (2) the steps the blessing is made up of, (3) what happens if you don’t get the blessing, and (4) practical guidance for putting it into practice.

It’s pretty convincing. Looking at people’s lives where they haven’t received the blessing consistently leads to broken marriages, ill health and unhappy people, whereas the benefits are innumerable. The blessing is a simultaneous, ongoing five-step process made up of meaningful, appropriate touch, words of affirmation, attaching high value to people, picturing a special future, and making an active and practical commitment. So nice and simple, and relatively easy to memorise and put into practice.

It’s easy to read. The stories come across as genuine, both those from the authors’ own lives and those where they talk about others, and the book as a whole is laid out in a logical way. It’s also clearly influenced by the Bible and refers to specific passages with good effect.

But I have to say I’m not sold out on it. The concept is fine, but this book probably isn’t going to land on my ‘read it again’ pile. For a start, the real content is really in those five steps I outlined above, so to be honest there’s not much more real ‘stuff’ in the book than there is in this blog post. Secondly, I felt the book leaned a little too heavily on people’s stories rather than on practical examples of how the reader can put it into practice. Finally, in this revised and updated version there are multiple links to the blessing website and pauses for thought, which are fine in themselves but felt a bit wedged in at times – I’m not convinced they add that much.

That all said, I’d be very happy to recommend this book to anyone who wanted to improve a relationship (whether good or bad), or who had suffered through not having received the blessing themselves. On a personal level I didn’t find it as useful as others perhaps could have, but I definitely wouldn’t use that as an excuse to tell others not to benefit from it.

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow

Ok, headline first: every church leader should read this book.

Why Men Hate Going to Church is broken into three parts, basically explaining why it’s important that men are stuck into church, why they aren’t, and how to get them. Murrow frequently uses convincing statistics, stories and other facts to demonstrate to his readers that he’s not just some chauvinist sounding his trumpet, and to my mind succeeds – I’m thoroughly convinced but probably wouldn’t have been beforehand!

The truth is that everything about church is heavily ‘feminised’, and we’re caught in a vicious circle of a church made up predominantly of ladies who therefore influence what church looks like, resulting in a church that’s unattractive for men to join or invite their friends to. From children’s work to the way the church building looks to the songs we sing to the way we preach the Gospel, everything is designed with women in mind, and churches are shrinking and failing as a result. Murrow explains clearly and carefully why this is and what the specific problems are, before suggesting (very) practical ways to swing things more in men’s favour. He takes the time to answer critics and address peoples’ concerns.

If I had one criticism of the book it would be with its structure; the problems are listed one at a time before the solutions are presented which means that at the last sentences of most chapters in the first half of the book are something like: ‘What can we do to make things better? We’ll find out in Chapter 25.’ But to be honest, that’s me being picky.

For me, five stars. Every church leader should read this book – if you think you don’t need to, the chances are that if it isn’t already, your church is at the start of a decline.

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.