Book Reviews, Round 1

Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

If you haven't read this one, you need to. This feisty, lucid little volume is not only a great introduction to one of the greatest Christian writers of the 20th century, but a superb synopsis of the Christian faith as well. It is notably short on scripture, but instead of making it shallow it lends a depth to the work that reaches way down inside.

"What will all that chatter and hearsay count... when the anaesthetic fog which we call 'nature' or 'the real world' fades away and the Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?" -Ch. 10, "Nice People or New Men"


Why The Religious Right Is Wrong About The Separation Of Church & State, Robert Boston

This is an entirely secular work, but I feel it is valuable for anyone wrestling with Church/State issues. As the society drifts deeper and deeper into Federalism, the worthy principle of laissez-faire is silently slipping out the back door. I'm not sure that there's much we can do about it, but at the very least we can think and pray.

"The more sophisticated and perceptive believers realize that the separation principle is a boon to their faith. They see danger in any attempt by government to decide which religion is true and which is false. They know that a faith that is in favor with the government today can be out of favor tomorrow. These believers are thankful for the free marketplace of religion and the secular state that makes it possible. They understand that the way to get new members is through persuasion, not government aid." -Ch. 1, "Setting the Stage"

Habits of the Mind, James W. Sire

Relying heavily on the work of John Henry Newman, a Catholic philosopher, Sire develops a case for "Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling." I had not met Newman previously, and I'm still digesting some of his ideas. While it is rather intimidating, the book is not so dense that it reads sluggishly; the numerous quotations and section headings are helpful.
Sire even has a few "hands-on" exercises interspersed throughout to keep all your cylinders firing.

"Altogether, I think we ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn't shake us awake like a blow on the skull, why bother reading it in the first place? So that it can make us happy, as you put it? Good God, we'd be just as happy if we had no books at all; books that make us happy we could, in a pinch, also write ourselves. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us." - Quote from Franz Kafka, Ch. 8, "Thinking by Reading"