Wholehearted Faith by Rachel Held Evans
Book Reviews
Have you ever read an author and wish that you were friends? Well, I do. All. The. Time. I truly have a ton of “friends” […]
Read More Pearls of Great Price
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matt 13:45-46 (NRSV)
For our discussion on this blog, there will be book reviews on topics of theology, religion, spirituality, history, biographies, and more. Some of these books will be scholarly, like textbooks full of analysis. Some books will be devotional or more readily available to a mass audience. There is a wide swath of books that will be covered in this blog, so we have created a scale from one to five, which will be represented by the Pearl of Great Price. As Jesus stated, the Pearl of Great Price (an epithet that editors have endowed, not Jesus) is worth giving up everything, so on our scale, one pearl is more of an everyday read for general learning and spiritual support whilst five pearls are a level of nerdiness not frequented by the casual reader.
The scale proceeds from one to five accordingly. For example, Jesus Calling is one pearl, while most books by N.T. Wright will be five pearls. Also, some reviews will be conveyed as a scholarly review with unique criticism, while others will be a more general review akin to a book jacket blurb or online review. This way, you and I can discuss these books in their scholarly context.
Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See As The Mystics See
Book Reviews
Don't let the title worry you, “mystic” doesn’t mean what you think it means. Today, people hear a word like “mystic,” and they think “magic” or “voo doo,” but that is not how that term is used in church tradition.
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Jennifer Grace Bird, Permission Granted, Take the Bible in Your Own Hands
Book Reviews
e say that Christianity is dead. The Church is dying; there is no truth. Yet, we live in a time of emergent scholarship in theology with different voices and perspectives challenging centuries of understanding of Biblical scholarship.
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