mbjones

One of the highlights of Christmas vacation not mentioned in my last long post was getting through six different books. I imagine everyone reading this already knows, but if you didn’t — I love to read. And because I was so successful over the past couple of weeks, I’ll offer some mini-reviews, as most of the books I’d recommend. Without further ado, here they are (in no particular order):

• Jim and Casper Go To Church — Jim and Casper chronicles the story of a Christian and an atheist visiting various prominent churches across the nation (nine total). Most of the churches you’ve likely heard of (Saddleback, Willow, Lakewood, etc) but a few are more obscure. What makes this an interesting read is that it details the thoughts of an atheist (Casper) as he witnesses examples of how Christians “do church”. The question he kept going back to, church after church, was “Would Jesus really do this?” I think it’s a good one to ask as we craft and fine tune our ecclesiologies. Another point I found interesting: Casper felt most mega-churches were devoid of any sense of community (even of a simple yet authentic greeting). This is certainly something to be mindful of (and has been one of the driving forces behind what I see as legitimate ecclesiology). This is something I might explore later though and not in this ever-so-brief review. All in all a quick and good read. Recommended particularly if you don’t mind an honest look at how we (evangelicals) tend to do things.

• Jesus and Empire — Jesus and Empire reads as a history textbook — mostly pretty dry. It looks specifically at the historical Jesus, placing Him in the context of the Roman empire and examining specifically how Jesus critiqued empire. Honestly, two of the remaining books (you’ll be able to figure out which two) do a much better job at this. At least they kept my attention much better. Whereas this book seemed to hone in more on the history, the others seemed to do a much better job of honing in on Jesus. That being said, this book does make good points — I just wouldn’t jump it to the top of your reading list.

• Poverty and Wealth in James — This tiny book is actually a very specific commentary on the book of James examining the passages that deal with (surprise, surprise) poverty and wealth. It is actually quite good and worthwhile if you are doing a study of James. Make sure you have a copy of the text of James in front of you though. And it doesn’t hurt to understand Greek.

• The Myth of a Christian Nation — I think Myth might rate as the best book I read over break. It’s an honest assessment of the kingdom of the sword (any world government — take your pick) versus the kingdom of the cross. This is a book I’ll likely blog more about (both this one and the next one) so I’ll try to keep this review short. The point that jumped out most to me is that which sets up the rest of the book: the kingdom of the sword is always (and will always) be based on “power over” ideology. Regardless of whether we are talking about dictatorships, socialist states, democracies or democratic republics — they are all systems based on some holding power over others. In contrast, the kingdom of the cross is based on the ethic Jesus ushered in: sacrificial, servant leadership (to complete the contrast: “power under”). Of interest — Greg Boyd pulls heavily from the next book, The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder. Read this first though as its much easier to understand.

• The Politics of Jesus — As I previously said, Myth pulls heavily from Politics. This book is much more academic though and takes quite a bit more time to digest. Whereas the previous book looks specifically at the contrasting kingdoms, Politics seeks to lift a complete social ethic from the teachings of Jesus. Yoder succeeds in this respect, to be sure. This is one I look forward to exploring further soon.

• The New Friars — The New Friars examines emerging monastic movements across the globe and how we can get involved in them. I’ll be honest — I like reading this type of book; I find it very encouraging to see how God is moving (it tends to inspire to want to be involved in things that make my mom sweat though). If you are looking for an easy read that’ll give you real life examples of how God is moving in the world today, pick this one up. It’s worth it. (PS. It’s no Sub-Merged. Read that first. Incidentally it’s my top book of 2007.)

And there you have it — the books I read over break. As I said above, there are several that I hope to explore more in this space. And hopefully I’ll do that soon while they are still fresh. Until then…