The Bibliovore's Wife

In our family, I am the book dog-earer. One criterion that determines which books I consider writing book reflections on is how much I dog-ear (or, if the Bibliovore brought them into the marriage, how much I want  to dog-ear) them. One Faith No Longer : The Transformation of Christianity in Red and Blue America, by George Yancey and Ashlee Quosigk, suggested by Alisa Childers in a video some time ago, falls in the first category. So, here you go! As a reminder, here's the general outline of this post: I will . . . Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography) Bring the author's major ideas to the present day Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization Authors' Bibliography Yancey, a Baylor professor, is the more seasoned co-author; he has written widely on American Christianity in relationship to racial topics, progressivism, and culture (topics). I think his skill in crafting subtitles is excellent. From olde...

A few years ago, at a friend's recommendation, I obtained a copy of Hillary Moran Ferrer's Mama Bear Apologetics to supplement my more academic forays into the subject. After re-reading it last year, I found that it made the cut of what to write a book reflection on, this year. Now, here it is! As a reminder, here's the general outline of this post: I will . . . Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography) Bring the author's major ideas to the present day Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization Bibliography Technically, this encompasses three women's bibliographies, since Ferrer edited the book while Teasi Cannon and Alisa Childers took turns writing chapters. Ferrer's The book that started things came out in 2019. Besides books, Hillary has written blog posts over at Mama Bear Apologetics' website . From her Amazon page , books she has written center around the popular-level apologetics b...

If you're trying to get into philosophy of education, specifically Christian philosophy of education, there are a couple of "big" authors to read. Charlotte Mason is one of them. Another is Nicholas Wolterstorff. The latter is less familiar to me, and probably many of you. One recent Christmas present of mine was his book of essays, Educating for Shalom . Because this book was so compatible (in my mind) with my noetic structure on Christian educational philosophy, I'd love to take you through this book in hopes of inspiring you to read it yourself! As a reminder, here's the general outline of this post: I will . . . Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography) Bring the author's major ideas to the present day Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization Bibliography Wolterstorff , a long-retired Reformed philosopher, has focused his writings on articles and books. What books has he written? Relig...

Last year, a group in adult Sunday school at church went through Peter Scazzero's book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. Because that book differed in several key philosophical aspects from Surprised by Hope (which Bibliovore and I led a discussion on) and Strange New World (our discussion class before that), we did not attend all the sessions. I'm addressing philosophy a lot on the blog this year, so I wanted to revisit Scazzero's book in that light. As a reminder, here's the general outline of this post: I will . . . Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography) Bring the author's major ideas to the present day Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization Scazzero's Bibliography From  Goodreads , one can find a list of 11 unique books, plus workbooks, video lessons, and translated versions for some. These center around one theme: emotional health/intelligence (as we'll see in the later sections...

If you've read my blog for any part of the last year or so, you've probably noticed that I talk about fundamental or "core" Christian doctrines quite a lot, from a magisterial Protestant stance. This week, I'm going to try to tie a couple of those ideas together, using as my anchors a book we've recently finished at church, the Ecumenical Creeds, and the commonly accepted Ecumenical Councils. If you'd like, come along for a mini-book reflection on this ride! How do we Define a Core Doctrine? As the saying goes, the one who defines the terms is most likely to win the argument or debate. Between traditions, I get the strong impression that The List of core doctrinal positions of Christianity is still lively debated, so here are the parts of my definition as a reasonably well-educated lay Anglican. Sine qua non  for Being a Christian As an apple tree cannot grow except from (ultimately) an apple seed, a Christian cannot grow except from the "seed" d...

What's so special about Good Friday? Much has been written in Christian literature and scholarship about this day when Jesus was crucified. A recent, fresh take by prolific New Testament scholar N. T. Wright is that this day was even more of a pivot point in Judeo-Christian thought than previously realized. In this week's post, it is my pleasure to walk you through the key points of Wright's argument in a book reflection on The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus' Crucifixion . As a reminder, here's the general outline of this post: I will . . . Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography) Bring the author's major ideas to the present day Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization N. T. Wright's Bibliography Check out this post from a few months ago for Wright's bibliography so far. Some time ago, I learned the reason he frequently includes the name of a specific ...

As many of you know, both Husband and I are quite interested in Christian apologetics. One individual commonly brought up as a counter-Christian resource in apologetic debates and discussions is Christian-turned-agnostic Bart Ehrman . He wrote a popular-level book about when and what level of Christology emerged in the 0th generation of Christianity: How Jesus Became God . So, several Christian scholars collaborated to publish another popular-level book engaging with the strengths and weaknesses of Ehrman's book: How God Became Jesus . Let's explore the second book this week! As a reminder, here's the general outline of this post: I will . . . Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography) Bring the author's major ideas to the present day Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization Bibliographies Given that this is the first book reflection I've done on an edited, multi-author book, the bibliography sect...

One book I have read several times is historian Mark Noll’s Scandal of the Evangelical Mind . It’s a justly provocative title for the American evangelical and non. Coming from a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (“non”) and now Anglican, I have been intrigued to see how much American evangelicalism is woven into other Christian traditions. Let’s walk through this valuable book together. As a reminder, here's the general outline of this post: I will . . . Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography) Bring the author's major ideas to the present day Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization Noll's Other Writings As an academic historian serving at various times at Regent University, University of Notre Dame, and Wheaton College, Noll has authored, coauthored, and edited a large number of books and articles. Here is the Goodreads  list of his solo-authored. Oils. Edited and co-authored books have been omitted for ...