Book reviews - July 23

I've been doing a lot of reading lately - some of the books have really impacted me, others were just kind of interesting. Ga'Hoole Girl and I read all of the Artemis Fowl books except for the second one (there are four altogether). It's definitely preteen stuff, but it was fun. There is a lot of fairies and magic stuff, but clearly not occultic. I recommend it for adolescents.



Dumbing Us Down by John Gatto



The subtitle of this book is "The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling". This is a compendium of five talks that he has given about schooling. He is very clear that education and schooling are very different, and he gives compelling evidence that schooling is actually damaging to children. What is interesting is that he doesn't say that the current public schools are the problem: He says that the concept of compulsory schooling is the problem. We have taken children out of the adult world, where they were learning to be competent, thinking adults and have put them in an artificial world where they learn to be dependent. He doesn't argue that all structured schooling is bad, but that our current system of schooling from ages 5-17 is the problem. Excellent book! I highly recommend it. I'm currently working my way through The Underground History of American Education by the same author. He definitely challenges us.





Saint Catherine of Siena by Alice Curtayne



Now, I am not generally given to reading biographies of medieval Catholic saints, but my interest was piqued by a short article in Christianity Today. This book is a good biography of this woman. It is not, however, unbiased. The author clearly venerates this saint. Several of the incidents that are recounted (and said to be miraculous) stretch the imagination. Were miracles just more frequent during that time period? Or are there other explanations? For one thing, Catherine's "ecstasies" to which she was prone sound very much like partial-complex seizures. So, would she have been treated differently in our current society? It sounds like she was a product of her times. What I did take away from this book is how seriously this woman took prayer. She spent hours every day praying - and then more hours writing letters, visiting the sick, etc. We can say that we have so many more demands on our time in this day and age, but that doesn't take away our obligation to pursue time with God.





A Christian Manifesto by Francis A. Schaeffer



I recently read How Shall We Then Live by this same author and decided to see what some of his other writings are like. This book is a discussion of humanism and our obligation as Christians to oppose it. He spends a couple of chapters discussing how we can impact society for Judeo-Christian values, including civil disobedience. His writing is clear and compelling. I highly recommend this to anyone who takes their faith seriously.





Desiring God by John Piper



Wow. What a book. This book took me much longer than usual to read because there is so much in it. His thesis is that God is most glorified by our enjoyment of Him or (as he modifies the Heidelberg Catechism) "The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever". This was a really hard book to get through. Piper makes the claim that we are to pursue our pleasure in God because God is most happy when we are happy. Then, he spends the rest of the book showing how that works out in our lives - in love, in worship, in prayer, with money, in missions, and in suffering. He doesn't want us to persist in the belief that it is more "Christian" to go around being miserable "for the Kingdom". Piper's belief is that when we are truly serving God, we will have joy - even if it is tempered by the earthly situation in which we find ourselves.

Piper is a Calvinist, which comes through in his writing. I'm not sure that I accept the Five Points of Calvinism completely, but it helps to understand his background. He frequently quotes Jonathan Edwards (yes, of "Sinners in the Hands of Angry God" fame - there's a lot more to him!) and C.S. Lewis (of whom I am a really big fan).

I think I have done a poor job of explaining this book. It is quite rich and in-depth. I would encourage anyone to read it and spend some time with it. In the meantime, check out www.desiringgod.org, Piper's website which has many of his sermons and shorter writings.


The Language of God by Francis S. Collins

Here is yet another offering in the origins debate. If you think that the debate is as simple as "Young Earth" vs. "Old Earth", take a look at this book. Collins is a Theistic Evolutionist. He calls his position BioLogos - God created the universe and used evolution as a tool for his Creation of all life forms, but that, at some point, He gave humans a soul, making us different from all the other animals. In any case, he argues that the evidence for evolution is quite strong and that even the "Old Earth" Creationism argument is simply a "God of the Gaps" theory. That is, he believes that "Old Earth" Creationists reject evolution because we don't have all the information in order to completely understand it, so we invoke God for the stuff we don't yet understand. That is a valid point. Is "Old Earth" Creationism just accepting what sounds good of the current science but making sure to put enough God in it so that it's not pure naturalism? I don't really know. This book really made me think about what I believe and why.

Here are the things that I know. 1. God is the Creator of the universe and could have used any method He wanted in Creation. 2. The book of Genesis does not require a literal reading for it to still be the inspired Word of God. 3. "All truth is God's truth" (attributed to St. Augustine). When science and Scripture disagree, we must look at our interpretation of Scripture and the accuracy of the science.

Does Scripture allow for Theistic Evolution? Yes. Am I a Theistic Evolutionist? No. I still think that Evolution is a theory with many flaws. I just can't be convinced that Evolution could create the biodiversity that we see in Nature. But, I'm always willing to be further educated.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in the subject of Origins. It is very well-written and understandable. I do have some objections. The author rather frequently appeals to the fact that "almost all scientists agree" as support for his position. He says this about things that I know there is legitimate scientific disagreement about. His views need to be taken seriously.


The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins

Dawkins is one of the megaphones of the atheistic position. He writes frequently about Evolution for the lay person. I tried to read The God Delusion but couldn't get past the first chapter. Dawkins has a very annoying habit of making statements for which there is no support. He claims that since Evolution can explain all living things, that God must not exist - WHAT? As noted above, it is possible to be a Theistic Evolutionist. He also states categorically that Evolution must have occurred because we are here. He basically makes his arguments on tautologies. ARGHH! So, I only got through about three chapters of The Ancestor's Tale before I had just had enough. I think I will try Christopher Hitchens new book about atheism. Maybe he will actually have an argument that makes sense or at least can be supported. Dawkins' claptrap is just too much for me.