Comments on: Religion: 10 books

By: TJ

TJ — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:38:03 +0000

But then, I have never read any book I agree with 100% outside of the Bible.

Don’t tell anyone Peter L., but I didn’t even agree with 100% of Calvin’s Institutes (well, about 99.9%, but that’s not 100, is it?).

By: Peter L

Peter L — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:39:44 +0000

Mumsee- What’s so Amazing About Grace is the only Yancey I have read. I liked it, even though there were one or two things I didn’t like (cannot remember what they were). But then, I have never read any book I agree with 100% outside of the Bible.

By: KI

KI — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:07:01 +0000

I’ve read a lot of Yancey. There were some things I questioned and much I agreed with. He writes as one who is questioning and exploring, so I believe he would accept that from his readers quite readily. My daughter read “The Bible Jesus Read”, as part of a class at her Baptist university. It was an eye-opener for her. She was on the verge of discarding a lot of her christian beliefs after being treated very shabbily and sinfully at her christian school. This book was one that helped her see that not everyone who babbles the “right” christian phrases is christian or always exhibits the fruit of the Spirit. We have surely seen that time after time on this blog.

I would hate to run a book down. There are some that never spoke to me, but I have found were instrumental in the salvation or maturing of other believers. Just as teachers and students don’t always work well together, so with books. It is wrong to think any book will be perfect, fit every need or not make any mistakes. Only God’s Word fills that criteria. The others need to be extended grace. Unless I believe an author is very herectical, I will give him/her the benefit of the doubt and let the Holy Spirit help the readers to know the truth. In this country we have no excuse to not know what the bible says. It is abundantly available in many different forms.

By: mmacmurray

mmacmurray — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:08:45 +0000

MiM, #81, you’d probably enjoy Pauline’s blog. She has some great posts there about some of the books she’s reading/has read.

By: Cheryl D.

Cheryl D. — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:54:42 +0000

Do let us know what you think, Mumsee.

By: mumsee

mumsee — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:48:40 +0000

So, the cell phone worked and I now have two Yancey books: Prayer Does It Make Any Difference and What’s So Amazing About Grace? Now I can form my own opinions and be free to offer my opinion to others at any time, whether they want it or not.

By: Make it Man

Make it Man — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:33:13 +0000

Hmmmm….

I would love to pick your brain sometime for the books you’ve read, and compare notes… I’m not a great student or even an “avid reader” (although my wife says I am), and to my chagrin, I don’t even think I’m that great a critical thinker, but… I do take an interest in this issue.

By: Pauline

Pauline — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:55:20 +0000

Make It Man,
Strobel starts out talking as though he were a skeptic who is going to ask some experts the hardest questions he can in relation to the truth of Christianity. He is willing to be convinced by the experts, but I would have expected a true skeptic to also - as SteveG suggested in #12 - take the answers he got to people who take the opposite viewpoint and see what they say about the answer he had been given. Then he could take that critique back to the experts and have them respond to it. That is what I would have expected someone with a journalist background to do.

There are web sites critiquing Strobel’s books, and pointing out weaknesses in the answers Strobel was given by his experts. I would have liked to be able to hear the experts’ answers to that critique.

I think there is quite a bit of value in Strobel’s books, I just was disappointed in that they’re not as good as I expected from reading the beginning of each one.

I haven’t had the opportunity to do a lot of reading in this area since reading Strobel’s books, as I no longer live near a seminary where I can browse and borrow to my heart’s (and mind’s) content, as I could when we lived in PA/NJ area. (I don’t miss the traffic and congestion and noise, but I do miss that.) And I don’t have money to buy books that might or might not be what I’m looking for.

(The one book I did read by someone whom Strobel had mentioned in his book was Charles Templeton, onetime evangelist and now atheist. I was surprised by how weak some of Templeton’s arguments were, and how someone seminary-trained would make make such erroneous references to Scripture.)

One book that I do appreciate, though it’s a different approach, is The Ring of Truth by J.B. Philips. As a translator of the New Testament (though his version of the NT is more a paraphrase rather than a true translation), he is well acquainted the NT in its original Greek. His impression from years of reading and studying it is that it has “the ring of truth.” I haven’t read it in a while, so I forget the specific arguments he uses.

By: Make it Man

Make it Man — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:48:28 +0000

Pauline,
I read your first post and was intrigued by your comments.
I noticed you were disappointed in all of Strobel’s “Case for…” books, and wondered why?

In contrast, what books on this subject were you the most encouraged by, and which ones struck you as being well written and researched? Any author’s that Strobel mentions?

By: mumsee

mumsee — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:18:32 +0000

Thanks,

As it turns out, hubby is off on a trip to the Big City so when he calls on his CELL PHONE I will ask him to see if he can find one or two of those. And perhaps a Francis Schaeffer book as well. If not, he will find them on one of his shopping the internet trips.