2010 Reading List

As many people try to do near the beginning of the year, I have tried to formulate an adequate reading list for this year. Obviously I am neither constrained, nor obligated to follow this list, but hopefully it will at least motivate me to keep on task with reading good books of substance. This is what I have so far:

Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Letter from Birmingham Jail By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Atheism Remix by R. Albert Mohler Jr.

The Journal of John Wesley by John Wesley

Confessions by Saint Augustine

Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches by Russell D. Moore

Ministries of Mercy by Timothy Keller

The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis

The Fundamentals edited by R.A. Torrey

Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan

The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

A Christian Manifesto by Francis Schaeffer

I would love to hear your suggestions, comments, or recommendations on books I should (or shouldn't read for that matter) for this year.

GO10 Walk

Book Review: The Reason for God

This is my third book by Timothy Keller and my last, at least for a little while. Once again, Keller did not disappoint. This was a nice change from the last two books that I have read by him. The previous two were more expositions on either a section of scripture or one central concept. This book on the other hand, was much more extensive and broad. Now, I've read my share of Apologetic books, but this one was surprisingly different. It mirrored the apologetic style of Lewis more than, say, McDowell or Strobel.

There are a few reasons why I think that this book is better at defending the faith then most. First, he is extremely respectful when it comes to arguments of any kind. I find that most apologetic books can be abrasive to say the least. Don't get me wrong, I understand that when defending the basic tenants of the faith we need to be firm in our stance; it just seems that some authors err on the side of disrespect. Keller does an amazing job with this. He is able to take the arguments of the most critical scholars, concede certain points, and still come out with a rational, conservative Christian stance. The second reason I like this book, is that he is very systematic in his approach. He takes the first half of the book and discusses the major objections to Christianity (i.e. Exclusivism of Christianity, Hell, Inerrancy of Scripture, etc.). Most apologetic authors stop there and seem to have done a fair job arguing against objections. Keller takes it one step further. He then takes the latter half of the book and gives reasons for God. As with his other books, he does a fantastic job of using many different mediums as sources. Being a fanatic Lewis fan, I appreciated his numerous quotations from Lewis throughout this book.

The third and last thing that I really appreciated about this book is his conclusion. Obviously most apologetic books are specifically for believers and detailed explanations in which they can defend their faith through reason and rationality. It is quite clear that Keller is aiming specifically at self-acclaimed skeptics. He takes the last chapter of the book to lead the reader through an acceptance in Jesus Christ. He is quite thorough in doing this. Most authors neglect to do this.

Overall, Keller once again did not disappoint. He gave a great argument on many different cases. The book was well researched and should be appreciated by novice and scholar alike. I challenge you, whether you are a believer or a skeptic to read this book. Either way, you will at least walk away with some heavy arguments to meditate upon.

Security in Ignorance

There is definitely a growing majority in our society that are perfectly fine with remaining ignorant about a spectrum of different issues and subjects. Even within our colleges, universities and other learning institutions we see the attendees being content with remaining uneducated on vital problems. Why is this? Why would anyone allow themselves to remain ignorant about issues and philosophies that are so pressing? I think it goes beyond the old cliche "ignorance is bliss", but I definitely think that it starts there.

The biggest problems with using cliches it that they are so redundant that they often fall on deaf ears. So when I say "ignorance is bliss", we often don't even receive it as fact because we have heard it so many times. But why is ignorance bliss? It's because we're accountable for every piece of knowledge that we acquire. Whatever we are educated about, we are then responsible to do something with that knowledge. If we don't learn anything then we aren't obligated to do anything with the knowledge that we have. It makes logical sense and in this rationality I guess ignorance can be bliss.

But is anyone really ok with remaining ignorant? As with many things in society we see a dichotomy in this too. As we see a majority becoming more and more content with being ignorant on a variety of issues, we also see a growing number of people "spreading awareness". More and more people are finding a numerous amounts of causes to advocate for. But there is a problem with both of these schools of thought. The first is obviously bad. Remaining ignorant about something does keep you in the green about it. On top of that, being aware of something and only spreading awareness about it doesn't do much better. As Christians we're called to action.

So what do we do? First, educate yourself. Don't allow yourself to settle for ignorance on anything. Educate yourself on everything. Become knowledgeable about social issues, politics, philosophy, theology, etc. I often hear people rationalize that not everybody needs to know about that stuff, but only the professionals. I've heard this numerous times about theology in particular. That is ignorant. Educate yourself. I don't care who you are or how much you know right now, learn more. Figure out how God is integrated into every aspect of our lives, how He has worked through history, societies, politics, science, and literature. Second, once you're educated, then you're responsible for what you know. You have an obligation to share it. Teach someone. Once you have become educated on something you are then responsible to teach others what you know.

Do not give into the educational stigmas. Learn and teach.

The Opiate of the People

Czeslaw Milosz, the Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet, wrote the remarkable essay "The Discreet Charms of Nihilism." In it he remembers how Marx had called religion "the opiate of the people" because the promise of an afterlife (Marx said) led the poor and the working class to put up with unjust social conditions. But, Milosz continued:

"And now we are witnessing a transformation. A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death - the huge solace of thinking that our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders are not going to be judged... [but] all religions recognize that our deeds are imperishable."

- taken from "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller, pg. 78