This summer, Intersect contributors suggested their favorite books for your summer reading list. This week, as the summer winds down, we highlight a few of the books that we’ve reviewed here at Intersect. (Read the previous list.)
Editor’s Note: Enter to win a Bruce Ashford’s new book, Letters to an American Christians.
Every Job a Parable: What Walmart Greeters, Nurses & Astronauts Tell Us about God
by John van Sloten (NavPress, 2017)
Alysha Clark: Van Sloten is an engaging writer, and his book is a joy to read. He incorporates the writings of theologians and philosophers like Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, Cornelius Plantinga, Alvin Plantinga Jr., N. T. Wright, Jürgen Moltmann and Esther Meek, revealing the all-encompassing significance of work and faith. The theology of work is not a niche study; it touches every branch of theology and philosophy. The stories he tells about different professions encourage you to find God in your work. And because of the variety of stories he tells, you can find assurance that God is present in your job too, no matter what that job is. With almost every page I read I said, I have never thought about work this way. The author’s idea of vocation as a parable teaches us to know and experience God in all of life, even the places we least expect to. Read the full review.
Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life Changing Truth for a Skeptical World
by Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell (Thomas Nelson, 2017)
Topher Thomas: Evidence That Demands a Verdict is a daunting book that requires thought, patience and perseverance to work through in its totality. You can use as the tool it was meant to be, to help you find the proper response to that coworker who thinks the Bible is just an irrelevant relic of the past. Use it as a conversation piece on your desk to move people toward asking, “Who is Jesus?” Use it to strengthen your faith and learn how robust the evidence is for the Christian faith. It proved helpful in each of those instances for me. Read the full review.
The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in its Proper Place
by Andy Crouch (Baker, 2017)
Brittany Salmon: The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology In Its Proper Place by Andy Crouch (Baker, 2017) is a short, easy read that gives families wise counsel on how to use technology. This small book is full of research from the Barna Group, and the graphics and data prove to be extremely beneficial in aiding Crouch’s message of putting and keeping technology in its proper place in the home. And Crouch supplements the research and statistics with many personal stories from his own family’s technological journey.
Overall, The Tech-Wise Family is an excellent and timely resource. “Technology is only very good if it can help us become the persons we were meant to be,” Crouch writes (63), and this book is a great start to a much-needed conversation on how we can become persons and families that value wisdom and godliness over ease and instant gratification. Read the full review.
Removing the Stain of Racism From the Southern Baptist Convention: Diverse African American and White Perspectives
by Jarvis Williams and Kevin Jones (B&H Academic, 2017)
Michael Guyer: Jarvis Williams and Kevin Jones have given Southern Baptists, and any denomination with ears to hear, a great gift in Removing the Stain of Racism From the Southern Baptist Convention: Diverse African American and White Perspectives. It is the gift of honest reflection and thoughtful responses to the remaining stain of racism within the Southern Baptist Convention. Read the full review.
Beyond the Modern Age: An Archaeology of Contemporary Culture
by Bob Goudzwaard and Craig Bartholomew (IVP Academic, 2017)
Dennis Greeson: Goudzwaard and Bartholomew have delivered a compelling “archaeology” of the ways modernity’s suppositions are increasingly self-destructive. Further, their vision for the return of religious belief to the public square, in conjunction with a principled pluralism, fits well with a litany of thinkers from recent decades who offer similar arguments against modernity, such as Charles Taylor, Alistair MacIntyre and Phillip Rieff. Read the full review.
What books are you reading this summer?
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