The Return

Review: The Original Jesus: Trading the Myths We Create for the Savior Who Is Daniel Darling Baker Books 2015 This book is one the target audience will probably never read.   The cover is less than attractive for starters.   The back page clearly identifies Darling with several conservative organizations that carry enough assumed baggage to deter many readers.   For those that persevere the contents will not disappoint their expectations. Those that most need to rethink who Jesus is generally respond to a different style of writing and presentation in my opinion.   The author may like lattes, but that’s about as far he’ll get with many people.   But, I thought maybe I had misread him, so I tried his blog.   The same “I need to correct your theology” tone oozed from that as well.   I don’t write many reviews this negative, but this one I just couldn’t avoid.   What the author has to say is important, but he doesn’t seem to kn...

Review: For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards Jen Hatmaker Nelson Books 2015 Don’t miss this book!   Jen Hatmaker makes reading fun and she has some good words about nearly every topic addressed and she covers a bunch.    Add caption Divided into four sections she moves in ever greater circles from self to those that inhabit the world around us.   One section examines marketing and the messages sent.   Or how about the idea that you can have it all and do it all?   She thinks that just isn’t possible.   Another section covers family up close and personal.   And she even goes so far as believing that children are or should be children.   There’s so much in this book.   You don’t have to agree with her, but at least hear her out.   The chapter entitled Poverty Tourism (153) spoke most plainly to me right now as I pack for a mission trip.   Great reminders.   And don’t miss...

Review: Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology Johnjoe Mc Fadden and Jim Al-Khalili Crown Publishers 2014 Quantum biology?   I had never seen those two words together before, so I had to read this book.   And now I have and liked many parts of it.   The authors try to explain quantum biology to the lay person, like me, and after reading this I understand at least some of it.   Repeated warnings appear throughout the text that the subject is not really as simple as some of their examples, so there’s much more out there than they included in this book.   Early portions of the book include a history of the development of quantum theory and many notable people related to that.  How do robins know where to go when it’s time to migrate?   What does that have to do with quantum mechanics?   And what has any of that to do with biology?   It’s quite a task for the reader to keep up with all the dots that must be con...