A Short Life of Jonathan Edward by George Marsden - 152 Pages

Despite the fact that this is a distillation of Marsden's much larger biography - Jonathan Edwards: A Life - this book still delivers much insight, information, and illustration of the dynamic life that was Jonathan Edwards.  In this short work Marsden captures the impact that this obscure pastor in an obscure new world was used by God to change the whole world.  Like most historical figures, the extent of Jonathan Edwards' influence was not seen until after his death and Marsden does a great job of connecting the dots for the modern reader.

Three thoughts that have lingered since reading this book are:

1.  Conflict:  Most of Edward's defining moments came out of conflict.  Conflict with his culture, conflict with his congregation, conflict with his soul.  Edwards was a man of conviction - compromise - for better or for worse - was completely foreign to him.

2.  Emotion:  I had no idea how emotion driven the Great Awakening was.  I wonder what the Strange Fire crew would have thought of it.

3.  Benjamin Franklin:  Marsden often brought attention to the fact that Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards where contemporaries.  Although they never met as far as we know, their stories and journeys intersected in many places and Marsden masterfully weaves the reader through understanding the significance of these two lives.


I look forward in the future to reading more of and about this influential jar of clay.

Isaiah by the Day by Alec Motyer - 336 Pages

This book was my favorite Christmas present last year and was one of my favorite reads of this year.  Old Testament scholar Dr Alec Moyter breaks down the book of Isaiah into daily readings, providing his own translation and lexical/exegetical notes along the way.  At the end of each Scripture reading Moyter gives a brief devotional commentary on the passage.  This work helped me understand the amazing book of Isaiah in ways that often left me breathless.  The beauty of God's righteousness, mercy, sovereignty, love and grace were unlocked in powerful ways as Moyter led me through this section of God's Word.  I highly recommend this book.

The Swords of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs - 191 Pages

My least favorite of the John Carter series. Started strong but as the story progressed it felt like Burroughs wanted to hurry up and finish it so he could go outside and play. Still fun and better than Dan Brown though....

The Lost Letters of Pergamum - by Bruce W. Longenecker (192 Pages)

Longnecker creates a compelling story by creating a fictional correspondence between the Gospel writer Luke and the early church martyr Antipas (2:13).  While the book is a great concept which provides considerable insight into the socio-economic barriers and consequences of believing in Christ in the first century A.D it is a bit weak on the content of the Gospel.  Recommended.  

Inferno by Dan Brown - 462 Pages

The latest from Dan Brown, Inferno puts the (apparently Tom Hanks in a mullet lookalike) Robert Langdon in Florence, Italy and races him around through familiar landmarks, medieval literature, and short cliffhanging chapters in a desperate quest to stop a biological weapon.  If you are familiar with Dan Brown, you know what to expect...and you won't be disappointed.  Having read three Dan Brown novels, this was my favorite as it was the least crass and had the least amount of cheap shots at the Bible and faith of the Brown books I've read.

A quick, entertaining, guilty pleasure.

World War Z by Max Brooks - 352 pages

I saw the movie this summer and while not an amazing movie, I was interested enough to check out the book that it was based on.  As always, the book is better (and different) than the movie.  What I liked most about the movie forms the core of the book. Told from many different perspectives, WWZ isn't so much about zombies as it is about exploring how different cultures and world views would react to a global catastrophe, bringing out the best and worst of us. I found it to be an interesting and entertaining discussion of geopolitical, economic, social, and moral case studies...oh ya and it has zombies!  

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild - 366 Pages

Years ago, I remember while on a morning walk in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda, watching off in the distance as the morning mist rolled in over Mount Stanley, part of the mountain range that makes up the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  During my time in Uganda I had heard many stories for the first time about the spiritual, political, and social darkness as well as the amazing beauty and people of that massive country.  As I stood there taking in the beauty and mystery of the scene, I felt that whatever the future brought, the DRC would be part of it.  Originally I thought that call was a call to pursue missions in the DRC.  This seemed to be confirmed when the church I was working at in Los Angeles began to share our building with a congregation of dear Congolese brethren, many of whom where recent refugees from DRC.

For the time being it does not look like God is is leading us to live and work in DRC.  However, we believe that He has called us to be involved with DRC in a much more intimate way.  We are in the process of adopting two twins from DRC and making them part of our family.  That is another story in itself, one that you can follow here.

As God has kept DRC on our mind and heart, now is making it part of our family, Sarah and I have begun to look for resources to help us understand the history and culture of this vast country.  That's where King Leopold's Ghost comes in.

It's hard to know where to start in praising this book.  Although a work of historical nonfiction, it reads like a thriller.  It would be a fantastically entertaining story...if it weren't true.  You couldn't make up some of these characters - A heroic, homosexual with an English Bulldog, a Baptist missionary, an obese slimy lawyer, Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, countless (literally) African victims, Parisian courtesans - the list goes on and on.

In reality it is truly haunting.  The extent to which this one man was able to exploit such a vast population and area is horrifying.  Yet it is in understanding this history that one begins to understand how such instability and corruption exists in the region today.  I do need to say that Hochschild, while focusing on the depravity of King Leopold and the type of people his exploitative rule attracted, doesn't gloss over the depravity of the other parties - African, Arab, and American alike.  However the extent to which Leopold oppressed the people of the Congo has few parallels in the history of injustice.

This book hit me in a personal place. These are people I know.  Now through adoption, these are people I am related to.  It is one thing to read about atrocities that happened in an exotic far away place in a time very different from our own.  It is quite another to read about your kids great - great -grandparents being treated like animals, and to see your kids living in the fallout of racist, imperialistic, systematic explotation today.

This is one of the best and most important books I have read in a long time.  I highly recommend it.