5 comments about The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Caught (The Yada Yada Prayer Group, Book 5).

1. The Yada Yada books continue to challenge relational growth, by showing life experiences with diverse characters. Each book has new elements of change and development, which can inspire real life solutions to problems.



2. I simply gush when I talk about the ladies of the Yada Yada Prayer Group. I love each book. The stories are wonderful. Mrs. Jackson masterfully develops each story so that each book captures you. Then, the books build on one another. You will feel as though you have a vested interest in these wonderful, diverse and perfectly imperfect women. I thank Mrs. Jackson for this labor of love. The books helped me through a rough time in my life. The series helped me forgive someone who hurt me deeply with this line - "God expects us to fogive people. Even the ones that don't say 'I'm sorry'". I was able to move from resentment to forgiveness through that one line. YOU WILL BE BLESSED BY THIS BOOK SERIES!!



3. I have been in prayer doldrums recently and this series helped get me perking again. It is delightful and rewarding reading. I recommend this series to everyone. These gals are great! Peggy Touchtone Sholly



4. This series really helped me through a tough time. Reading how these women handled their everyday and not so everday problems ministered to me as I went through a serious illness with my husband. The women are down to earth and practical. Recommend for anyone.



5. This is a really good book. It puts you in the right mind spiritually about how to continue to trust God even when things don't seem to go our way AT ALL! I also like the scripture references because they give you ammuniton to use in times of spiritual trouble.

1 comments about Discovering an Evangelical Heritage.

1. I heard Dayton speak in September at Wesley Theology Seminary here in Washington DC. Dayton was the guest pastor at chapel (something about a 30-year anniversary of the book and an award from the seminary). His address focused on the many faces of John Wesley--something new and interesting to me. His talk prompted me to buy the book, Discovering an Evangelical Heritage, and another of his books, The Theological Roots of Pentecostalism.
   
   The book is interested me because he dials back to the period of Charles Finney during the second Great Awakening. Finney was the Billy Graham of his day. Unlike Graham, Finney was both a great revivalist and a social reformer. Apparently, early evangelicals were at the forefront of the campaigns to abolish slavery, promote woman's rights, and advocating temperance. While I knew some of the history of this reforms, I did not specifically associate these reforms with 19th century evangelicals and the Second Great Awakening--until reading Dayton.
   
   Dayton's historical review includes chapters on abolition of slavery, womens rights, and temporance. Key personalities and financial supporters of these movements were discussed. The roles of Oberlin College and different seminaries (Princeton, Gordon-Conwell, and others) in social reforms (or not) of the 19th century were especially interesting to me.
   
   So why did American Evangelicals come to focus on evangelism and less on social reform? Dayton explains the difference in evangelical attitudes about social reform to a number of things. Among these were disillusionment following the Civil War, a less optimistic view of the impact of sin, and a switch from post-millennial to pre-millennial eschatological views. According to Dayton, if you believe that Christians will be raptured the moment Christ returns rather than after a thousand years of Christ's rule, then evangelism takes a higher priority and social reform goes down in priority.
   
   I found Dayton's analyses of these events credible, informative, and insightful--much like his talk. I can see why Wesley TS presented Dayton with an award.
   
   Stephen

5 comments about No Place for Truth or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?.

1. People have a legal right to worship as they choose. It is human nature to make this decision based on Utility. The term utility is not used in David F. Wells' book titled No Place for Truth . In Microeconomics, utility is term to describe value. An individual chooses one item or activity over another because it brings a greater utility. Utility is an abstract concept of measure. It is a concept to explain how people make rational decisions based on cost (alternative product or activities one abstains from to get another product or activity. A unit of measure for enjoyment, security, friendship, belonging, comfort, and feeling of competence? People make a choice between churches based on what they can get out of it. This book tells why more and more people choose to attend churches that do not teach a comprehensive theology.
   
   David Wells goes into great length to describe the limited choices people had a couple hundred years ago. He uses Winah Massachusetts for illustrative purposes. Church shopping did not exist. No one had the temptation to stay to watch football or This Week with George Stephanopolis. People tended to go to bed earlier on Saturday night, so less temptation to sleep in . Less distraction made for a more consistent church going public. Pastor did not have the pressure to alter their message for the fear that the parishioners would leave his church. The church building was the focal point of the town. The Pastor of a church was well respected in the town. David Wells goes nostalgic for the first hundred pages in this book. It seemed to go on and on how different society was.
   
   How society has changed and in turn changed the character of the preached word in the Evangelical church? As transportation and communication became faster & dependable, the individual heard and saw more alternatives. The individual has had more ideas thrown at him and had a greater ease to attend other places of worship. When more people acted upon their new found alternatives, ministers altered their message to retain and attract new members. Slowly evangelical theology becomes something else; it no longer is the truth as told in the Bible.
   
   What it means to be a Christian has changed. Christianity as taught by the Apostles after Pentecost. The time when the church became into being through the preaching of those who followed Jesus earthly walk. To be a believer meant to accept the teachings of Jesus. How did Jesus teach from the Old Testament? How did Jesus life on earth, death on a cross, and His resurrection bring the fulfillment of scripture? Theology came from the mouth of God . A confession is an exposition of God. This type of exposition includes how God acts in this world, how God influences the human race, the character of God, and the Will of God. Knowing God and obedience to God comes through theological understanding of God. One does not know truth unless one knows God. The Word of God is absolute truth. Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. David Wells argues that there is no supposition in scripture that other religions have cloudy form of truth or attributes of God. Everything is not relative.
   
   Theology has a confessional element. Statements that assert truths about God. One should reflect on these truths. Relate how one part of scripture pertains to or is made clear through another part of scripture. One should ponder how truth presented in the Bible corresponds to what is normative is society. Does what learns as common in society conflict with what the Bible teaches; compare what one confesses to what the World claims to true. David Wells argues today's Christians must not find much conflict if surveys are to be understood as accurate.
   
   I get upset over details in my life. Yes I worry and get confused by the smallest problems that come my way. Yes I want to act calmer, feel more in control, and feel better about myself. Should I seek a church that makes me feel more competent, talented, and a person of value? Should a church be a place to elevate my self perception? Should I choose a church based on what it can do for me? Every individual wants to feel healthy and competent. For the most part people choose activities, clothing and food that makes them feel better about themselves. I eat chocolate;it brings a sensation of contentment. I enjoy the moment. Does one attend a specific church because that is where God wants him? Some go for a sense of belonging, others to network, and others for euphoria of the worship service. David Wells argues people choose what is exciting over what is true. The ultimate aim to know God, to be forgiven for ones sins, and to become Christ like are not sought by church attendees. Someone may want to become close to God, but yet not want to know the truth about God. No longer do people constuct their understanding of the World based on the Truth proclaim in God's Word.
   
   Urbanization, technology, and mass media have effected how society and the individual perceive God. The Christian Faith is found margenalized. Paul Tillich's theology: "every person has objects and interests that are of ultimate concern. God or one's thoughts about God are to be manipulated. One chooses how one wants to understand the World and finds a god that fits into that philosophy. People choose not to believe in the transedent, a sovereign God nor the absolute word of the Bible. So call evangelicals do not want a god that intrudes into their life, a god that demands obedience, that has control over one's destiny, and bring down evil ultimately. Many want a god to be used for one's own convience. Such evangelical structure is not consistent with the Bible.



2. The following situations and beliefs are true in many Protestant/Evangelical churches today.
   - `Worship' is the pinnacle of the church service. Worship is considered successful based on the feelings of those involved.
   - Sermons are focused on self-gratitude and self-esteem rather than the Bible.
   - Theology is considered a bad word, just a few rungs higher than Hitler.
   - The Bible is used only to support a thought, belief or idea rather than our thoughts, beliefs and ideas being based on the Bible.
   - The `experience' of God is more foundational than the truth of God.
   - 53% of those claiming to be Bible-believing, conservative Christians claim there is no such thing as "absolute truth."
   
   The title of this book summarizes it well. The author's main point is that Evangelical churches have been heavily influenced by the culture and have thus lost the conviction that truth is absolute and theology is important. With this as a premise for the book, the author writes (sometimes painstakingly) about the process by which our Western culture has morphed into what it is today. With detail, the author then traces the history of Protestantism that later spawned Evangelicalism. Weaving it all together, the author presents how Evangelicalism has succumbed to a relativistic culture. And ultimately how this led to the death of theology.
   
   How has all of this happened? The stated purpose of David Well's book is "to explore why it is that theology is disappearing. (emphasis mine)" No claim is made for the content of theology, or even for the poor quality of theology. This is not the intention of the book. The book reads more like a culture-write-up that a missionary would study before entering a field of service with anthropological insights into the behaviors of the Evangelical Christian living in the contemporary world. The `Western Christian' culture is thoroughly analyzed, especially in its esteem toward truth, and namely theological truth.
   
   David Wells' writing style is unique. Unlike many contemporary authors (Christian or secular), Wells writes in a way that forces you to think. In many ways this is a positive. The reader must read the book slowly and thoughtfully in order to grasp the language that the author uses. But, it can also make for painfully slow reading. Perhaps this irritation found in the book is a result of the desire of our society for the instantaneous and the undemanding. With that said, I personally found myself getting bogged down in the author's writing style. Constantly I was forced to check the dictionary, and sometimes the dictionary didn't even help. This particular peculiarity of our society drives Wells' crazy, but he should realize that the readers of his book are products of the society that he is criticizing. If these people are the `mission field,' then they need to be reached in their heart language. The author should not compromise his academic standards, but a clearer `dumbed-down' writing style may have more effectively reached the church of today.
   
   The content, or main message of the book is excellent. Christianity in the past 100 years can be compared to the frog in the boiling pot of water. Unknown to the church, just recently have we started to boil. There definitely is a problem but unless fixed, the church faces certain demise. The evangelical church today is a large, potentially powerful organization that has the ability to turn the world upside-down. Yet it remains largely ineffective and instead, the church has been turned upside-down by the world.
   
   The manner in which Wells traces the history of both Western culture and Protestant culture is interesting and revealing. The book accomplishes its stated goal in explaining why these problems have come about in the Evangelical church of today. Personally, the book has produced an awareness in me regarding the direction and follies of today's church. And as a church planting missionary, I need to be careful in not carrying over these problems into churches in the Philippines.
   Lastly, I believe there is a small danger in culture bashing. A large part of the book is dedicated to exposing the folly of today's society. While this is important (as reflected in Wells' second aspect of theology- reflection), it has its limits. The Bible is clear that the world is foolishness and that we should find our trust in the spirit and His words (see 1Cor. 2). Though the culture needs to be evaluated in light of Scripture, we should not expect the culture to change apart from the wisdom that the Spirit gives. The culture needs the reflection that Wells calls for, but it also needs to be reached. A reoccurring frustration with Fundamentalism (the assumed camp that David Wells is a part of) is that it does not reach out into the culture in which it exists. Because of their fear of contamination, effective reaching out is rarely done. Admittedly, reaching out is like playing with fire (which the church has clearly been burnt by). But this reaching out is necessary.
   
   In conclusion, this is a good book. The author does an excellent job of exposing the weaknesses in churches today, and he also does an excellent job of tracing the influences that weakened the church. Church leaders would do themselves well to read this book and take appropriate action in their churches and ministries.



3. This is a provocative, demanding and rewarding book that attempts to grapple with some of the central challenges of Christian thought and life in a modern or post-modern world. Looking through Amazon and one or two other online sites, it is clear that many readers have also read Mark A. Noll's The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. I have too; and by way of introduction to David F. Wells' book, it is worth making brief reference to the other.
   
   Both books touch on similar subjects, though with different emphases. Both are concerned with the decline of what Noll calls "the life of the mind" within American evangelicalism; and both are concerned with how authoritative Christian thought can be sustained in this modern or postmodern world. I suspect that Noll's book has proved the more popular, even if the only direct evidence for that is the number of customer reviews on this site: 29 for Noll; 12 for Wells. And both books were published a year apart -- Wells in 1993, and Noll the following year. With a title like that, Noll was always going to be onto a winner!
   
   However, I suspect that one of the reasons for these differing figures is that Wells writes from a different perspective, one that ultimately makes more demands on the reader. Another might be that Wells' position is subtly yet noticeably more pessimistic. Noll is an historian who is eminently capable of working in theology; Wells is a theologian who is eminently capable of working in history. One only has to look at satellite television to realise which of these subjects is the more popular; and I hope that nobody reading this review imagines that Christian television has any connection with theology!
   
   One of the great strengths of this book is that it approaches its subject with the very breadth of thought that both authors find wanting in evangelicalism in general. While its focus is on North America, it spreads its net wide; and Wells is especially good at teasing out subtle relationships between culture and religious thought. It also manages to be at once highly opinionated, generous in spirit, full of subtle humour, and intensely passionate.
   
   How's this for a start? When, in his Introduction Wells asserts his "disbelief in much that the modern world holds dear" (p. 10), he also says that while he feels he must use this pugnacious style, he intends "no disrespect either for the reader or for the modern world. After all, I work for the one and must live with the other. The pugnacity is only in the appearance, not in the intention. The problem is that even the mildest assertion of Christian truth today sounds like a thunderclap because the well-polished civility of our religious talk has kept us from hearing much of this kind of thing." He then draws on John Kenneth Galbraith and G.K. Chesterton, to demonstrate a point that has nothing of religion or theology in it -- at first. So when the theological point arrives, it has force: "Evangelicals are antimodern only across a narrow front; I write from a position that is antimodern across the entire front. It is only where assumptions in culture directly and obviously contradict articles of faith that most evangelicals become aroused and rise up to battle 'secular humanism'; aside from these specific matters, they tend to view culture as neutral and harmless. More than that, they often view culture as a partner amenable to being coopted in the cause of celebrating Christian truth. I cannot share that naivete; indeed, I consider it dangerous. Culture is laden with values, many of which work to rearrange the substance of faith, even when they are mediated to us through the benefits that the modern world also bestows upon us."
   
   This epitomises Wells' ability to lay a profoundly humane groundwork for a theological starting-point, and then for an entire historical and theological argument; and that is one of the main reasons why this book is such a compelling indictment of contemporary evangelical theology. Or perhaps I should say non-theology; for that is what Wells finds everywhere -- though like Noll, he finds the malady less prevalent outside the USA.
   
   Beavers who are over-eager might get impatient at Wells' methods. Indeed, I suspect that at the root of one or two of the more negative responses this book has received, there lies a typically modern impatience. But for those willing to take time, there are rewards a-plenty. For example, the opening chapter's title is "A Delicious Paradise Lost." The Eden-like innocence belongs to the town of Wenham, Massachusetts, in the two hundered of so years after the town's foundation in the 1630s by a group of puritans of English descent. Less than ten years later an English visitor described the place as "a delicious paradise" which he would choose "above all towns in America to dwell in." Via authoritative comparisons with contemporary towns in Britain and America (the book has plenty of informative footnotes and cross-references), Wells charts Wenham's growth, which was very slow. He embraces the role of the church as a building and as community of believers (and a community which included many who were nominal believers); he shows how, as people of differing religious backgrounds moved into the town, they interacted with the dominant puritan heritage; and he follows the lives of a number of prominent figures, notably the schoolteacher. This was a community defined partly by its strong sense of place, and partly by its awareness of how people lived together -- or how they should live together. Of course, it wasn't really Eden. But until well into the 19th century it was so utterly different from the modern world that we might imagine it to be such.
   
   In a series of similar historically rooted pictures, Wells shows how those qualities disappeared, to be replaced by transience, by superficiality. In one of his many virtuoso analogies, he shows how Truman Capote (1924-84) was transformed by publicity "from an author of some initial repute into a personality. . . He bonded briefly with his devotees, but the bond was synthetic. In this new world, the statues are made of celluloid, not of stone; here the achievements are those of personality, seldom of character. . . This is experience without community. It is the experience of mankind in the mass, bereft of the forces that once drew it into centers of human fraternity and organization." Gloomy stuff! But it has precision and insight.
   
   All this proves to be an essential preliminary for the theological discussion that makes up by far the larger part of this book. The theological discussion is fed from the ground up, by being rooted in the communities in which theology should, and at one time did, hold its discourse. The third chapter takes its title, "Things Fall Apart", from Yeats' poem The Second Coming (yet another example of the broad synthesis that characterises this book), and charts the decline of theology from its place as the "queen of sciences" to an irrelevance, even in the evangelical world to which Wells and most of those who will read his book belong.
   
   Wells explains, with a magisterial grasp of history, culture and theology, how the decline of evangelical theology in the last two hundred is a direct result of the church's engagement with the world and its prevailing culture. It is a striking demonstration of the adage that the church rarely now turns the world upside (Acts 17:6); rather, the world has turned the church upside down. Hence the title: the church has been so concerned with accommodating itself to the world that it has forgotten how to sustain the mission God intended it to have to the world.
   
   Wells shows how thought, including that of some greats of American theology, became gradually corrupted by this accommodation. Along the way the religious institutions have become corrupted too. One of his most devastating critiques is of the modern seminary. Great institutions like Princeton and Yale began with Christian values at their core, with subjects designed from a Christian perspective. But as these universities have become inexorably secularised, other institutions had to take over their role; and those in turn have been run off their feet to maintain recognition by the world. Many of the qualifications issued by modern Christian colleges, including doctorates, have very little real value: they merely provide a veneer of respectability so that being a pastor might appear to have the same worldly status as being a lawyer, an academic or a doctor. It is not just that there is little reflection: there is no time for it.
   
   As for the corruption of the church's life . . . I'll leave you to read the examples Wells gives, which are shocking even to someone who knows something of what the God Channel and things of that kind spew out indiscriminately.
   
   As I say, this is not an optimistic book. But it is honest. It offers few large-scale solutions. But it is a clarion call to those who read it, and who believe that we should indeed love the Lord our God with all our minds. If one follows Well's thesis through, it becomes clear that institutions are not readily amenable to reformation. But individuals are. Just as the Gospel began with individuals, so it will be with individuals that any reformation of theology will begin.



4. This is a book that really sets out to accomplish a monumental task. It attempts to grapple with the broad questions of why theology and objective truth are so absent in the evangelical church today, and what has been the affect of modernism on the church. Due to the vast scope of this undertaking, the analysis can become somewhat unwieldy at times. However, while drawing in analyses from many angles, Wells maintains a sharp and accurate analysis of the problem. It ends up being too much information to soak in by reading it only once through. I found this also to be true of his other book in the series "Losing our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover it's Moral Vision."
   
   Wells vigorously argues that the evangelical church's chasing after "relevance" has rendered it weak and irrelevant to the culture. He shows how theology is essential to the life of the church, and properly belongs to the church, not merely to academia. The disconnection of theology from the church has cut the church free from its moorings, and set it adrift in a sea of fads and relativism. Theology no longer unifies and defines the church, he says, and instead the church mimics modernism. It does this by patterning itself after the business models of capitalism; preaching borrows heavily from psychological and therapeutic language and concepts, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is lost or diluted for a "self-help" gospel replacement.
   
   One of the interesting parts of the book was the discussion of the American tendency toward two ideals--individualism and conformity, which might at the surface seem at odds with one another, yet are held in tension in our culture. The church has been heavily influenced by these concepts as well. He also clearly refutes the idea that the exclusive claims of the Bible about salvation through Christ alone are just part of the "parochial" or simplistic worldview of the Biblical writers. He shows clearly how the ancients were very much in tune with pluralism, and that it was not foreign to them. Yet the Biblical writers clearly rejected pluralism in favor of the exclusive claims of the One and Only true God. After a thorough critique of the loss of truth in the church, Wells does offer a positive answer to how the church can recover from this crisis. He points us back to the Word of the Eternally Holy God, who alone can accomplish a Reformation of the church by the restoration of the Word and the objective truth of that Word in the theology that properly belongs in and with the church. A recovery of the understanding of God's holiness will restore to us the proper biblical understanding of sin and grace, rather than therapeutic understandings that modernist Christianity has put forth. Hopefully the church at large in America will hear Wells' call to repentance and reform



5. Although written almost two decades ago this book still hits home. In "No Place For Truth" David Wells describes what he and many others see as the decline of evangelical theology. Starting with a historical outline of the possible causes then analyzing trends in twentieth century thought Dr. Wells points out how modernity has changed evangelicalism into something more like 19th century theological Liberalism (not to be confused with today's political liberalism), than our evangelical forbears. What he describes is churches not only empty of theology, but hostile to it. The remainder of the book is about the dangers of this situation to the spiritual state of the Church. This is not alarmist propaganda that looks for scapegoats in the culture around us. Instead, Dr. Wells' criticism is with evangelical institutions, theologians, seminaries, and churches. Written in a firm but not combative style Dr. Wells paints a picture that will be familiar and alarming to many. Thankfully, in the years since this book was written the tide has begun to turn, but the leaders of today who are reforming evangelicalism often cite this book as a catalyst for the changes we see today.
   
   This is the first book in a series. Thus it is mostly concerned with identifying the problem with the work of proposing changes reserved for later volumes. Read this book!

1 comments about Foundational Issues in Christian Education: An Introduction in Evangelical Perspective.

1. Christian education encompasses more than traditional teaching based on historical practices, sociological and psychological theories. It incorporates Biblical and theological truths with educational philosophical ideals. The foundation for such education is based on the fact that all people are created in the image of God, but due to the Fall have been separated from the Creator God, and that everyone in faith can be reconciled to God through the redeeming power of Christ's death on the cross (70). The main goal of the Christian education is "passing on the commandments of God to the next generation" (20). The task is to incorporate students into the Christian community by loving others, building and sharing one's faith, worshipping God, and actively participating in ministry (45). In compiling a thorough book, Pazmino examines the contributions of educational, sociological, and psychological theorists. Utilizing the insights of people such as Cremin, Pazmino suggests that Christian educators should "carefully assess" the effects of secular educational institutions on their students, and to offer ways for people to share their knowledge with others (149). Christian education should incorporate ideals such as liberty, equality, and fraternity by reframing it in Christian terms. For instance, Pazmino redefines liberty as "the freedom made available in Jesus Christ," and fraternity as "the common humanity of all persons and the unique relationships that exist in Christian community" (151). Pazmino reminds readers that the acquisition of knowledge occurs through all modes-communities, institutions, and groups (175). However, ultimate knowledge is "transcended by being known by God and encountering God's love" (177). Though the book contains good information regarding education, too much emphasis is given to the various theories. Pazmino dedicates a couple pages to discuss an "interactive Christian model," but it would be better if he dedicated a whole chapter to this topic. The main educational topic of the book is true to its title-"foundational issues."

1 comments about Internet Protect Your Kids:: Keep Your Children Safe from the Dark Side of Technology.

1. This book is very basic. It deals more with sexual predators and the possibility of kids getting carried away from not knowing whom they are talking to. I received little material from this book that is adequate to prepare a youth lesson. I would suggest a book that is much more deeply though out with study questions.

5 comments about Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics: Foundations and Principles of Evangelical Biblical Interpretation.

1. Seminary Hermeneutics courses lead the student to believe that discerning the meaning of a text is a relatively straight-forward procedure. All you do is determine the genre of the text, then decipher the various figures of speech. Application is merely taking the general principles of the text and placing them in the modern world. The seminary graduate quickly finds that bridging the gap between text and congregation is profoundly difficult! Philosophical conundrums abound, and he becomes awash in a sea of doubt concerning meaning. Goldsworthy to the rescue! He gives a very practical guide for using Biblical Theology through the lens of the gospel to arrive at the much yearned-for meaning of Scripture. This book is worth reading for anyone who desires to read his Bible with hope of understanding it.



2. This book is incredibly dry. It is hard to read and boring. On the other hand the author is very smart.



3. Goldsworthy has set forth an overview of protestant hermeneutics using his biblical theological method. Much of the work is plowing through difficult areas of thought that are generally ignored in the discussion. Such works do not tend to be scintillating reading. So while other reviewers have marked this down because of this, I would remind the reader that books on hermeneutics as a general rule are not the most entertaining books.



4. Rarely have I read a book that I so resonated with and enjoyed as Dr. Goldworthy's Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics. In this Biblical, clear, and systematized survey of hermeneutics, the author not only laid the Scriptural and presuppositional basis of thought, but also thoroughly addresses a myriad of topics in an extremely organized and lucid manner.
   
   In the first part of his book, the evangelical prolegomena to hermeneutics, the author not only provides an impetus, motivation, and explanation of hermeneutics as well as laying down fundamental epistemic and Biblical presuppositions - that is most crucial (literally) in the interpretation of Holy Scripture. Unlike other uninspired texts, the Bible must be understood as God's revelation to his people for their salvation, showing the history of redemption, and explaining the gospel. Perhaps because both the author and I are reformed in doctrine and belong to the school of presuppositional apologetics, I find myself greatly edified by his initial comments about hermeneutics. The section on the biblical theology of interpretation provides an excellent survey through the different genres through a lens of different parts of scriptures. Although discussed later in the book, Goldworthy provides a complete understanding of hermeneutics as it embraces exegesis, biblical theology, and systematic theology - all three are indispensable in understanding a Scriptural text.
   
   In the second part of the book, challenges to evangelical hermeneutics, Goldworthy walks the reader through church history from the early church until the rise of evangelicalism (which is most reminiscent of Frame's walk through the history of apologetics) with a fair description of each era of interpretation. The part I enjoyed the most was the assessment, as Christians strive to correctly divide the word of God, there are places where they do well and other they could improve upon. It is amazing that there are so many possible errors one can make in the interpretation of text and having these historical labels also help us as we observe possible errors in contemporary hermeneutics. I especially thought the section of the eclipse of the gospel in evangelicalism interesting as it puts current hermeuetic errors in light of historical errors.
   
   In the last section, reconstructing evangelical hermeneutics, Goldsworthy provides readers with his layout for gospel-centered hermeneutics - and engaging many of the areas of historical hermeneutics that he critiqued earlier, but appropriating biblical principles for correct usage. I myself enjoyed most the exposition on the relationships of the two Testaments, including not only a detailed explanation of the unity and diversity, but also providing clear tables of typology and fulfillment. The section on contextualization was a surprised as most discussions on this matter explored how we engage culture. Goldworthy takes a well-applauded biblical perspective as he sees contextualization work through the history of redemption and outlines the general principles that is universal in all cultures. The discussion on the method of translation in terms of contextualization was also very edifying as new contemporary translations such as Message, Word on the Street, the New Living Translation, all seek to cross these linguistic boundaries. The emphasis on understanding original languages can be clearly seen in the midst cultural and the contextual changes. The final section on the hermeneutics of Christ provides the true lens which we see all of Scriptures, since the law, prophets all testify about Christ. Practical advice is given in clear formats in approaching texts.
   
   It is clear that this work by Goldworthy is distilled from years of teaching and these notes show the structure of his classes. They provide a treasury of tools of biblical interpretation. I definitely will be recommending this book for avid students of the Bible.



5. Great Resource for those studying Literature and Theology. A long time faculty member of Moore Theological College, Sydney, Graeme Goldsworthy is a biblical scholar of justifiable repute - his other books including "According to Plan" and "Gospel and Kingdom" explain biblical theology clearly and (as much as is possible) simply. Hermeneutics - an important sounding word for the ideas surrounding "interpretation" - is central to the study of literature also, and I have found this book a valuable resource to keep perspective when examining the more complex literary theories on hermeneutics, especially when exploring literary texts that cross the boundaries of literature and theology.

5 comments about More Charlotte Mason Education.

1. I did not appreciate this book. It is an uptight and rigid book, which contains misinformation. The author often presents her opinions as facts, and her theological ideas leave a lot to be desired. .
   From now on, I will buy Dorothy and Raymond Moore's books.



2. I've been homeschooling for 10+ years and have been collecting books on Charlotte Mason's homeschooling methods for that long, as well. This little book is the best resource I've found for actually "doing" homeschooling in a Charlotte Mason style. It's not overly rigid or difficult to understand. Just pick a topic you want to do with your kids, open to that chapter, and you're off and running! I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who's interested in a child-friendly, learning-rich homeschooling environment for their home and school. I've also known several people who have been rescued from homeschool burn-out by reading, and implementing, this book. A+



3. I had to buy this book twice. I liked it so much that I recommended it and loaned it to a friend who never returned it. I purchased it a second time because I missed it so much. Very enjoyable reading with a great book list. I refer to it often along with "A Charlotte Mason Companion" and "Educating the Wholehearted Child." So go ahead. Buy two of each! Your friends will enjoy it/them too!



4. I was looking to this book as an expansion on Levinson's first "Charlotte Mason Education." While it does provide more "meat" than the first, I can't get past some of the glaring grammatical errors. Her misuse of the comma has plagued the first half of the book, to the point where I have to re-read sentences to figure out what the idea was supposed to be. At another point, she means to refer to a "vicious" cycle, yet she spells it "viscous." It is so hard to respect the information coming from one of the "Charlotte Mason experts" when she can't even proofread her work or find a good editor to do it for her. I'm not trying to be nasty, but I think it gives homeschoolers a bad name when books claiming that we "know how to teach our kids" are published and then contain so many glaring errors. I hope that future editions will correct the problems so that others don't lose respect for Levinson like I have. On the positive side, her book lists are excellent, and are an amazing resource for those looking for living books in each subject area. It is worth the purchase for that reason alone.



5. I have found all of Catherine's books to be a wonderful asset and addition to my CM library. Along with using her first book almost on a daily basis in my homeschooling day, I also use her second book just as much! It's a great extension to her first book. It has great information such as, Keeping a Century Book, High School, What are the Liberal Arts, How Short Lessons are Applied, Sample Schedules, Book and Supply List, For Further Study, etc. Also, if anyone has any questions on how to apply CM to their high schooler as well as an elementary age student, this is a great resource!

3 comments about Christ, Baptism and the Lord's Supper: Recovering the Sacraments for Evangelical Worship.

1. As a Christian worship leader with a growing sense that my own church does not give the sacraments of baptism and Lord's Supper a strong enough place in its worship (along with many other churches), I found this book inspiring, solidly biblical, wonderfully informative concerning how certain traditions developed over the centuries, and very helpful for me as I hope to challenge my own church to honor the sacraments more fully. I recommend it very highly. Dr. Syd Hielema



2. "Christ, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper" was chosen by "Christianity Today" as one of their "Best Books" for 2005.



3. Vander Zee, a Christian Reformed pastor in Indiana has produced a fine introduction to the sacraments. Vander Zee issued a challenge which caused me to sit up straight as I read it,
   "...I firmly believe that there is a discernable thread of common understanding in the New Testament that flows, in turn, into the life and practices of the early church. I also beleive that all of the us, Catholics and Protestants, Baptists and Reformed, do in fact share 'one Lord, one faith, one baptism,' as Paul says in Ephesians 4.5. We all need to set aside our underlined proof texts, our favorite theologians (tho he does rely heavily upon Calvin but not exclusively by any means), and try to meet together in that biblical center from which all our understandings come, and where they can still converge." (p78)
   
   In the preface VZ addresses the correlation between a deficiency in the sacraments and its inevitable impact upon ecclesiology. Following Philip Lee (Against the Protestant Gnostics) he questions the dualism or at worst gnostic tendencies of protestantism which tends to elevate the spiritual and denigrate the material and the body. What struck me was the very physicality of the sacraments.
   
   At its heart, VZ locates the sacraments in their proper place deriving their "meaning from Christ and that is is Christ who through them, by the Holy Spirit, unites us to himself." (p.11)

4 comments about The Memory Bible: The Sure-Fire Way to Learn 52 Bible Verses.

1. My almost 5 yr old loves this. The music is catchy and repetitive, and the reading is done very well-passionately and makes it interesting for kids. The music isn't filled with base and guitars (as my son prefers of course) but this is more relaxing (for the car and on in the house without the nerve racking twangs,etc) yet still interesting for them. He's trying to sing along as we speak! I'll be using this in my 2-3 yr old class at church as well as the 4-5yr olds. The songs seem to be sung by girls, so I put a 4 as my son prefers to hear other boys and more "jamming out" tunes...but we love it.



2. I HIGHLY recommend this excellent book and CD's! Kirk Cameron does a nice job with the narration. The songs are sweet and uplifting! The illustrations are cartoonish but appealing to my children. I love listening to the CD's myself!! Just a wonderful tool to uplift the Lord!



3. At ages 5 & 2, my children will sing & dance along with these CD's. I look at the book with them, as they are not old enough to read all of it yet. I actually just started using it to teach memory Bible verses to them as a part of our kindergarten homeschooling curriculum. I like how the stories/songs correspond to letters of the alphabet, making it easy to use along with a letter of the week. I love it because I find that these scripture songs are fun & easy to remember.



4. We have really enjoyed The Memory Bible. It comes with 2 CDs each containing 26 songs (one for each letter of the alphabet). Lots of the songs are upbeat and have fun tunes that even I catch myself singing. Great purchase!

5 comments about Holy Bible: King James Version, The Scofield Study Bible III, Duradera Zipper Black.

1. The Scofield study bible III,NKJV is an excellent study bible. It is a good bible if you want to study prophecy.YOu can not understand revelation without going back to the major prophets in the OT and letting the scriptures explain themselves. The regular printing is very good but the notes at the bottom are a little small for a senior citizen like myself,but I use a magnifying glass for the notes and that works out fine. The bonded leather cover is really nice. I would reccomend this as being a number one.Bob California



2. I bought this Bible as a gift for my husband, a minister, and he loves the multiple concordances, the maps and the the detail in the footnotes. Not to mention, the one I bought him zips, so he doesn't have to worry about his notes falling out or his pages getting wet. I think it's was great buy!



3. Bible construction is outstanding including printing. I purchased this Bible to add to my library of Bibles. The Thompson remains my daily study Bible. However, this Bible is very good as it relates to types and shadows.



4. I love the comprehensive notes system of the Schofields, I just wish the Duradera Zip up version came with Thumb Indexing. It's a tough Bible, so we don't have to worry about sticking it in your bag and going. I had the Acorn Basketweave version last year, but it was too much for it's binding to ride around in my vinyl Bible Bag. This one, even though it has a zipper and I've heard that those eventually give out, it's an all around tough Bible for someone who's rough on the things they use.



5. The NKJV Scofield Study System is excellent. Based upon the Receiveed Text with footnotes to the Critical Text and the Majority Text is a great tool for both reading and study. The text is readable and consistant for study. I used the Scofield Bible for the last 60 plus years and the Study system III is a great update. The in text maps are very helpful. The Summary notes in boxes are easy to find and use. In addition the footnotes are great. The indicies are very helpful. A Great Bible for the casual reader and student as well Paul Hipps, PhD. St. Louis, MO