Three Books, Three Reviews

I’ve been doing a lot of reading this past week and I love it.  No worries about time constraints and things needing to get done because I’ve been away in the west coast for the sole purpose of relaxing. And so I did.  I read through three books and I’ll comment on each briefly.

Real Christianity – William Wilberforce

This was an ok book.  I worked through it while on the plane to Reno and I say worked because that’s what it felt like.  Not because it’s very technical in any sense, but because I thought Wilberforce would drag out a point way too long.  Just a lot of repetition to work through where you start wanting to skip just to get to the next section.  His major focus throughout the book was to expose the false religiosity and fake Christianity that seemed to be rampant in England at his time.  I loved this and his stinging words, you could tell, came from a heart and mind that that knew this religious formalism very well at one time.  You are keenly aware of how much William was at one time a moral individual with a a desire to be religious but not truly an individual resting in the perfect morality of Jesus Christ.  His conversion must have been heart shattering and his prose I think seeks to shatter the false hope of those religious formalists readers in his time as well as ours. 

           “But when religion is in a state of quiet and prosperity, the opposite effect tends to take place.  The soldiers of the church militant will then tend to forget they are at war.  Their ardor slackens and their zeal languishes.  John Owen has made an apt comparison: Religion in a state of prosperity is like a colony that is long settled in a strange country.  It is gradually assimilated in features, demeanor, and language to the native inhabitants, until at length every vestige of its distinctiveness has died away.

        If this general principal of the effects of persecution and prosperity are true, then we know what to expect of the state of Christianity in our country.  For it has long been embodied in an establishment which is intimately blended with our civil institutions. People generally and justly believe it has a common interest with them all.  Religion has been allowed to ‘exalt her mitered front in courts and parliaments.’”

I can not help but think of what a lot of churches in America have become when reading this quote.  How a lot of Christian writers have made the Gospel into a ten step self improvement plan. How American is that!  How a lot of churches have become a get rich quick scheme or have become a place of promiscuous discipline where no one is wrong if their heart feels right. Very American! 

All in all I gained much from reading this book in that it reminded me of the importance in seeking a true relationship with the Father through His Son and not falling into a religion of an outward display of theology and religious expressions.

No Condemnation In Christ Jesus - Octavius Winslow

I am loving this book.  It is an exposition of Romans chapter 8 with each chapter directly working through a single verse.  Mr. Winslow’s writing is both profound and very poetic in its cadence and style.  You are brought deep with in each verse by Winslow as he works hard at getting his reader to understand clearly the gist of what Paul is writing to the Romans.  I read this book quite easily by going straight through but I think it might be more fitting to read it as a daily devotional; reading a chapter or two each day and letting your heart and mind meditate on his words.  Again, I can not stress how beautiful the aesthetic of Winslow’s writing is.  He paints biblical theology like its poetry that flows from a deep place in his heart and this is how it should, I believe.  You clearly see as you read this book how in love Winslow is with what he believes….he believes in Christ and His perfect work on the cross.  Each chapter comes back to the first verse of Romans 8, that there is “therefore now no condemnation to them which are in  Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  How true, how amazing!  What a wonderful truth to hold onto each morning and each night.  Those who have been found in Christ, born again, have such a wonderful hope and security that is Christ our God, the justifier of sinners, the protector of His own sheep.

   Read this book as man in the desert drinks his last glass of water.

 

Infidel- Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  This has by far been my favorite book.  I must admit I haven’t finished it yet but I should be done tonight.  This is the autobiography of Ms. Ali and her story of growing up in the thick of the Islamic world in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia(the one Christian nation of her youth) and Kenya.  Then she describes her flight to Europe where she finds political asylum in the Netherlands in hopes of escaping her arranged marriage.

    Her childhood is fascinating to read about, especially her inside look at the religion and culture of Islam.  You quickly see the different forms Islam takes in the different countries she lives with Saudi Arabia being the “purest” because of it is closeness to Muhammad and his place of revelation.  You read of her fathers life long quest to end the dictatorship of Siad Barre in Somalia, her Grandmothers decision to circumcise both her and her sister, the wave of fundamentalist Islam that roared through the middle east and North Africa during the 70’s 80’s and 90’s due to the money being made by Oil Tycoons.

    The book describes Ali’s escape from Islams tyranny on women which makes her less than a full person and her escape from its contradictory assessment of man and God.  She finds hope in Western values and ideology, of all places from reading Nancy Drew novels, while locked inside her house by her mother. Later after the events of 9/11 and reading The Atheist Manifesto, she becomes an Atheist and begins hiding in the Netherlands due to death threats from Muslims around the world.  She becomes and still is an avid writer against Islam and after making the movie Submission with good friend Theo Van Gogh she is forced to move to the States in fear of her life.  Van Gogh was murdered by extremist Muslims as a result of the film.

    What I think of most though is the grace offered in Christ Jesus for salvation from God’s wrath.  Every page you are reminded of the strict legalistic effort needed in Islam to get right with God.  At first I was attracted to the strict discipline and rigid devotion portrayed by Ali’s family, but soon you see the uselessness and even hopelessness in never really getting right with God on your own effort.  Every action, thought, motive, dress, and way of walking seems to be dictated by their effort at avoiding sin, specifically sexual sin.  Your left thinking, “how?” and I’m constantly forced to turn my heart to the cross in thankful remembrance.

      I encourage you really to pick this book up and step into a part of the world that we are not at all used to here in the West.  I have so much more I would like to say about Infidel but I will either save it for another post or hopefully influence you enough to get it and read it yourself.