This book does not exactly have a concise title. But 'If you want to get out of the water, you've got to get out of the boat' is one of the currently popular Christian books, at least in the circles I mix with.
John Ortberg is an American pastor - no longer at the controversial Willow Creek church. He writes well, with plenty of anecdotes and clear explanations of Scripture, but without being condescending or 'preachy'.
The premise of the book is that too many of us are safe in our comfort zones, afraid to step out and find what God wants for us. He looks, a little at a time, at the story of the apostle Peter who - for a few moments - managed to walk on water. Was Peter a failure because he started to sink? Ortberg insists he wasn't - he, at least, tried to do something radical. The rest of the disciples just stayed in the boat.
The book looks at reasons we often choose safety over adventure, and gives sound advice for learning to rely on Jesus, however difficult it may seem. There are questions at the end of each chapter, to reflect on what has been written and its relevance to our lives; I didn't find them particularly helpful, but otherwise I very much enjoyed this book.
Highly recommended.
Marcia Willett is fast becoming one of my favourite modern authors. 'The Golden Cup' is very well written with a clever and complex plot intertwining past and present, but without jarring.
A young American arrives in the UK trying to research his family history. He wants to speak to Mutt, an elderly lady, who was apparently married at the same time as his great-aunt. Unfortunately Mutt is ill, and her younger relatives don't feel it would be helpful to allow the meeting. Mutt, hearing about the American, becomes quite disturbed and asks her granddaughter Joss to find some old letters...
What transpires is almost unbelievable, yet it works in context. I found myself in sympathy with nearly all the characters, who were well-drawn and likeable. We see each of them from varying perspectives - primarily that of Joss, in the present, but also that of Mutt, many years previously when she first arrived in the UK.
It did take a while to get into the story; at first it seemed rather slow-moving with an enormous number of inter-related characters, some of whom appeared extraneous. I read only a chapter or two at a time over about ten days in a busy period, and sometimes forgot who was whom from one day to the next. But by about half-way through I was hooked, and towards the end could hardly put it down.
Recommended.
'Jesus: safe, tender, extreme' is the most recent offering by Adrian Plass, my favourite modern British Christian writer. His style is informal but thought-provoking. His anecdotes are always interesting, and his honesty is refreshing.
He's best known for his humorous fiction. But I like his more serious work just as much, and was not disappointed by this. The book is in three main sections, looking at different aspects of Jesus: his safety, his tenderness, and his tendency to be 'extreme'. Plass explains what he means, without pomposity or religious jargon, and describes ways in which he experiences these.
The author often talks about his failures as well as the occasions when he got things right. He also explains his thought-processes as he comes to different ways of looking at the Bible. He quotes several passages of Scripture, not as proof texts but as examples of what he is writing about, or for further thought.
Highly recommended to Christians of all varieties. It would also be a good read for anyone wanting to know more about Christianity. Indeed, I would recommend it even to anyone who can't stand Christians but who is secretly fascinated with Jesus.
'Dumb Witness' is a fairly typical Agatha Christie mystery featuring Hercule Poirot. The only slightly unusual feature is that he starts his investigations on behalf of a woman who has already died.
As ever, there is a cast full of suspects, and the eventual solution relies primarily on their characters which are gradually drawn through the book. I hadn't guessed 'whodunit' but the outcome as described by Poirot was believable, when I thought about it.
I'm not, in general, a fan of crime fiction but Agatha Christie's are pleasant enough for a light read, without any gore or too much suspense. Her plots are always cleverly crafted, and although her characters don't have a whole lot of depth, they're interesting enough to keep me reading.
Recommended for holiday reading or similar, to anyone who likes this genre.
'In His Steps' is a novel that was written over 100 years ago by Charles Sheldon. It is the origin of the much-used phrase: 'What would Jesus do?' (abbreviated sometimes to WWJD).
The story involves an American pastor, whose congregation is wealthy and content, mostly ignoring the rampant poverty in their city. Moreover, some of them are following decidedly dodgy business practices in their work lives. A challenge is issued to pledge themselves for a year to do nothing without first asking the question, 'What would Jesus do in these circumstances?'
These days the phrase is so banded about that it's hard to imagine a Christian church where nobody had ever thought of such a thing. It's even more difficult to imagine Christians living some of the lifestyles mentioned in the books without ever thinking of what Jesus might do - or even what he might want them to do. But 100 years ago, many more people went to church out of routine than do today, and perhaps none of them had ever thought beyond their weekly 'duty'.
It's a fictional account, but it became a best-seller. It has evidently had a profound effect, although I'm not sure how many Christians in the USA - or anywhere else - take such an active life in assisting the poor, finding work for the unemployed, and starting soup kitchens etc.
As a novel, it's quite hard going at times, since the style is not just old-fashioned but rather preachy. That's perhaps inevitable, considering the subject matter. But the 'voice of the author' is present rather more than I like in addition to the quotations from sermons used as part of the book. Still, that was the trend in Victorian times, as was the rather long-winded verbosity of some of the book.
This book is, in my view, worth reading - or at least skimming - since it's so famous in some Christian circles. However although I read it as a book, it's now out of copyright, so can be found and read online at various sites including this one. It has also been republished by many independent publishers.
