Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand Random House. 2010. 473 pages.
reviewed by Roy W. Howard
My father was a Japanese POW for 42 months, having been captured when he was 19 years old in the Philippine Islands while serving with the Army Air Corps.
This book is an indispensable resource for anyone wishing to learn about the history, theology, and significance of the Belhar Confession from a South African perspective.
by Scott C. Sabin, edited by Kathy Ide Judson Press ISBN 13: 978-8170-1572-5 $18.00
reviewed by Alison Bennett
Tending to Eden is a personal memoir and witness to Scott Sabin’s experiences in different countries and the lessons he has learned as he comes to understand the theological foundations for environmental health and ecological stewardship.
Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott. The third in the series of novels that began with Rosie and continued with Crooked Little Heart, I think this is Anne Lamott's most well-written and fully realized novel. She has a perfect ear for the moral and psychological nuances of a teenager coming to adulthood.
Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr Harper. San Francisco. November 2009. 400 pages
reviewed by J. Stephen Rhodes
"Age seventeen, stringy-haired and halter-topped, weighing in the high double digits and unhindered by a high school diploma, I showed up at the Pacific Ocean, ready to seek my fortune with a truck full of extremely stoned surfers.” So begins poet Mary Karr’s tale of her recovery from alcohol addiction and her conversion to faith.
Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years- by Philip Jenkins HarperOne, 2010. vii+317 pp. ISBN 978-0-06-176894-1
reviewed by Rebecca Harden Weaver
In A Brief Statement of Faith (Book of Confessions 10.2) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), we make an astonishing claim: “We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God.”
Against the Tide: Love in a Time of Petty Dreams and Persisting Enmities- by Miroslav Volf Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010.
reviewed by Henry G. Brinton
In 1969, feminist Carol Hanisch popularized the phrase “the personal is political.”
The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder- by William P. Brown Oxford University Press, January, 2010. 352 pages, $29.95.
reviewed by D. Mark Davis
Bill Brown’s latest book strikes me as an invitation; specifically, an invitation to persons of Biblical faith and to persons devoted to science to communicate with one another as what he calls “cohorts of wonder.”
by Derek Maul; Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2009. reviewed by Judith Fulp-Eickstead
Derek Maul, award-winning columnist for the Tampa Tribune, issues an invitation to anyone looking for a deeper level of commitment to Jesus Christ in a culture where “doing just enough to get by defines life for too many people and in too many contexts” (p. 17).
