by Frank Viola and George Barna ★★★★ No, this isn’t a “bash the Christians” book. It’s a “bash the church” book (lowercase “c”). The authors’ goal is to redirect Christians back to the original teachings of the New Testament, where the “Church” was never a building. “Pagan,” as used by the…
Category: Book Reviews
Dubious Disciple book reviews
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Book review: Paul
by Walter Wangerin Jr. ★★★★★ You may know Wangerin from The Book of the Dun Cow. I love Wangerin’s writing and I loved Paul. From the insatiable and inexplicable drive of the book’s hero, Paul of Tarsus, to the endearing antics of his biggest fan Titus, this is a captivating story in a…
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Book review: The Final Days of Jesus
by Shimon Gibson ★★★★★ If you’re interested in the historical Jesus, you’ll be fascinated by this book. Shimon is a thorough researcher and archaeologist. He is up-to-date on current scholarship, while at the same time providing new insights and theories, with a writing style that keeps you reading. Shimon excels…
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Book review: Love is Letting go of Fear
by Gerald G. Jampolsky, MD ★★★★★ This book is not the usual type of selection for a religion blog, is it? I’m not sure God is even mentioned in the book. But Love is, and God is Love, right? For all you Bible scholars out there, we shouldn’t get so…
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Book review: A New Christianity for a New World
by John Shelby Spong ★★★★★ More than anyone else, Bishop John Shelby Spong has helped shape a new Christianity for a new world. He is a leader in liberal Christianity, and many of us have been following along, reading his books for years. If there’s any cause for frustration with…
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Book review: My Stroke of Insight
by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. ★★★★★ Why is a book about a brain scientist’s experience of having a stroke gracing the pages of my religion blog? Because it was a religious experience. Jill’s massive stroke caused the left half of her brain to shut down. The side responsible for linear, logical thinking….
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Book review: Revelation: The Way it Happened
by Lee Harmon Sorry, I have no book review to post today. Will you let me get away with promoting my own book? This review is by Vicki Landes, author of “Europe for the Senses – A Photographic Journal” ********* Author Lee Harmon tackles the most elusive and mysterious book…
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Book review: Einstein’s God
by Krista Tippett ★★★★ The battle between science and religion comes to a head in these interviews of cutting-edge scientists and researchers, and the winner is … oh. The two sides are getting along a little better nowadays, it appears. Words you’ll read often in the book include “spirit” and…
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Book review: Take This Bread
by Sara Miles ★★★★★ Inspiring, honest, and deeply moving, by the end of Sara’s story you’ll love this lesbian, left-wing atheist as much as any of the other Christians of God’s flock. It’s hard to remember a book I enjoyed more. On a whim one day, Sara walked into a church, ate a…
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Book review: The History of Hell
by Alice K. Turner ★★★★★ This is not a new book; I dug it from my shelves just to write this review. It’s not a scholarly-looking book; the oversize cover, glossy pages, and color pictures on every other page make it look more like a children’s book than a theological treatise….