The On The Bookshelf Podcast

classic interview-Walt Wangerin Jr

One of the forgotten casualties of a year that was consumed by talk of COVID was the incredible storyteller, author and pastor Walt Wangerin Jr, who died August 5, 2021 at age 77. He had been fighting cancer 15 years, and addressed part of his spiritual and physical battle in his 2010 book, "Letters from the Land of Cancer". It's a powerful story of grace, courage and deep faith.

review--Richard Simmons III on the Big Question

“Reflections on the Existence of God: a series of essays” by Richard E. Simmons III (Union Hill Publishing)

The most important question of life is simple but critical: “does God exist?” Either He does and he does not. There is no third option. You are betting your eternal destiny on your answer, as well as informing your entire earthly life. The options are mutually exclusive: if one is right, the other is wrong. “Atheism and theism are alternative belief systems that offer radically different views.”

This book is a series of essays exploring that question. Its research is drawn from the great atheist thinkers over the ages, including philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Bertrand Russell; scientists like Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett. The author also looked at the work of theistic thinkers from the Judeo-Christian worldview, which provided the foundation for the rise of Western civilization.

Here are the two worldviews: either we live in a random, pointless existence in a universe that evolved just as life did, for no particular reason, with no god and no direction; OR there is a supernatural intelligence who gives the universe order and life meaning, whose history is rooted in Biblical revelation.

We either have no accountability for anything we do, think or plan; or we are accountable to a being that created us, rescued us from our grubby little lives of greed, lust and hate, and sustains us by His spirit. Further, you need to know not only what you believe but WHY. Don’t hold a worldview because you are too lazy intellectually to look at any evidence. (For example, most people who reject Christianity know almost nothing about it except what they have seen in the media or had a brief encounter with it.)

Simmons’ book investigates the journeys of great thinkers from one worldview to the other and why they changed their minds. “Follow the truth wherever it leads, always remembering that the truth is your friend. It enables you to believe responsibly.” For example, what of the problem of evil?

“You have to explain where the goodness scale comes from that enable us to identify evil. So how does a person with an atheistic worldview deal with the problem of evil and wickedness? He does not have a good basis to be outraged over the evil seen in the world, because atheist evolution teaches the clear lesson that natural selection depends on death, destruction, and violence of the strong against the weak.” However, “the notion of evil implies that there is a standard of goodness that has been violated. Apart from a transcendent lawgiver, there is no basis for moral law other than the law of the jungle. Human rights are not self-evident to everybody. Human rights are not things we can prove. It take religious commitment. It’s a faith assumption.” Without God, human beings are merely another animal.

So what do YOU think?

review--The Genius of Jesus

BOOK BIT for WTBF-AM/FM in Troy, Ala. for January 4, 2022.

“The Genius of Jesus, The Man who Changed Everything” by Erwin Raphael McManus (Convergent Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House)

Here’s a fresh look at the central figure of human history. Theologians have been debating the aspects of the Divine nature of Jesus for two millennia; more seldom is an understanding of the Human nature of the Christ. Since Jesus was (and is) truly God and truly human, what about His human nature can be unknown to us?

The  best-selling author is the founder of Mosaic, a church movement based in the heart of Hollywood with a community that spans the globe. Critical for this book is his life-long study of genius and the pursuit of God, which have found common ground here. Both were “rooted in a desperate search for something to translate (his) life from the mundane to the transcendent.”

He is “convinced that when we experience expressions of genius, it elevates our own personal capacity.” As he studied the lives and contributions of geniuses, McManus noticed some common denominators. They weren’t always the smartest, best educated or technically-trained in their field, he admits, adding, ”But their combination of originality, imagination, creativity, perspective, passion, and intelligence merge together to help them see the world differently—and then create a different world.”

McManus writes that a genius is heretical (in that “they violate the status quo and challenge our most deeply-held beliefs and values”); original (“in that they see the world from a perspective that never existed before”); transformative (“their lives become a marker of before and after”); and  extremists (“they are consumed in their pursuit of the creative act and convinced of the singular importance of their passion.”) Where most genius is self-contained, the genius of Jesus is contagious, “awakening the genius in everyone and anyone who would trust in His guidance and walk in His steps.” Jesus is “the most transformative human being who ever lived.”

When He was 12 years old, He understood exactly Who He was and why He was put here on Earth.  He was clear about His identity and His intention. A prodigy finds their genius early in life: so did Jesus. ‘His genius was always grounded in His character”, and He awakened the genius in His disciples.

“Jesus did not simply come to ensure that we understand God but so that we would know that God understands us.”  He came to demonstrate empathy, which is incarnational. Empathy as exhibited by Jesus was “not only the highest form of intelligence, it may also be our greatest expression of strength.”

He was incarnate in an oppressed land and time. Jesus “chose a life that cost Him all the comforts we value most. He exposed the lie of loving God without loving people.” His life demonstrates what power looks like in the hands of God.

Jesus exemplified grace is every sense of the word. “Grace is only needed when it is undeserved. This is its elegance. That is its genius.”

Rather than limit us to choosing between right and wrong, “Jesus teaches us to choose between the right and the good.” Doing good, you see, is all about others, and “the genius of Jesus is that He make the profound painfully obvious.”

Jesus healed not to show off but to teach, to change the way we saw reality. He answered questions with other questions to make people think deeper about the answers. (That was “the genius of the true.”)

Finally, the genius of Jesus is demonstrated in how He transformed the ugly into the beautiful, as any genius artist does. He took the symbol of horrible torture and death and transformed it into hope and eternal life!  “When you see beauty, you are looking at God.” To know God is to have your eyes and heart open to the overwhelming expression of God’s love.

 

interview classic-exceptional Dietrich Bonhoeffer biography

One of my personal heroes and a giant of the 20th century was martyred theologian, pastor and underground seminary teacher Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His influence on Christians in the second half of the 20th century has carried to a new generation of fellow believers who answer his call against "cheap grace" that offers heaven without a cross, repentance, and spiritual rebirth. This  2011 biography is masterful and worth your attention.

interview--Terry Wildman, main translator for First Nations Version NT

Using the storytelling tradition of Native Americans from 25 different tribes has crated a beautiful ne English translation of the new Testament.

First Nations is the term first used by Canada and now increasingly by tribes in the USA. The names in this version are translated from original Greek , Hebrew and Aramaic words to reflect titles (ie: rather than use "God", the translation refers to God as "Creator" or "Great Spirit", Jesus as "Creator Sets Free".) It reads so well you will want to use this version whether you are a First Nations member or not!