One Child - A Review

China’s one child policy offered promise of economic blessing, but has resulted in sociological disruption leading to economic problems, leaving trauma and tragedy in its wake. This is an example of a government trying to plan its way to prosperity.

In a 2012 book, One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment, journalist Mei Fong explores the impacts of the technocratically-driven population policy instituted by China several decades ago.

One Child is an engaging book. Fong writes clearly, tells captivating stories, and systematically arranges the book in a way that makes it an enjoyable and informative read.

One of Fong’s main goals in writing One Child is to demonstrate that the infamous policy of Communist China is not the blessing that some have argued it to be. She writes,

“It took me a while to realize that, contrary to popular thinking, the one-child policy had very little to do with China’s double-digit economic growth of the past thirty years, and will actually be a drag for the next thirty.” (9)

Fong came to realize that people are both consumers and producers. Although she does not articulate the idea clearly in her book, it seems that she also recognizes that the economy is not a pie of a fixed size. That is, having more productive citizens does not mean that the same wealth must be distributed to more people more thinly. It means that more people will produce more wealth, which can be available to many people. The economy is not a zero-sum game.

The tragedy of the one-child policy is manifold. Fong notes that the policy has created a class of non-citizens in China who, because they were the extra child born over the limit, cannot be registered and cannot get health care, an education, or jobs. They are the hei haizi, “black children,” undocumented and ignored.

One of the more frightening aspects of the one-child policy has been the eugenic emphasis. Fong argues, “Chinese authorities were never shy about stating this aim of the one-child policy: fewer births, higher-quality births.” (28) The right people should be able to procreate to create the right sort of citizen. The result of such policies is always horrific abuse of human rights.

Fong tells the story of one factory worker pregnant with her second child. She believed she was qualified for an exemption, but the local officials disagreed. They demanded an exorbitant fine, which her family could not pay, and was subsequently forced to have an abortion. Fong writes,

“Feng, meanwhile, was made to sign an agreement she voluntarily consented to the abortion. On June 2, she was injected with a substance to kill the fetus. She later said, ‘I could feel the baby jumping around inside me all the time, but then she went still.’” (61)

Furthermore, “In some parts of the country, pregnant women without birth permits were marched off in handcuffs to undergo forced abortions.” (70) In the 1990’s, the policy expanded to punish behaviors that could be more or less linked to unsanctioned births, “Women were fined for living with a man out of wedlock; for not using contraception, even if it didn’t lead to pregnancy; or simply for not attending regular pregnancy checkups. In Jiangsu, women had to line up twice monthly for pregnancy tests and publicly pee in cups.” (73)

Contributing to this, there was “a wage incentive for birth-planning officials, which was tied to how many sterilizations and abortions they were able to achieve. . . . [According to one former official,] ‘Some girls were forced to get surgeries even though they weren’t pregnant at all.’” (75]

The enforced abortion regime is one of the most horrific aspects of the policy that Fong records. Interestingly, she herself is a proponent of abortion and considered terminating her first pregnancy, which later ended in miscarriage, which only makes the horror of her stories more apparent.

The sociological impacts of the one-child are also striking. Fong details how combining one-child policies with a culture that expects children to take care of their parents puts extreme pressure on children to get into lucrative careers so they and their spouse can support their own child plus up to four parents and, potentially, grandparents as well. The emotional burden on the child who fears failing a test and being forced into factory work is obvious.

China has also instituted minimum ages for marriage. A man cannot get married before he is 22 and a woman before 20. But if school is not complete and a career not established, then marriage will logically be delayed. Subsequently, the age of marriage goes up and the window of fertility shrinks. The result is increasing infertility, which is making it more difficult for some workers to conceive and bear even the quota of children they are allowed.

Fong’s book is a helpful exposé of the regime in China. It is a reminder that government tinkering in families and biology are often ill-fated, even when they have positive motives. It is also a reminder of the horror of abortion that underlies many zero population growth or other population control movements. These are consistently pitched as “voluntary,” but once the government steps in “volunteerism” often shifts to coercion. People should be careful what they wish for.

One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment

By Fong, Mei

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My Tech-Wise Life - A Review

It’s one thing to argue that a plan like the one Andy Crouch outlines in Tech-Wise Family would work. It’s another thing entirely to find out how the people who participated in the plan felt about it. The 2020 book, My Tech-Wise Life, which was co-authored by Amy Crouch (Andy’s daughter) and Andy Crouch provides a portal into one teenager’s thoughts on her family’s approach to technology.

Amy Crouch is a student at Cornell University. As she describes herself in this book, she is not an exceptional being in the ways that our world often describes it. She is not a social media influencer with her own cable TV show, she has not won Olympic Gold, she has not developed a new technology that will end malaria in the world. However, at the age of 19, she did complete a manuscript for this volume. This is someone who may not be extraordinary in the conventional sense, but is the sort of person that I’d like to hear from about how a method of navigating the distractions of our tech-saturated world can come through and be the sort of college freshman that can write a good book.

This is a short book, but a helpful one for this particular moment. In eight chapters, Amy explains why her family’s conscious, tech-minimal lifestyle was a good thing. Each chapter is accompanied by a letter of response from Andy Crouch, Amy’s father. In Chapter One, Amy begins by demonstrating how social media can make us feel inadequate through comparison. A casual photo highlights our imperfections, which can make our image-infatuated minds dwell on negative self-perceptions. The answer that Amy provides is not to revel in self-love and post more ugly pictures on purpose, but to recognize the limitations of technology, keep tech in check, and focus on real life relationships. In the second chapter the topic is distraction. Anyone who writes knows how easy it is to get sucked into the cycle of clicking through social media platforms, email, and anything but the task at hand. Those who get notifications will find their phones constantly buzzing, drawing them away from essential tasks. The result is a harried life of distraction and unproductivity, which if started at a young age can set up patterns that undermine a teen’s future. Amy’s answer is to take control, limit apps, take media fasts, and keep the main things the main thing. This is enabled by a family structure than supports, encourages, and, when necessary, enforces such discipline.

Chapter Three wrestles with the question of connection and isolation. She discusses strategies to use technologies to connect rather than isolate. This begins by recognizing how easy it is for our portable entertainment devices to keep us isolated and treasure the connection. Social media is a fine garnish, but our goal should be a life off-grid. The secret to getting there is recognition of which has the greater value. In the fourth chapter, the topic shifts to the problem of secrets, privacy, and the digital age. Amy’s emphasis in this chapter is the problem of porn, which is distorting self-perceptions, expectations about sex, and relationships. Additionally, she talks about how the prospect of secrecy or anonymity can enable negative behaviors. Amy recognizes the good of privacy, but also that it is a limited good, so that having parents who can help when you’ve been sucked into binge watching a fairly harmless, but not-particularly-valuable show can provide some direct feedback.

Chapter Five deals with the issue of lying online. This has been encouraged, in some cases, because of the age limits of apps like Facebook, so that 11-year-olds would claim to be 13 in order to get access. Now the realization that a million identities and faux accomplishments are only a few clicks away. The message here is that it isn’t worth it, your real friends will know the truth, so you are burning bridges by presenting a false front online. The sixth chapter tackles the topic of using technology to avoid boredom. Here Amy channels some of the wisdom of her father (the culture maker) to argue that boredom is a good thing and the source of creativity and greater community.

The topic opens in several earlier chapters, but Chapter Seven explores the issue of technologies replacing sleep time, especially among teens (who need more than most adults). The stats are inarguable. 24/7 access to phones and computers is taking away from the rest that kids (and adults) need to live healthy, cognitively balanced lives. Amy’s solution is to put boundaries on phones, keep them out of the bedroom, and practice Sabbath where minimal technology is available to distract from other activities. The final chapter is an exhortation to live in hope. Basically, we need not acquiesce to the negative influences of technology. We can, in fact, take control and have a more positive experience if we take control, set limits, and live in communities that encourage healthy limits to technology.

I commend both Andy Crouch’s book, The Tech-Wise Family, and the combined effort with his daughter, Amy, My Tech-Wise Life, to both individuals and families. My Tech-Wise Life is obviously marketed toward teens, but I found it to be refreshing and helpful in many ways. It serves to undermine the argument, which I have heard some parents make, that limiting access to technology is going to “make my kid angry for living like we’re Amish.” Amy shows that when the whole family tries to live a tech-wise life it can make for a much better experience.

This book is very important in the attention economy because it shows (rather than states) the possibility and promise of limitations to technology. Amy encourages asking why one should use a particular technology or platform, not merely how to get access to it. Though the applications will change faster and faster, the principals are the same.

If you are a parent, read The Tech-Wise Family and this book, too. If you are a youth pastor, buy copies to distribute to your students. If you are a pastor, read this book, buy copies to have on hand when you have families come in for counseling due to results of stress that a tech-harried life will cause. This book does not answer all questions or make detailed theological arguments, but it provides a way forward for one of the most pressing questions of our day.

My Tech-Wise Life: Growing Up and Making Choices in a World of Devices

By Crouch, Amy, Crouch, Andy

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NOTE: I made the decision to refer to Amy by her first name due to the fact that this was co-authored by her father, to simplify the language. Since there are distinct divisions between her work and her father’s the first name seemed the simplest way to make the differentiation.

The Story Retold - A Review

As Qoheleth warned his son, “There is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body.” (Ecc 12:12b, CSB)

This may be said of publishing in our day and age, even of evangelical publishing, with more new books being pumped out than any person can possibly read. And yet, there are so many good books being published that it is difficult to let them pass by. Sadly, there are many engaging books that I never open the covers of. But the ones that I do find are often worth writing about.

One recent, good book that I’ve had opportunity to peruse is G. K. Beale’s and Benjamin Gladd’s volume, The Story Retold: A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament. The occasion of my reading this book is preparation of a New Testament survey for my daughter’s homeschool curriculum, but the benefit has extended well beyond that preparation.

In my library I have multiple whole-Bible and New Testament biblical theologies. I also have a handful of intro or survey texts for the New Testament. What need is there for yet another item in my home library on the same topic?

Need may be too strong a word here, but there is certainly benefit in owning this beautiful and rich book.

I was expecting another survey text with a little more theological thrust, but Beale and Gladd have gone well beyond that. This is a book that should be paired with a standard survey (they recommend Carson and Moo), because The Story Retold skips much of the standard authorship, dating, textual criticism information and jumps into what the text says, what it means, and how that relates to the rest of the canon of Scripture.

This book is deeper than a basic introduction, exploring the corners of significance and sometimes seeming more like a commentary than a survey text. In many cases, Gladd and Beale do a lot of work to show how a given book of the New Testament fits in with other New Testament books and especially Old Testament books. One of Beale’s major interests is temple imagery throughout the canon, so it is little surprise that shows up on a regular basis in this volume.

The Story Retold is a valuable resource in a Christian’s home library because it pushes the reader toward a deeper understanding of the whole message of Scripture. The “verse a day” mentality is demolished as the pieces are put together into a beautiful mosaic that reveals Christ as the central character of all of Scripture.

In addition to its helpful content, this volume is simply beautiful. It is printed on heavy, glossy paper with full color illustrations. The publishing team included artwork and illustrative photographs that enrich the text, not merely adorn it. The book is, itself, simply a pleasure to read and peruse.

The challenge of this volume is that it may be a hard place for beginners to start. The subtitle indicates that it is an introduction, but in some ways this is an introduction to the particular method of reading Scripture—Biblical theology—rather than to the text itself. If a new believer is looking for a place to begin to try to put the pieces of Scripture together, The Story Retold may prove heavy going without an experienced guide. However, for the saint who has some of the basics down, this is a book that will accelerate growth in biblical understanding and depth of knowledge of the whole message of the Bible.

This book has gone from a supplemental text that I was using to prepare some lectures for my daughter’s homeschool curriculum to a book that is going to be a core textbook for the course. Moreover, I would encourage Christians building their libraries to add this book. Pastors should own a copy, because I’ve referenced it in preparation for Sunday School lessons and can see its helpfulness for sermon prep. Professors teaching a NT Intro or Survey should consider this as a secondary text that will significantly enhance the students’ understanding of the Bible. Families should consider having this accessible because children may find themselves thumbing through the pictures and straying to examine the valuable content.

In short, The Story Retold is a useful book. It is a good book. It is a beautiful book. And it is a book that deserves a wide and long-term audience.

The Story Retold: A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament

By Beale, G. K., Gladd, Benjamin L.

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NOTE: I received a gratis copy of this volume from the publisher with no expectation of a positive review.

An Apologetics Book for Teens

Rebecca McLaughlin’s recent book, 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity, is the sort of volume that deserves to be put into the hands of many young Christians and soon.

McLaughlin is riffing on her first book, Confronting Christianity, which poses a slightly different set of questions for an older audience. But this new book is pitched at young people who are being flooded with more questions than answers about the historic Christian faith.

In a world that is rewarding deconstruction of the faith and rejection of Christian orthodoxy and orthopraxy, McLaughlin stands firm in her belief that Christianity has good answers to any culture’s questions and tackles some of the big-ticket challenges of the modern age. She explains that Christianity has demonstrable health benefits, that it is (contrary to popular myth) the most diverse religious movement in history. She argues that Christianity does indeed require rejecting relativism and that evangelism is demanded, but that should be recognized as a good thing. McLaughlin goes on to wrestle with morality apart from God, exploring the ways that modern conceptions of “good” are often derived from Christian ideals. Then she provides arguments for the reliability of Scripture and follows that by making the case that science has not, as commonly thought, disproved Christianity. So far these are just standard apologetic arguments. In the next two chapters, McLaughlin goes on to make the case for natural marriage and for a historic understanding of human sex. In both chapters she acknowledges the difficulty of same-sex attraction (as a same-sex attracted woman who is married to a man) and intersex individuals. This is no table-pounding denial of the complexity or emotional difficulty of the present issues, but is a compassionate wrestling with sexual ethics and the witness of Scripture. McLaughlin remains faithful to orthodox Christianity, but presents it in terms that are less repugnant than its opponents often make it. The book concludes with chapters on the problem of pain (or evil) and the defensibility of eternal judgment and reward.

There is little innovative about the content McLaughlin presents, but this little volume presents important, challenging information in a winsome way. The book is written openly and honestly without being condescending. The hard questions culture is asking are acknowledged. The fact that Christianity stands in stark contrast to the prevailing notions of the day is recognized. The goodness of the enduring truth of the gospel remains central and a deep concern for maintaining the faith once and for all delivered to the saints is revealed. McLaughlin makes the case that being true to Christianity is worth it.

The usefulness of this book is that McLaughlin has transposed important apologetic arguments from the halls of the atheist/Christian debates and put it in language and terms that are absorbable for the average teen. McLaughlin uses illustrations from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and a variety of Disney animated movies. She does this as someone who has obviously watched and enjoyed them, so they don’t come across as misplaced tinsel, but actually support the content of the book. This is a book that reads well without sacrificing the quality of the arguments.

10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity does not answer every question as fully as it could be, but it provides good arguments against common cultural defeaters that can help Christian teens feel confidence in their beliefs and help curious teens understand that there is more to the historic Christian faith than the cardboard cutouts that are often depicted in popular media.

Some parents might question why this book is for teens and not for those younger. Depending on the social situation and reading level of a given child, this may be an appropriate book for those at 10 and 11 years old. It’s not a difficult read, but it isn’t lightweight either. And the book wrestles with sexual topics (discreetly) that some parents may not feel appropriate, especially for younger children. Given the age that public schools are presenting their sexual content, this will certainly be mild for many children. For parents with questions, I would recommend previewing the content (an intro chapter by the author provides some insight), but this is best suited for teens.

In any case, this is a book that deserves to be distributed widely. Youth pastors should stock the volume as a resource. Parents should sneak it on their child’s shelf or backpack. Pastors should have a few copies available to help those wrestling with hard questions. This is the sort of book that would be even better when a faithful adult reads it along side a teen who is being asked and perhaps asking some of these difficult questions. It is unlikely to get easier to be a faithful Christian, but this volume at least explains why it is reasonable and worthwhile to hold fast to the faith.

10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity

By McLaughlin, Rebecca

Another Gospel? - A Review

Deconstruction. All the cool kids are doing it these days. Former evangelicals, embarrassed by Trumpism, tired of harassment over adherence to Christian sexual ethics, and often ill-informed about the basis of historic Christianity are becoming “Exvangelicals” and turning on their earlier beliefs. In essence, Christianity is experiencing a new divide between orthodoxy and progressivism.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the fight was between fundamentalists and liberals. Fundamentalists gathered around the five fundamentals of the faith: Biblical inspiration and truthfulness of Scripture; the virginal conception of Jesus; the substitutionary atonement of Christ; Christ’s bodily resurrection; and the historicity of Christ’s miracles. Liberals either rejected these or were not concerned with their truthfulness, because they were deemed accessories to true Christianity, which could be jettisoned as irrelevant in the face of modern naturalism.

Fundamentalists later divided between evangelicals and fundamentalists, whose theology is generally compatible, but who have different understandings of the degree of theological agreement necessary to cooperate. The current focus on revisionists is less on a rejection of miracles, since supernaturalism is no longer a cultural pinch point, and more on sexual ethics and other issues that have cultural controversies associated with them. Add onto that the brutal nastiness of political wrangling by those who have concluded that doctrinal orthodoxy requires vocal support for Trump and his policies which have been accompanied by ongoing revelations of sexual abuse among evangelical institutions.

There is certainly a great deal of room for criticism of evangelicals and their institutions. But it need not follow that criticism of abuses of power should result in abandonment of the historic Christian faith. That is what is happening with the growing “Exvangelical” movement, which is simply a form of progressive Christianity.

Alisa Childers aims to confront the growing progressive Christian movement in her book, Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity.

Progressive Christianity is difficult to define, as Childers discovers when she opens here book. She writes, “Progressive Christians tend to avoid absolutes and are typically not united around creeds or belief statements. . . Because of this, it might be more helpful to look for certain signs, moods, and attitudes toward God and the Bible when trying to spot it. For example, progressive Christians view the Bible as primarily a human book and emphasize personal conscience and practices rather than certainty and beliefs. They are also very open to redefining, reinterpreting, or even rejecting essential doctrines of the faith like the Virgin Birth, the deity of Jesus, and his bodily resurrection.” As Childers initially describes the movement, it sounds a great deal like the modern liberalism of the last century, but throughout the book it becomes clear that she understands the movement to be in some ways different. Progressive Christianity tends to be less overtly distinct from historic Christianity at the creedal level; the differences tend to be in ethics and the theology that underlies it.

In response to the redefinitions and abandonment of the ancient Christian faith by progressive Christians, Childers responds by pointing people toward “historic Christianity.” She doesn’t perfectly define this term either, but she describes it as a faith “deeply rooted in history. In fact, it is the only religious system I can think of that depends on a historical event (the resurrection of Jesus) being real—not fake—news.” She goes on to summarize her faith as understanding that, “The Bible is [God’s] Word, or it’s not. Jesus was raised from the dead, or he wasn’t. Christianity is true, or it isn’t. There is no ‘my truth’ when it comes to God.” What she defends through the book is the faith “once and for all delivered to the saints,” with the truthfulness of Scripture at the core and the necessary conclusions drawn from that about the nature of God, the importance of the cross, and the goodness of pursuing holiness as it is described in Scripture.

Another Gospel? is framed around Childers’ experience with a pastor who was losing his faith and brought together a group to try to deconstruct the Christian faith together. She describes how her Christian faith collided with that group, her faith was nearly shipwrecked, but by asking honest questions and seeking honest answers she was able to reconstruct her faith in a more robust and biblical way.

This book is interspersed with personal narrative, but it also covers some of the basic apologetic topics: the authority of Scripture, basic epistemology, the possibility of reliable texts of Scripture, the reality (and reasonableness) of hell, the atonement as child abuse, and some other challenges. This is a popular level book, so there are few new arguments here, and those seeking exhaustive discussions of any topic are going to be disappointed. However, what Childers covers is well-done. She honestly represents challenging questions to Christianity and answers them faithfully.

One challenge that this book will face is that Childers uses the category “Progressive Christian.” In the online world, especially among progressive Christians, one of the greatest sins is using categories (for them) because it “dehumanizes.” Also, since progressive Christianity is an attitude rather than a position, there will be some who are closer or farther from her definition (sometimes based on the day of the week, it seems). At the end of the day, though, Childers is not seeking to attack the beliefs of progressive Christians as much as she is trying to argue for the superiority of historic Christianity. This book does that well.

I commend this book highly for those who are questioning their faith and wondering if there are really answers to cultural challenges. Childers answers as someone who has carefully considered the arguments and come out more convinced of the gospel she learned as a young girl. This would be a good book to read with a youth group, for pastors to have on hand to distribute to those honestly seeking answers, and to put in the church library.

Dispatches from the Front - A Review

If you watch the news, listen to the radio, and read the usual blogs it is easy to forget a simple fact: God is on the move and the gospel will be triumphant.

Tim Keesee’s 2014 book, Dispatches from the Front, is a reminder that the light of life has the power to penetrate the darkness in a million places in the world. The power of salvation, which is made plain in the story of Christ’s life, death, burial and resurrection, is not dependent upon the perfect political conditions, but upon the message going forth and the sovereign choice of an omnipotent God.

Dispatches from the Front bears the subtitle, “stories of gospel advance in the world’s difficult places.” Though some readers might think that the subtitle refers to progress in suburban homes in the US, it actually refers to the advance of the gospel in the places where Christianity makes believers social and political outsiders. The good news about the good news is that God is on the move.

Keesee gives the reader snippets from his travels with Frontline Missions International, which was formed to get the gospel to hard-to-reach places in the world. We don’t see the months and years of plowing and tilling that went into some of the conversions, but we get to read about the baptisms, the equipping of pastors, and the growth of the gospel. There may be, for some, a danger of romanticism about getting on a plane, handing out a few tracts, and seeing communities flock to Christ. That can happen, but that is not the story behind most of these stories.

The stories Keesee presents are vitally important as an encouragement because it is a reminder that the Church will not stand or fall based on the party in power or the irrational laws that are enacted.

The book is arranged geographically. It begins in the former Soviet Bloc, then moves to the Balkans. In the next chapter Keesee travels through China with the following one detailing God’s work in Southeast Asia. Chapter Five presents the gospel advance in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, with the sixth chapter detailing some events from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. The final two chapters offer the hopeful signs of renewal in the horn of Africa and Egypt, closing with Afghanistan and Iraq.

Each of these dispatches—quick vignettes of the gospel bearing fruit and increasing—reminds readers that we have a supernatural God who works in mighty ways to accomplish his vital work in the world. For the pastor weighed down by the constant bickering about pandemic protocols, selfishness of congregations, and mundane arrangements of life in the US, this book offers a vitamin shot of encouragement about the way God can work in hard places. For the average Christian whose vision of the faith is limited to a service that can be squeezed in between travel league games and vacations, this will reveal Christian faith that energizes all of life.

Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the World's Difficult Places

By Keesee, Tim

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Reading the Times - A Review

Most local newspapers are dying. The little paper in my city has been reduced to high school sports, complaints about the nearby nuclear plant, classified ads, and the occasional social gossip. More and more newspapers are shifting to a model of reprinting what comes through on some subscription service. This has had the effect of trivializing the news, so that local stories about small-scale, but important deeds like a teen giving her father CPR or a child finding the foundation of an old historical building while exploring the back woods disappear. In their place we get news about a smaller and smaller set of less and less real people who happen to have a large following on social media, their own TV show, and might have moderate talent in some other area of life. We end up knowing more about a rich, beautiful, spoiled person whom we will never meet than we do about our neighbor down the block.

The media by which we take in the news of the day affects the trivialization of the world, though it does not mandate it. Many people get their news from social media, which means that it tends to be ideologically slanted toward opinions shared with one’s friends. Since one of the basic presuppositions of our society is that if you associate with someone you agree with them, a bubble of reality begins to form. And, since the art of disagreeing temperately on social media is difficult to learn, opposing ideas are often avoiding or ignored rather than engaged and questioned. Comments are either strongly affirming or attacking the opinion under consideration, because to say “yes, but” or “maybe this, yet not that” is a needle that few can thread from a keyboard.

But it is our behaviors that trivialize the news. We share articles with misleading headlines, sometimes without having read the body. We look for opinions that excoriate our outgroup. The algorithm feeds our human behavior and continues to provide the material for which we have developed a taste. And we must be clear that our taste has been developed through our own actions, or, at least, through our own failures to resist the tendency of the news medium to trivialize our view of the world.

What can we do about it?

Jeffrey Bilbro’s book, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News, provides both an apt diagnosis of the problem and some particularly helpful steps toward alleviating it. The result is a succinct, clearly-written book that is accessible to the layperson.

Bilbro’s diagnosis is not particularly innovative. He is channeling the energy of Wendell Berry, Jacques Ellul, Neil Postman, and Thoreau in arguing that the way news is presented is not good for the human condition. In application, Bilbro’s solutions are much more reliant on Berry and Thoreau (whom Bilbro has written about previously) than the other two thinkers. In any case, innovation is not what is needed, but intelligibility and digestibility.

The core of the problem, as Bilbro presents it, is not necessarily the technology or the content of the news, but rather that too much of what we get that passes as news has very little to do with our lives, even though it is designed to rattle our cage. What we get angry or excited about often has little to do with what God is concerned about:

“Perhaps we need to conduct an emotional audit and consider which issues or news items cause us to become angry, outraged, or excited: Are we grieving over what grieves God and rejoicing over what brings him joy? Or have we become emotionally invested in trivia while growing apathetic about matters of real import?”

Bilbro recognizes that a big part of the problem is the way we read the news. As a result, the fix is to change ourselves and what we value. This is a book that is timely and well suited for those looking for an off-ramp from the highway of partisan politics, misanthropy, and emotional turmoil that often goes with the news.

After a brief introduction, in which Bilbro explains that his purpose is to help us understand how to use the news to love our neighbor better, the book is divided into three parts with three chapters each. Part One deals with attention, Part Two with time, and Part Three with community. The pattern of each part is to present the modern problem in the first chapter, put out a somewhat abstract better condition in the second chapter, and then provide some realistic practices that can help transition between the two. This pattern of problem, better vision, and help to get there makes this book a novel contribution.

Bilbro does not abstain from social media, nor does he recommend that for his readers, but he provides a means to put social media use in its place. He doesn’t recommend disconnecting from news media, but being more thoughtful of who we read, when, and how. The book presents a realistic vision of living in a world that demands our participation, but threatens us through our participation at the same time.

Much of Bilbro’s writing has had a localist bent. Like his hero, Wendell Berry, he has invested a great deal of thought in how to live in this place, right now. Modernity tends to flatten the world (a la Friedman) and create a tyranny of the eternal immediate present. Bilbro points to living better with an eternal viewpoint and a local scope, which is just the opposite of the way the news pushes us to have a global scope with an immediate viewpoint. This book won’t solve all of everyone’s problems, but it is another piece in a puzzle of dealing with the malaise of modernity.

In addition to being helpful and well-written, for those engaged in the study of modernity, this book ties a lot of pieces together. The footnotes are a roadmap to a wide range of resources for deeper study and consideration. They are also a trap for an individual’s book budget. I had to read the book again (a pleasure) before writing this review because I got sidetracked for several weeks following the leads that Bilbro laid out in his notes. Several mysterious packages showed up on the porch in the interim, which I had to explain to my wife, which was local news enough around here.

Buy the book because it is good and useful. Beware that it is going to make you stop, think, and probably even change the way you look at a few things.

Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News

By Bilbro, Jeffrey

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NOTE: I received an advanced reader copy from the publisher with no expectation of a positive review.

Together on God's Mission - A Review

The Cooperative Program is one of the most effective funding mechanisms for worldwide gospel ministry in the history of Christianity. Annually, autonomous local congregations give millions of dollars to support the advancement of the Great Commission at state, national, and global levels. Hundreds of pastors, missionaries, and lay people graduate from the six Southern Baptist Seminaries each year, better equipped for ministry and less financially burdened that would be possible if millions of people did not give to the Cooperative Program through their local churches. Missionaries go to language school, are transported to the field, and sustained in thousands of international locations because the gifts of small congregations are pooled with those of large ones to enable men and women from any sized church to dedicate their lives to getting the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Some might say the Cooperative Program is a wonder of modern missions. It serves as a catalyst for the spread of the gospel and offers a bright future for engaging the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ. Tragically, sometimes the purpose and fruit of Cooperative Program giving are invisible to people in the local churches. If Southern Baptists are going to continue to function in a collaborative manner to fund gospel ministry in the years to come, we must work diligently to celebrate the positive impact our cooperation can have and explore the shared theology that enables congregations who differ in their understanding of some doctrines to work together to advance the Great Commission.

The SBC has needed an updated simple, brief, and theologically informed case made for continued cooperation for several years. Together on God’s Mission: How Southern Baptists Cooperate to Fulfill the Commission, which released in early 2018, is a resource that fills that need.

Scott Hildreth’s recent book on cooperation in Southern Baptist life offers a concise history of the convention, with an emphasis on the Cooperative Program, and outlines a theological foundation for the ongoing collaboration of SBC churches in advancing God’s mission on earth. In less than one hundred pages, Hildreth significantly updates previous histories of the CP and makes explicit the ecclesiology that has for generations been assumed by cooperating Southern Baptists.

Part One of this volume consists of three chapters. The first chapter of Together on God’s Mission gives an overview of the early history of the Southern Baptist Convention as they shifted from mission society to a convention cooperating in ministry on multiple levels. Chapter Two traces the evolution of the early convention to a robust network of churches joined together to efficiently fund Great Commission activities. The third chapter helpfully informs readers how the Cooperative Program works.

In Part Two Hildreth shifts from history to theology. Chapter Four succinctly outlines a theology of mission. The fifth chapter offers a basic Baptist ecclesiology for cooperation which unites the many autonomous local congregations of the Southern Baptist Convention and enables them to work together with the other churches in the convention. In Chapter Six Hildreth outlines some of the ways the local congregations of the early church—that is, those documented in Scripture—cooperated, pooled funds for ministry, and sent personnel to accomplish the common mission of advancement of the gospel.

Part Three of the volume contains a single chapter. In the seventh chapter, Hildreth summarizes his arguments and offers some proposals for continued cooperation among Southern Baptists in the future. He commends churches to consider the theological implications of the Cooperative Program, evaluate cooperation in broader, non-financial terms, and celebrate the ability to participate in CP giving rather than viewing it as membership dues.

Together on God’s Mission was published by B&H Academic because it contributes to the academic conversation within the SBC about ecclesiology and history. However, the volume is written in plain English, with short chapters, and clear argumentation. These make the volume suitable for a popular audience. This book would be helpful to pastors who are not sure exactly what the Cooperative program does. It will also make a useful resource for prospective members of SBC churches who wonder what makes Southern Baptists distinct and unites them. As tensions continue to simmer over differences in ministry methodology, political persuasions, and doctrinal debates, this book can help recall to mind the good things that keep Southern Baptists working together. Together, the local churches of the Southern Baptist Convention can do a great deal more than we can do working alone.

This is a book that fills a void for the SBC at a time when a call to unity and recognition of the powerful way God has used the Cooperative Program to get the gospel to the ends of the earth. Together on God’s Mission deserves to be read broadly and discussed carefully as the convention marches toward two centuries of cooperative missions.

Together on God's Mission: How Southern Baptists Cooperate to Fulfill the Great Commission

By Hildreth, D Scott

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NOTE: This review was originally published at the B&H Academic blog, which has since been deactivated due to changes in strategy at LifeWay. I was provided a gratis copy of the volume with the expectation of an honest review.

On a Recent Edition of Frankenstein

There are so many books coming out that it is sometimes hard to keep up. And yet, there are many very good books that have been deemed classics that I have yet to read. In general, like many people, I probably invest too much time in the latest books, usually non-fiction, to the detriment of my exposure to well-weathered literature.

Karen Swallow Prior has been working with B&H to republish a set of literary classics in lovely bindings with helpful introductions and annotations to help contemporary readers access some good books from our literary past. So far the set includes Sense and Sensibility, Jane Eyre, Heart of Darkness, and Frankenstein. The general approach of the set has fit well with Prior’s earlier volume, On Reading Well, which encourages reading good literature for its ability to make us think morally, not simply to check a box on the Facebook “100 books every person must read” clickbait quiz.

Recently I picked up the new edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which is a book I had never previously read. First, it is worth noting that the physical book is a nice edition. It is a cloth hardback volume with quality paper, an easy-to-read font, with space between the lines and on the margins for notes and for the delight of the eyes. Unlike many reproduced classics, this is no cut-rate production that saps the energy through the process of trying to decipher tiny text on gray paper. Second, the introductory material is actually helpful. Too many reproduced classics have academic essays that diverge from framing the context for contemporary readers into second and third order scholarly debates that do little to help the average reader gain access to the information. Prior demonstrated restraint and focused on the most helpful bits of debate that actually pertain to the text (not its later interpretations), which makes the introduction worth reading before and after tackling Shelley’s work. Third, Prior frames the book for a Christian audience, which can be helpful. Instead of pushing the reader toward feminist interpretations or whatever neologism a particular scholar may be interested in, Prior offers some helpful points for consideration without providing the answers. Along with this, there are some reflection questions at the end of each of the three volumes of the book to encourage dialogue or reading with others.

The themes of Frankenstein are helpful for contemporary readers. Though the technology Victor Frankenstein uses to reanimate his monster is obviously fictional, it points beyond to moral questions of our own day like cloning, artificial wombs, and in vitro fertilization. Frankenstein conquers nature by “creating” life and that creature subsequently conquers him, taking away much of his joy, harming those he loves, and eventually resulting in his own death. In many ways, Shelley shows that by moving beyond the limits of nature, Frankenstein has really conquered himself. One great difference between Victor Frankenstein is that the misery caused by his invention has consequences that he himself feels, while many modern innovations externalize costs to another locality or a later generation. But a thoughtful reader may look around and wonder in what ways he or she is working to create a monster.

Readers should be grateful to Karen Swallow Prior for her work on this project and to B&H for refreshing these works of literature for contemporary readers to enjoy, discuss, and grow through. These volumes promise to be resources that can be appreciated for decades to come.

Some thoughts on The Postmodern Condition

Postmodernism was the bogeyman of the late ‘90s and early 2000s among evangelicals and other conservatives. In much the same way that one’s response to Critical Race Theory (which has some connections with postmodernity) serves as a shibboleth for acceptability in trendy circles, postmodernism functioned as a way to be part of the cool kids (on either side).

There are now those that think that postmodernism is really just another form of modernity (perhaps further advanced along its trajectory), and thus never really existed as a distinct movement, but there was something that adherents and opponents felt was different from the general stream of modernity, which still deserves some attention. With that in mind, I picked up, Jean-Francois Lyotard’s book, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, to try to get a better understanding from the horse’s mouth, as it were.

Lyotard offers a definition in his introduction: “Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives.”

In other words, Lyotard was arguing that modernity attempted to impose homogeneity on the world through metanarratives—high level explanations that were an attempt to make sense of everything. Postmodernity claims to recognize metanarratives as impositions from authorities that likely have little claim to correspondence to the truth.

At its best, postmodernity shakes the claims of modernistic empiricism, which leads to the apparent supremacy of “Science.” Postmodernity did not succeed in uprooting the religion of Scientism, as evidenced by the year of shaming that we “follow the Science” or “believe in the Science” or “listen to the Science.” In general, when someone puts a definite article in front of “Science” they are no longer talking about actual science, but about how they intend to try to browbeat you into doing what they want to. We are still very much living in an era where people believe that “Science” has or can produce a unified theory of everything. This despite Thomas Kuhn’s work in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which shows a truer picture of the way the scientific community develops metanarratives that evolve over time.

By Lyotard offers some helpful analysis beyond his definition of postmodernism. Though The Postmodern Condition was written in 1979, he predicted the information age with a surprising degree of prescience.

For example, he wrote,

“Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major—perhaps the major—stake in the worldwide competition for power. It is conceivable that the nation-states will one day fight for control of information, just as they battled in the past for control over territory, and afterwards for control of access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labor.”

There are obvious connections to information warfare, the psyops that are ongoing with bots on social media, election interference, etc. The fact that there are operatives from other nations whose primary goal is to stir up dissent and doubt among citizens of the United States is an illustration of Lyotard’s prediction.

Also, significantly for the concept of education and the role of the state, Lyotard anticipated the shifting role of the state with regard to education:

“The mercantilization of knowledge is bound to affect the privilege the nation-states have enjoyed, and still enjoy, with respect to the production and distribution of learning. The notion that learning falls within the purview of the State, as the brain or mind of society, will become more and more outdated with the increasing strength of the opposing principle, according to which society exists and progresses only if the messages circulating within it are rich and easy to decode. The ideology of communicational “transparence,” which goes hand in hand with the commercialization of knowledge, will begin to perceive the State as a factor of opacity and “noise.” It is from this point of view that the problem of the relationship between economic and State powers threatens to arise with a new urgency.”

It isn’t entirely a bad thing when the State is no longer perceived as “the brain or mind of society,” since the State has been significantly wrong about a number of life changing issues in the not-so-distant past. However, within Lyotard’s prediction is the anticipation of QAnon and similar conspiracy theories, which see a “Deep State” that is controlling the narrative. This has effectively made Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other outlets the de facto gatekeepers of truth, as congressional hearings and obnoxious overlays on social media posts frequently remind us.

It is interesting to read The Postmodern Condition at this point, to see how many of Lyotard’s anticipated realities have come true. As a description of reality, he is on the right track. He does little to help find a way to navigate through toward some better condition, but there is some value in the diagnosis.