Reflections of the Kingdom

Leaders, Do Unto Others: Brief Meditations on Leading and Learning and Loving by David Harwood My rating: 2 of 5 stars Book : ** Performance : *** Highly Repetitive and Jumbled Collection of Scripture Points It was a good concept/sentiment that just didn’t deliver for me. because it was basically a bunch of scripture quotes with a ton of shallow, fluffy, word salad that knits it all together in a confusing mass that has no practical point outside of telling the reader to just be good. In fact, if you are even remotely a student of christian scripture, this book offers very little beyond that (with almost no exegesis or explaining of how the quoted scripture actually applied to the point being discussed) … and it was even less of a help on how to actually be an effective christian leader (for which it has nearly zero examples or illustrations outside of simply quoting scripture). After each “reflection”, there is a quick prayer that has the potential to expl...

Seven Challenges That Shaped the New Testament: Understanding the Inherent Tensions of Early Christian Faith by F Scott Spencer My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was an interesting look at how tensions between the “basic tenets and apparent countervailing realities” help to determine the evolution of Christian doctrine. I was especially interesting in this topic since I have frequently been exposed to the idea that interpreting the Jewish Torah often requires a both/and approach where western thought more frequently sees an either/or interpretation. While related, this work does not use the same framework; rather, it focuses on the struggle to adapt the former to the latter in a way that more or less represents a compromise position rather than a contextual continuum. In that respect, it was a bit of a disappointment while still providing a solid understanding of context when much of the doctrine of the Church was determined … and so is very helpful in ap...

How Did Christianity Begin? Hallucinations? Fabrications? Myths? Resurrection? A Look at the Evidence by Christopher Hearn My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book as an interesting premise; however, it is by no means an academic or scholarly work. The entire focus is on proving the Resurrection of Jesus, and while it marshals an impressive amount of circumstantial evidence, there is little to no direct evidence (as might be expected), so it is unlikely to convince skeptics; although it might comfort believers. No where does it cover anything about the origins of Christianity outside of the resurrection narrative, so if that is what you are looking for, this is not the book for you. The book is divided into three (3) parts, with each part organized differently. Part One proposes that the resurrection has been denied with the claim that all witnesses were experiencing some form of mass hallucination … and makes the unsupported point that this is the principl...

Untangling Critical Race Theory: What Christians Need to Know and Why It Matters by Ed Uszynski My rating: 4 of 5 stars To start with … I am reasonable sure that I am not the target audience for this book as I am neither an Evangelical nor a fundamental christian conservative; however, I would consider myself somewhat adjacent to the social issues addressed by both CRT and the author's understanding of scripture … although it appears that he considers the foundations of catholic social teaching (which is my own tradition) to be largely heretical. While I am more or less aligned with his conclusions, I find that I frequently diverge with the interpretations used to get there and with the inconsistent expansion and/or restriction of foundational terminology (which speaks more to my desire for language precision than any deficiencies with the arguments) … but not so much as to undermine the ultimate conclusion supporting a christian conversation abo...