Book Reviews
Book Reflection: The Making of Stanley Hauerwas
Recently I read The Making of Stanley Hauerwas, a book adapted from David Hunsicker’s doctoral dissertation. Hunsicker is a Presbyterian minister in Alabama and former theology professor. Published dissertations usually aren’t a type of reading material that gets me very excited, but the subject matter of this one intrigued me. For the last thirty years, Stanley Hauerwas has been among the most discussed and debated theologians in the Anglo-American world. He taught most of his career at Duke Divinity School and at Notre Dame for many years...
read morePining for the Glory Days: A Review of Randall Balmer’s Evangelicalism in America
by Joshua R. Colson The term evangelicalism means many things to many people. In contemporary usage, the term often refers to a bloc of white, conservative Christian voters. Indeed, pundits and pollsters regularly identify evangelicals with the Republican Party, free markets, and politically conservative causes. The identification of evangelicals with the Republican Party is apparently justified by the fact that eighty-one percent of white, self-identified evangelicals voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.[1] However, on the verge of...
read moreRecommended Books (Spring 2020)
What an odd spring we have all had! Amid all the clamor about viruses and social distancing, one of the unintended benefits of quarantine has been increased free time (at least for some of us). Let’s not waste such a moment with insipid social media scrolling, binge-watching old (or new) television series, or shallow reading (what Charlotte Mason referred to as twaddle). Instead, we should steward this moment well with good books and fulfilling activities. Below we have provided some of our favorite reads from recent months that address a...
read moreBook Review of The Compelling Community: Where God’s Power Makes a Church Attractive
A constant temptation for us as pastors and church leaders is to do something that we think will make our church more appealing to those in our community. This desire is good, since we should all want to see our churches grow. But we must ask ourselves: At what cost? Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop remind readers of The Compelling Community that the gospel, not our creativity, is ultimately what makes a church attractive. Dever and Dunlop purpose to encourage readers to trust in the power of the gospel and to do nothing to stand in its way....
read moreTheological Retrieval for Evangelicals: A Review
My first significant exposure to historical theology occurred during college in a course that covered the creeds and councils of the early Church. I was astonished by the brilliance of these early Christian pastors, theologians, and philosophers as they wrestled with important theological truths. They often did so in response to various heretical teachings from influential teachers such as Arius and Marcion. Reading primary and secondary sources for this course caused me to feel that I had entered into a foreign land that I was largely...
read moreBook Review: Letters to an American Christian
The 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses are now only days away, ushering in a new United States presidential primary season. This noteworthy contest can indicate how a presidential candidate will do later in the primary season. However, the question is: how interested will voters be this election year? More specifically, how will Christians view their roles in public life and American politics? I’ve reflected several times over the last few months how thankful I am for my college and seminary education. Welch College and Southeastern Baptist...
read moreBook Review: The Apologetics of Leroy Forlines
In my work as a teacher I have noticed a recent surge in Free Will Baptist students who are interested in apologetics. Anecdotally, I can count a handful of students who have graduated recently from Welch College and have gone on to earn (or are earning) master’s degrees in apologetics. While a number of variables may contribute to this sudden interest, these students are heirs to a certain kind of theological thinking concerning apologetics. Specifically, they join a line of Free Will Baptist apologists concerned with offering an apologia...
read moreRecommended Books (Winter 2019)
Many people find reading a difficult task. Their challenges often arise from unfamiliarity and lack of practice. However, time constraints and the constant demands of modern life also play a part in raising barriers to the practice of reading. With these things in mind, it is important to devote what little time and energy we can spare for reading to good books. We would like to recommend some of our favorite selections from the past few months as a guide for your future reading. Or you may find a good last-minute Christmas gift for a friend...
read moreWords Fitly Written: A Review of Honey for a Child’s Heart
I imagine that very few HSF readers would disagree with the assertion that childhood in 2019 is different than childhood in, say, 1999. Speaking as one who was a child herself in 1999, I’m not sure that young Christa could even have imagined some of the changes we see now: “You mean that I can carry a little television around with me all the time, and I don’t need a videotape to watch my favorite shows?”“The internet is everywhere, not just at the library?”“I can send instant messages to my friends and family complete with pictures from a...
read moreWho Is An Evangelical? A Review
Who is an evangelical? That is a complex question. We often hear the term evangelical used today in reference to American politics, but that is a very narrow (one might say misguided) understanding of historical evangelicals and evangelicalism. In Who Is an Evangelical?, Thomas Kidd attempts to answer the question historically by tracing the roots of American evangelicalism from the eighteenth century through the election of Donald Trump. According to Kidd, the moniker “evangelical” has come to mean something like “Republican insider...
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