Clear Winter Nights: A Journey into Truth, Doubt, and What Comes After, by Trevin Wax

**

Would-be church-planter Chris Walker is having a crisis of faith. The recent discovery of his estranged father's repeated infidelity has left him reeling. Between his father's hypocrisy and his own conflicting ideas of truth, religion, and morality, Chris doesn't know where to turn. Before he knows it, he's broken off his engagement to Ashley and is considering backing out of the church plant he's been involved with. Then, on New Year's weekend, he finds himself on the doorstep of his recently bereaved grandfather, a retired Baptist minister currently recovering from a stroke. Over the course of their many conversations, Chris begins to work through his doubts and questions about faith, truth, sin, and forgiveness.

For some time now, I've enjoyed reading Trevin Wax's posts on the Gospel Coalition blog. So when the opportunity arose to review his new work of fiction, Clear Winter Nights, I was pretty stoked. Unfortunately, as is often the case with Christian fiction, good theology does not always walk hand in hand with good storytelling.

Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine

****

An excerpt of a review recently posted on Schaeffer's Ghost:

The curse of obedience is represented as a violation—Ella is being forced to do things, and this interferes with the autonomy that is so highly valued in modern day America (well, in America pretty much on down the line). And indeed, this independence dovetails nicely with the religious idea of ‘free will.’ How do you explain the existence of evil in the world? ‘God didn’t want a bunch of automatons; He had to leave people free to choose sin, and some of them do. What can you do?’ How about salvation? ‘God gives us a choice whether to follow Him; if He interfered with or influenced our choice, then we would be mindless slaves.’ The idea of a bunch of puppet-people walking around following orders whether they want to or not is revolting to us; free will is the only acceptable alternative. [...] 

This idea of autonomy and freedom of thought stands in striking contrast to the Biblical teaching on free will. In The Freedom of the Will (which Coyle Neal blogged about recently), theologian Jonathan Edwards argues, quite persuasively, that our ‘will’ is at the mercy of our ‘desires’—that we can only will what we want. This makes a lot of sense—I may be physically free to choose between, say, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich and a slug-and-cat-hair sandwich, but if there’s nothing in me that wantsthe slug-and-cat-hair sandwich, then my ‘freedom’ to choose it is of little use to me. Functionally, I am only free to choose the things that are, in some sense, desirable to me.

Full review available here.

Sherlock Holmes and the Needle's Eye: The World's Greatest Detective Tackles the Bible's Ultimate Mysteries, by Len Bailey

**

Sherlock Holmes and the Needle's Eye, by Len Bailey: In which Jesus (code name: K2L2, for 'King of Kings and Lord of Lords') hires Sherlock Holmes to 'investigate' various biblical mysteries. By time-traveling him to Bible times via a doodad called 'the needle's eye', which Holmes built using schematics he stole from Professor Moriarty. See, Moriarty wanted to travel at the speed of light (for nefarious purposes), which is obviously impossible. Instead, the whatsit he invented enables the user to travel back in time. Holmes and Watson explore and resolve various 'conundrums', thereby demolishing many of Holmes' objections to religion and faith.

How could I not read this book? Sherlock Holmes solving Bible mysteries? Yes, please! After all, who among us hasn't lost sleep wondering why Ahitophel hanged himself? Or trying to resolve the apparent discrepancy between the Old and New Testamment references to Zechariah, son of Berechiah, and Zechariah, son of Jehoida? Or why Jehoiachin is included in Jesus' genealogy? Nail-biters, one and all.

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

***

An excerpt of a review recently posted on Schaeffer's Ghost:

However, American Gods demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of religion. Not all religions are man-made. There is a God who is not made by human hands—in fact, He made man … and everything else. (Gen. 1:1; Ps. 96:4-5; John 1:1-3; I Cor. 8:5-6) [...] He doesn’t get tired (Is. 40:28), and unlike other ‘gods’, He lives eternally (Jer. 10:11-16). [...] He has power over life and death, and nothing and no one compares to Him (Deut. 34:37-39)—certainly not some man-made idol (Is. 40:12-20). In fact, the other ‘gods’, such as they are, are commanded to worship Him (Ps. 97:7, 9). 

This God is no figment of human imagination (Acts 17:29). And while He desires—and deserves—our worship, He certainly doesn’t need it (Acts 17:24-25). We can no more harm or weaken Him by withholding our worship than, well, a tiny ant can hurt our feelings by making funny faces at us. It’s absurd. He is supremely powerful, supremely self-sufficient, and, more than that, He’s supremely sovereign (Ps. 115:3). Which means that our refusal to honor Him will itself be used to bring Him more glory (Ex. 14:4). 

[...] Where Mr. Wednesday and his fellow gods are willing to steal, cheat, lie, and kill in order to win the worship they crave, God never lies (Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18). [...] And unlike the selfish, callous, manipulative Mr. Wednesday, God is so perfectly loving that He is love. In fact, He’s the source of love—the only reason we even know what love is is because of God (I John 4:7-19).

Full review available here.

The Once and Future King, by T.H. White

***

An excerpt of a review recently posted on Schaeffer's Ghost:

Camelot has come to be associated with ideas of potential, hope, and promise, but in T.H. White’s book, it’s an even more striking picture of the depravity of man. [...] 

Arthur: “I will impregnate my half sister (it’s a long story—there was witchcraft) and then ineffectually arrange for the murder of the resulting bastard child. I will also devote my life to becoming a staunch advocate for justice and no respecter of persons, except when the person in question is one of my knights, in which case I’ll totally overlook minor infractions like the slaughter of innocents. Oh, and despite Merlin’s explicit warning about my wife and BFF hooking up (and the resulting downfall of my kingdom), I will turn a blind eye to their affair and instead adopt the tried-and-true ‘La la la I can’t hear you’ approach.” 

Other knights: “We will constantly lose our tempers, go off half-cocked, and/or avenge various wrongs (real or imagined) by murdering women, bystanders, and other knights, then apologize to Arthur, who will pardon us as long as we promise not to let it happen again. Then we will totally let it happen again. Also, the only one of us who is remotely virtuous will act like a sanctimonious and self-righteous jerk who is too busy being ‘holy’ to ever actually care about another human being.” [...] 

Some utopia you’ve got there, Arthur. Yessirree.

Full review available here.

Columbo (Series)

****

An excerpt of a review recently posted on Schaeffer's Ghost:

People take one look at the raincoat and the car, at the unprepossessing manner, and decide that Columbo is not worthy of their respect. He endures snide remarks by the boatload. The wealthy and powerful individuals involved in his cases demean him to his superiors and try to have him thrown off the case. They laugh at him to his face, and they talk to him like he’s five years old.

And how does he respond? He accepts their condescending suggestions and reprimands with humility—sometimes he even seems grateful. He is unfailingly polite and courteous, even in the face of rudeness, anger, and spite. He often acquiesces in the criticisms of others, and laughs along at jokes made at his expense, even though they are none-too-kindly meant. And it’s not because he’s oblivious to their scorn. He knows exactly what they think of him, and it doesn’t seem to bother him one particle. [...]

I wish I could say the same thing about myself. 

Full review available here.

The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins

****

An excerpt of a review recently posted on Schaeffer's Ghost:

Classic literature doesn’t offer much in the way of strong, single, unattractive heroines. If you’re a reader, it’s ridiculously easy to become persuaded that only attractive people matter—that they’re the only ones who get to have stories. Unattractive people are relegated to the sidelines. And a single woman, well, she’s just a problem to be solved. Elizabeth Bennet is witty and charming and attractive, so she gets a (fantastic) book and ends up with one of the Catches of All Time. Juliet’s story doesn’t end well, it’s true, but it’s highly regarded as a romantic classic—and she was no dog. Wuthering Heights, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Emma …these are stories about attractive women. Then there’s Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty (it’s right there in the name), Snow White … even biblical matriarchs, such as they are, skew hot—look at Sarah, Rachel, and Rebecca. Sure, Jane Eyre is no looker (and I love her for that), but even she winds up paired up with the gruff Mr. Rochester. And the unfortunate Leah, though unloved, still gets married. Only tragedies end with single heroines still single. Happily-ever-afters require marriage (or at least romance). [...]

But in the face of countless, gorgeous Disney princesses and their (admittedly dull-as-toast) Prince Charmings, it is crazy easy to believe that if you are not a) a knockout, and b) married, then you either don’t get a story, or your story is incomplete until you acquire both these things. You are incomplete until you acquire both these things.

Which is why I love The Woman in White’s Marian.

Full review available here.