Author: Paul Nelson

Book Review: Doug Powell’s Holman QuickSoure Guide to Christian Apologetics

Interest in Christian apologetics seems to be on an upswing, and that’s a very good thing. Popular American culture becomes less tolerant of Christianity, painting it as a mythical wish-fulfillment or the intellectual equivalent of believing in the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Dedicated Christians ought to be engaged in learning more about their faith and how to answer the allegations and assertions against it. Christianity has a strong intellectual tradition, capable of withstanding the harshest of scrutiny. Yet many Christians have nothing more to fall back on when challenged about the basis of their faith than I have faith that...

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Book Review: Heaven is For Real

You may have heard of this book – it has spent at least ten weeks at the top of the New York Time’s best seller list for non-fiction. It’s only 150 pages long and is a very engaging and easy read. It chronicles in somewhat haphazard fashion the insights of 4-year old Colton Burpo during a three-minute visit to heaven as he underwent emergency surgery to save his life from a ruptured appendix that had gone undiagnosed for five days. In the months that followed his recovery (itself miraculous), his parents realize that Colton has seen and experienced heaven,...

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Book Review: The Four Loves

The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis It’s refreshing to read a theological book that doesn’t make our experience of reality, emotion and life the baseline for reality and actuality. C.S. Lewis firmly belongs to another age of thought that still expected that our perceptions and experiences ought to be conformed and shaped by God, rather than assuming that our perceptions and experiences are first of all accurate, and second of all proper. Lewis assumes neither, and in fact assumes that left to our own devices, our experiences and perceptions cannot possibly be either accurate or proper. Lewis discusses the...

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Book Review: C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy

If you find reading theology to be a good cure for insomnia, you aren’t alone. As much as we love the Lord and are grateful for what He has done, is doing, and will do for all of creation, wading through theological writing can be tedious for some of us. Heck, most of us have trouble just reading the Bible, let alone reading theology books! In which case, you might prefer tackling something in the realm of fiction – even science fiction. C. S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength) is an exercise...

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Book Reviews: Pop Culture Wars and The Culture-Wise Family

You, gentle readers, get a bonus this month. That’s right, two – count ‘em, two – reviews for the price of one. Amazing grace indeed! The first is William D. Romanowski’s Pop Culture Wars: Religion & the Role of Entertainment in American Life. This is a fairly accessible historical overview of the evolution of cinema in the United States, with some attention paid to the tenuous relationship between the film industry and conservative religious denominations and organizations. Major themes in this book include the evolution of high art vs. low art, and the further development of what once was...

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