The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular World by Randall J. Stephens and Karl W. Giberson

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from a book telling the stories of several well-known Christian leaders, which openly criticises them and the way their teachings are accepted by millions of followers, especially in America. However, I did find it very helpful and compelling, whilst not always agreeing with the authors in some of their conclusions, and at times I felt like they unfairly caricatured some of their subjects.

The heart of the book is clear: what is it that makes millions of evangelical Christians follow the teachings of men like Ken Ham (young-earth Creationist), Tim Lahaye (prophecy guru and Left Behind author) and David Barton (fundamentalist revisionist American historian), many of whom have little or no qualifications in their specific areas, whilst ignoring the work of other evangelicals who are highly qualified and universally respected in their particular fields? (such as Francis Collins, NT Wright and Mark Noll respectively)

This is actually a question I have found myself asking many times when watching some of the more extreme fundamentalist programmes on Christian TV, and trying to stop myself from throwing something at the television  in despair and occasionally anger! So I'm glad someone has had the courage to write about it, whether or not I agree about their particular examples.

The book is very America-focussed, but it is still interesting and relevant to Brits like me, especially having been brought up in a conservative evangelical background, and at times feeling like it's 'us against the world', clinging on to the safety of the teaching of a small number of charismatic, confident preachers who assure us that they are simply reading the Bible as it is, not interpreting it like those terrible liberals. The title of the book, The Anointed, is based on the idea that the fundamentalist evangelicals in America are 'deeply rooted in some good old-fashioned American anti-intellectualism', and choose to trust those they believe God has anointed, rather than those who have expertise in particular subjects. There is a deep mistrust in the experts and a great trust in the popular preachers who talk about common sense, reading the Bible literally and uniting together against the evil secular world: God's 'anointed' leaders are the ones we can trust. This is an interesting claim and I have certainly seen anti-intellectualism at work sometimes in the evangelical church, although not to the extent described in the book (except on Christian TV).

The leaders who have achieved so much success and are critiqued in this book are all experts at tapping into the desire for common sense, plain speaking, bible-based life teaching. Unfortunately they have helped to create an isolationist culture where anyone who steps outside the boundaries (young earth, 6 literal days of creation, premillennial eschatology, America as a Christian nation, unquestioning support for modern-day Israel) is seen to be selling out to secular humanism and therefore is not to be trusted. In this point I think the authors have a good point.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a mostly balanced and measured critique of the fundamentalist evangelical culture. It did annoy me at times, but it is an important subject for discussion, and I hope it will lead to discussion rather than being ignored or rejected by those within the fundamentalist stable of evangelicalism.

The Teaching Of The Twelve by Tony Jones

This book is subtitled: 'believing and practising the primitive Christianity of the ancient Didache community'. The Didache (DID-ah-kay, meaning 'teaching') was possibly written around the same time as the synoptic gospels, and the short document contains a fascinating insight into the practices of a very early group of Christians. The book includes the whole text of the Didache, as well as some historical background to the document, commentary and some modern day application illustrated by a group called the Cymbrogi who are trying to live out the teachings of the Didache, which is very similar in parts to the Sermon on the Mount.

The Didache contains four sections, in Jones' words: Training in the way of life (preparing converts for baptism); The Rhythms of community life (guidance on eating, fasting, baptising, praying and Eucharist); Visitors welcome (how to treat visiting preachers); The end is nigh (the apocalyptic bit!). If you're into early church history and practice, this is just great stuff, fascinating to compare it to the biblical writings and to imagine how this group lived and thought, perhaps never having seen any of Paul's letters or John's gospel, just working out how to follow Jesus in a world containing people who had seen him and touched him!

Well worth a read.

The Lost World of Genesis One by John H Walton

I have read many books and commentaries about Genesis 1, as well as reading and studying and teaching on the actual text countless times. This is the most interesting and thought-provoking book I have read on this foundational passage. The author compares the other ancient creation texts with Genesis 1 and does some historical work to try to understand what the original readers would have been thinking when they read it. And his conclusions are fascinating. His basic argument is that the author is describing the enthronement of God in his temple - the cosmos. It's all a little complicated to explain in a short blog, but a series of quotes should give you a flavour of the argument.

'Genesis 1 can now be seen as a creation account focussing on the cosmos as a temple. It is describing the creation of the cosmic temple with all of its functions and with God dwelling in its midst'. 'The most central truth to the creation account is that the world is a place for God's presence'.

'The point is not that the biblical text therefore supports an old earth, but simply that there is no biblical position on the age of the earth'. 'In this view, science cannot offer an unbiblical view of material origins, because there is no biblical view of material origins aside from the very general idea that whatever happened, whenever it happened, and however it happened, God did it'.

All very controversial to some, eye-opening to others, and helpful to many others. Whether you believe the world was created by God 6000 years ago in six 24-hour days, or that it is billions of years old and life evolved from tiny molecules, even if you are an atheist with a passing interest in matters of faith, you should read this book with an open mind.