June Book Log

This didn't feel like a heavy reading month, but the output here says otherwise. My vanity reading project continued at a rate of 5 pages a day (it'll be November before I finish it and reveal what it is), but I also made time for plenty of theology, history, and comics...and zombies! Enjoy the reviews and let me know what you're reading on Facebook!

TO THE CROSS by Christopher J. Wright

*I actually wrote a brief review of this book for the Baptist Standard. So as to neither plagiarize nor repeat myself, allow me to simply link to that review here.*

A GENEROUS ORTHODOXY by Brian D. McLaren

This was actually the second time I've read this book, the first being in college when McLaren came to speak at Baylor. When I bought and read the book before his lecture, I had never heard of him before, but could tell from the excitement in the religion department that I should have. So this time around, I went in with more information—and more preconceptions. But much like when I first read A Generous Orthodoxy 7 years ago, I walked away from it agreeing with some parts and disagreeing with others, and generally feeling unsatisfied and unsettled...which may be exactly what McLaren wanted.

A Generous Orthodoxy has become a sort of manual for the Emergent Church (also known as the Emerging Church), a movement that swept through evangelicalism in the early 2000s. In it, Brian McLaren, a pastor in the northeastern U.S. at the time of his writing, deconstructs many of the assumptions of evangelical Christianity and explains why they are failing in the postmodern world, only to offer his own, more 'generous' idea of how the church should seek to serve Christ. His hope is that Christians might 'emerge' from modernity and Christendom into the postmodern world and more effectively and lovingly witness to Christ than they have in the past.

As is often the case with books like these, McLaren's deconstruction of modern Christianity is powerful and convincing. Having lived, worked, and worshiped in evangelical circles his entire life, he has the credibility of experience when talking about all the ways that Christendom in general and American Christianity in particular have failed both God and people. When reading his criticisms of the faith I was raised in, saved through, and now minister to, I found myself nodding in agreement a lot.

But when he then has to pick up the pieces and build something new, the results are mixed. In some chapters his brand of tolerant, skeptical, questioning Christianity rings true. In other cases, it sounds a lot like pluralistic relativism (a charge he confronts and denies, but not entirely convincingly.) McLaren wants a kinder, gentler Christianity, and while in some places that seems completely in line with historical orthodoxy, in other spots it sounds a lot more like a "Coexist" bumper sticker than the Bible.

A Generous Orthodoxy is a good place to start a discussion, and holds up surprisingly well 13 years after its initial publication. If you're like me, you won't agree with everything he has to say, but you won't disagree with everything either. In any case, it's required reading for anyone interested in the future of the church, and I'm glad I gave it a second try.

LIVING WITH THE WALKING DEAD: THE WISDOM OF THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE by Greg Garrett

This book came to me courtesy of my dad, who read it and interviewed its author, Greg Garrett, for an article in the Baptist Standard (yep, this was my second freebie courtesy of the Standard.) Garrett, an English professor at Baylor University, has written several books exploring the cultural, ethical, and theological themes that make certain pop culture icons resonate (his other offerings tackle U2 and superheroes), so this type of book was not new for him. It was, however, new for me--I'll admit to a snobbishness about "The Gospel According to [Insert Fad Here]" books, so I probably wouldn't have given this a second glance but for my dad's recommendation. By the end of the prologue, I was glad he'd put it in my hands.

Turns out that, when it comes to the "zombie apocalypse" genre, there's a lot more there than just blood and guts! Garrett convincingly makes the case that movies like 28 Days Later, books like Cormac McCarthy's The Road (an apocalyptic novel, even if there are no actual zombies), and TV shows like The Walking Dead have a lot to say to us about fear, community, and what it means to truly live. The terrifying situations inherent to zombie apocalypses give readers and viewers the chance to both confront our fears and work out our ethics and theology. The real world presents us daily with real fears--war, terrorism, disease, etc.--and forces us to make hard choices about what lines we are willing to cross to be safe from those fears. But in zombie stories, we get to vicariously live through fictional characters and confront those same choices without real blood being shed.

While not writing just for Christians, Garrett is an Episcopal minister and makes no apologies for tying both his conclusions about the subject matter and his own sense of morality back to Christ. Thus, Garrett ends the book on a note of hope that connects to the gospel seamlessly. In any zombie story that gets beyond the nihilism of its premise, hope is inevitably found in community, compassion, hospitality, and grace--in those who "carry the fire", to use the language of The Road. Zombie stories and other tales from the apocalypse offer stark reminders that even in the most terrifying times, we can overcome--not by imitating or embracing the darkness, but by shining a light in it.

I was surprised to like this book as much as I did...but I really liked it. Highly recommended, whether you care about zombies or not.

P.S. Here is the article my dad wrote about the book. You should read it.

THE PATRIARCH: THE REMARKABLE LIFE AND TURBULENT TIMES OF JOSEPH P. KENNEDY by David Nasaw

He was an immigrant's son who worked his way into the nation's most elite circles. He was a titan in the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was appointed the first commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He became one of the wealthiest men in America. He served as the United States Ambassador to Great Britain during the days of Roosevelt and Churchill. Yet, for all his many personal accomplishments, history remembers him mostly for being Jack, Bobby, and Teddy's father...and he wouldn't have had it any other way.

This is the portrait David Nasaw presents of the endlessly interesting Joseph P. Kennedy, father to the nine Kennedy children who continue to fascinate the nation even today. The Patriarch is a masterful biography of a subject you've probably heard a few tidbits about—didn't he have an affair with Gloria Swanson? (Yes.) Didn't he make his money bootlegging during Prohibition?? (No.) Didn't he buy votes for JFK in 1960? (Maybe.)—but with whom you likely aren't as familiar as his children, who lived their entire lives in the public eye. Nasaw traces Kennedy's entire life story, beginning with his grandparents' journey to America and concluding with Kennedy's death in 1969, with the careful precision of a historian and a journalist's strictly-the-facts writing style. Nasaw doesn't shy away from the more sensational parts of Kennedy's life, like the aforementioned relationship with actress Gloria Swanson, but neither is he trying to sell books with gossip—this is a well-researched, comprehensive, and ultimately compelling biography.

Kennedy was a man with many influences and motivations—always wanting to get on the inside while never really believing he'd be accepted there, always believing he and his family were overlooked because of their Catholicism—but in the end, two things seemed to override all other considerations in Kennedy's life. The first was his fortune; the second was his children. He would do anything to protect them, up to and including opposing American intervention in World War II as ambassador to Great Britain, a position he would hold so furiously that it would ruin his career in politics. His thoughts on the war were simple: it threatened to cost him money and to put his sons in danger, and so he wanted the U.S. out. That kind of single-mindedness made Kennedy a fascinatingly consistent figure for a biographer (and, in turn, for the reader), an almost literary character whose story arc could not have been penned better by even the best screenwriter.

There are no frills to this biography, and it's long at 789 pages, but by the end I could comfortably say it was one of the most interesting biographies I've ever read, a compliment to both the writer and his subject. America's 'royal family' was made in the image of its patriarch, and if you want to understand him, this is the place to turn.

THE INFINITY GAUNTLET by Jim Starlin, George Perez, Ron Lim, et al

Have you ever ruined your reading experience by going too fast? When I first read The Infinity Gauntlet a couple of years ago, that was my mistake--I tried to read all six issues on a 2 hour flight, and by the story's end, I was more concerned about finishing before the plane landed than I was about enjoying it. When I finished reading, I found myself unimpressed with this seminal story, and attributed my disappointment to the way I had read it. So when my brother reread it himself a few weeks ago and offered to let me borrow his copy, I decided to give it another try, this time at a more leisurely pace. 

So did I get religion on round 2? Well, no. It was better than I remembered, but I'll stand by my initial judgment: The Infinity Gauntlet has a great premise, a fascinating villain, and an epic scope, but is executed unevenly.

The Infinity Gauntlet was a 1991 Marvel crossover event featuring virtually every hero in the Marvel universe (though only truly starring about 3 of them, none of whom I'd consider A-listers.) It tells the story of what happens when the nihilistic Thanos, in an attempt to woo the cosmic being Death, acquires all five Infinity Gems, thereby making himself omnipotent. Hoping to impress Death, he wipes out half of the universe in the blink of an eye, prompting the surviving heroes of Earth, led by the enigmatic Adam Warlock, to take him on. The resulting battles stretch across the universe and unite not only familiar heroes like Spider-Man and Captain America, but also the heaviest hitters in Marvel's cosmic coterie (Galactus, Eternity, Lord Order and Master Chaos, etc.). However, Thanos's real enemy, as always, is his own self-defeating hubris, and it is from his pride that Warlock is able to plant the seeds of the mad titan's eventual downfall.

It's a big story--maybe too big. I enjoyed the first two issues, which were mostly buildup, for the way they showed how impossible the task at hand was for the heroes--how can you possibly defeat someone who is literally all-powerful? As with many event books, these initial issues set the tone for what was to come so well that it was hard for the remainder of the series to deliver on their promise. Nobody draws doomsday stories like George Perez, who had taken on that task for the Distinguished Competition 6 years earlier with Crisis on Infinite Earths. And nobody writes Thanos like Jim Starlin, the man who created the character and has overseen virtually every major development in his history from his creation up to the present day.

But once the plot is fully underway and its time to pit Thanos against the protagonists, you can't help but think Starlin wrote himself into a corner with the lofty premise. The story's progression can be difficult to follow at times, demands an encyclopedic knowledge of the Marvel cosmic universe, and abandons characterization of anyone but Thanos midway through--there's no time for anything but plot. To make matters worse, Perez was forced to leave the book midway through issue #4, leaving the capable but stylistically different Ron Lim to pick up where he left off. As strong as it starts, it seems to get lost in its own scope by the end.

The Infinity Gauntlet's basic premise, about Thanos acquiring ultimate power, will serve as the foundation of the next two Avengers movies, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been steadily building to it since the post-credits teaser at the end of the first Avengers film. But other than that basic premise, I wouldn't expect the movies to draw too heavily from the book, and I hope they don't. There are things to like about The Infinity Gauntlet, but on the whole its a prime example of style over substance. Come for the cool moments (Eternity vs. Thanos!), but don't expect to be totally satisfied with the experience--no matter how slowly you read it.

THE GREATEST TEAM-UP STORIES EVER TOLD by Various

Remember how mind-blowing it was when Marvel Studios put Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, all characters who had already carried their own blockbuster films, in the same movie, fighting side by side as the Avengers? And remember how awesome it was to see Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman all in the same frame at the end of Batman vs. Superman (admittedly, one of the only enjoyable moments of that dreadful mess of a movie)? There's a simple rule when it comes to superheroes, on the screen or the page: if one superhero is good, two (or three or four or five) superheroes is better.

Drawing upon that simple lesson, The Greatest Team-Up Stories Ever Told compiles twelve stories stretching across nearly 30 years of DC Comics, all featuring team-ups of some sort. From the wacky Silver Age silliness of "The Three Super-Musketeers," in which Superman, Batman, and Robin travel back in time to uncover the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask, to the classic-but-dated tale of Green Lantern and Green Arrow discovering America's social problems together, to Superman's fever dream encounter with Swamp Thing in the swamps of Florida, there is something here for everybody. I can prove it: I read several of the Silver Age stories to my infant son, and he thought they were good enough to eat (or try to, anyway).

Because the book is an anthology, the quality of the stories is understandably hit-or-miss, with most of the misses coming from the 1970s, not DC's most memorable decade. But with classics like "The Flash of Two Worlds" and the first team-up between the Justice League and Justice Society, the book can be forgiven its more forgettable pairings. I first read this book when I checked it out from the public library as a child, and my opinion of which stories soared and which fell flat hadn't changed much.

In addition to the stories themselves, the book also has two forwards, one by Mike Gold and another by Julius Schwartz, and an afterword by Brian Augustyn. The forwards, which define what exactly makes a "team-up" and give a brief history of them in comics, aren't essential reading by any means. The afterword, however, basically serves as an honorable mentions list for the book, highlighting stories that didn't make the cut for one reason or another, and it had me wishing some of those stories had been included instead of some of the ones we got (for example, I'd have loved to read one of the many Superman-Flash races.) Plenty of material for a second volume, I suppose!

ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS VOL. 1  by Roy Thomas, Steve Engelhart, Sal Buscema, et. al

Thanks to Netflix, when you hear "the Defenders", you now think of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Daredevil. But in the early 1970s, before three of those characters had even been created, the Defenders had a far different lineup, ethos, and mission. Usually composed of Doctor Strange, the Incredible Hulk, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and the Silver Surfer, the Defenders were a "non-team" of loner heroes who teamed up when necessary to face threats they couldn't handle single-handed—the Avengers without the infrastructure.

Essential Defenders Vol. 1 collects those earliest team-ups, starting with crossovers in the heroes' solo titles and then moving to the bimonthly Defenders series. In these stories, the Defenders often face off against mystical foes (since Doctor Strange is the group's unofficial leader), few of whom would be familiar to even the most knowledgeable Marvel fan. But the fun is not really in the villains anyway, but the interplay between the heroes, none of whom particularly want to be on a superteam. Put Doctor Strange's arrogance, Namor's imperiousness, the Silver Surfer's nobility, and the Hulk's clueless anger in the same room and sparks will always fly.

The centerpiece of this volume is the Avengers-Defenders War, a 1973 summer crossover event in which Loki and Dormammu pitted the two teams against each other, giving fans a chance to see fights they had been waiting for: Sub-Mariner vs. Captain America, Thor vs. Hulk, etc. Like much of this book, it's good goofy fun—nothing meant to be taken too seriously, but a fun story nevertheless.

I've already bought volume 2, so expect more Defenders next month. For that matter, there are 7 Defenders volumes in the Essential line, 150 issues total (the entire initial run of the series)...not sure if I'm ready for that kind of commitment, but we'll see!

That's Not What It's For Anymore (Friday Devotional)

“No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.”

- Romans 6:13

Recently Lindsey and I were having lunch at the home of a family from our church. While the burgers were cooking, one of the little girls in the family offered us a tour of the house (a tour which, by the way, we had taken the last time we’d come over.)  Naturally, I accepted her outstretched hand and let her lead us through the different rooms of the house.

When we got to her room, she showed us all her stuffed animals, drawings, and various odds and ends. When she got to one particular souvenir, a necklace, I remembered what she had told me last time, that it was her good luck charm. This time, however, she neglected to say anything about its lucky properties, pointing out only its bright colors. So, wanting to show what a good listener I’d been last time, I said, “When I was here before, you also told me it was a good luck charm, remember?”

She could not have looked more puzzled. For a couple of seconds, she was visibly wracking her brain, trying to remember a time when she’d said that about her necklace. Finally, she shrugged and matter-of-factly said, “That’s not what it’s for anymore.”

In Romans 6:13, the apostle Paul encourages believers to think of our bodies in a similar way, as instruments given new purpose in Christ. In the days before you knew Jesus, he says, your body was an “instrument of wickedness,” something you used and abused in pursuit of whatever would satisfy you for the moment. The body, which God created and declared to be good, was never evil, but it was an accessory to your sin.

But in Christ, that’s no longer the case—or at least it doesn’t have to be. Instead of seeing your body as a tool for sin and a victim of its consequences, Scripture encourages you to present yourself to God as someone made new in Christ, someone brought from death to life, someone whose purpose is now found in righteousness. Instead of using your eyes to lust after others, in Christ you can use them to look for opportunities to help people. Instead of using your hands to strike someone in anger, you can use them to hold someone who is hurting. Instead of using your brain only to enrich yourself, you can use it to enrich the kingdom of God.

The Bible says that in Christ you are a new creation, that you have been redeemed and raised to new life. When old temptations reemerge and familiar urges demand to be satisfied, remember that in Christ, your body has a new purpose. When you are tempted to use your body to sin, Christ gives you the freedom to say, “That’s not what it’s for anymore.”

Seeing It All (Friday Devotional)

‘“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.’”

- Matthew 10:26-31

In the field of retail security, the UPC barcode was a game changer. Before its invention, the only way for supermarkets and department stores to stop shoplifters was by keeping a close eye on customers and inventory. Special attention was paid to the most expensive items in the store and the shoppers who lingered near them. This unofficial policy reflected a realistic outlook on store security—we can’t protect everything, so we’ll have to focus on what’s most valuable.

But when barcodes and their scanners entered the picture, stores could suddenly confidently trust that every item leaving the premises had been bought and paid for. Whether you tried to sneak out with a $5,000 diamond ring or a 50 cent Snickers bar, the barcode scanner would catch you and sound an alarm the moment you crossed the store’s threshold. Nothing was too lowly to escape its notice.

When we think about where God focuses His attention, we often make the mistake of understanding Him like pre-barcode retail security—He’s focused on the big stuff, sure, but He doesn’t have the time or the inclination to worry about little ol’ me. Even as we acknowledge Him to be almighty, we still seem to think He is too busy with “important” matters to give us the time of day. We worry that we must face our worries, fears, and trials alone, because our problems are too trivial for the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.

But Jesus reminds us that God’s attention is neither ordered nor divided like a mere mortal’s. Like the barcode scanner, He can see it all—and what’s more, He cares about it all. Whether you are a business leader or a busboy, a saint or a sinner—or, for that matter, a sparrow—God sees you, knows you, and loves you. Never fall into the trap of thinking you’re too lowly to merit God’s attention or that He doesn’t care about what you’re going through. Even when no one else does, He sees you.

Highlight Reel (Friday Devotional)

‘“Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has His steadfast love ceased forever? Are His promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His compassion?” And I say, “It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.” I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord; I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work, and muse on Your mighty deeds.’

- Psalm 77:7-12

When your team is down by 5 runs going into the 9th inning, it’s difficult to muster up much excitement. You’ve already been watching the game for three hours, most of the crowd has already filed out to the parking lot hoping to beat the traffic, and most of all, you know the chances are slim that you’re going to go home celebrating a victory. So you slump down in your seat and hope that the last three outs will come quickly. Your hope for a rally is all but extinguished.

Suddenly, the scoreboard lights up with a video montage. As you watch, you realize what you’re seeing: highlights of late-inning comebacks from earlier in the season. You watch and remember the based-loaded double that erased a three-run deficit, then the bloop single that broke a scoreless tie, and then the numerous walk-off homeruns that sent your team and its fans into happy hysterics. And as the replays accumulate, as you watch comeback after comeback, your team’s current deficit starts to feel less insurmountable. Flooded with memories of previous victories, you believe they can do it again.

Sometimes the best path to present hope is the memory of past faithfulness. The writer of the seventy-seventh psalm comes to God from a place of crisis, unsure if God will even hear his cry. “My soul refuses to be comforted,” he laments. “I think of God and I moan.” Hope is distant for him; it is barely imaginable, much less visible.

But in the eleventh verse, the tone of the psalm changes dramatically when the psalmist begins to remember the glorious things God has done in the past, reciting a montage of God’s mighty works. Reflecting on God’s power over creation, His deliverance of Israel, and His leadership even in uncertain times, the psalmist finds hope for his own situation—after all, if God took care of His people then, why not now?

In your own life, there will undoubtedly be times when God feels distant and hope elusive, when circumstances make your faith unsteady. You may even be going through such a time now. When darkness is all around and your search for light is futile, follow the psalmist’s lead and remember the times God has shined most brightly—for you, for your family, for your church, and for His people throughout history. Dwell on the countless examples of His faithfulness and immerse yourself in those stories, and praise Him for His faithfulness then even as you pray for His faithfulness now. Let those memories serve not only as reminders of what God has done in the past, but of what He can do today.

Zooming In (Friday Devotional)

“All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.”

- Psalm 22:27-29

When Lindsey and I bought a new camera, there were several specifications we wanted it to meet: good resolution, long battery life, and video capability were all on our list. But when we tested cameras in the store, the first thing I looked at was the zoom. For me, that was the most visible difference between a cheap point-and-click camera and something closer to professional grade—when you looked through the viewfinder, did you have to see everything at once, or could you magnify something special in the crowded field of vision? For me, something about zooming in on one thing in a multitude—one pebble on a beach, one blade of grass in a field—enhanced the beauty of everything around it.

The conclusion of Psalm 22 uses this exact principle when it prophesies a day the Lord will be universally praised. All the ends of the earth, all the families of all the nations, both the living and the dead, all shall worship him. None are exempted, none are avoided, none opt out—all people, says the psalmist, will be united in their exaltation of God.

And, he says, I shall live for him.

In that moment, the psalmist zooms in in from the general to the specific, from the universal to the intimate. There is tremendous power in imagining God as sovereign over all of creation—but that power doesn’t truly hit home until you realize that ‘all of creation’ includes little ol’ you. When Philippians 2:10-11 says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, you should never be so awed by the magnitude of that moment that you forget: that means your knee will bow and your tongue will confess.

There is joy in knowing that, as the hymn says, God’s got the whole world in His hands. But there is joy as well in zooming in from that picture and remembering that that means He also has you in His hands. It’s one thing to proclaim Jesus is Lord over all—but it’s a far greater act of faith to proclaim he is Lord over you.

First Impressions (Friday Devotional)

“Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.”

- Galatians 5:19-25

Never judge a book by its cover, they say. But of course, we do it anyway. Think about it—when you’re in a bookstore or library browsing the shelves, you almost never have the time or inclination to read every dust jacket, much less to open every book and read a chapter or two. Your interest in a particular book is, inevitably, sparked by the cover, whether by its bright design, its clever title, or the familiar name of its author. What grabs your attention and makes a first impression, for good or ill, is the cover.

And the same goes when the principle is applied to people. What you see on the outside of a person inevitably affects what you expect about who they are inside, whether that expectation winds up being correct or not. Everything from a person’s clothes to their posture creates your initial impression of them—and while repeated exposure to them may disprove what you first thought, it’s hard to overcome the first impression.

This goes double when applied to your actions, the most outward expression of who you are, the true cover of your book. Even the kindest people have moments of cruelty or thoughtlessness, just as even the meanest people can occasionally show grace. One out-of-character action should not define you indefinitely in the eyes of others. But sometimes it will. For the down-on-her-luck waitress, how you tip when her service wasn’t up to par is your only chance to show her your heart is governed by grace. For the umpire at your child’s little league game, what you shout from the stands determines whether he thinks your heart is full of joy or bitterness. The driver who cuts you off in traffic can only judge your capacity to forgive by how you react to him in that split second.

The Bible teaches that we are all sinners, prone to stumble and fall away from God. The promise of the cross is that there is forgiveness for your sins, that when you place your faith in Christ, God judges you not on your own righteousness, but on Christ’s. God’s impression of you is based on the totality of who you are in Christ, not on one false step or ugly word.

But the people around you, especially those outside the community of faith, do not have the luxury of knowing you as God does—they can only call it like they see it. So their impression of you and of your God is largely based on your demeanor, your priorities, and your responses to injustice. If what they see from you is “the works of the flesh”, then they are unlikely to see any need for the God you call your Lord—after all, He doesn’t seem to be making you very different from anyone else.

“If we live by the Spirit, let us be guided by the Spirit,” says Paul. Few lives are truly open books, but every one has a cover, something observable to all. If your life has been saved by Christ’s forgiveness, mercy, and righteousness, then your call is to be a light to the world on his behalf, for the Holy Spirit to bear fruit in you so that others will see in you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The world will judge what’s in your heart by what they see from your actions—will they see Jesus?

May Book Log

My May bookload was more about quality than quantity, as I took my time with several longer books and started another that could take me 6 months to finish...stay tuned for that review. Nevertheless, I read enough to give you six reviews: two books on discipleship, one presidential biography, one coffee table book about a pop culture phenomenon, one collection of Bronze Age comics, and a recent Marvel miniseries that is not to be missed. Enjoy the reviews and let me know what you're reading!

RENOVATION OF THE HEART: PUTTING ON THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST by Dallas Willard

"What would Jesus do?" is a question that sold a lot of bracelets in the 1990s and that has driven a lot of discussions about Christian ethics since the days of the apostles. Countless faithful believers approach each day with the intention of doing the things Jesus would do in a given situation, of changing their actions based on what the Bible says. They want to act like Jesus, and are frustrated when temptation then gets the better of them.

Enter Dallas Willard, who says that the issue is a fatal misunderstanding of discipleship: we are not called just to behave like Jesus, but to be like Jesus. What is needed is not just a change in behavior, but a renovation of the heart. A model of discipleship that begins by addressing one's actions, he says, puts the cart before the horse. The biblical discipleship model is one of spiritual formation, in which you are inwardly transformed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ and out of that inner renewal comes the change in behavior--you are able to do what Jesus would do not because you are imitating his behavior, but because your will, soul, mind, body, and spirit are aligned with Christ's purposes.

It's a relatively simple thesis, but one with profound implications for each Christian and for the church at large. For example, he states in the book's final pages that this understanding of discipleship means the church's primary goal should not be outreach but inreach, "making disciples" (as the Great Commission commands) of its members instead of making converts from outside, because when a church is dedicated to seeing its people truly transformed in Christ, outreach will happen through those people as a natural consequence instead of a willful strategy. My Baptist brain, raised on the all-important command to "go ye therefore" (Great Commission again) instinctively rebelled against the thought of outreach being secondary, but at least in theory, Willard's point makes sense, and I've been chewing on it ever since.

As for the book, I enjoyed it, but needed to read it in small portions (something I did not have the luxury of doing when I halfheartedly sped through it for a seminary class a few years ago). Willard comes from a philosophy background, and because of that and the focus of the book being on the inward self, much of the first half is heady, abstract stuff. But he finishes strong, tying it all together in a way that is practical, biblical, and meaningful. Renovation of the Heart falls somewhere between easy reading and academic reading on the difficulty scale, but is worth the time. Having read a bunch of Willard's works for the aforementioned seminary class, I'd say this ranks as my second-favorite of his books, behind The Divine Conspiracy--I'm glad I gave it a second, slower try, and would certainly recommend it to anyone interested in a deeper examination of discipleship.

BEYOND CONVERSION by Paul W. Powell

You're saved, but now what? That's the question the late Paul Powell, former dean of Baylor's George W. Truett Theological Seminary, seeks to answer in this short book on discipleship. In twelve chapters, Powell addresses topics like worship, service, giving, and witnessing, all in the pursuit of explaining what the Christian life is supposed to look like. Most of all, he wants to remind people that Christ came not just to save people from death, but to give them life.

Each chapter reads like a sermon, offering several memorable points about the subject at hand and using both the evidence of Scripture and illustrative stories to make those points. As such, I opted to read this book slowly, one chapter per day, instead of breezing through it in one or two sittings--while it would be a pretty easy task to knock this book out in a couple of hours, you'll be rewarded for allowing each message to sit with you for a little while before moving to the next.

Contrasted with Renovation of the Heart, this is an easy read, written as much for the layperson as the preacher or scholar. Powell, perhaps best known for his contributions to academia, never comes across as an ivory tower elite, bearing instead the style and cadence of the country preacher he once was. He combines solid biblical interpretation with folksy stories and plain language, making his messages accessible to both the professor and the plumber.

I'd be lying if I said I learned anything new or revelatory from reading this--it's a pretty boilerplate treatise on discipleship. But Powell had a talent for condensing big ideas into concise, understandable messages, and never forsaking a biblical foundation in doing so. For me, this little book will make a valuable reference for my life's work and the mission of every Christian: making disciples.

DESTINY AND POWER: THE AMERICAN ODYSSEY OF GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH by Jon Meacham

Every president in my lifetime has seen his approval ratings climb in retirement, but none quite like George H.W. Bush, the only one of the bunch who had actually been voted out of office. When he left the presidency, Bush 41 was seen by many as an out-of-touch, old-fashioned wimp with no vision for the country. 25 years later, he is remembered as a statesman, more interested in governance than campaigning and with world peace than political gain. To quote the prologue of this book, "He embraced compromise as a necessary element of public life, engaged his political foes in the passage of important legislation, and was willing to break with the base of his own party in order to do what he thought was right, whatever the price. Quaint, yes: But it happened, in America, only a quarter of a century ago."

When this book was being written, its working title was "The Last Gentleman," and that serves as an effective summary of the portrayal Jon Meacham, author of the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Andrew Jackson, American Lion, offers of Bush in Destiny and Power. In Meacham's eyes, Bush 41 would have made an ideal 19th century president--patrician, qualified, an elite in every sense--but he had the bad fortune to hold office instead at the end of the 20th century, when Americans demanded a president not only be good at the job, but also be good at doing it on TV. George H.W. Bush was our last president from the duty-bound "Greatest Generation" that won World War II, and everything from his morality to his refusal to publicly show emotion to his dedication to public service showed it. He was the right man for the job; we just didn't know it back then.

I learned a lot about George H.W. Bush in reading this book, from the important (he was prepared to send troops to Iraq for Operation Desert Storm even if Congress had refused to authorize military action, thereby risking his own impeachment) to the trivial (he is a lifelong fan of country music, something D.C. elites always believed was just a put-on to appeal to his Republican base.) I was particularly struck by Bush's love for his family, from Barbara to the sons who followed him into national politics to his grandchildren to, most memorably, his daughter Robin, who died at age four of leukemia and who Bush still weeps when talking about. Upon reading the letter he wrote to his mother after Robin's death, I was right there with him.

In terms of the book's style, Meacham is an excellent writer who summarizes events with a historian's eye for detail but a storyteller's love of language, and he lets the primary sources do the heavy lifting (as evidenced by almost 200 pages of end notes) instead of drawing his interpretive conclusions out of whole cloth. I was never bored reading Destiny and Power, and left feeling like I had a good grasp of what makes Bush 41 tick, the sure sign of a job well done by a biographer. I would highly recommend this book to any friends who love history or politics. George H.W. Bush was underappreciated during his time--hopefully this biography of a qualified, cautious, fundamentally decent president will make us appreciate him in ours.

HAMILTON: THE REVOLUTION by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter

First, some background. When Hamilton: An American Musical started to really take off and it became hip among New Yorkers to brag about having seen it, I stubbornly decided I didn't want anything to do with it. Part of it was hipster insecurity (nobody wants to be late to a bandwagon), part of it was a Southern inferiority complex (after all, neither I nor anybody close to me was even capable of seeing Hamilton, since at the time it was only showing on Broadway), and part of it was simply my own backlash to the unrelenting hype it was receiving in the media. Whatever the reasons, I decided Hamilton must be overrated and that I was uninterested in it.

Then the Tonys came, and Hamilton won basically everything, as everyone knew it would. What's more, the cast performed one of the show's songs during the ceremony, meaning that the entire country was able to see, free of charge and for the first time, a peek of the show. When I got on YouTube the next morning and saw the clip of that performance on the homepage, my curiosity overpowered my cynicism and I watched the video. After it ended, I clicked one of the suggested links to a lyric video of a song from the cast album. When it was over, I clicked on another song. And then another. And then another. The next day I bought the cast album. Nothing else had played on my car's stereo system for the next 3 months.


More than a year later, I remain hooked on this incredible piece of art and convinced of its greatness. I've been wholly converted from Hamilton skeptic to Hamilton fanboy. When the touring Hamilton show comes to Dallas in 2018-2019, Lindsey and I will be there, having already bought our season tickets for the 2017-2018 season--the season before Hamilton arrives--just so we'll be guaranteed seats when we renew those season tickets the next year. So all that was really left to complete my turn from skeptic to fanatic was to buy and read Hamilton: The Revolution, a coffee table book lovingly nicknamed "the Hamiltome" by fans because of its size and scope. And surprise, surprise, I loved it.

The Hamiltome is the ideal coffee table book--large, colorful, and full of visuals, from photographs of the cast and crew in action to reproductions of historical paintings. I'm neither a photographer nor an expert at layouts, but I thought it was an attractive package.

As for the words, there are two features that were catnip to this Hamilton fan. The first is the complete script to Hamilton, with footnotes written by Lin-Manuel Miranda about the hip-hop influences behind certain songs and lyrics, stories of how he came up with them, historical minutia that didn't make it into the musical, and more. I found all of this fascinating, naturally. Second, there are 32 essays, roughly one per song, about the making of the musical and the people involved--the cast, crew, and producers, and the historical characters themselves. I started every morning in May reading one of these essays with a cup of coffee, and it was a reliably wonderful way to wake up.

If you already love Hamilton, you should buy this, or at least check it out from the library. It's fun, easy reading and will make you love the musical even more (not to mention fill in some gaps you weren't even aware existed in the show). If you don't care about Hamilton, then I've been there, I understand, but you need to listen to the cast album once before you dismiss it...it's a pop culture phenomenon for a reason, and right now you're missing out. I wouldn't read this book without having at least a passing familiarity with the musical though--it's a companion guide for fans, and it's just not going to mean much until you know the musical. So, you know, listen to the musical. I can testify that you won't regret it.

*One last note* If you were unfamiliar with Hamilton until the cast's eloquent but politically loaded speech to Vice President Mike Pence during the presidential transition, and if that act of protest turned you off to the musical forever, two things: 1) Rejecting art because you don't like the artists' politics is, frankly, immature and a symptom of our nation's political division. You can disagree with the cast's politics and still love the musical...I know because that's exactly what Vice President Pence did. 2) While the cast, including the show's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, are pretty uniformly liberal (it is Broadway, after all), Hamilton is NOT a liberal musical. It is an American one. Barack Obama famously said Hamilton's merits are the only thing he and Dick Cheney agree on. If you don't like the show on its merits, that's fine...but don't reject it out of political spite. You'll be missing something great if you do.

ESSENTIAL BLACK PANTHER by Don McGregor, Rich Buckler, Billy Graham, and Jack Kirby

Few heroes in Marvel Comics history compare to the Black Panther. Relatability is in the DNA of most Marvel characters, but T'Challa is the king of a fictional, prosperous, technologically advanced civilization. Most Marvel characters get their powers through the wonders of science (usually radioactivity), but the Panther gets his from participating in an ancient ancestral ritual and eating mysterious herbs. Most Marvel heroes are quick with a quip at all times, but the Black Panther is stoic and enigmatic, always seeming to know more than he lets on.

Perhaps because he is so different from the typical Avenger in these and other respects, the Black Panther is one of those characters who always seems to sell better as a supporting character than as the leading man--though Disney is counting on that not being the case at the multiplex, with Black Panther coming to theaters in February 2018. Until Christopher Priest took the reins on a relaunch of the book in 1998, the Black Panther had only had two short-lived series, and they could not have been more different from each other. This Essential volume collects both of those runs: Don McGregor's arcs from the 1972 Jungle Action comic and Jack "the King" Kirby's brief 1977 return,  in the eponymous Black Panther, to the character he'd help create over 11 years earlier.

McGregor's run is ambitious in scope and hit-or-miss in execution. His opus was a 12-issue story (back in the days when a serial story of that length was unthinkable) called "Panther's Rage", in which the Black Panther returns home to Wakanda after some time with the Avengers only to find that a rival named Erik Killmonger has led a rebellion against him, aided by a cohort of evil allies like Venomm, King Cadaver, and Salamander K'ruel. In his quest to defend his kingdom, T'Challa is pushed to the limits of his physical, mental, and royal abilities before the final epic showdown with Killmonger. In the second story, T'Challa and his girlfriend Monica Lynne face off against a Ku Klux Klan-like group called the Dragon's Circle in Georgia as they attempt to solve the murder of Monica's sister.

There's a lot to like about the Jungle Action run, particularly "Panther's Rage." The art, by Bronze Age stalwarts Rich Buckler and Billy Graham, is beautiful, especially in the crisp, clean black-and-white format of the Essential volume. McGregor's writing is an appropriate fit for the epic scale of "Panther's Rage", and he deserves every commendation for creating most of Wakanda's history, geography, and customs, not to mention T'Challa's supporting cast. However, the Jungle Action crew needed some work in the storytelling department--as pretty as the writing and art are individually, it never quite seems like writer and artist are on the same page, and each issue feels more than a little disjointed, like you missed something off-panel. Also, I don't think I've ever read a comic book writer who took himself as seriously as McGregor, or who used so many words on a page. His stories are self-serious to the point of being sanctimonious, and can be a chore to get through. All in all, the crew at Jungle Action is to be applauded for their creativity, which was ahead of its time, but they lose points for execution.

Jack Kirby's 1977 run on the character could not have been more different. Shelving all of the mythology McGregor and Co. had created, Kirby sends the Panther on an Indiana Jones-style adventure with the collectors Abner Little and Princess Zanda, where they encounter time machines disguised as King Solomon's golden frogs, battle the Six Million Year Man, and explore Samurai City before T'Challa ultimately returns home to defeat his monstrous half-brother Jakarra (literally, he had been transformed into a monster), help by the royal family, the self-styled Black Musketeers (yeah, I know.) As you may have gathered, these are some wacky stories, much like everything Kirby wrote for Marvel in the 1970s. If you've ever read any of his output from that era, you know exactly what to expect, the pure creative id of a master, albeit one who worked better with collaborators than alone. In contrast to McGregor's run (and seriously, the contrast could not be starker), the storytelling flows really smoothly, and the constant action always keeps the book moving, but the dialogue is laughable and the art sloppy, even as it crackles with energy. If you unconditionally love Jack Kirby's work (and I do), then you'll be able to overlook the flaws in this book, but the more discerning reader may not be able to take this run seriously. To each his own.

Overall, this Essential book earned the title--having only read Black Panther stories previously in the pages of Avengers and Fantastic Four, I really enjoyed reading him in solo stories. Sometime in the future I'll have to check out Christopher Priest's run from the late 1990s, as well as Pulitzer Prize winner Ta-Nehisi Coates's current, much-lauded series. I suspect they'll be quite different from McGregor and Kirby, but this was where the foundation was laid.

THE VISION VOL. 1-2 by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Michael Walsh, and Jordie Bellaire

Superhero comics aren't supposed to be this good. The comic book is a disposable medium, something meant to entertain you just as long as you're reading it, then get tossed in a drawer or an attic or the trash can. It's the reading equivalent of a summer popcorn movie: loud, dumb fun. Superhero comics aren't supposed to make you think or feel too much, they're just supposed to entertain you for a few minutes until you move on to "real books."

To that conventional wisdom, The Vision would like a word.

Holy cow, was this good. Tom King, a former CIA operative-turned-comics writer, takes a B-list Avenger and offers up a 12-issue miniseries that is equal parts reinterpretation of the character, suburban thriller, and family drama. The Vision is one of those characters whose history is so convoluted and outlandish that it's difficult to even know where to start--his creation by Ultron using the brain waves of Wonder Man, an Avenger? his marriage to the Scarlet Witch? his mind and personality being wiped, only to be programmed back into him years later? Faced with all this baggage, King does the only sensible thing: he ignores it at the outset of his own unique story, then slowly but surely weaves it all through the story until, by the end, you're certain you're reading the definitive take on the character.

The premise of the series is that the Vision, after years of living alone in Avengers headquarters, has decided he wants a family. With Tony Stark's help, he creates an android wife, Virginia, and two children, Viv and Vin (and later in the story, a dog) and they move to the suburbs to live a normal life. Their idyllic suburban existence is shattered by the end of the first issue, and the rest of the series tells the story of the ensuing fallout, as they all wrestle with what it means to be human vs. to be a machine (since, as androids, they are sort of both).

There's a lot to admire and heap praise on. The dialogue is great, using the robotic speech patterns of Vision and his family to great effect for both comedy and pathos. The art is beautiful, and a great fit for this story. Perhaps most impressive to this fan of the character, continuity is used perfectly, as a tool for characterization instead of a maze to be navigated. Issue #7 in particular, which traces the story of Vision's romance with the Scarlet Witch, brilliantly condenses 50 years of continuity in a way that makes perfect sense and that, by the last page, connects that continuity to the story the series is telling. Continuity in comics is tricky, and so most writers either ignore it completely or get so bogged down in it that the story gets lost in the weeds--in The Vision, Tom King walks the tightrope with a master's precision.

If all you know about the Vision is what you've seen onscreen, you'll still enjoy this series--that's how good storytelling works; you won't have to do research beforehand to enjoy it. But if you have some grounding in the character and his history, you will love this series. Superhero comics don't have to be an endless cycle of events, fights, and movie tie-ins--The Vision points the way to something better.