I first encountered Andy Crouch via a blurb he wrote in David Kinnaman’s UnChristian (review). Even in a page and a half, Crouch established himself as a thinker with a unique perspective and strong voice, and grabbed my attention as a top contributing author. Now I’m holding his first full-length book in my hands: Culture Making.
Here’s what esteemed author/pastor/theologian Tim Keller has to say about this volume:
“Culture Making is on of the few books taking the discussion about Christianity and cultre to a new level. It is a rare mix of the theoretical and the practical, its definitions are nuanced but not abstract, and it strikes all kinds of fine balances. I highly recommend it.”
Gotta admit I’m pumped. Andy Crouch also blogs.
I have high standards when it comes to book acquisition, and I’ve been looking out for a decent copy of Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students for awhile now. In my book-stockpiling endeavors I’ve learned a somewhat counterintuitive rule of thumb: When you’re looking for books by dead guys, sometimes the best copies are old ones. Not only did newer editions of Lectures to My Students cost about 4 times as much as this copy–they were also flimsy, ugly paperbacks.
If you’re wondering, Yes–I am gloating a little.
In a different way than you think. Read this letter from Mark Driscoll in response to a critical review of his book, Vintage Jesus. Wow. (I also wrote a review of Vintage Jesus.)
HT: Jason Allen.
Repeatedly, my hands arch themselves over the keyboard while one knee props open Acts for Everyone. I pause momentarily, as if to fight the impulse that has overtaken me. Then, my fingers start slow-dancing over the keyboard. It’s as if I can’t help myself:
One of the great arts of Christian theology is to know how to tell the story: the story of the Old Testament, the story of Jesus as both the climax of the Old Testament and the foundation of all that was to come (not, in other words, a random collection of useful preaching material with some extraordinary and ’saving’ events tacked on the end), and the story of the church from the first days until now. - N.T. Wright, Acts for Everyone Part One
This comes from N.T. Wright’s Acts for Everyone Part One, but it reads like a paragraph out of a novel. A historically-true, gospel-centered, heart-thumping novel that reflects the kind of “education” a seminary grad can only pray for and aspire to.
Peter and John had a secret–a secret that enabled them to run rings round the book-learning of the authorities. They had been with Jesus. They had been with him night and day. They had seen and heard him pray. They knew how he read the scriptures, in his fresh, creative way, drawing out their inner message and finding his own vocation in the middle of it.
Now that he had died and had then been astonishingly raised, and had then been exalted into the heavenly realm, all Peter and John had to do to explain what they were about was to develop the lines of thought they had heard him use over and over again.
This didn’t just give them “boldness” in the sense of courage to stand up and say what they thought. Sometimes people can be bold even when they’re muddled. It gave them something more: a clarity, a sharp edge, a definite point at which to stand. And the authorities knew it.
