Book Comment: Where to Find It in the Bible

Little Book of Where to Find It in the Bible (2001), is cute but disappointing. It takes modern words like "concern," "flirtation," "health," "luxury," "management," "nonverbal communication," "phony," "quicksand," "stress," and "UFO" and attempts to give several relevant Bible verse listings. Some of the connections are a real stretch. Most of the little in-page cartoons are more lame than funny.

Stick with your Cruden's Concordance.

Book Comment: Makers of Christian Theology in America

Makers of Christian Theology in America(Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1997), by Mark G. Toulouse and James O Duke, is a fascinating book for those interested in history or theology. It separates American theological development into several periods (The Colonial Era, The National Era, The Post-Civil War Period, and The Moderrn Era), and gives short biographical sketches about prominent theologians of the period with a description of their contribution to theological discussion.

Some of the people discussed include Cotton Mather (Puritanism), Lyman Beecher (The New Divinity), Phoebe Worrall Palmer (Holiness), Ralph Waldo Emerson (Transcendentalism), Josep[h Smith (Mormonism), Federick Douglass (Black Theology), William James (Psychology and philosophy of religion), Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science), Washington Gladden (Social Gospel), Edgar Young Mullins (Baptist ), Charles Taze Russell (Jehovah's Witnesses), Shailer Matthews (Evangelical Liberalism), Reinhold Niebuhr (Liberalism), Martin Luther King, Jr. (Social Action), and Thomas Merton (Catholicism).

The book discusses Congregationalists, Unitarians, Presbyterians, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Adventists, Mormons, Millenialists, and many others. You will find many things with which you disagree and many things which will sound very familiar to you. To me, E. Y. Mullins strikes a very strong chord. This is a very good book.

Christian Children's Book Review

http://ccbreview.blogspot.com/# is an excellent site titled the Christian Children's Book Review.  Six Christian mothers/book reviewers give detailed comments on current children's books, telling you what is good and what is questionable about the books they read.  They have a page to explain the criteria they use and actively solicit suggestions for books to be reviewed.