Taiwan 2011 - Currently Reading

Defending Your Faith: An introduction to apologetics
by R.C. Sproul

Two quick quotes on why apologetics is important:

"Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone." - Calvin or Luther

"Apologetics is not merely about winning an argument. It is about winning souls." - R.C. Sproul

This is a brain book, and its awesome! Right now I'm about a third of the way through the book, and I absolutely love all of what I've read so far. The book provides a Biblical basis for both the why and the how of apologetics. Sproul uses language that is easy to understand to describe concepts that are significantly harder to understand. He not only presents the Christian worldview, but pits it against the arguments of opposing thinkers of the highest caliber, using both traditional Christian arguments and the works of famous secular philosophers.

My only objection to his book (so far) is the seemingly arrogant tone that occasional appears in the book when addressing opposing worldviews. Maybe I've read too much into it, but to me, Sproul often doesn't give opposing arguments as much respect as most people probably do, which results in a hand-wavy, easy answer to some of the big questions people have about the faith. (I realize this is a pet peeve of mine in general - when Christians disregard and disrespect the concern of the unbeliever too quickly.)

That said, the confidence with which Sproul writes is encouraging and empowering. He writes, "Apologetics, however, does not just entail defense. It also involves offense, the positive task of constructing a case for Christianity that shows itself to be applicable to every culture, as well as being the only (and therefore the best) alternative to the world's philosophical and theological systems of thought." Often when we think about apologetics, we think of ourselves as the underdogs, as the ones on our heels that need to fight back. The picture that I get from reading the book is that we are actually pushing forward and that the arguments for Christianity are so strong that it is actually the opposition on their heels, being forced to push back! Too often do we as Christians treat our faith as something that seems false but is actually true. The more correct view is that our faith is something that immediately sounds true and actually is true. This should free us from the intellectual inferiority and the heavy burden of proof that we often carry as Christians and give us strength to witness powerfully, knowing without a doubt that what we believe is true, and that this truth is obvious, apparent, and available to all, even the non-believer. [I don't know if this point is clear. Sorry if it's not.]

Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matter

by Tim Keller

My mom is translating this book into Chinese, so she gave both Iris and me Tim Keller books to read over the break (Iris is reading Prodigal God). I'm only one chapter in (or two, if the introduction counts...because it was actually really freaking long), but as expected, it's a very easy read. Unlike Defending Your Faith, Counterfeit Gods screams for a personal response to all that is presented, and the book has challenged me in a few ways I hope to talk about soon.

The book is about idols, both cultural and individual. Even though I'm learning new things through this book, I feel fairly well-schooled on most of the concepts about idolatry being presented, as Bijan really focused on it last summer in our Bible studies and Pastor Chuck (or maybe Pastor Bob?) talks about it a lot at Knox. Maybe it's just a Reformed thing. It's the hip thing that all of them Presbyterian ministers be talkin about.

Hopefully I'll post another thing about some thoughts I've had while reading this book, but here are two quotes that I really like from the book. FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

"We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life."

"You don't realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have."

Just FYI: I'm also reading Mark for my quiet times (hoping to familiarize myself for small group next year), and studying Colossians a little bit more in depth.

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)
by George R.R. Martin

This book series was recommended to me by Justin Chen and Jonathan Chen (thinking about it, their names are extremely similar. Coincidence? I THINK NOT). I started watching the new HBO TV series and really liked it, so I picked it up at Barnes and Noble for this trip to Taiwan. Having watched a few episodes of the show, I feel like watching the show has really hurt my experience reading the book. One of the great things about reading books is that you create the characters in your head, but after seeing the TV show's interpretation of the characters, my imagination is bridled to the imagery portrayed on television. Despite my mental efforts otherwise, the show always wins for the differences that exist between the book and the show. [An example is that Jon Snow is actually only 15 in the book, even though he looks around 25 in the show. Huge difference.] I'm also surprised at how much one episode of the show covers, as I'm 5 or 6 chapters in, but still far from the end of the first episode. I'm really looking forward to reading parts of the book that I haven't seen yet on TV so I can let my imagination go wild creating characters and landscapes and predicting the future (because I kind of know what's going to happen in the next few chapters anyways).

I don't normally read this much, but we get a lot of grief from our relatives for using the computer too much, so books it must be!!