Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Looking for Book Reviews?

At our circuit pastors' meeting this morning, a couple of my colleagues requested a place to find book reviews. One in particular was asking for a review of The Shack. I mentioned that I happen to have some "online acquaintances" whom I respect for their literary criticism and that I would put up some links here to their sites.

In regards to The Shack, here are two contrasting views from two friends of mine. The first is from Sandra Ostapowich at Higher Things. The second is from Jim Pierce at Sound Witness. Although Sandra's is much less critical than Jim's, both point out serious doctrinal shortcomings with the novel.

Click here to read Sandra Ostapowich's review of The Shack

Click here to read Jim Pierce's review of The Shack

Pastor Rick Stuckwisch has done a yeoman's job reviewing both the recent Twilight series and the Harry Potter series. Go to his blog thinking-out-loud and scroll down to find the posts on these books linked in his sidebar. Some specific posts are linked below.

Click here to read Pastor Stuckwisch's review of Twilight

Click here to listen to an interview with Pastor Stuckwisch on Issues, Etc. about Twilight

Finally, the Rev. Scott Stiegemeyer, Admissions Counselor at Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN, also has some helpful reviews out there.

Click here to see some of Rev. Stiegemeyer's material at CTSFW's Admission's blog

Finally, I would recommend regularly checking out the Higher Things website and blogs and the Wittenberg Trail for regular posts on the interaction between culture and theology. There are often numerous reviews of both books and movies that some of us just can't seem to find the time to read or see.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Kurt - I also recommend Issues, etc.'s Jan. 13 review of The Shack that Rev. Todd Wilken did. Also, Rev. Todd Peperkorn wrote a review of The Shack on his blog: http://lutheranlogomaniac.com/?p=306

Kurt Onken said...

Thanks, Julie!

Anonymous said...

Pr. Onken,

Thanks for the plug on my review. I want to add an update that Chris Rosebrough has posted a radio interview of the author of "The Shack" where William Young (the author) flat out denies the penal substitution of Christ and states it is not even the heart of the gospel. You can read my short article on this at my blog Confessional's Bytes and I also link to Chris' article where the full interview can be found.

Kurt Onken said...

Thanks, Jim. I listened to that clip with Young. Pretty bad.