A Bounty of Books

How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in A Divided Age by Jonathan Leeman examines how Christians should engage in the public square in today's extremely divisive political culture.

Leeman uses various groups in today's society such as the local church, Bible, and government to talk about how Christians should handle politics in America. Each chapter focuses on one of those aspects and defines both what that particular group or thing is and is not responsible for. The church has a different God ordained function than the government does. In the same way, a pastor has a specific focus when it comes to leading his/her church than he/she does in his/her personal life. There are things that all Christians should fight for or against and others that we should be willing to peacefully disagree with other believers about.

How the Nations Rage is helpful in that doesn't tell the reader exactly how to think about any particular political issue. Instead, it provides a framework of realms of responsibility both corporately and individually that serves as a helpful guide. Anyone interested in how Christians can thoughtfully engage in American politics today would benefit from this book.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookLook book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255R

All Together Different: Upholding the Church's Unity While Honoring Our Individual Identities by J. Brian Tucker and John Koessler is a treatise on how numerous people with sometimes conflicting identities can come together as one body in the local church. This book identifies and examines personal and group identities using spiritual, social, and psychological parameters.

This book is somewhat of a tough read. There is a lot of good information, but it is densely packed which prevents an easy sort of flow from developing. It probably would be easier to read in chunks rather than several chapters all together. However, once one knows this, there is a lot of helpful information in here for church leaders in various contexts.

The main point of this book is that the overarching and most important identity of an individual in a church is that of a follower of Christ. All other identities are important and some must be addressed, but only that of a follower of Christ should be considered ultimate. This is how so many differing identities can become one - by uniting in that of a Christian.

I received this book free from Moody Publishers as part of their Moody Publishers Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, See Part 255