Free in August (2/8)

These are out free for August:

Logos: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 3: Creation and Fall

Christian Audio: Anna and the King of Siam

Ligonier: 3 more free booklets

Update: This is just released from 9 Marks too: Biblical Theology

Kindle Deals You Should Know About (1/8)

This is going for $3.99 today.

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus



 

 

 

 

 

 

If you're interested, you can see my review on this book here.

 

Book Review - Philosophy (Faithful Learning Series) (1/8)

Whenever you see this word philosophy you often get a very polarising response, some are thrilled with it, some run away in horror and the rest are just ambivalent towards it. So how does one approach this topic?

James Spiegel attempt to show why christians need to understand and study philosophy in this short introduction on this topic. Spiegel begins with the age-old question of what Athens has to do with Jerusalem, and attempts to convince his readers that rigorous philosophical study is critical for a christian so that he will not held captive to hollow and deceptive philosophy (Col 2:8).

Spiegel then goes through a quick history of how the christian faith has suffered abuses and attacks from non-christian philosophers through rationalism and positivism, and how the notion of God has been attacked vigorously by them. Christianity appears to have no answers with regards to these 2 areas until….. Alvin Plantinga comes into the scene and begins to challenge their claims.

The challenges that Plantinga raises are then explored and explained and shown how these claims are not unreasonable or irrational, in fact, it was shown how it would be irrational and unreasonable for the claim of God’s existence to be argued on the same plane as other topics.

Following which Spiegel brings up several arguments that supports the existence of God and also encourages future christians whoa re students of philosophy to do the hard work of studying philosophy with a christian worldview in mind, so that we can able to give a defence for the reason of our hope (1 Peter 3:15).

Lastly, be prepared to work through this deceptively small booklet. This will not be a walk through the park but you will be rewarded for your hard work, especially recommended for those who are interested or are studying philosophy.

Rating: 4/5

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping).

The Kindle version is only $0.99

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review - Sociology (Faithful Learning Series) (29/7)

Have you ever notice when someone is acting out of the social norm? Maybe it’s a tourist, an immigrant or even yourself! But have you every wondered what made you felt that way? One helpful area to explore would be the topic of sociology.  And Matthew Vos has done a great job in this book which seeks to help students who are studying sociology to look into this topic from a christian perspective.

Some may be intimidated by this topic, or even scoff at this. But Vos has managed to be able to raise up several strengths that sociology can provide for the church, likewise Vos has shown the limitations of sociology alone.

Vos also does a good and quick introductions to the who’s who in sociology and also brief introduction to some of the concepts that are commonly found in every introduction to sociology 101 courses. Lastly, the book also directs the believer to well-know christian sociologists which will help provide a source of relief for the christian who sometimes feels so beaten down by the secular scholars.

This is a great book as a primer for those who wants to find out more about this topic, or before you start your undergraduate studies on this particular topic, I can only hope I had read this book before I had studied sociology module, it would be so helpful for me.

Rating: 4/5

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping)

The kindle version is only $0.99!

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review - The Pagan Heart of Today's Culture (25/7)

What do you think atheism, postmodernism and gnosticism have in common? On the surface they might seem to be poles apart but Peter Jones thinks otherwise, and attempts to shows it in this booklet.

First Jones goes through each of the terms, stating the definition, explanation and a brief history into each of them. Then Jones introduces the term ‘perennial philosophy’ which binds all of them together. Briefly it is a system of Oneism, where everything shares the same nature and are essentially one, as compared to Twoism, where the creator-creature distinction is apparent and distinct.

Jones then argues how atheism, postmodernism and gnosticism all belong to the Oneism sphere, and then responded with the christian Twoism claims and how these 2 systems will always be at odds with each other.  Finally Jones ends why showing that although these 3 worldview (postmodern, gnosticism and atheism) looks really different, they are not really ‘new’ in the sense that they are really bring us back to the garden of Eden, where these two are clashing against each other yet again.

Those who would really gain from this booklet are those who are willing to put in the hard work to think. interspersed within the booklet are numerous discussion questions that encourage the readers to digest each small section and think about what they have read. Do not aim to look to the booklet for answers, it’s not meant to do that, it will guide you in the right direction through.

One weakness for this booklet is that I found the arguments not very convincing, however, the grouping of the three worldview under Oneism certainly is something very new and ought to be further explored to strengthen the claims. Recommended for those who would like to explore within this area, and likes/hopes to think deeply over what he has read.

Rating: 3.25/5

Update: If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping)

Not sure where you can get it other than on the  If not, you can still get them at the publisher's website. If you're aware of any, do let me know!

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Taking a Good Look at the Book (24/7)

Heres's John Piper leading you to have a good look at 2 Tim 3:14-17

http://vimeo.com/101339957

Find out more here.

Book Review - God's Story: A Student's Guide to Church History (22/7)

Who likes history? Honestly, I think not many will thrilled at this particular topic. However, Brain Cosby has attempted to make church history something interesting to the kids/youths with this book.



First Cosby defends the need for us to know our history well, the common adage ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it’ has proven to be true numerous time. But christians has an even more important reason to know our history well. We each come from a particular denomination and they have existed for a particular reason, it would be wise for us to know why. Secondly, history is really His-Story. When we know about our history we can rejoice what God has done, and trust in what he will do in the future.

Cosby then explains and teaching church history chronological, starting from the very first church! Those that are started in the apostolic times and working across the centuries and millennium, Cosby brings out the ‘big players’ during the particular eras. No particular person was given extra attention, though John Calvin did received slightly more attention.

What Cosby did excellently in this book is how he approach the topic on ‘Crusades’, this is a dark history in the church’s history but Cosby does not sweep things under the rag, he slowly tease out the issue, and explains how christians can answer those who questioned the atrocities committed by the church.

Cosby did give more content in this book to the reformation and those reformation era, which was covered in greater depth than the eras before that.

This is a relatively easy book to read too, it can easily be finished in a few sitting, however since it is published by CF4kids, I do question at what age is it especially pitch at? I feel that kids that are younger (12 and below) would most likely not read this book, and unless for teens who are deeply interested in this topics, the rest might not be engaged enough in this book to read it through. However, this remains to be a good primer for those who wants a quick, brief, succinct introduction to church history (even for adults!). You might be surprised at how much you’ll actually learn from this thin book. [Update: It's meant for teens 14-16!]

One tiny complain for this book, a little too much self-promotion of the previous books the author has written (no I don't dislike the author!). But maybe also include references to other books by other authors too.

Rating: 3.75/5

If you're interested, you can get this book here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Here's the book trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1mCUEAQlf8

Book Review - Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus (18/7)

I thought for a muslim to convert to Christianity was hard, I just didn't know it was that hard… Even for a muslim who live in the land of the free. That’s my initial thought when I was about 3/4 through the book, truly every conversion is only possible because God is working in the hearts of man (Matt 19:26)

Nabeel Qureshi recounts his story of how he converted in this book. The strengths of this book are numerous.

First, it is very engaging, each chapter is relatively short, and it does not hit the readers to too many technical terms at one go (although the first few chapters do seem to contain a little more).

Second, Qureshi chooses not to use only english within the book, inside Qureshi decides to use the actual Arabic words or Urdu words (I think?) within the biography. This is good because it actually puts you into his setting, and you really get to slight feel how it is like to be a muslim in his world.

Thirdly, many of the stories were very personal and very moving, for every muslim as he himself explains within the book has A LOT of respect for the prophet Muhammad and very obedience to Allah. But many a time as he slowly discovers the truth of his belief, he often has a knee jerk reaction against these accusations. Slowly, bit by bit…. part and parcel of his world crumbles down. It is indeed hard for us to enter into the kingdom of God (Matt 7:13-14).

Fourthly, Qureshi shows very clearly what we as christians need to do if we want to reach out to them. Far too often, those who want or who has converted over just find themselves literally alone in a brave new world. Christianity used to be known for their hospitality, what has happened to us? There is a great need for us to recover this.

Lastly, this book is able to explain much of the religion of Islam to readers who are very new to it. It does not just gives you the bare bones which others have often tried to do, nor does it gives you a detailed exposition to everything within Islam, it does equip you with a reasonable amount of the Islamic religion to allow you to have meaningful conversions with other muslims.

Highly recommended if you would like to ‘feel’ what’s it’s like for a muslim to convert to christianity, or if you want to have a reader’s friendly start to knowing more about the Islamic religion.

Rating: 4.75/5

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review - What's Your Worldview (15/7)

This is a really good book. Not only is it concise, informative, and well written, it’s actually quite fun to read it! Anderson was done something that few authors have done — a book that’s for everyone. This is literally such a book, no matter what worldview you may hold, you will find this book helpful and informative.

The concept of the book is very simple, make a decision at every section and at the end of it all, you will find out what worldview you have. At the ‘end’ of each route, you will have a summary of the worldview and also a quick evaluation of its strength and weakness of the particular worldview.

Anderson should be praised for the comprehensive scope of the number of worldviews covered, each and every summary Anderson almost always points out succinctly some of the problems of each worldview.

This is a great book for christians who wants to share with people of other faiths (or with no particular faiths). This would help the christian have a brief understanding of what others believe, and also what are some things that the Christian can ask in response to what they believe. Sure these are not silver-bullet questions, but I do think they are able to good conversion starters. It would also be good christians to give to non-christians who wants to know what kind a worldview he has, and whether he is able to live consistent with his belief.

Rating: 4.75/5

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Here's a video (unrelated to the book) that explains what a worldview is.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txez9sJUtaE]

To Live is Christ to Die is Gain (Free for today!) (15/7)

Get this while it's free today.
To Live is Christ to Die is Gain.