Review: Working for Better

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Cover image of "Working for Better" by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

Working for Better

Working for Better, Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514011263) 2025.

Summary: A data-driven approach to understanding the challenges of fostering faith at work identifying five key tensions.

Christians have been writing about faith in the marketplace for at least fifty years. Much of that writing has been informed both by theological convictions about the nature of work and workplace experience. Much of the latter is either testimonial or drawn from anecdotal evidence. Traditionally, much of this has focused on vocation, service, witness, and righteousness.

Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels are social scientists (at Rice University and Wheaton College, respectively). They have engaged in an extensive research project on faith at work. They surveyed 15,000 workers, interviewed 300 individuals, and worked with several focus groups. Out of this research they identified five tensions in the faith-at-work movement. In paired chapters, they discuss each tension, considering both traditional approaches and newer ways of engagement, based on their research. The five are:

Understanding of Work: While the focus has always been on all work being done in service to God, this is not always widely shared on the ground. They identify four dimensions of calling along axes of intrinsic-extrinsic and within the workplace-beyond the workplace.

Religious Discrimination and Accommodation: They trace the experience of both Christians and those of other faiths in this regard, noting where discrimination and lack of accommodation have occurred. At the same time, they recognize the opportunity for engagement in focusing on the protection of others and not only one’s own rights.

Focus on personal and systemic responsibility: Many Christians have focused, and rightly so, on personal ethics and discussed ways they faced challenges with immorality and ethical compromise. They also explore the opportunities for systemic engagement to address organizational change for ethical behavior for the common good.

Men and Women in the Workplace: They looked at different ways men and women express their faith and the different levels at which each reported unfair treatment in the workplace, including religious workplaces. They consider ways the church can support flourishing for both men and women as well as the support women may be given in terms of harassment and models and mentors.

Expressing Faith in the Workplace: They identify the many ways Christians express faith in the workplace. Given the growing presence of other faiths, they advocate a principled pluralism approach. This means respect for all while not muting the distinctiveness of any.

As the authors conclude, they discuss the practice of rest. What was surprising was the silence of their research results on the subject. They explore healthy rhythms of work and rest on a daily weekly, monthly and longer term basis. And they offer challenges for churches, workplace leaders and all workers.

Summing up, the things I liked the most about this book were its data-driven nature, listening to non-Christian voices, and the expansive vision they cast in each of the five tensions. They focus on moving beyond personal godliness and self-protection to constructive organizational engagement. They offer an attractive and compelling vision for the next season of faith at work.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

The Weekly Wrap: March 15-21

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The Weekly Wrap: March 15-21

Retiring a Saying

A saying that has become nearly a mantra among bibliophiles is “So many books; so little time.” For example, my family even bought me a t-shirt with this saying. Yet the longer I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve come to conclusion that it might be healthy to retire this slogan.

It’s not that both parts of the statement are not true. I just read that four million books were published this past year. And, if I live as long as my parents did, I have twenty years or less of reading left. But I think the statement can foster a kind of frenzied compulsiveness to try to read as many as one can. Don Quixote, move over!

That’s a temptation to which I am prone. But I think its time for a new saying. Maybe something like, “So little time; so savor your books.” Whether I’m enjoying the twists of a good mystery, the suspense of a thriller, the wonder of a life chronicled or an exposition seeking to unravel the majesty of God, I want to savor.

Somehow, I don’t think the One Who has written the greatest story will mind.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Those of a certain age will remember The Baby-Sitters Club novels, published by Scholastic. In all 213 were published and it led to a TV series and film. And apparently they are still popular. Jennifer Hubert Swan offers ten recommendations of other books like these in “My Kids Love the Baby-Sitters Club Books. What Should They Read Next?“

I learned a new word today–“looksmaxxing.” It is the practice of maximizing one’s physical attractiveness, one’s “sexual market value” on social media. Anna Louie Sussman, in a review of The Intimate Animal explores “The Basic Drive That Humans Might Be Losing.”

Needless to say, AI is one aspect of looksmaxxing, as well as many other emerging developments in our relationship with machines. However, that interaction is not new and Peter Wolfendale explores some of that history and the recurring question of machine souls in “Geist in the machine.”

Do you ever find yourself in a conversation grappling with so many global issues, all of which have moral implications, that you wrestle to find moral language to respond? Ann Frances Margolies suggests we might find help in the work of Simone Weil in “Speaking After the Noise.”

And lastly, it’s time for a little fun. With St. Patrick’s Day celebrations this week,  J. D. Biersdorfer asks “Do You Recognize These Lines From Great Irish Poets?” Just five questions. I got four out of five, but a couple were guesses!

Quote of the Week

I do think the breakdown of our collective sanity may be attributable to our loss of neighboring and other forms of community. John Updike, born March 18, 1932, thought so as well:

“We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable.”

Miscellaneous Musings

Standard Ebooks describes itself as “a volunteer-driven effort to produce a collection of high quality, carefully formatted, accessible, open source, and free public domain ebooks that meet or exceed the quality of commercially produced ebooks. The text and cover art in our ebooks are already believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks dedicates its own work to the public domain, thus releasing the entirety of each ebook file into the public domain. All the ebooks we produce are distributed free of cost and free of U.S. copyright restrictions.” They have quite a library and their renderings surpass other versions of Public Domain works.

Yesterday was delivery day–five books from four different publishers. I’ll be highlighting them over the next weeks on my social media platforms (Facebook, X, Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram). You might find it worthwhile to follow me on one or more of those platforms.

I’m about 80 pages into On Fire For God by Josiah Hesse. He explores the evangelicalism of the Seventies and Eighties that formed his parents, its influence on him, and how so much of it morphed into what we know as “The Religious Right.” It’s fascinating as I consider the different way my life went while being shaped by similar influences. I also find myself observing, as does Amy Grant in her recent “The Sixth of January (Yasgur’s Farm),” that “we’ve lost our way.” This is one of those instances of hoping to understand in retrospect to discern the way forward.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels, Working for Better

Tuesday: Jonathan A. Linebaugh, The Well That Washes What it Shows

Wednesday: William Kent Krueger, Sulfur Springs

Thursday: Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Friday: Daniel G. Hummel, The University of Wisconsin and the Ideal of Nonsectarianism

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for March 15-21.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: The Glory of the Ascension

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Cover image of "The Glory of the Ascension" by W. Ross Hastings

The Glory of the Ascension

The Glory of the Ascension, W. Ross Hastings. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514010617) 2025

Summary: Sets forth this neglected doctrine that celebrates a completed atonement and the exalted glory of the Son.

The very best theology offers the attentive reader glimpses of glory. One cannot read without pausing in awe or breaking out in worship or humbling oneself before the Holy Triune God. This is one of those books. Often I could not read more than a paragraph without having one of these responses. Here is one of many examples I could cite:

“The ascension is beautiful also in that it is the climactic, celebrated outcome of an atonement that was fully accomplished and yet the beginning of the application of the atonement forever to the people of God in union with Christ. It is beautiful because of the symmetry of a humanity created and fallen in the first Adam with a humanity recapitulated, recreated, and glorified in the ascension of the last Adam. The ascension reflects a relation between the Son and his people, with whom he became one in the incarnation–his people who have died and risen with him and, more than that, are now seated with him in his ascended place in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6)” (pp. 23-24).

W. Ross Hastings contends that we have neglected this magnificent doctrine. And he sets out in this book to remedy that neglect. To begin, Hastings lays out an argument as to why it matters. Specifically, he focuses on how the ascension represents the both the completion of the atoning work of Christ and the exalted glory of the Son at God’s right hand, themes to which Hastings recurs throughout the book. Then, Hastings outlines his methodology, rooted in divine revelation. He discusses both biblical and theological interpretation approaches.

Following this, Chapters 3 through 7 center on what the ascension shows us of the glory of the person and work of Christ. Chapter 3 focuses on the glory of Christ’s deity revealed in the ascension as the God-man. Then Chapter 4 follows the movement from glory concealed in Christ’s life and death on earth, and the revealing of even greater glory as risen and ascended One. He is no longer Messiah-designate but Messiah crowned.

Following this, Chapter 5 discusses his offices as Prophet, Priest, and King. We often think of atonement finished on the cross. However, the seating of Christ at God’s right hand, discussed in Chapter 6, signifies atonement fully accomplished. Not only that, as interceding high priest, we experience the application of atonement to humanity.

It is as God-MAN that Jesus ascended and is in eternal communion within the Godhead. In Chapter 7, Hastings considers the implications of this reality for humanity both now and in glory, as we share in the glory of Christ.

However, the idea of the ascension as the completion of atonement raises questions. Is the ascension itself atoning, as Douglas Farrow proposes, or the sign, the capstone of atonement completed? In dialogue with Farrow, Hastings contends for the latter in Chapter 8. Then Chapter 9 considers more fully the glory of the heavenly continuing application of the atonement through our participation in that work by the Spirit.

Ephesians 3:21 speaks of “glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.” Hastings elaborates in Chapter 10 on our experience of that through our communion with the ascended Lord in the Eucharist. Then Chapters 11-13 explore the last things: his coming again, the glory we will share with the Christ of the cosmos, and the glory of heaven.

This is theology to savor. We may ponder the many-splendored glory revealed in our Lord’s ascension. There is the incredible assurance of the completion of Christ’s atoning work. Then we might consider what it means that we are already seated with Christ in the heavenly places–what his exalted status means for our exalted status, both individually and as the church. And then there is our eternal destiny.

We are in the season of Lent looking toward Easter. The church celebrates the Feast of the Ascension on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, which in 2026 is May 14. Let’s not neglect this Feast nor this doctrine. If you get this book now, you have plenty of time to read, ponder, and prepare to celebrate this important day in the life of the church.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Jazz Trash

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Cover image of "Jazz Trash" by Michael S. Moore.

Jazz Trash

Jazz Trash, Michael S. Moore. Crumpled-paper.com (ISBN: 9798985928945) 2025.

Summary: Andrew, who cannot play the guitar, is chosen to play guitar for a group that explores the boundaries between jazz and noise.

Perhaps you were (or are) like me–a music fan who dreamed of playing in a rock band. Maybe lead guitar. But the only guitar you can play is an air guitar, and even that not very well. That’s Andrew as he walks to meet band members. He’d seen a poster like this one:

Postcard: “Wanted Guitarist who does not play guitar” from “Jazz Trash” © Michael S. Moore (part of book promo materials)

It turns out he is exactly who Dave and Phil are looking for. They are jazz musicians wanting to create a new kind of music. The fact that Andrew doesn’t even have a guitar and doesn’t know how to play makes him a prime candidate. At his audition in the pictured warehouse, they give him an old guitar and plug him into an amp. And then, on cue, he is to play, which really means making loud noise. Then Dave on bass and Phil on drums improvise behind him.

Andrew has no clue how he is doing. But Dave is ecstatic. This is just what Dave and Phil wanted. So, they make an audition tape to send to the Kit-Kat Club, the premiere jazz club in town. But the owner just doesn’t hear the magic, just the noise. But they get by with a little help from their friends.

Some are friends I’d met before in Moore’s first novel, Crumpled Paper, which I reviewed in 2023, calling it my “sleeper” of the year. Richard is the artist whose breakthrough with a series of “crumpled paper” works. His studio is upstairs in the warehouse from the group, which, after this disastrous mixtape, names themselves “Jazz Trash.” Richard not only sympathizes with the group. He takes them under his wing and arranges a gig at the Kit-Kat under their new name. But the owner pulls the plug as soon as Andrew hits his guitar. A chance to play at a private reception goes slightly longer before the police shut them down on a noise complaint.

Meanwhile, their circle of friends that gather at an artsy cafe, stick with them, Lulu, one of the servers, and Andrew have a budding friendship. Glenn, Richard’s volunteer manager, works his magic. Martha is taken up photographing another artist, Reginald, and his literally haunted house, which reminds her of a series of Nancy Drew mysteries. Yet, she helps with band pictures as Dave creates a music ‘zine to hype the group.

While all this is going on, everyone is working hard getting ready for the annual Art Walk. Reginald will debut new works and try to get free of his ghosts. Meanwhile, Richard will try to follow up on his previous successes, and the band will get what could be their last shot at his reception.

Like Crumpled Paper, Moore explores the world of artists in various media who try to break out of the boundaries of their art. So much is about getting that chance to find an appreciative public. But part of what makes this book so enjoyable is the ensemble of characters living in this artsy community, enjoying tea and good food and conversation in the cafe as they support each others’ efforts. It’s a pleasure to recommend this book by an Ohio author living in my home town! (And I can’t help but wonder if our Short North arts district and its monthly Gallery Hops served as his inspiration.)

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author.

Review: Gemini

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Cover image for "Gemini" by Jeffrey Kluger.

Gemini

Gemini, Jeffrey Kluger. St. Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250323019) 2025.

Summary A history of the Gemini program, that prepared the way for the Apollo program in which Americans first landed on the moon.

Many of us remember the Mercury and Apollo space programs. The former was America’s entry into the space race, particularly when John Glenn orbited Earth three times and safely splashed down amid concerns about a loose heat shield. And many of us Boomers stayed up late, riveted to the TV as we watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon. But many of us forget the program that came between, the Gemini program. Yet Mercury did not practice skills or utilize technology that would be crucial for a trip to, landing on and successful return from the moon.

Jeffrey Kluger, who has written previously about the Apollo program, including Apollo 13 (co-authored with Jim Lovell), fills this gap with an account of the development, missions, leadership and astronauts of the Gemini program. He begins with background, including John Kennedy’s goal for Americans to land on the moon by 1970. And he recaps the Mercury program, both what it accomplished and what it’s limitations were. Fundamentally, the Mercury astronauts were passengers, lacking the equipment to actually fly the capsule, even though they were all accomplished test pilots. And they were sealed into the capsule. They couldn’t go for space walks.

Gemini would be the program where pilots would learn to fly, maneuver, and dock the capsule as well as take space walks, which could only be done if there were at least two aboard. Also, Mercury relied on traditional batteries, which could not power spacecraft for more than a few days. Fuel cells would be used on Gemini, and after early flights would enable much longer missions.

But all of this posed significant engineering problems. They still had to control weight, even with the more powerful Titan booster. This meant ejection seats instead of escape rockets. Fortunately, they never had to use them because tests were never very assuring. At one point, there was a plan to use a parasail-type wing for landings. Tests led to repeated crashes. Parachutes, the reliable technology, prevailed. Then, there were problems with how the booster behaved.

There were early successes with a smooth shakedown on Gemini 3 and the first ever spacewalk on Gemini 4. Then the problems began. Gemini 5 set a record for time in space, but ran into fuel cell problems that threatened an early end. Gemini 6 planned to dock with a separately launched Agena vehicle. But the second stage of the rocket, launched before the Gemini, exploded in flight. Mission control came up with a new plan. Gemini 6 and 7 would rendezvous with each other, successfully coming within a foot of each other–close enough to read a BEAT ARMY sign on the porthole of Gemini 6.

Gemini 8 ended in a near tragedy when a stuck maneuvering thruster sent the capsule into an accelerating tumble. Neil Armstrong barely pulled the capsule out of it before both astronauts blacked out. Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan were the backup team for Gemini 9 when the primary team, flying into St. Louis fatally crashed in poor weather conditions. When they went up, Cernan was scheduled for a long spacewalk. It turned out that it was far more exhausting than expected. When it became uncertain that Cernan could make it back into the capsule, Stafford faced the decision of whether to cut him loose. Cernan made it back. Barely. Fortunately, the last three flights were relatively uneventful, even setting a new high orbit record to test radiation exposure.

Kluger also talks about the crucial role people on the ground played throughout. While James Webb led the agency in Washington, Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz, Deke Slayton and others provide crucial ground support. No one died in space during the Gemini program. After the fatal Apollo 1 fire, during a flight rehearsal, Gene Kranz instructed everyone at the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center to write two words on their blackboards and not erase them: tough and competent. And not another life was lost in the Apollo program.

Jeffrey Kluger’s narrative helped me appreciate how crucial the Gemini program was and how successful the program was. Astronauts, many to fly on Apollo missions, learned crucial skill. Engineers implemented new technology, including on-board computers and fuel cells. We discovered astronauts could survive long periods in space. Kluger also preserves for us the stories of these missions and the courageous and skilled people who made it possible, both in space and on the ground. Sixty years later, few are still alive to tell the stories. Kluger has ensured, in a well-researched history, that they will live on.

Review: Gather, Darkness!

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Cover image of "Gather, Darkness" by Fritz Leiber

Gather, Darkness!

Gather, Darkness!, Fritz Leiber. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781497616622) 2014 (first published in 1943).

Summary: Techno-priests of the Great God control a post-nuclear world, opposed by the Witchcraft, with Brother Jarles torn between.

The most fascinating thing about this book is that Fritz Leiber imagines a post-nuclear world in 1943, two years before the dawn of the nuclear age. It’s not a pretty picture. You have one world government ruled by a structure of techno-priests known as the Hierarchy, ostensibly servants of the Great God. The center of their power is Megatheopolis with a huge temple and a foreboding image of the Great God. They dominate by sensational feats of power, all driven by technological wizardry, overlords of a feudal society where their word determines a person’s work and fate. The chilling thing is none believe in a Great God, only their great technology that woos by spectacle.

A young man, Amon Jarles, rising from peasant origins becomes a Brother. As he rises, he sees behind the power behind the spectacle and how it is used to subjugate the people while the Hierarchy flourishes, and the hypocrisy of the “Great God” faith. One day, he reaches a breaking point, and during a public assembly, speaks out.

Immediately, he is persona non grata. All he wants is to live an honest life without these false beliefs. But that cannot be permitted. In his flight, he discovers a rebel group of dissenters known as the Witchcraft. They shelter him, and nearly succeed in converting him before he is arrested and brainwashed by the Hierarchy. He becomes a focus of efforts by both groups in an escalating conflict that pits the Hierarchy and the Witchcraft in a contest for global domination. While nominally the Witchcraft worship Sathanas, the reality is that they are simply a rival techno-religion using alternative technologies. Asmodeus, the mysterious leader, may be the only one of any who really believes.

The chilling premise behind the book is a religious caste without belief who manipulates the fear of the Great God through techno-miracles, advanced surveillance, and brute force. It is a chilling exploration of how cynics use religion to manipulate people for the sake of power and profit. Leiber’s prescience of our own techno-politico-religion is striking. Common to both, it seems, is that, in the embrace of technology and political influence, both deny belief in the existence and power of God. However, Jarles represents those who would transcend the destructive binaries. Is there a viable alternative to the Witchcraft and the Hierarchy? And will Amon Jarles find it? Will we?

Review: The Culture of Interpretation

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Cover image of "The Culture of Interpretation" by Roger Lundin

The Culture of Interpretation

The Culture of Interpretation, Roger Lundin. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802806369) 1993.

Summary: A study of contemporary American culture, how we’ve come to this point, and its implications for Christians.

This is one of those books I came to thirty years too late. In the time since, the author has passed on (in 2015). But the matters he addresses, including the relevance of his analysis of the contemporary university has not. If anything, the crisis in the humanities outlined in this work has immeasurably deepened as academics in these fields struggle to justify what they do.

What Lundin does is engage in a study of the ideas shaping American culture and how they have developed. As a Christian, he weighs the implications of those developments for Christian scholars in the humanities and Christians more generally. After an introduction that defines key terms like culture, he begins with examining the arguments about the nature and purpose of universities between the liberal left and traditionalist right, one that has continued to play out over the last thirty years.

The following three chapters chronicle the historical developments leading to these present disputes. He traces the epistemological unraveling that occurred between Cartesian rationalism and the doubts raised about this project by Kant. He then traces the rise of Romanticism with its emphasis on reason. In the next chapter, he follows the rise of “postmodern gnosticism” that questions the truth project altogether.

Chapters five and six are case studies of two American authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Emerson’s life is a study of the turn from Christian orthodoxy to romantic expressivism. Hawthorne, particularly in The Scarlet Letter, shows how the church in New England substituted coercive authority for the gospel of grace, opening the way to Emerson’s “Self Reliance.”

From here, Lundin considers the advent of Marxist analysis and deconstruction in literary circles. Christians might sympathize with the emphasis on the marginalized overlooked by romanticism. Yet inevitably, its materialism will conflict with core Christian belief. Likewise, in the deconstruction of all truth claims, there is no hope of redemption other than the use of language to gain power. Lundin draws this out in contrasting Augustine and Derrida.

In concluding, Lundin, using the example of C.S. Lewis, argues that Christian scholars err in adopting modernist or post-modernist theories. For Lewis, it was a reliance on the lens of romantic expressivism. Lundin opposes the culture of therapy that seeks to manage experience for one’s well-being while ignoring ultimate questions. Instead, he contends for the recovery of the revelatory authority of God, neither subject to nor the antithesis of reason. He points to the journey of W. H. Auden into the embrace of Christian belief. He contends unapologetically for a faith that meets us at our worst on the cross, and through death and resurrection, offers restoration, a faith of both suffering and glory.

While things haven’t stood still in the last thirty years, this book remains of value as an analysis of currents of thought continuing to shape contemporary culture, particularly that of the university world. If anything, the disputes are more pronounced. And in his concluding chapters, Lundin gestures toward a third way beyond the hopeless binaries. For Christians frustrated by the contemporary culture wars, Lundin offers both insight and alternatives.

The Weekly Wrap: March 8-14

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The Weekly Wrap: March 8-14

Becoming a Reader

As a toddler I often observed my mother reading. She was always quite attractive, and never more so than when she was reading. There was something magical about reading and I couldn’t wait to get in on the magic! So, when we began reading in the first grade, we learned to decode the sounds words made, and as we sounded out words and put them into simple sentences (See Dick Run), it was amazing. I was eager to learn more words and move from simple sentences to short stories.

It wasn’t long before regular trips to the library were a must. How wonderful to discover the children’s section and graduate from short stories to chapter books. Eventually, mom shared some of her books she thought suitable. Often, I read with a dictionary to understand words I hadn’t seen before. Some days, I just read interesting articles in our encyclopedia and if all else failed, the cereal box!

I know there are reasons this magic doesn’t happen for every child from family influences to temperament to learning disabilities that just make reading hard. But I hope it is a magic to which every child has access. In my case, role models, good teachers, access to books at home, and library trips were all part of it. Personally, I think a commitment to wanting every child to have access to the magic of reading is a mark of a great society.

Five Articles Worth Reading

It is often argued that religion has been the great enemy of the advance of science. In “Reformation of science,” Peter Harrison argues that Protestantism actually played a vital role in the emergence of the modern scientific enterprise.

Reason didn’t convince author Christopher Beha to go back to church. Falling in love did. In “What Atheism Could Not Explain,” Luis Parrales explores the stories of other atheists who turned to religious faith.

George Scialabba proposes that “perhaps the greatest repository of moral beauty in English literature, [is] the voice of the narrator in George Eliot’s Middlemarch.” He makes an argument for the beauty of a hidden life in “The Moral Beauty of Middlemarch.”

Ivan Keneally explores the moral contradictions of American life in “Mark Twain’s Absurd, Noble America.”

Finally, it seems that encouraging children to continue to read in the middle grades is a crucial link to forming a lifelong reading habit. In “Without Her, These Beloved Classics Might Never Have Been Published,” Mac Barnett profiles Ursula Nordstrom and her career of editing books for middle grade readers.

Quote of the Week

Part of what inspired my thoughts on the magic of reading was this quote from Alberto Manguel in The History of Reading:

“At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader.”

Miscellaneous Musings

We had widespread power outages due to wind yesterday. Fortunately, we were not among them. I’m struck by how much we depend on electricity for so much of what we do including reading books at night. At one time, we would have been confined to reading by candlelight. But now at least, smartphone book apps and some e-readers are backlit–for as long as their charge holds out!

Kathleen Schmidt, in her Publisher’s Confidential Substack called out USA Today for adding books that were just announced to their bestseller list. Sarah J. Maas announced two new books to be published in late 2026 and early 2027 that were already on the list. I suspect this is based on pre-orders. The galling thing is that this is not indicated. I personally don’t tend to look at them but rather reviews. Sometimes, I’ll browse bestsellers in my bookstore, but they almost never are what interests me.

Plough Publishing has published a number of graphic art works on everything from a biography of Arvo Part to Anabaptist history. They just sent me a book that accompanies nature poetry with graphic art. For some reason, I find this enhances my reading versus just reading lines of text.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Roger Lundin, The Culture of Interpretation

Tuesday: Fritz Leiber, Gather, Darkness!

Wednesday: Jeffrey Kluger, Gemini

Thursday: Michael S. Moore, Jazz Trash

Friday: W. Ross Hastings, The Glory of the Ascension

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for March 8-14.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: The Vision of Ephesians

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Cover image of "The Vision of Ephesians" by N.T. Wright

The Vision of Ephesians

The Vision of Ephesians, N.T.] Wright. Zondervan Academic (ISBN: 9780310172505) 2025.

Summary: Ephesians as a vision of the church between creation and consummation as God’s small working model of new creation.

In recent years, N.T. Wright has been revisiting books of scripture on which he has written previously. He has written new, and briefer texts on Acts and a portion of Romans. Here, Wright turns to Ephesians, and as he has returned to it, has been struck with its visionary character. It reaches back to creation and before, and forward to the consummation of all things in Christ. And in the midst of all this are both the glory of Christ and of his body on earth, the church.

In particular, he centers on the vocation of the church. In chapters 1-3 of Ephesians he sees God’s purpose as displaying his glory through the church’s life. And then, chapters 4-6 focus on the mission of the church, accomplished through its unity and holiness. Rather than focus on specific problems, Paul offers an expansive vision both of Christ and the church. This may reflect the letter’s likely circular nature.

Wright covers the book in nine chapters. His approach is not verse by verse but by sections and paragraphs. Often, Wright will set the passage under discussion in the context of biblical history, the cultural backgrounds of second temple Judaism, and Greco-Roman culture. This background will often take up nearly half a chapter.

Wright offers some interesting insights. For example, discussing Ephesians 2 under the theme of the new temple, he observes how the new temple theme is what unites the “old” perspective of justification of verses 1-10 and the “new” perspective of covenant inclusion in one new man. He eloquently captures the wonder of the doxology of 3:20-21 that speaks of glory in the church and Christ Jesus, where we are “being thrust on stage to link arms with Jesus and take a bow before the whole redeemed creation.”

His treatment of unity portrays well a spirit-enabled unity amidst diversity. He gets more challenging as he moves into the realm of sexual ethics. While not explicitly mentioning LGBTQ+ persons, he writes of “a desire to be a different kind of human from the one you were born as. That is a form of Gnosticism, rejecting the goodness of creation itself. It is (as we all know) widespread in the Western world today, as distorted desires twist themselves into ever more bizarre shapes” (p. 105). No matter one’s stance on sexual ethics, many would regard this characterization as both pastorally insensitive and as a polemical caricature. In a brief commentary, dealing with a biblical text that does not address explicitly LGBTQ+ sexuality, it might be asked why this was included.

This contrasts with a much more thoughtful discussion of mutual submission in the household code material, recognizing how Paul, while not overtly challenging role distinctions, subverts them with the ethic of the one new people. Finally, in discussing the spiritual battle in 6:10-20, Wright helpfully observes that sharing Christ’s royal status in the heavenly places does not exempt us from battle. Also, how we fight is important, not with flesh and blood or earthly weapons.

There is much of value in anything Wright writes. Yet, I wish he would have gone into greater depth at many points in unpacking the text. Still, I believe Wright succeeds in casting an elevated vision of the church in the grand purposes of God. Many churches seem to think they can only be significant if linked to a political agenda. Wright reminds us of the glory we share with Christ. He points to our incredible privilege to demonstrate the grace of God and the new creation. What could be better than this?

Review: The Fourth Synoptic Gospel

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Cover image of "The Fourth Synoptic Gospel" by Mark Goodacre

The Fourth Synoptic Gospel

The Fourth Synoptic Gospel, Mark Goodacre. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802875136) 2025.

Summary: Maintains that John knew of and used Matthew, Mark, and Luke in composing his gospel.

Two things a first time reader of the New Testament will notice: the similarities of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and how different John’s gospel is from these. As it turns out, biblical scholars also noticed this and most over the last hundred years have concluded that John’s account is independent of the other three, commonly known as the Synoptic Gospels. It is generally believed that Matthew and Luke drew much of their material from Mark as well as using sharing a common source known as “Q.” Today, more are questioning the “Q” hypothesis since no “Q” document has ever been found.

Mark Goodacre, as his title suggests, believes John knew of the other three gospels and used them in his composition of John. First, he begins his case by noting the numerous instances of verbal agreement between John and the Synoptics. He sets passages side by side showing agreement in both Greek and English texts. Then he observes the parallel ordering of a number of events between John and the Synoptics.. From this, he argues, based on linguistic analysis, that John’s drew from Mark as mediated through Matthew and Luke.

In addition, John’s selectivity actually presupposes that not only he, but his readers, were familiar with the other gospels. He doesn’t include material that his readers were already familiar with. At other times, John recounts the same incidents but uses direct speech, putting Synoptic narrative on the characters lips.

Another question scholars raise is whether the Beloved Disciple of the gospel is John the son of Zebedee, as traditionally believed. Goodacre considers the various arguments for who the Beloved Disciple might be if not John the son of Zebedee. Goodacre agrees with the textual pointers to John, yet also that he is “an idealized witness to the key events of the earliest Christian tradition.”

Finally, Goodacre argues that while expressed in distinct language, John’s Christology is consistent with Synoptic Christology. He uses fourteen terms for Jesus in common with the Synoptics. The “I am’s” find precedence in Jesus statement in walking on water (Matthew 14:27//Mark 6:50). The seven “I am sayings all use imagery found in the Synoptics.

I found the evidence of verbal agreement most persuasive for his argument. A shared oral tradition alone would likely have been marked by less agreement. I also found the argument of John’s presupposition of the other gospels credible for explaining the differences. Lastly, I appreciated the discussion of Christology and how John’s is consistent with the others. However, I would like more discussion of the differences, particularly in discourses, that we find in John. Perhaps that’s another book!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.