Culture

Publishing LLC, Kansas City, 2011 RRP $7.99 Reviewed by Bill Adams. YOU may have seen some other offerings in this series in your local store, perhaps the newsagent. Apparently there are many folks in our communities who are hooked on puzzles, mainly Sudoku, Crosswords or Word Search. This nicely presented little book is all about people of the Bible and ...

Accent Publications, 2010, RRP $39.95 Reviewed by Karyl Davison. MOST of us have puzzled in recent years about the way sin is understood in Australian society. Although for some of us it remains a religiously meaningful term, this has somehow become less than helpful for many. Even in the church we are no longer sure what sin is. So how ...

Hidden Springs, New Jersey (2011), RRP $22.95 Reviewed by Bob Warrick. THE Charge (or Word of Mission) at the end of a worship service usually includes an exhortation to not just have listened and thought, but to make a difference in the world. That is one of Mr Rohr’s major thrusts. His concern is with religious attitudes that “create an ...

IVP books, Illinois (2011), RRP $15.95 Reviewed by Rev Dr Marian Zaunbrecher. GOD in a Brothel is not a book for the faint-hearted, but is for all those passionate about the mission of God, a mission that calls the church to proclaim freedom for prisoners and release the oppressed (Luke 4:18). Author New Zealander Daniel Walker is a Christian policeman ...

SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2011, RRP $23.95 Reviewed by Karyl Davison. WE don’t often think of Christians being dangerous, let alone great Christians. But throughout the history of the Christian church there have been Christians who were not afraid to ask what God would have them do, and actually do it. Their words and actions challenged the status quo, often bringing ...

Monarch Books, 2009 RRP $19.99 Reviewed by Bill Adams. THE remarkable life of Aiden Wilson Tozer has been wonderfully presented in this lively and readable biography by James L Snyder. I expected to be introduced to a calculated coverage of a dry and doctrinaire defender of biblical correctness but instead found Mr Snyder taking me into the world of a ...

Chalice Press, 2009 RRP $32.95 Reviewed by Karyl Davison. LOVE them or hate them, reality TV shows make up a huge proportion of television broadcasts in Australia today. There is little doubt that some reality TV is appalling, exposing its participants in experiences that are at best morally dubious and at worst, psychologically damaging. Like so many other things in ...

Published by W. W. Norton and Company 2010 , RRP $32.95 New York and London Reviewed by Bruce Upham. This is an absorbing book, quite apart from the main topic indicated in the title, with vivid descriptions of two minority groups we do not encounter in Australia — the Amish communities and an ultra-conservative group of Orthodox Jews, both successfully ...

Black Ink Press RRP $11.00 2011 Reviewed by Barbara Bailey. This little book was written and illustrated by a teenager who attended after school workshops on ten Fridays in 2010. What a credit it is to her for this achievement. She writes a reflective narrative dedicated to the memory of her sister who only lived a few days in 1991. ...

Gallery Books and MTV Books, 2004 RRP $19.99 Reviewed by Tara Burton. Soul Surfer tells the courageous story of Bethany Hamilton who at just the tender young age of 13 got attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark off the shores of her hometown Hawaii. She was left with one arm and the devastating news that she may never be able ...