Review: How to Argue Like Jesus

Author: Joe Carter & John Coleman

Title: How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History’s Greatest Communicator

Description: I read this book because I thought it might be a possible text for Comp. II when I teach argument; after all, my students really like it when I can tie their faith in directly to what they are studying. The authors are a blogger and a former college debater. The book basically takes some concepts from classical rhetoric (i.e. logos, ethos, pathos) and demonstrates how Jesus used them.   

Writing style: The book is definitely for the layperson and offers a very basic introduction to some rhetorical concepts.

Audience: Christians who care about how Jesus persuaded people to do things.

Major ideas: Jesus was a rhetorician.

Wrap-up: I just couldn’t bring myself to have my students read the book (and have to read it myself over and over again). I wish that whoever had written it had had an advanced degree in rhetoric and had taken a more systematic approach. This is still a topic waiting for a book. 2/5*

Review: Letters and Life

Author: Bret Lott

Title: Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, on Being a Christian

Description: Lott is one of the more respected Christian writers active today; this book is a collection of his essays on the Christian writer’s life.

Writing style:  In one way, he’s very down-to-earth; he teaches Sunday School and mostly goes to work every day. In another way, though, he’s different from us—not too many have been chosen by Oprah for her club. I do like the down to earth parts.

Audience: Anyone interested in Christianity and writing, or even in being a Christian thinker.

Major ideas: I’ve latched on to Lott’s idea of testimony as a framework for the writing life since the first time I heard him speak (at Calvin’s Festival of Faith andWriting several years ago). Here he elaborates on that.

Wrap-up: This is a small book, and nearly half of it is a long essay about the death of Lott’s father, which I could have done without (or at least he could have shortened it). I am sure it was necessary for him to write, but it didn’t do anything for me. The essays about the writer’s life, though, are completely worth the price of the book. 4/5*

My Favorite Christian Writers, Part 2

I know there are tons of Christian writers active now, but here are five of my favorites. Only two of them are primarily known for fiction (though Anne Lamott writes both fiction and nonfiction, it’s her nonfiction I’m especially fond of.)

Anne Lamott. I can’t say enough good things about Anne Lamott. She is like my brilliant and wise sister. She is always honest about herself and her feelings, which are usually the same feelings I have.  It’s hard for me to tell others why they should read her, because other people are not me and I don’t know if they would have this deep feeling of connection or not. Her best book: Traveling Mercies.

Lauren Winner is probably the Anne Lamott for people who are twenty years younger than me. She writes memoir and personal essay, and is open about her feelings and thoughts even when it makes her look not so good. She has less humor than Lamott, but writes more like a poet. To get started with Winner, try Girl Meets God.

Alan Jacobs is a professor at Wheaton College. His books range from scholarly (A Theology of Reading: The Hermeneutics of Love) to popular (The Narnian). Whether he writes about reading, sin, C. S. Lewis, testimony, or some other subject, he is thoughtful, logical, and turns an elegant phrase.

Leif Enger’s masterpiece is Peace Like a River. The story of a boy pursuing his outlaw big brother along with his sister, who writes masterful rhymed couplets, and his father, who performs miracles.

Jan Karon may be the most popular author on this list. Her Mitford books and the Father Timothy books which followed create a world in which Christians act like Christians—near paradise! Lauren Winner gives Karon credit for moving her toward salvation. I usually laugh out loud at least once and wipe away at least one tear for every Karon book I read.

There are other well-known Christian authors who I greatly respect: Marilynne Robinson, Katherine Norris, Wendell Berry—but they don’t have my heart the way these few do. 

My Favorite Christian Writers, Part 1

You all know that I’m really interested in faith and literature, and that I love when authors can pull off that combination well, without coming off as sappy or clichéd. Everybody knows the famous Inkling authors C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and I’m a huge fan of theirs. Today I’d like to mention some of my favorite Christian authors who may not be quite as famous as these two.

Historical (i.e. they’re dead)

Charles Williams was another of the Inklings, probably the third best known. He is remembered today for his supernatural novels (War in Heaven is a good one to start with) and to a lesser extent, his Arthurian poetry. I wrote my Master’s thesis on his poetry, so that’s obviously my favorite of his works.

Madeleine L’Engle is best known for her Time trilogy; the first book, A Wrinkle in Time, won the Newbery medal. These three books aren’t all she wrote about Calvin, Meg, Charles Wallace, and their families, though; there are at least eight. Most of L’Engle’s books are for children or young adults, but she wrote for adults as well. Some of my favorites of her books are A Swiftly Tilting Planet, A Ring of Endless Light, and Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art.  I was lucky enough to work in the Wheaton College Archives with their Madeleine L’Engle collection as an undergraduate; I came to love her as a person through her correspondence, even though I never met her.

Joe McClatchey

Walker Percy was a Southern writer who died in 1990. My favorite novel of his is The Second Coming. I was introduced to Percy by Dr. McClatchey at Wheaton, and after we read the book, I wrote to Percy and actually received a letter back from him. It’s probably worth something now, if I could find it!

Frederick Buechner isn’t dead that I know of, but he is another author I first read at Wheaton, so I’ll put him in this bunch to balance it out.  Buechner is another author I found through Dr. McClatchey. The Book of Bebb is my favorite of his works (actually it’s a tetralogy published in one volume). I never heard the Big Bopper again without thinking of this book.