Three Reviews: Radical, Revise Us Again, and the Rabbit and the Elephant
I’ve recently read three book reviews that were very helpful.
Dan at “The Ekklesia in Southern Maine” wrote a review of David Platt’s book Radical in his post “Radical – book review.” I think Dan only found the book “radical” within a certain church context. He was also concerned about “secret church.”
Mark at “Experiencing Christ” wrote a review of Frank Viola’s book Revise Us Again in his post “Book Review: Revise Us Again by Frank Viola.” Mark found that this book followed the same patterns of Viola’s other books, and was challenged in many ways.
Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” wrote a review of Tony and Felicity Dale’s book The Rabbit and the Elephant in his post “The Rabbit and the Elephant.” Eric appreciated their description of simple church and their focus on multiplication.
Of these three books, I’ve only read The Rabbit and the Elephant, which I reviewed in this post. I’m still trying to decide if I have time to read the other two books.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think about them? Helpful or not?
I am almost done reading “Revise Us Again” I am finding it to be very helpful in many practical ways. One way is relating to the Lord personally through understanding what it means to be in His presence and the differences surrounding that. Leads more to a life of faith than a striving to gain a special touch from the Lord.
A very helpful chapter is on the different spiritual conversational styles Christians have and how to understand that when relating to one another. Instead of writing each other off because we don’t see eye to eye. Try instead to understand the other persons SCS.
Also, the focus on Christ and living by His life comes through this book in ways that sheds light on some of our various ways of understanding the Christian life that can be hang ups at times and this book helps to clear the path to walk plainly but confidently with the Lord. I have not read the other two books yet. Hope this helps.
Seth,
Thanks for adding your thoughts about Revise Us Again. Perhaps I should find time to read this one.
-Alan
Thanks for the shout-out, Alan. People can order the book at a discount here: http://wwww.ptmin.org/books (Amazon link there too).
Keep up the good work, bro!
fv
Psalm 115:1
I recently read David Platt’s Radical and found it very challenging in a lot of areas. Though I can understand Dan’s reservations and concerns about how far Platt goes and what he still reinforces, there is enough material in the book to merit reading it and considering elements to apply to the individual’s pursuit of Christ and then its corporate expression. Obviously there’s more to say, and as time allows I hope to put up a review meself (he says shamelessly plugging his own blog), but on the whole I would recommend it.