Monday, September 13, 2010

Currently Reading Two Books


A book which I've been reading, and that I plan to review on my WordPress blog, is James Dunn's Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?: The New Testament Evidence.



So far, it hasn't been what I expected though I heard the real meat of the book is chapter 4 entitled: "The Lord Jesus Christ." (I just finished chapter 3) First chapters are pretty boring; they just deal with the Gr. word for worship and see if it is applied to Jesus and things like that. It's a pretty dry read, in my opinion. However, if one has never really studied these issues in any meaningful depth, then maybe it may be an interesting read.



I've also been reading 20 Compelling Evidences that God Exists: Discover Why Believing in God Makes So Much Sense by Kenneth Boa and Robert Bowman Jr, and to be honest, I'm not in the least impressed thus far. If I were an atheist I would remain an atheist after reading this book. Granted, I've only read 5 of the "evidences" thus far, but the first few were pretty weak "evidences." For example, the first "evidence" for proving God's existence is that Christianity takes reality seriously. WHAT!? How's that a good argument and how is that "compelling"?

I suppose one could say that Christianity offers an account for what actually happened and will happen. That is, it is not like other religions where they merely offer good thoughts and beliefs, but do not and will not say that those "thoughts" and "beliefs" will be reality.

At best, in my opinion, that argument only proves that Christianity is a viable option in the marketplace of ideas. It offers a credible, plausible worldview for the way things are and why they are the way they are. But that argument (Christianity takes reality seriously) does not go on to show that God exists, in my opinion. Be that as it may, I will offer a review of this book in my WordPress blog.

2 comments:

  1. Good work on all these book reviews Ivan. This is something I find helpful.

    I do a lot of "Window-shopping" on Amazon, but rarely buy religious books, never too sure what I'm going to get. Don't like wasting my money. The Amazon reviews are not always particularly useful.

    Aren’t most NT scholars trinitarians? I guess that doctrine is just fundamental to their profession, as evolution is to most scientists.

    Anyway, I'm currently reading through (slowly) "Jesus and the Eyewitnesses / Richard Bauckham", which, while I find hard going, is definitely worth a look, imo - although I won't be writing a review, I'll leave that privilege to you, should you ever read it.

    If you're interested in science/ID, I have recently finished "The Edge of Evolution / Michael Behe", which I recommend.

    OK, appreciate your efforts. Please continue with the reviews. I'll be interested to know the answer to your latest book's title question "Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?"

    Nick.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Nick!

    Thanks for the compliments.

    Well, not all are Trinitarians but most if not all of the conservative scholars are. There's a few that are willing to question their traditions, Dunn is one of them. Though I'm not too big on his works. (He's somewhat liberal)

    I do have Bauckham's book, I just haven't gotten around to it. I'll be sure to read it when I get a chance.

    I'll be sure to look into Behe. What type of subjects does he get into, specifically?

    Best,
    Ivan

    ReplyDelete