Category: books

Review: The Action Bible – Faith in Action Edition (with Giveaway!)

When I was in elementary school, a member of my family bought me a Picture Bible they saw advertised on television. The printing was right out of the comic book pages, mixing magenta, cyan, and yellow, portraying the major stories of the Bible. The dialogue was abbreviated. It did not include every story and detail from a full translation of the Bible. But it got me thinking about the biblical stories. It familiarized me with the overall arc of the Bible. It better acquainted me with many of the people, both men and women, who appear in Scripture.

Now, I’m a parent. I have children. I want them to read. I want them to know the stories of the Bible. I’ve shared my Picture Bible with them. After all these years, it is falling apart. I was glad to be able to hand one of my children this edition of The Action Bible. It is way cooler, and more easily engages them.

The Faith in Action Edition of The Action Bible is organized according to Scripture’s traditional ordering. It begins in Genesis and ends with a very brief depiction from Revelation. In between, you find narrative. There are seven major category groupings for the stories within: Courage, Faith, Hope, Love, Service, Trust, and Wisdom. These are color coded and are part of each narrative heading, which not only titles the story (“Facing the Heat” for the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the Fiery Furnace; “On Trial” for the story of Jesus before the Caiaphas). The headings also include the relevant Scripture passages.

Each story includes a QR code (and sometimes more than one) which can be scanned for additional devotional and study resources.

This is a great resource to engage young readers and start conversations about the Bible, God, and what it means to live by faith.

* I received a copy of The Action Bible: Faith in Action Edition in exchange for an honest review. If you’d like a chance to win a copy, leave a comment. You’ll need to complete the form so that I have an associated email address. I’ll select a winner at random this Saturday.

2023: My Year in Reading

This year books have helped me stay sane, if I was ever sane to begin with. In the latter half of the year I read more fiction than any other genre, needing a vehicle in the evenings and in quiet moments that enabled me to relax and escape, to visit unfamiliar and strange worlds, to deepen my understanding of human nature and the human psyche, to broaden my understanding of those around me and of myself, and to simply enter into and experience the joys and pleasures of reading.

My media log from 2010 and every year since is found here. I don’t know when I began writing reflection essays like this one, but past editions I produced for this website are here: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Please note: all links that take you to Amazon are affiliate links. Clicks and purchases kickback to me. Support the blog and my reading habit. If a book in this post interests you and you plan to make a purchase, follow the hyperlink from this page. All the fun people do. “Be fun.”

How Many Books Did I Read This Year?

After experimenting with this over many years, I’ve settled on a yearly goal of 60 books. That’s five books a month. Sound like a lot? I assure you, it is doable. Here is how I do it.

I read 65 books this year. The first book I finished was Quentin Tarantino’s Cinema Speculation. The last book I read was Larry McMurtry’s All My Friends are Going to Be Strangers. I revisited three old friends this year: Charles Portis’s True Grit, Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart, and Frank Herbert’s Dune. I enjoyed rereading all three.

I watched 93 movies and viewed 6 complete television series. Books are one thing that kept me sane. Film helped, too. My favorite movies this year include The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), Ghostbusters (1984), Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), The Sum of All Fears (2002), Jackie Brown (1997), Oppenheimer (2023), Barbie (2023), and Back to the Future (1985).

My friend Harry urged me to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Complete Series (2005-2008). David and I took it in together during the summer, and it was a positive father/son experience. It is brilliant. I also enjoyed Netflix’s Arnold and Beckham documentaries. I recommend them both.

What Were My Favorite Books This Year?

I’m glad to say I read a lot of good stuff this year. Topping my list are two works of fiction: Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities and Cixin Liu’s Three-Body Problem.

Bonfire of the Vanities was published in 1987, but it addresses political, social, racial, and economic dynamics that remain present in American life today. This is tragically so. I think this has less to do with the state of American progress and more to do with the enduring foibles of human nature. We do incredible things. We destroy ourselves. I found this book gripping, gut-wrenching, and true.

Three-Body Problem is a science fiction novel that will soon debut as a Netflix television series. I checked out a copy from the public library after hearing it raved about by one person in particular, though I heard others I respect offer similar praise. Without a liberal arts education, I wouldn’t have been able to understand portions of the book, particularly about physics. The result: I was more thankful for the education I received but didn’t always enjoy or demonstrably appreciate. To my teachers who endured me as a grumpy youth: You win.

What’s the book about? Earth encounters an alien civilization. This civilization lives on a planet that is in orbital relationship to three sun-like stars, and because of the inconstancy of this planet’s relationship to these three stars, a very different history, culture, and civilization from that of Earth emerges. When this civilization discovers Earth, a planet with predictable planetary rhythms resulting from a stable orbit around a single star, they begin a journey across the galaxy to conquer Earth. How does this civilization discover Earth? We bounce a signal off the sun, amplifying the signal and providing the power necessary for it to reach neighboring systems. Why? It was one person’s decision, a person who was deeply wounded by the Cultural Revolution in China. The novel moves across past, present, and future. It is imaginative. There is an element of mystery. The scientific writing is fascinating. But the core thought experiment is what hooked me: we assume alien races would be benevolent, or at least somewhat like our own. That isn’t guaranteed. Contact could bring chaos. In this novel, it does.

Other books I enjoyed and/or appreciated are Cormac McCarthy’s The Passenger and Stella Maris (these strange novels are part of a set), Ted Chiang’s Exhalation: Stories, George Marsden’s An Infinite Fountain of Light: Jonathan Edwards for the Twenty-First Century, James K. A. Smith’s How to Inhabit Time, Richard Russo’s Nobody’s Fool, Dan Jenkins’s You Gotta Play Hurt, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, and Tish Harrison Warren’s Advent: The Season of Hope.

One Christian living book I enjoyed to a surprising degree: Don Everts’s The Spiritually Vibrant Home: The Power of Messy Prayers, Loud Tables, and Open Doors. If you are raising a family, if you are a grandparent, if you are a single person who is wondering how best to invite others to share in a common life, if you are a pastor wondering how to equip your people to practice hospitality in the everyday, this book provides several great ideas.

Did You Hate Anything?

I know hate is a strong word. But I almost always hate something that I read. I did not enjoy David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. I did not enjoy Patrick deWitt’s French Exit: A Novel.

While I respect the approach and positions of both of the following authors, I did not particularly enjoy Michael J. Rhodes’s Just Discipleship: Biblical Justice in an Unjust World or Ian J. Vaillancourt’s Treasuring the Psalms: How to Read the Songs that Shape the Soul of the Church. These two books do not reach the “hate” level. But I have disagreements with Rhodes concerning his ideological framework and structural critiques of Vaillancourt’s finished product. In evaluating each book, I have tried to be charitable to both authors, see value in each project, but have no plans to revisit either work.

What Are You Reading Right Now?

This will be the second straight year I continue pecking at Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism. It is considered a classic work in the field of Christian spirituality (and particularly of mysticism), but, by golly, it is hard to read.

Next up for me: Collin Hansen’s Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation.

What Did I Learn from My Experience Reading This Year?

This has been a very challenging year for me personally, and I have not been able to write about it much. Our family began the year navigating an illness which I wrote about here and here. Thankfully, Molly is much better. She’s in a new job. Our kids have been a lot happier this year than they were last, and we’re very thankful for the growth they have evidenced personally and in character, academically, socially, spiritually, and athletically.

Beginning in May (I think that’s when the trouble started), I experienced an increased onset of symptoms that worsened over the succeeding months, eventually diagnosed as resulting from Epstein-Barr Virus. I hit the apex of my sufferings in September, spent the next few weeks visiting doctors and making adjustments in several demanding areas of my life, and began the work of discerning the best path toward healing. Rest, rest, and more rest were prescribed. A good diet, exercise as able, and adequate sleep were also recommended. The stuff we’re always told to do.

It was hard to rest. It was hard to let important things go. It was hard to do things that had been easy, or to quit doing things that I enjoyed. I had to quit playing basketball. I couldn’t coach. It was too hard on the system. It was hard to think, hard to talk, hard to teach. I think, talk, and teach for a living.

Books provided a respite. I couldn’t read challenging nonfiction works, at least not at the pace I am accustomed to. I moved over to fiction. Well told stories can carry a person, and they carried me. Well told stories provide characters we can identify with. A well told story can challenge the intellect, though often in more indirect ways. A well told story opens new worlds. Wonderful stories also form the soul. They stir the human spirit. The best stories can make us better. They can heal.

Movies and television also provided a respite. Taken together, I marvel at the products of human culture. Creating is a human act. I think this is a reflection of the divine nature. We make because God is a maker. Great civilizations produce great works of art, wondrous stories, delightful music, brilliant paintings, clever poetry. And jokes. Comedy. If art is being made, if culture is being produced, there will always be debates about the sacred and profane, the transcendent and the vulgar. Not all art that is produced is good, beautiful, and true. But some of it is.

I’m glad to live in a moment when I can access thousands of products of human culture at the click of a button. I can read great works of history both classical and contemporary. I can read philosophy and theology from across the ages. I can survey the history of film. I can listen to almost any piece of music, performed by the greatest musicians and produced with the finest technical skill. I can research great pieces of art, not only the finished products that hang on museum walls or that reside in private collections. I can learn about the process, the artist, the moment that produced each work. Some experiences of these great works of art can be, and are, superior to others. I would rather view a painting or hear a piece of music performed in person than I would encounter it through the internet. Nonetheless, riches are at our fingertips. The world offers us an abundance of horrors. We do well to pause and wonder at the world’s marvels, more numerous than we often consciously remember and realize.

As for another great treasure, the Bible continues to be my daily companion, and I continue to urge Christian people to make reading Scripture part of their life rhythm. There are many different ways of reading the Bible. You can read inquisitively and academically. It is worthwhile to study the Scriptures carefully and in depth, and I do. Most days, I read devotionally. I read as an act of love for God. I encourage others to do the same. You never know how God might meet you.

What are you reading, and what should I add to my list?

How I Choose What to Read

Photo by Alexei Maridashvili on Unsplash

Over a decade ago I began recording what I read (a few years later I added what I watch). I read as part of my daily routine and as a default leisure activity. I read routinely in the morning and when I have opportunity throughout the day. If I have a review to write or a research deadline to meet, I schedule reading blocks. For example, in my calendar I write, “3-4 pm: Appointment w/K. Barth.” Sometimes reading material is chosen for me. More often, I make my own choices.

So, how do I choose what to read?

These ten ideas guide my selections.

1. Pursue Interests

As an undergraduate student I became interested in Christian theology, Christian ethics, Christian apologetics, and church leadership. Some reading was curricular, but not all. The more I read, the more names, ideas, and categories of thought became familiar. An intellectual map began to emerge, and connections were made. As new authors, concepts, and fields of inquiry presented themselves, the borders of the map expanded, and I was no longer confined to subcategories of Christian thought. For example, the essays of Christian ethicist Stanley Hauerwas led me to Richard Adams’ Watership Down and philosopher Alasdair McIntyre’s After Virtue. My interests led me into a broader range of literature, and I kept wandering, and wandering, and wandering along.

2. Identify Literary Heroes

My favorite authors include the aforementioned Stanley Hauerwas, philosopher and Christian spiritual formation author Dallas Willard, pastor and poet Eugene Peterson, and crime novelist Michael Connelly, to name a few. I’ve tried to become friends with the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (it’s not always easy, but we’re getting along). I like Charles Portis and Larry McMurtry and Flannery O’Connor. I enjoy reading C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkein and G. K. Chesterton. I have been encouraged by the writings of James Bryan Smith. Wherever Alan Jacobs goes, I tend to go along.

Identify the writers you love to read, and read them.

3. Develop Literary Taste

Not everything is worth reading. Ecclesiastes 12:12 says, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.” You don’t have to finish every book you start, and you don’t have to read every book people you respect recommend. You’ll pick up some books and within the first fifty pages determine it is more suitable for kindling (or worse). Your taste in literature is your own. Discover it. Develop it. Refine it.

4. Read Old Stuff

In a famous essay, “On the Reading of Old Books,” C. S. Lewis wrote:

“Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. . .[But] if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light. Often it cannot be fully understood without the knowledge of a good many other modern books.”

That’s interesting advice. I read Dante’s Divine Comedy a couple of years ago, which was completed around the year 1321. I read new books. But I have taken Lewis’s advice to heart. When I consider what to read each year, I mix in ancient philosophy and early church history. That’s proven profitable.

5. Consult Footnotes and Bibliographies

In nonfiction literature (and some creative fiction), footnotes and bibliographies are there to acquaint us with the background, context, and web of ideas that contributed to the author’s original work. If you notice authors and titles come up in repeated and interesting ways in the main body, footnotes, and bibliography of a work, sound the bugle and let the hunt begin.

6. Challenge Yourself

I confess I don’t always understand everything I read. When I began reading Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics I often walked away puzzled. The same has been true when I’ve read Jurgen Moltmann or N. T. Wright or Johnathan Edwards or Fyodor Dostoevsky. Sometimes I’ll go back and read slowly. Other times I’ll press on and trust the process of reading, believing that the ideas I find in one place will appear elsewhere in The Great Conversation, and clarity will emerge in due time, if it is needed. I approach reading with a degree of trust in Providence.

7. Be Open to Different Genres

I wrote above that my interest in Christianity helped me become a reader. But so did British literature. The sonnets of Shakespeare, John Keats, Lord Byron, and Percy Shelley helped me appreciate poetry. Later, I read political theory, history, social science, and cultural commentary in an effort to better understand the American milieu. Biography and autobiography have helped me learn wisdom from the stories of others. You can have a favorite genre. But go exploring.

8. Pay Attention to Readers, and Keep a List

The latter first: when an author or title catches your eye or ear, capture it. Make a list. I use an app on my phone. I also have an earmarked section in a notebook. Routinely review this list and make selections.

If you befriend readers, ask what they read. If you read writers who mention other authors, take note. If a magazine or publication produces a “great books” list, consult it. With experience, you’ll differentiate between those recommenders to heed and those to ignore.

9. Collect Books

I borrow books. I love libraries. But I also buy books. I pre-order books from authors I love. I buy used books. I shop the book sections of thrift stores (I did this at a Goodwill last week). And I don’t always read my purchases immediately. As your library grows, scan the spines, see what you have, and pull off two or three books that you want to read. Set one on your nightstand or by your reading chair. When you have a few moments, read a few pages, and move the bookmark. Read from your collection.

10. Set Goals

My annual reading goal is to complete a set number of books. This year I am aiming for sixty. I’m a little behind pace, but hope to catch up during the summer. When I begin a new year, I think of titles that I have meant to read but haven’t yet, or I choose a research interest I’d like to pursue. Last year, I began reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It took me a long time to reach the end. I’m still reading a Ron Chernow biography of George Washington.

Choose a title or an author and set a goal. I pick one or two books at the start of each year that I pledge to finish. I will read other things. But my goal books are the bedrock, the core, of a reading year.

One Other Factor: Serendipity

Some great reads are discovered as if by accident. The right book comes along at the right time. A book catches my eye at a used bookshop, and the blurbs are from people I respect. Suddenly, I’m delighted by words on the page, a story beautifully spun, or wisdom delivered via a dusty codex. There are few things in life I enjoy more than the pleasures of reading. Books are a gift of God.

When Do You Read?

Photo by Blaz Photo on Unsplash

A friend of mine recently asked, “When do you read?”

Years ago I read Stephen King’s On Writing. King argued that writers should be readers. He described his practice of carrying a book wherever he went. When he was waiting in a line to get into an event, in the reception area at the doctor’s office, or sitting at a coffee shop waiting for a friend to arrive, he cracked open what he was carrying and covered what ground he could. King observed that there are windows of time each day that could be spent reading. So he did. I have followed his example. I carry books with me, and I read whenever I can.

I also read at the beginning of every day. My rule of life includes reading four chapters from the Bible each day followed by an entry from a devotional work (for the past four years this has been Oswald Chambers’s My Utmost for His Highest). I usually do this before everyone else in the household is awake. If not then, it is the first thing I do when I arrive in the office. It takes about a year for me to complete a reading of the Bible. After I finish Revelation 22, the next day I turn back to Genesis 1. I read a selection from Psalms with Molly as a daily habit, mostly in the mornings before we both walk out the door. If time allows while I am at home, I also read a chapter from Psalms during my time of devotion.

During the work day I read as my schedule and energy levels will allow. Each day I have administrative responsibilities in addition to meetings and time one-with-one building relationships with students, faculty, and staff colleagues. When I’m at my desk, my job requires a lot of reading. I read assignments and emails, articles and memos. I read on computer monitors and tablets. But I prefer print. And I prefer book length treatments of topics as opposed to articles. When I read professionally and for pleasure, I prefer paper, bound, the more beautiful the book jacket, the better. But a paperback suits me just fine.

I use a modified approach to Cal Newport’s time block planning system, and occasionally I’ll schedule myself for reading. What I’m reading at any given moment will vary. I often have more than one book going at a time. I maintain a stack of three to five books I’m actively reading on my desk at home, and another stack of one to three books on my desk at the office. At the office, what I’m reading is always professionally related. At home, the line is more blurry. I read history, creative nonfiction, novels, and poetry. But I read theology, practical ministry, and biblical studies stuff at home, too. The mix of books is a combination of professional interests, aspirational reading, personal enrichment, curiosity and wanderings, and trend chasing.

I also read in the evenings, at least for a few minutes, as I wind down for the day. This is most often a selection from the books residing on my desk in my study at home.

Most of the gains I make each year toward my reading goal are due to the fact that reading is my primary default leisure activity, and because I find reading pleasurable. I read whenever I have the opportunity. Books have become my constant companion. The result: I read a lot.

2022: My Year in Reading

Another year, another list.

My media log from 2010 and every year since is found here.

Please note: all links to Amazon are affiliate links. Clicks and purchases kickback to me. Support the blog and my reading habit. If a book in this post interests you and you plan to make a purchase, follow the hyperlink from this page. All the fun people do. As someone once told me, and as my best friend Ryan still does, “Be fun.”

How Many Books Did I Read This Year?

This year’s goal, once again was to read 60 books. Last year I fell short at 59. This year I exceeded my goal and read 63. The first book I finished was an edited volume by Cameron J. Anderson and G. Walter Hansen called God in the Modern Wing: Viewing Art with Eyes of Faith. The last book I read was Trevin Wax’s The Thrill of Orthodoxy: Rediscovering the Adventure of Christian Faith. Both books were published by InterVarsity Press. I cancelled my comic book subscriptions at mid-year, but I had enjoyed following Tom King and Greg Smallwood’s run in The Human Target. That series isn’t quite over, and I’ve stopped by Bankston’s to pick up single issues as they’ve hit the shelves.

I watched 64 movies and viewed 4 complete television series. That’s down from last year, when I watched 93 movies and 11 television series. It looks like this year we moved out of the pandemic and my viewing habits adjusted accordingly. My favorite movies this year included Zach Snyder’s Justice League, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Wrath of Man, Top Gun: Maverick, The Death of Stalin, Hard Eight, Nope, and Love Actually.

I didn’t really like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Sweeney, Grown Ups, Universal Solider: Day of Reckoning, Pixels, The Courier, or Nemesis (1992). I didn’t care for Thor: Love and Thunder. I’ve begun to sour on the Marvel offerings.

In television, I did not enjoy The Book of Boba Fett: Season One. But I did like watching Bosch: Legacy and Cowboy Bebop: The Complete Series.

What Were My Favorite Books This Year?

I’m very glad I read Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote.

But Henry Scougal’s The Life of God in the Soul of Man stands at the top of my list of favorites from this year. It is a classic work of pastoral Christian theology. It is brief, insightful, and clear. Scougal explains reasons why so many fail to grow and mature in faith and how these obstacles can be overcome. He names mistaken ideas about religion (specifically Christianity). Many of those mistaken ideas are still present today. He then charts the way beyond them. While he does write of the importance of certain observances, virtues, and adherence to spiritual disciplines, he returns again and again to our understanding of God and what has been accomplished in, through, and by Jesus in his incarnation, death, and resurrection. This book is available on the web (such as here), though a newer edition, which is the one I read this year, was issued by Crossway. I linked Crossway’s offering above.

Other books I enjoyed and/or appreciated are John McPhee’s Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process, Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life, James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, Joshua Mitchell’s American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time, James Bryan Smith’s The Good and Beautiful You: Discovering the Person Jesus Created You to Be, Matthew Continetti’s The Right: The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism, Clarence Thomas’s My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir, Michelle Ule’s Mrs. Oswald Chambers: The Woman behind the World’s Bestselling Devotional, Henri J. M. Nouwen’s Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life, Timothy Keller’s, Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I?, and Trevin Wax’s The Thrill of Orthodoxy: Rediscovering the Adventure of Christian Faith.

This last one won’t be for everyone, but I deeply appreciated R. Robert Creech’s Pastoral Theology in the Baptist Tradition: Distinctives and Directions for the Contemporary Church.

Did You Hate Anything?

I really did not like Susan L. Maros’s Calling in Context: Social Location and Vocational Formation, Elmore Leonard’s Raylan, or Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven.

What Are You Reading Right Now?

I’m reading Ron Chernow’s Washington, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, Wendell Berry’s This Day: Collected & New Sabbath Poems, and Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism. I’ve also been carrying a copy of Plato’s Symposium in my bag. I will read it! I have several Christian spiritual formation works on my desk at the office, mostly on prayer, that I plan to get to early in the new year.

What Did I Learn from My Experience Reading This Year?

This year I read a lot of books that I had either requested for review of that I had been asked to read, and as a result I did not always enjoy what I was reading, even if I always enjoy that I am reading.

I also feel as though this year did not contain as much quiet and rest, and that I did not always have the opportunity to sit with and simply enjoy the process of moving through a work, immersing myself in a story or an argument, and allowing myself to ruminate on what I encountered on the page. In surveying my book selections this year, I am disappointed that my choices were not often concerned with my primary area of research and study. I read Christian living books, works of theology, and practical ministry resources. But I’m sensing a need to dive deeply into classic works in the area of Christian spirituality and Christian spiritual formation, or to spend more time in the writings of the Church Fathers, better familiarizing myself with the concerns present in early Christianity, or even chasing down some of the spiritual writings of leaders (men and women) in the monastic traditions.

I read several books this year that address contemporary concerns within American public life, or which sought to explore historical aspects of the United States. I think the United States is like all nations and cultures throughout history. Being comprised of human beings, it evidences the fallenness of human nature. But as an idea, the United States is a brilliant place, with an imperfect but effective system of government. My sense is that America does not suffer from an abundance of pride (though that can certainly be found), but rather an overwhelming amount of self-loathing, on both poles of the ideological spectrum. But I also sense the majority of citizens here, as well as a large proportion of immigrants, appreciate the place and wouldn’t trade living here not only for any other place in the world, but across all of human history.

I’m also glad to notice within myself a deepened love for the Bible. I read four chapters each day. The Bible is my daily companion. I do not find my time in Scripture to be tedious or boring. Rather, I am expectant. I am warmed. I am thankful for the Scriptures and the ways God meets me in and through these ancient writings. My recommendation to all Christians is to spend time daily in the Scriptures, whether with a verse, chapter, book, or an even longer portion. Read, and meditate. Then, be a doer of the Word, and not a hearer (reader) only!

What are you reading, and what should I add to my list?

It’s Always Zero Hour

Photo by Elias Schupmann on Unsplash

I’ve been a faithful reader of Os Guinness for years, and most of his more recent titles have concerned themselves with America specifically or the West more broadly: Impossible People, The Case for Civility, A Free People’s Suicide, Last Call for Liberty, The Magna Carta of Humanity, and now Zero Hour America: History’s Ultimatum over Freedom and the Answer We Must Give (InterVarsity Press, 2022)1. I heard him speak at The University of Kansas in 2006. He was one of several speakers in a series called “Difficult Dialogues on Knowledge, Faith, and Reason.” I met him briefly after his presentation and asked him to sign a copy of Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype, and Spin. He was winsome and kind.2

In his latest book, Guinness is very concerned for America and for the state of the American experiment. Guinness writes, “America will fall–unless.” He says this book is not a “doomsday pronouncement” but a wake-up call to the internal movements, ideas, and forces that will lead to America’s implosion if left unchecked. Guinness warns that the enemies are already inside the gates. Sounds like gloom and doom to me.

In these types of rhetorical political debates gloom and doom is pretty common, and memory is always pretty short. If we’re in a battle for America’s future, the stakes are high. I think Guinness rightly diagnoses the paradox of freedom as a major source of America’s strife (“the fact that the greatest enemy of freedom is freedom“), that freedom is understood more in negative than positive terms in this country (freedom from and not freedom for), that apart from faith we are under-resourced in the forgiveness and reconciliation department, and that civics education is important (not the self-loathing kind, but the sober and judicious kind that acknowledges past wrongs while maintaining and preserving good and central truths and traditions). I think these are all worthwhile points of concern and debate. I just don’t think these fault lines mean that it is “zero hour,” the absolute moment of decision. It is quite possible that zero hour has already passed, and may soon come again.

Besides, it is always zero hour.

In his final chapter, Guinness cites Friedrich Hegel’s famous statement, “What experience and history teaches us is this–that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.” That’s a dramatic overstatement. But Hegel gets away with it because, as Guinness observes, “nothing lasts forever, and each society contains the seeds of its own destruction.”

In Top Gun: Maverick, Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is told by an admiral, “The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed to extinction.”

Maverick replies, “Maybe so, sir, but not today.”3

America, as an experiment in ordered liberty, must say something similar every day. There are 330 million people in this country. We are geographically enormous and regionally diverse. We’re not nearly as bad as our critics say, nor as spotless as our apologists claim. But we’re a pretty good place. Millions of people migrate to this country each year, most of whom wish to stay. And plenty of our citizen go about their lives quietly, doing their jobs, going to Little League games, and playing Bunko with their friends. But I guess Bunko doesn’t test well in focus groups, while apocalyptic messaging does.

While it might be politically advantageous and rhetorically effective to claim that the end of the world is near, isn’t it always so?

Yes, it is. We just don’t know how near. Which is why reading a prophet like Guinness is helpful, at least for me, in understanding our times, tracking intellectual currents, diagnosing problems, and assisting me in thinking through America’s history, ideals, values, and possibility, and advocating for a vision of our common life that aligns more closely with what is best about this place, while also works to address present wrongs and move us toward a greater approximation of justice.

That’s the work of politics. We all have a part to play. I try to play mine, not only as a voter, and not only as a citizen, but also as a person of Christian faith.

1. Amazon affiliate link.
2.He also signed a copy of Time for Truth to Molly and I. We attended the talk together.
3. I’m really glad I saw this movie. You should see it, too.