Category: Book Reviews
Book Review: Cultural Apologetics by Paul Gould
In a little article titled “A Defence of Penny Dreadfuls,” G.K. Chesterton censures the modern...
Truth and Fair Play in Detective Fiction & A Review of Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret
I am not sure exactly why I, and apparently the rest of the world, love mysteries as much as I do. I think Anthony Horowitz’s book-editor-turned-detective Susan Ryeland touches close to the reason.
Book Review: The Major and the Missionary
What insights might be discovered in a stack of personal letters exchanged between a retired army major in Oxford, England, and a medical missionary who dedicated her life to the people of Papua New Guinea?
A Review of I Beg to Differ
She said she thought he was a prophet, an amazing man of faith, but merely human and not God in the flesh. At that point, the conversation went south.
Review of Many Times and Many Places: C.S. Lewis on the Value of History
The book is a scholarly yet accessible apologetic for the study of history as an antidote to many modern ills.
Book Review: An Encouraging Thought: The Christian Worldview in the Writings of J. R. R. Tolkien
Much has been written about the influence of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Christian faith on The Lord of the...
Book Review: Brandon Sanderson’s Starsight Neglects Philosophy in Favor of Politics
Brandon Sanderson’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. Ever since finishing Robert...
Introducing Worth Reading
When C.S. Lewis was asked in 1944 to write the preface for a new edition of St. Athanasius’...
Worth Reading: Superheroes
Worth Reading is An Unexpected Journal’s book recommendations column. Each issue we highlight a...
Worth Reading: The Ancients
Worth Reading is An Unexpected Journal’s book recommendations column. Each issue we highlight a...
Ninety-Five Theses for a New Reformation: A Road Map for Post-Evangelical Christianity
Donald T. Williams. Ninety-Five Theses for a New Reformation: A Road Map for Post-Evangelical Christianity. Toccoa Falls, GA: Semper Reformanda Publications, 2021. 485 pp. In 1517, Martin Luther nailed a list of ninety-five...
Review of James Scanlan’s Dostoevsky the Thinker
Despite the current state of Russian society (or arguably because of it), a review of Dostoevsky’s philosophical thought, fundamentally based on love as found in his Christian faith, is highly relevant today.
Book Review: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series by Alexander McCall Smith
There was a teapot, in which Mma Ramotswe — the only lady private detective in Botswana — brewed...
Review: Mere Evangelism
Randy Newman, Mere Evangelism: 10 Insights from C. S. Lewis to Help You Share Your Faith. Surrey,...
Worth Reading: Glimpsing Glory: Finding Joy in “What is Heaven Like?”
In his memoir Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis gives the name “joy” to the longing ache that...
Ordway’s Myth-Busting Research: Tolkien’s Modern Reading (A Review)
In her monumental study, Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages (TMR), Holly Ordway debunks the popular misconception that J.R.R. Tolkien was an anti-modern medievalist whose inspiration came from the...
Review: Tolkien’s Modern Reading
Long before the printing press, Solomon complained that “of the making of many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”[1] What would Solomon say in the day of blogs and self-publishing? Yet despite...
Review: After Humanity
Michael Ward. After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man. Park Ridge, IL: Word on Fire Academic, 2021. 243 pp. Initial Impressions A review is a form of response, and if we are to respond to Michael Ward’s...
75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know: The Fascinating Stories Behind Great Works of Art, Literature, Music, and Film
Terry Glaspey, 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know: The Fascinating Stories Behind Great Works of Art, Literature, Music, and Film. Ada, MI: Baker Books, 2015. 382 pp. There are books that challenge us to visit1,000...
The Wrackturn Method
Brian Melton, The Wrackturn Method. Columbia, SC: Moral Apologetics Press, 2021. viii + 97 pp. My dear Wormwood, I hate to interrupt our retirement from active tempting so soon. It seems like just yesterday I was proposing my...
