2014 – Justin Daniel

This is a list of the books I read in 2014. All the reviews were written in 2014 and are archived on this site in (roughly) the order I read them in.

Book Reviews 2014

- Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity, Nancy Pearcey
  September 25, 20192014 / Book ReviewsFirst of all, this is a fantastic book. Pearcey asks the question, can a Christian be a politician, businessman, or even a hard working American and still make an impact in our culture as a Christian? Or does one have to be a minister, pastor, or missionary to make a dent in the cultural war? She advocates the adoption of a Christian worldview that is necessary for all Christians. A worldview, she explains, is something that is innate within us. It’s something that we all possess and it contains how we perceive the world. She says, “But the purpose of a worldview is to explain the data of experience-not to deny it. Any philosophical system that fails to offer a plausible account of our sense of personal selfhood should be rejected as inadequate… Only Christianity, with its teaching of a personal Creator, provides an adequate metaphysical explanation of our irreducible experience of personhood. It alone accounts for the raw material of experience within a comprehensive worldview. In the modern world, with its large, impersonal institutions where people are treated as ciphers in the machine, the Christian message is good news indeed.” She teaches that a person who has adopted an evolutionary worldview see’s the world as a dog-eat-dog environment: the process of natural selection has told us that we need to do whatever we can to get ahead even if it means we are morally reprehensible. She says, “The historic Christian conception of morality rests on a cognitive claim about human nature. Its says humans were designed for a purpose – to be conformed to spiritual ideals of holiness and perfection, so that we may live in love with God and our fellow creatures. Moral rules are simply the instructions telling us how to fulfill those ideals… In the Fall we went off the track, but in salvation God puts us back on course and empowers us to resume the journey to developing our full humanity… Under the Darwinian regime, however, the very concept of purpose or teleology has come under attack. For if the world itself was not designed, then there can be no design or purpose for human life either. Morality is reduced to a product of biology- an expression of our subjective desires and impulse, programmed into us by natural selection.” She also dedicates a chapter to discussing what has gone wrong with the Church: her finds correlate with my book review on David F. Wells’ book, “The Courage to be Protestant”. I perhaps have some disagreements with Pearcey here. In almost an afterthought, she says that part of the problem with evangelicalism is rooted in the dismissal of men in the home. In earlier times, men worked out of the home but since the industrial revolution, they go off for many hours to factories and office spaces to work. This has left a gap in the family that has caused a feminization of Evangelicalism. This, combined with the preaching styles of such famous men as George Whitefield, has reduced Christianity to an emotional outpouring instead of a balanced approach of emotion that is under the reign of intellectualism. She says some strange things, almost critical, of men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. But Edwards tried to defend against excessive emotionalism so this argument is confusing. I would recommend Wells’ book in order to understand this dynamic more. Don’t let that chase you away from “Total Truth.” I would say this is almost an essential book for Christians everywhere....
- The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe, Stephen Harding
  September 25, 20192014 / Book ReviewsI’ve read multiple books this year about WWII, and even more than discuss the implications of post-WWII life in the economic, political, and social realms. The latest book I’ve read from this era was about the invasion on Omaha Beach by the Big Red. Stephen Harding’s book, however, takes place in the little village of Schloss Itter (e’s sound like a’s in German and r’s at the end of a word are silent, so this is pronounced “Scholhs Itta”), Austria. The exposition of this story begins in the waning days of WWII, as the Nazi’s are in full retreat admist the invasion from both the Soviets from the East and the Americans from the West. Harding touts the battle for Itter Castle the last, if unlikely, battle in the European Theater during WWII. Itter Castle was transformed into a Nazi political prisoner camp in the early 1940’s, but was not completed until much later in the war. It held high ranking political prisoners, mostly French, and their families. While WWII raged on, these prisoners lived in a somewhat comfortable manner compared to the Jews being slaughtered in nearby Dachau Concentration Camp. During the last days of the war, Itter Castle was left unguarded by Nazi SS troops, leaving the political prisoners a chance to arm themselves and wait for Americans who were about a days journey from Schloss Itter. Luckily, an unlikely hero came to the rescue, one Major Joseph Gangl, formerly a Nazi Officer. He and some Nazi soldiers contacted Lt. John, “Jack” Lee of the 23rd Tank Battalion, B Company, who provided one tank in the defense of Itter Castle temporarily until the reinforcements arrived. The SS troops ruthlessly attacked Itter Castle, unaware that former Nazi soldiers were aiding the political prisoners. Tragically, in the most moving section of the book, Major Joseph Gangl was killed in action, perhaps the last combat casualty of WWII. The ragtag group of defenders were able to hold out until the brunt of the American forces were able to eradicate the threat of SS troops. Cracked.com posted an article entitled, “5 Shocking Ways Enemies Worked Together During War,” and, to no one’s surprise, the way Lee and Gangl worked together came in at number 2. This really is a beautiful story and Harding’s scholarship is unprecedented, as I’ve talked about before. It’s truly sad to realize more people do not know this story. Hopefully, through Harding’s book, the heroic details of the last battle in Europe will live on in infamy....

The Cross of Christ

Washington: A Life

Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship

When We Were on Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love, and Starting Over

Starship Troopers

Mao: The Unknown Story

Refugee (Star Wars: Force Heretic, #2)

The Story of Christianity, Vol II: The Reformation to the Present

The Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers

The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-Lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World

The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King

Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity

The Japanese and Christianity: Why is Christianity not widely believed in Japan?

First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps

Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Black Hawk Down

Rainbow 6

Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be)

The Last Stand Of Fox Company: A True Story Of U.S. Marines In Combat

Without Remorse

John Macarthur: Minister of the Flock

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I Heard My Country Calling: a Memoir

Animal Farm

1984

Fight Club

Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis

The Lion’s Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Days War

The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames

The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Daniel Commentary

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller

The Life of the Automobile: The Complete History of the Motor Car

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History

No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden

Level Zero Heroes: The Story of U.S. Marine Special Operations in Bala Murghab, Afghanistan

A Christmas Carol

The Giver

The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight

Visions Of America: A History Of The United States

Debt of Honor

The Hobbit

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story

The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning

Justin

doublejulesx2