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

- Visions Of America: A History Of The United States, Volume I, Jennifer Keene, Saul Cornell, and Edward O’Donnell
  September 25, 20192014 / Book ReviewsAmerican History is unique in a couple of different ways. Most obviously, American history does not stretch for thousands and thousands of years like the Chinese with one solidified culture that has been built around it. The indigenous people who were here before us, Native Americans, have a consistent culture, but with immigration of Europeans from the East, they brought over their own cultures, customs, and religious beliefs. But things don’t get really interesting until the Revolutionary War, where the American colonists revolted against their British masters. An interesting note is that the colonists really didn’t have anything to complain about. The Stamp Act was so miniscule that it hardly affected daily life. It was the fact that the colonists weren’t represented that really boiled their blood. Further, I think the romantic visions of colonization and subsequent sidestep of the King united the colonists, because fighting the Revolutionary War was not a pleasant experience. George Washington’s army barely won following the harsh winter at Valley Forge. But they found a way against the odds to defend against their British overlords. This American History book covers just up to the events that followed the Civil War. So there is a lot to say in between. Suffice it to say that my most favorite section was on the Revolutionary War. Sure, there was the Barbary Wars with Thomas Jefferson, Jeffersonian ideology, The Spanish-American War, the Civil War and others. But the brilliance of the founding fathers in the construction of our Represented Republic system are too powerful to spend just one semester on. This book reads like a textbook and in reality, was pretty dry. There were these boxes that looked at particular situations in depth that I thought took away from the text. If it was important enough to look at closer, why not just include it in the dialogue? It seems the writers did whatever they could to “spice” up a textbook, but they failed miserably in their task. I would not recommend this book unless you are taking a class that requires it!...
- The Story of Christianity, Vol II The Reformation to the Present, Justo Gonzalez
  September 24, 20192014 / Book ReviewsSo I’ve taken a little break from blogging, but not from reading. I know I’m a little behind in my weekly book reading (the last post was from, yikes, February 23) but I think I will be caught up in nearly a week. This past semester, I took 2 classes on Church History: Part 1, from the inception of the Church to the Reformation, and part 2, from the Reformation to the Present. The text for the class was this book that I read, not in a week, but over the course of eight weeks. It still counts right? Church history is so fascinating to me: it is amazing that even after 2,000 years, there is an institution that has gone through trials, even through the fire and nearly broke apart; it was only through the predestined plan of God that it continues to this day and that is nothing less of a miracle. Out of all of Church History, my favorite act in this wild play would have to be the Reformation. I had to write a paper on Martin Luther and it was some of the most enlightening and informative research I have ever done. My favorite line in the scene of the Reformation would have to be Martin Luther’s monologue at the Diet of Worms: Martin posted his 95 thesis’ in protest of the indulgence preachers (preachers who were saying that you had to pay for a certificate that got you into heaven or out of purgatory) and catapulted him into a confrontation with the Pope’s “Papal Bull,” culminating at the Diet of Worms which was a gathering to decide whether Martin would be excommunicated from the Church and given to the Inquisition (which would guarantee death). Here they asked him to recant and he asked for one more day. The next day, he was again asked to recant and he replied, “Your Imperial Majesty and Your Lordships demand a simple answer. Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless I am convicted of error by the testimony of Scripture or (since I put no trust in the unsupported authority of Pope or councils, since it is plain that they have often erred and often contradicted themselves) by manifest reasoning, I stand convicted by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God’s word, I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us. On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me.” Others took part of this momentous occasion, including Ulrich Zwingli and another favorite, John Calvin. After the reformation, Europe erupted into war and uncertainty. Later, those searching for religious freedom from the oppressive Church of England would take a ship across the Atlantic Ocean to a colony in North America, thus beginning American Christianity. One can see how gracious God has been with our own country with the First Great Awakening featuring Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield (it is said that there wasn’t a person in the 19th century American Colonies that had not heard George Whitefield speak), the Second Great Awakening, and the Layman Church Revival. Not all is happy though: with the onset of humanism and the enlightenment, philosophy has been ever near to Christian thought, threatening it’s very existence with the ideals of Deism in the 19th century and existentialism in the 21st century. Today, we are beginning to see the unification of a global society, and with that the ecumenical (one world church) movement take shape as we move further into end times. In any case, I think we as Christians have a responsibility to learn Church History and I recommend this book as a starting point in your studies....

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