Love in Hard Places

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the best Christian book written in 2002
Review: It's hard to go wrong when a reader picks up a book written by D.A. Carson. His mastery of Biblical exposition and exegesis, coupled with a very keen awareness of contemporary culture, make him one of the most informed evangelical voices on matters of Christianity and the culture. This particular book does not disappoint.

This book's origin was a series of lectures that Carson gave just prior to the attacks of 9/11/01. Initially, the lectures were designed to address the very real and difficult situations that Christians find themselves in relative to exercising Christian love. This book takes much of the core lecture material and expounds upon it, particularly in regards to Christian love towards Bin Laden. It is a book that raises many difficult questions and seeks to find answers in Scripture that are defendable.

Carson begins by demonstrating the falsity of glib definitions of Christian love, and in doing so, demonstrates to the reader that Christian love is not a concept of bumper sticker simplicity, but is in fact a very involved and complex doctrine that a person could spend a lifetime studying and not totally get their arms around it. He then proceeds to take this doctrine of love as laid out most clearly by the two great commandments of Christ, and apply it to difficult real life issues where the church is arguably deficient.

There were many highlights in this book. Carson's examination of the doctrine of love itself is worth the price of the book. It was very refreshing to watch an elite Bible scholar meticulously analyze the doctrine of Christian love and showing what it is, and what it isn't. Carson has long been known for achieving the all too rare balance of taking the whole counsel of Scripture into account, while not stretching Scripture beyond what it says. So many evangelicals, even evangelical scholars, tend to lose their balance either through practicing Biblical reductionism or Biblical expansionism. Carson does neither, and the reader therefore gains confidence that this is a scholar who is truly seeking the truth responsibly within the confines of Scripture.

Carson's discussion of racism and church discipline are very good. But I thought the most provocative section of the book was his discussion on Osama Bin Ladan and the whole area of just war theory and what Christian love looks like in these areas. Carson raises many good questions in this section that both hardened pacifists and hardened advocates for war will find difficult to deal with. But I agree with Carson that these questions need to be asked and thoughtfully explored. Given the current state of international affairs, this section of the book is about as timely and relevant as one could ask for. Christians in particular should read this very carefully.

So in short, this book is thoughtful, practical, insightful, caring, and deeply relevant for our times today. Given that so much of the modern American church is out of step with what Carson says in regards to Christian love, it's hard for me to recommend any other book written in the past year as highly as I recommend this one. It is hoped that this book will achieve a wide readership and that both liberal and conservative Christians will pay attention to Carson here. The church, and therefore the world, will be much better off.

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the best Christian book written in 2002
Review: It's hard to go wrong when a reader picks up a book written by D.A. Carson. His mastery of Biblical exposition and exegesis, coupled with a very keen awareness of contemporary culture, make him one of the most informed evangelical voices on matters of Christianity and the culture. This particular book does not disappoint.

This book's origin was a series of lectures that Carson gave just prior to the attacks of 9/11/01. Initially, the lectures were designed to address the very real and difficult situations that Christians find themselves in relative to exercising Christian love. This book takes much of the core lecture material and expounds upon it, particularly in regards to Christian love towards Bin Laden. It is a book that raises many difficult questions and seeks to find answers in Scripture that are defendable.

Carson begins by demonstrating the falsity of glib definitions of Christian love, and in doing so, demonstrates to the reader that Christian love is not a concept of bumper sticker simplicity, but is in fact a very involved and complex doctrine that a person could spend a lifetime studying and not totally get their arms around it. He then proceeds to take this doctrine of love as laid out most clearly by the two great commandments of Christ, and apply it to difficult real life issues where the church is arguably deficient.

There were many highlights in this book. Carson's examination of the doctrine of love itself is worth the price of the book. It was very refreshing to watch an elite Bible scholar meticulously analyze the doctrine of Christian love and showing what it is, and what it isn't. Carson has long been known for achieving the all too rare balance of taking the whole counsel of Scripture into account, while not stretching Scripture beyond what it says. So many evangelicals, even evangelical scholars, tend to lose their balance either through practicing Biblical reductionism or Biblical expansionism. Carson does neither, and the reader therefore gains confidence that this is a scholar who is truly seeking the truth responsibly within the confines of Scripture.

Carson's discussion of racism and church discipline are very good. But I thought the most provocative section of the book was his discussion on Osama Bin Ladan and the whole area of just war theory and what Christian love looks like in these areas. Carson raises many good questions in this section that both hardened pacifists and hardened advocates for war will find difficult to deal with. But I agree with Carson that these questions need to be asked and thoughtfully explored. Given the current state of international affairs, this section of the book is about as timely and relevant as one could ask for. Christians in particular should read this very carefully.

So in short, this book is thoughtful, practical, insightful, caring, and deeply relevant for our times today. Given that so much of the modern American church is out of step with what Carson says in regards to Christian love, it's hard for me to recommend any other book written in the past year as highly as I recommend this one. It is hoped that this book will achieve a wide readership and that both liberal and conservative Christians will pay attention to Carson here. The church, and therefore the world, will be much better off.