Summertime, and the Reading is Easy, Part I

We took a family vacation in June, which meant that I got more reading time than usual! It also meant that many of my reading selections were a little on the lighter side, but I would still highly recommend several of them.

City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
Every so often, I open a book and find a sense of quietness and purpose - perhaps holiness is the word I'm looking for - that makes me take a deep breath and settle in for refreshment, encouragement, and challenge to a greater life of faith. Most often, I think this happens with biographies, so to find a novel that evokes this deep satisfaction is truly rare (Stepping Heavenward is the only other that I can recall). But City of Tranquil Light is one of those special books, one that I borrowed from the library and then ordered two copies (one to keep and one to give away) before I was halfway through, and I've ordered eight more since then. I could tell you more, but I'd rather you just borrowed or bought your own copy and savored it yourself! I usually don't promote book purchases here, but as of this writing, Amazon has hardback copies of this book for the bargain price of $2.74, and I believe you would find that to be money well spent! (You can follow the links to Amazon from either the book's picture or title.)

Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
This second installment in the "Books of Bayern" series from Shannon Hale was much darker than The Goose Girl, and I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. I suppose it's a story of friendship, a coming of age story laced with a great deal of pride and lack of self-control, and there is really nothing unusual in those themes in young-adult literature, though the fact that something is common does not mean I should condone it. I'm not sure if the author intended for there to be any moral lessons or analogies, but when I started trying to think through the implications of some of the imagery, it seemed far too pantheistic for me to even want to explore those trains of thought. Maybe that's why it left me with such an unsettled feeling, and why I finished it simply to be done, not because I enjoyed it.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
I've seen recommendations for this series by Alexander McCall Smith on many blogs, and my daughter has enjoyed listening to his mysteries for kids. So when I found this at a children's consignment store (of all places!), I added it to my summer vacation reading bag. I've said before that mysteries are my favorite genre, but I do prefer full-length novels to short stories. I like a very well-developed plot, though I will make an exception for Sherlock Holmes (who wouldn't!). At any rate, this initially seemed very disjointed, as the chapters jumped back and forth between Mma Ramotswe's family history and various cases she'd solved more recently. Eventually, a case develops that somewhat ties everything together, but overall it just wasn't my cup of tea. I'll stick with Lord Peter Wimsey and Brother Cadfael when I need my mystery fix.

Royal Children of English History by Edith Nesbit
Have I mentioned that I have a Kindle? It will never replace real books for me, but the free classics and public domain works are lots of fun to explore. (All of L. M. Montgomery's short stories for free? Yes, please!) So this was a short little book that I read as a bonus for our book club's "British Royalty" theme in June. I expected it to be stories from the childhoods of various kings & queens, but it was more a children's history, a simple retelling of the most common anecdotes or deeds of valor of notable English princes or kings. I'm sure my children would enjoy this as a read-aloud if I could fit it into the schedule.

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
This is a very sweet fairy tale set in a secluded valley of Victorian England with good guys, bad guys, and some highly intelligent and helpful animals. There is a very large "dog," who turns out to be a lion, but that is the extent of any parallels to Narnia, I think. There is not much grace or redemption, but only trying very hard to be good, which I would consider a bit overly idealistic if I were reading this only for instruction in morality. That is not the only purpose of a good story, however, and I appreciated the beautiful descriptions and gentle blend of fantasy and reality. I must say that I find an old-fashioned morality tale to be much more enjoyable than many modern novels that include too little morals and too much information, so you can read this one without regrets.

Read-alouds:
The Beggars' Bible and Ink on His Fingers by Louise A. Vernon
These are interesting for their historical perspective, but the story line is extremely repetitive - a young boy is distressed (obsessed) about what he will do when he grows up then crosses paths with a historical figure (John Wycliffe and Johann Gutenberg, in these books) and finds direction for his life. They are heavy on dialogue, and that dialogue is often forced and stilted. The author seems to have done her research thoroughly, but her use of anecdotes and dialogue is extremely awkward. I'm glad we read them aloud, as my kids probably learned more than reading them on their own, but all of us found it challenging to stay interested at times.

The Fantastic Flying Journey by Gerald Durrell
This is an imaginative story about an eccentric uncle who takes his niece and twin nephews on a trip around the world in an amazing and well-equipped hot air balloon. The purpose of the trip is to find Uncle Lancelot's brother, a naturalist, so they follow his trail and meet many animals in their natural habitats around the world. This one is both fun and educational, and my daughter finished it ahead of my reading it aloud, so I know she liked it a lot. I was pleased that it did not have an overt evolutionary slant. In fact, I can't recall if there were any allusions to evolution, but that could be my faulty memory. We found this at our library book sale, and we highly recommend it!

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe by Thomas Cahill

How the Irish Saved Civilization had been on my mental to-be-read list for several years (it was recommended to me by a seminary professor), and I finally found a good reason to read it last August for some Irish background to our book club's September selection Angela's Ashes. I highly recommend it as a very readable introduction to the basic philosophies that have shaped the Western World, European history (particularly the fall of Rome), and Irish history and culture, with a good bit of theology and church history thrown in for good measure, too.

I read this before I started Lines from the Page, but I did record my favorite quotes before I returned it to the library. Since several people commented on this title in my Books Read in 2008 post, I thought I would list some quotes to interest you further. The beautiful poem/hymn, "The Deer's Cry," is also from this book and can be found here.

[all quotations from Cahill, Thomas. How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe. (Nan A Talese/Doubleday: New York: 1995)]

“Without this Service of the Scribes, everything that happened subsequently would have been unthinkable. Without the Mission of the Irish Monks, who single-handedly refounded European civilization throughout the continent in the bays and valleys of their exile, the world that came after them would have been an entirely different one – a world without books.” (4)

“Eleven centuries prior to the encounter on the Rhine, an insignificant band of Latin-speaking farmers ‘had but recently settled down to fixed agriculture and solved the problem of rapidly growing numbers by embarking upon a career of conquest that ultimately eventuated in the Roman empire,’ remarks the contemporary historian William McNeill. ‘Considered in this light, the Roman state in the West was destroyed by the same forces that had created it.’” (18)

“What is about to be lost in the century of the barbarian invasions is literature – the content of classical civilization. Had the destruction been complete – had every library been disassembled and every book burned – we might have lost Homer and Virgil and all of classical poetry, Herodotus and Tacitus and all of classical history, Demosthenes and Cicero and all of classical oratory, Plato and Aristotle and all of Greek philosophy, and Plotinus and Porphyry and all the subsequent commentary. We would have lost the taste and smell of a whole civilization.” (58)

“The works themselves will miraculously escape destruction. But they will enter the new world of the Middle Ages as things so strange they might as well have been left behind by interstellar aliens. One example will suffice to illustrate the strangeness of books to medieval men. The word grammar – the first step in the course of classical study that molded all educated men from Plato to Augustine – will be mispronounced by one barbarian tribe as “glamour.” In other words, whoever has grammar – whoever can read – possess magic inexplicable.” (59-60)

“In becoming an Irishman, Patrick wedded his world to theirs, his faith to their life…Patrick found a way of swimming down to the depths of the Irish psyche and warming and transforming Irish imagination – making it more humane and more noble while keeping it Irish.” (116)

“The difference between Patrick’s magic and the magic of the druids is that in Patrick’s world all beings and events come from the hand of a good God, who loves human beings and wishes them success. And though that success is of an ultimate kind – and, therefore, does not preclude suffering – all nature, indeed the whole of the created universe, conspires to mankind’s good, teaching, succoring, and saving.” (131)

“It seems that as some point in the development of every culture, human sacrifice becomes unthinkable, and animals are from then on substituted for human victims…At all events, the Irish had not reached this point and were still sacrificing human beings to their gods when Patrick began his mission…Patrick declared that such sacrifices were no longer needed. Christ has died once for all…Yes, the Irish would have said, here is a story that answers our deepest needs – and answers them in a way so good that we could never even have dared dream of it. We can put away our knives and abandon our altars. These are no longer required. The God of the Three Faces has given us his own Son, and we are washed clean in the blood of this lamb. God does not hate us; he loves us. Greater love than this no man has than that he should lay down his life for his friends. That is what God’s Word, made flesh, did for us. From now on, we are all sacrifices – but without the shedding of blood. It is our lives, not our deaths that this God wants. But we are to be sacrifices, for Paul adds to the hymn this advice to all: ‘Let this [same] mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.’ (136, 140-142)

That's probably enough to give you a taste of this richly informative book. Find it. Read it. Enrich your mind!

Revolution in World Missions by K. P. Yohannan

It has taken me a very long time to finish this book, but I determined I would complete it before reading any more fiction or book club selections. It was recommended to me by some people at church earlier this year, but I did not necessarily find it to be as compelling as others had.

K. P. Yohannan has an inspiring testimony of salvation and evangelistic work in his native land of India, which he shares in the opening chapters of Revolution In World Missions. When he came to America for education, he was led by the Lord to start Gospel for Asia, a mission organization that supports and partners with native missionaries in India and other Asian nations. As of 2002, they were managing the support for 14,000 native missionaries, many of whom are able to start a great number of churches in villages that were previously unreached or resistant to the gospel.

The author does make some good points. First, the author's case for the effectiveness of native missionaries in Asia and Third World countries is very valid. This is a widely recognized trend in missions today, and I know of many mission agencies and missionaries who are quite happy to work themselves out of a job, so to speak, to turn over their ministries to nationals. Second, the author makes an excellent point related to giving to mission work: "You have to learn to let your money go [when you give to a missionary], because it is not your money but God's" (190). This is a hard lesson for many Christians to learn. While some measure of accountability is certainly necessary and good, the individual believer and churches who support missionaries need to remember that God gives the increase and faithful stewardship involves faith in God to use our gifts for the furtherance of His kingdom through the means of frail human instruments, the missionaries who have answered His call.

Although I agree wholeheartedly with the native missionary movement, I feel that Yohannan has perhaps overstepped the bounds of reason in making his point. At times, the book gives the impression of being an infomercial for Gospel for Asia. While there is certainly nothing wrong with promoting a ministry in which one believes, it should not be done at the expense of other ministries or by making generalizations or creating double standards to elevate one's ideals. Unfortunately, there is a polemical tone to this book that is not consistent with the Gospel the author ultimately wants to see expanded.

Throughout the book, Yohannan criticizes other mission agencies and missionaries who engage in social outreaches as a means of spreading the Gospel. He implies that most, if not all Western missionaries come overseas with latent ideas of colonialism and substitute social work for evangelism and church planting. In one chapter, he cites an unnamed "Christian leader [who] said that if the Church had spent as much time on preaching the Gospel as it did on hospitals, orphanages, schools and rest homes - needful though they were - the Bamboo Curtain would not exist today" (115). Yet in the very next chapter, he explains how successful Gospel for Asia has been with "Bridge of Hope, our children's outreach program, [which] is designed to rescue thousands of children in Asia from a life of poverty and hopelessness by giving them an education and introducing them to the love of God. Through this effort, churches are planted and entire communities are set on a course toward spiritual transformation as well as social development" (121). It simply seems arrogant to advance one's own social outreaches as superior to that of other mission agencies, especially since the fruit of some labors may not be immediately apparent and it must be remembered that God, not particular methods or ministries, is who gives the increase.

Elsewhere, Yohannan asserts that the native missionary movement is "the only hope for these unreached nations" (143), but later he criticizes the Western Church for the "arrogant attitude of 'our way is the only way'" (191). To be sure, the Western Church does need to realize that the Gospel must not be cloaked in American Christianity and church planting should be culturally relevant. But isn't Yohannan severely limiting the resources and means through which God can work to assert that one method is the "only hope" for evangelizing Asia? Is he not merely substituting another version of "our way is the only way"? His criticisms of other missionaries and mission methods are hardly balanced by a single page (217) in a Question/Answer section that mentions the continuing (and very limited) role of Western/American missionaries in Asia. Unfortunately, Revolution In World Missions is characterized by these types of sweeping generalizations and inconsistent reasoning, which seems to discredit the message and ministry of Gospel for Asia more than establish it. Such an "either/or" mentality makes our God very small. He can work through both native missionaries and Western missionaries, and each of them can be equally called by Him to serve in Asia or around the world.

Christians certainly need to hear Yohannan's message of sacrificial giving, for the affluence of most American Christians could and should be shared to advance the Gospel around the world. We need to be challenged out of our comfortable complacency to give our resources for Kingdom work not merely to buy another toy or convenience. My only concern is that Yohannan's passion for the ministry of Gospel for Asia has somewhat blinded him to the numerous ways in which God can work to accomplish His plan for the world.