This is a department to which we want everyone to contribute. Each year hundreds of books, films, and CDs are released - both in the secular and Christian domains. Which are worth bothering with? What have they got to say? Well, we want you to help others by writing short reviews for inclusion here. Whether the book or album or movie is new, old, good or bad, send us your opinion - even if it has already been reviewed here before.
Here are the rules:
?Rating' -- that is, look at it objectively: would some people be disturbed by the themes involved, or the language, violence etc? The reason for this is that we want this Section to be useful to everyone, including those who want to make, for example, a decision about watching a movie but hate having to put up with blasphemy or murders. The higher the rating, the more elements likely to raise questions.
So, you might write
Lord of the Rings 3:
Score: 8/10
4444444455 - a great film
?Rate: 5/10
MMMMM - scary bits, battles, quite a bit of blood
Monsters Inc:
Score 8/10 4444444455
- a great film
?Rate 1/10 M
- some scary bits for very small children.
So: whatever you see, hear, read - have your say and help other people to decide what they would like to enjoy. We want this section to be interesting, enjoyable and helpful - it's up to you to send regular reviews to make it work. Thanks.
A WesleyOwen bookshop manager once told me that he'd met Nick Page and he was "completely barking". Well, generally his books are not barking (although if "Six Days" was not barking it definitely had a cold wet nose and a tail) but user friendly volumes on Christianity. This book isn't barking either, but his sense of humour comes across as he deals with worship songs in the contemporary church.
Now he is not a hymn-obsessee, indeed he critques hymns, but he does see problems with modern worship culture. Briefly: lack of depth, over use & misuse of Biblical imagery, and a lack of craftmanship. Not that all songs suffer from these, but there has been a general drift in this direction. Nick calls for a different approach, learning from previous generations whilst shaping our sung worship for contemporary people.
Now he is not a hymn-obsessee, indeed he critques hymns, but he does see problems with modern worship culture. Briefly: lack of depth, over use & misuse of Biblical imagery, and a lack of craftmanship. Not that all songs suffer from these, but there has been a general drift in this direction. Nick calls for a different approach, learning from previous generations whilst shaping our sung worship for contemporary people.
As a hymn-obsessee, I did not agree with every single word, but I think 99.9% book is excellent: it critiques without being critical and suggests a way forward (which I think many writers are now taking anyway). Plus the letters from 'Kevin Molecule', anointed worship leader, which preface each chapter, are great.
Reviewed by Alan Burns.
Score: 5/10
4444455555
- worth reading if this is your field of interesr.
?Rate: 1/10 M
-you might not agree.
I was put onto this book by contradictory comments I heard: it is either deeply occultic or profoundly Christian. So I borrowed it from Wall Heath library (children's section) and have discovered that to some degree it is both.
The cover artwork and details would certainly lead someone to expect a tale of the supernatural, even a horror story. Set in the 1700s, Shadowmancer has an almost historical feel. But it's a slightly different England, where many things from folklore actually exist, and where the local Parson is in league with the devil to assault heaven. So far so cashing in on Harry Potter and His Dark Materials. What the cover and outline does not convey is the battle between heaven and hell; angels, Jesus, and Bible quotations. Although folklore is given existence in the novel, magic and everything associated with it is (contra Harry Potter) diagnosed as irredeemably evil with real power residing in a relationship with God.
To say more would give away too much, but clues can be found in thinking carefully about exotic sounding names and words in the book, and where you might have heard them before.
The lack of descriptive writing at key points makes it not the best written book, but it is a page-turner, exciting, complex and the characterisation is very good. However, it does leave several unanswered questions which frustrates after closing the book. Although my biggest question is: how come a secular publisher has pushed a book to teenagers which has such blatantly Christian elements?! And will the movie (Taylor has sold the rights) do the same? Could be interesting.... By the way, if you read the Author blurb where it states that Taylor lives in a deserted graveyard (ooerrr, occultist) - this might be because he is a CofE vicar.
Score: 7/10
4444444555
- worth listening to.
?Rate: 5/10 MMMMM
-witchcraft/folklore etc (though roundly condemned); some violence and deaths.
One of the difficulties I have found in trying to understand Islamic history, is that my knowledge tends to be minimal compared with my knowledge of western history. This means that when I try to read books such as the scholarly work on A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani I get lost in a mass of detail, strange Arabic words and alien concepts. But the present author has chosen a novel approach, he has connected Islamic history with more familiar western events which results in an experience that is much more comprehensible, interesting and memorable.
This slim volume of 180 pages (including notes and index) is a highly readable book with an excellent balance between basic information and informed analysis. It covers the first 1000 years of interaction between Islam and Christianity but it also gives historical clues as to the present relationship between the West and Islam.
Although this is not written by an evangelical but rather approached from a standard secular academic view point as can be gauged from the opening, where the writer is describing the difference between the Bible and the Koran. Yet he deals, on the whole, sympathetically with the Christian faith and clearly appreciates the profound affect that the Christian faith has had on the West, and still has, despite the Westıs present secular nature.
I found this a riveting read that left me with many questions but a much better understanding of the way that my Christian faith relates to Islam. I can thoroughly recommend this book.
Reviewed By Alan Dodd.
What is one to make of a film with a complex, convoluted plot covering four generations that is told by flash backs in which there are no car chases, no gore but just a delightful bringing together of many multifaceted strands of stories into one great resolution? The film despite being 2 hours long is told astonishingly economically in which every scene is made to work and to help tell this story.
It starts with Stanley Yelnats (a palindromic name), whose family has been cursed for four generations. He is walking along the street when a pair of trainers, seemingly from no where knocks him over. He picks up the trainers, but before he has gone a few yards police cars, with sirens wailing, surround him. He is arrested taken to court and sentenced because these trainers are no ordinary trainers but those of baseball legend Clyde 'Sweet Feet' Livingston which were stolen as they were being sold at an auction for the local orphanage. Stanley is sent to a juvenile correction facility called Camp Green Lake (there is no lake, it is in an arid desert, and it is hardly a camp) where the evil Warden (Sigourney Weaver) makes the inmates dig holes (5ft by 5ft by 5ft) in the desert each day. And so the bizarre story is set in motion.
Is this story for children or adults? I thoroughly enjoyed it and I went with a wide age range of children who also seemed to enjoy it although they got thoroughly bemused by the plot. It is rare that one comes across a film that is so different from the general formulaic approaches and yet so well made and so full of human values and warmth without becoming saccharinic or false to the difficulties and evils that one finds in the real world. It is a film that is written in a moral universe. There is also the strangest feeling throughout the film, and even more so in the book, of something supernatural breaking through, coincidences are piled on coincidences giving an almost providential quality to everything. This is a great antidote to the sort of trivial realism that a lot of teenage films have.
This film is a joy to watch especially for adults.
Reviewed by Alan Dodd