Book Reviews

Posted: 6/08/07

Book Reviews

The AIDS Crisis By Deborah Dortzbach and W. Meredith Long (InterVarsity Press)

Baptist churches in Texas, as elsewhere, are becoming more open in talking about AIDS. Twenty years ago, we discovered how the virus is spread. But we haven’t yet discovered a cure. Worldwide, 8,000 people are dying every day. By 2010, it is estimated, 25 million children will have been orphaned.

How will we respond? The authors, working with World Relief, are experienced in the attempt. They tell stories about victims in Africa and Asia, and these people do not seem far away. Then they encourage American Christians to get proactive in our own communities, locking arms with any organization concerned with ministry to AIDS victims.

What are you reading that other Texas Baptists would find helpful? Send suggestions and reviews to books@baptiststandard.com.

Abstinence from sexual relations before marriage is championed. Yet the book faces the fact that education must go further. “Our youth have to know now. Our strategies in youth groups and our instructions in homes and churches need to be fresh and relevant.”

This book gives suggestions about how to do it.

Bob Beck

Intentional interim pastor

Fort Worth

Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas By Kelly Monroe Kullberg (IVP Books)

The follow-up to her 1996 award-winning Finding God at Harvard, Kelly Monroe Kullberg now sets out to tell her own story. She describes finding God at Harvard and several other campuses across America and the world through her work as founder and director of The Veritas Forum. Her organization assists university students and professors in creating campus events “that engage students and faculty in discussions about life’s hardest questions and the relevance of Jesus Christ to all of life.”

Where Finding God at Harvard is a captivating collection of essays by Harvard professors and former students, this “sequel” is part Kullberg-memoir, part Veritas Forum history, part apologetic for God’s truth and the beauty of his handiwork. Kullberg writes with an intellectual and outdoorsy sense of wonder and fascination that not only inspires the reader to contemplate more deeply the love and truth of God, but to then go into the world and share it with others through winsomeness and humility.

Greg Bowman, minister to students

First Baptist Church

Duncanville

The Election By Jerome Teel (Howard Books)

It appeared to be nothing more than a small-town murder, an open-and-shut case. But things are not what they appear. Small-town lawyer Jake Reed takes the case out of sympathy, guilt even, and soon finds himself embroiled in a political plot that extends as far as the White House.

If you’re a John Grisham or Tom Clancy fan, The Election is a must-read. Jerome Teel masterfully builds multiple plots and brings them together for a truly suspenseful story. Murder, intrigue and power struggles keep you on the edge of your seat, while the message that all things happen for a purpose keeps it in perspective.

Teel, himself a lawyer in Jackson, has done a superb job of creating a world-class suspense novel that won’t offend Christian sensibilities. How nice to read an intelligent story that hasn’t been mangled by words and events inserted merely for their shock value. For good, clean fun with a strong sense of danger, try The Election.

Kathryn Aragon

First Baptist Church

Duncanville