A few little book thoughts this calm and restful Friday.

41. The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. I needed an encouraging and fun little vacation read recently in Florida and thought about Narnia…and what better standalone Narnia book than Horse and His Boy? Yes, I’ve read it many times before but it never gets old. I love this one and the encouraging truths Lewis sprinkles throughout. There are some genuinely hilarious lines – I simply love his humour – but more than that, this story simply sings. I love thinking on such things as the sovereignty of God and His presence at the back of all things. Also it is always a good reminder to remember that everyone has their own story. Do I fully understand (or need to know) the depths of another’s longings and despair? Perhaps not.

42. The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman. A remarkable telling of the first month proper of World War I. After reading a relatively recent scholarly analysis of the origins of WW1, this book seemed a proper follow-up. Yes it was written a while back and yes it is perhaps not quite as scholarly or intellectual in style, but you know what? It earns its fame. I was absolutely gripped throughout, utterly fascinated in the sweeps and plunges of the early days of this terrible, great war. Tuchman does a wonderful job of describing and attempting to communicate the various personages (notably generals and leaders of armies) involved and as you read you more and more feel like you understand how they’re thinking and processing. This is a tragic book and though Tuchman does a fine job of describing the broader strategies and distinct moments that changed the course of history, it’s really not a book that’s going to say much about the individual soldier and his thoughts and fears (hm, perhaps All Quiet is next, eh?). Instead, the author focuses on the biggest battles and moments in the early days of this war (notably the Western front and the clash between Russia & Germany leading up to Tannenberg, with an exciting naval interlude thrown in). I appreciated the author’s fine prose (even if a bit overwrought at times) and thought this was a wonderful book attempting to describe a very confusing time from a vantage point barely forty years hence. The author has done a good deal of research and I appreciated reading the fruits of it. Yes there is some bias there (the Germans are dastardly devils indeed, according to this one! But if the author is to believed – which I have no reason to otherwise – the Germans committed some rather shocking atrocities in the name of following standard military doctrine. Helps explain the animus towards Germany a bit more, I suppose). Fascinating reading this one after “Sleepwalkers”, as that book cast Germany in a much more kindly light, whereas in this one (much closer to the actual events) we see Germany in the role of arch-villain. It is interesting reflecting on that which authors choose to focus on. I did very much appreciate this book. It filled in many gaps in my knowledge about the first month of WW1, helping me to understand some of the battles that until now I only knew the names of. I’m slightly afraid this book has done nothing to sate my interest in WW1 matters and now I’m tempted (please save me) from reading a book that covers the course of the war in its entirety. What have I done.

43. The Hermeneutics of the Biblical Writers by Abner Chou. A very interesting and encouraging read. Hermeneutics is one of those tricky subjects that everyone has an opinion on, if they know it or not. In the context of Scripture and understanding what God has said, it is absolutely vital to seek to know and understand how one ought to read and interpret the Bible, even with the understanding that one will never fully understand it in this life (or even the life to come – we Christians will spend eternity drawing closer towards perfect knowledge and communion with our Lord!). But if one does want to know how God communicates to us, would it not behoove us to seek to understand how we ought read and understand the written word that He has given us? That is why a proper hermeneutic matters. If God wants us to know Him and has given us a word that we might know him by, then we absolutely should seek to understand how we might read and understand this word. Long intro. Sorry.

But anyway – this book. Abner Chou writes an interesting (if at times overly repetitive and dense) book attempting to prove that there is a singular hermeneutic underlying all of Scripture. The apostles and authors of the New Testament books do not engage in a different hermeneutic compared to the Old Testament prophets and writers. This is important because it is all too common (even – especially? – in these days) for one to read the New Testament and feel that it has wiped out everything from the Old Testament – it is only the New Testament that matters. The Old Testament writers didn’t really understand how God works and hence we can safely place their writings aside and focus on the books in the NT. Also, don’t the NT authors use the OT in rather odd ways sometimes? Clearly they have a different way of looking at Scripture that we can’t really understand. The Bible is just a bunch of different authors writing in hyper-local contexts engaging with their own local community, correct? Abner Chou writes this book to prove the negative to the above. Instead of understanding the Bible as a mishmash of tribal laws and oral traditions, he recognizes the Bible as ultimately inspired by God, as a book with a common message and common theme. And as an outflow, he recognizes that the prophets and apostles worked out this common theme as they engaged with the writings that were available to them. Instead of a bunch of texts standing alone, the writers are engaging with one another in ways that a proper understanding of intertextuality reveals. These authors were not primitives making it up as they went along – oh no. Instead, the authors of Scripture were highly intelligent and very deliberate (and yes, divinely inspired) in how they crafted their writings to communicate and proclaim the redemptive plan of God. Understanding the redemptive-historical framework of Scripture enables one to more fully grasp the way the writers of Scripture (in progressive fashion) engage with other Scriptures as God’s written revelation continues throughout the ages.

I feel as if I cannot do this book justice, but I will simply say that this book was worth the read. It is pretty dense and scholarly and many, many footnotes and likely this won’t be worth it for many. Not an easy read. But it was worth it for me. There were a few slight (but veiled) references to the dispensational convictions of the author, but I do not feel as if these interfered with the overall message of the book. I could be wrong here (my low theological education showing, I suppose), but I believe both fully reformed and dispensational camps could read this book and come away nodding their heads in agreement with the vast majority. This book did my soul good and I came away with two major takeaways. Firstly, understanding the full depths of Scripture is a hard and challenging task, one that takes hard work and will never end in this life. Secondly, seeking to understand what God is communicating to us in his word is worth the effort. If we understand who God is (Creator) and who we are (creation) and recognize that there is a crack in the world and that all is not as should be and that there is a distance between us and God – what else should be our response than to ask – how might I be with God? If we see the Bible as God’s message revealing the answer, then ought we not then seek to read and plumb the riches of the Bible in order to more fully know and appreciate and be overcome by God and all He is and all He offers? Yes and forever yes. For at the end of the day, we read this Bible and we see all roads pointing to the cross, that fateful day when the God-who-became-man died upon a cross that all who look to him in humble desperation and simple faith shall be united to him in this death and in his resurrection rise to life everlasting in the presence of the God who is.