![Q&A: Do you agree with [the following explanation of] after death happenings?](http://briggs.id.au/jour/files/2012/05/hades-lk-16.gif "Q&A: Do you agree with [the following explanation of] after death happenings?")
When a new fad of fiction hits the popular mind I make a habit of engaging with it. Twelve years ago I did it when Harry Potter arced up. More recently I engaged with Twilight (where by “engage” I mean forcing myself to complete the first book). After all, its from this sort of phenomenon that [...]
Archive for ‘Book Reviews’
Review: Baptism – Its Purpose, Practice and Power
Thursday, March 15th, 2012This is one of those “an oldy but a goody” books. It’s by Michael Green and was first published in 1987. I had a reason for reading it. It was one of those awesome moments of messy missiology when gospel realities and ecclesiastical niceties don’t quite line up: My Bishop was leading a reaffirmation of [...]
Review: Sideshow – Dumbing Down Democracy
Monday, January 23rd, 2012I’ve been looking forward to reading former Federal Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner’s Sideshow. Tanner always came across as a thoughtful politician when he was in public office – it was clear his book was going to be no Lathemesque tell-all whinge but a critique of our governance in our society from a unique perspective. But [...]
Review: Mud, Sweat, and Tears: Bear Grylls The Autobiography
Monday, January 2nd, 2012I’ve been known to say that (give or take the incarnation) the perfect man would be a cross between Bear Grylls and (ABC election analyst) Antony Green – perfect wildness, perfect geekiness. (I’ve since suggested that a seasoning of Jamie Oliver to the mix would improve even that perfection). Needless to say, I’m a big [...]
Review: The Mar Saba Codex
Friday, December 30th, 2011Within the first few weeks of my moving to Hobart I happened to find myself at a book launch that someone had pointed out to me in the local newspaper. The event involved a local author writing on religious issues, and it also involved wine and a professor of philosophy at the nearby university. It [...]
Review: Guantanamo – My Journey
Saturday, September 10th, 2011The controversy surrounding the detention of David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay by the United States government has waned. In the aftermath of 9/11 and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan – in that era when the War on Terror was a novelty, not a socio-political framework, when the soundbites were filled with Bush and Howard [...]
Review: Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision
Monday, June 20th, 2011I remember when I first began studying at College. We were taught exegesis of the Bible – applying literary and historical analysis, asking that all important question of “What did the text mean for the original hearers?”, and all that sort of thing. Many students who are used to a more devotional reading of Scripture [...]
Review: The Wingfeather Saga – Books 1 and 2
Saturday, April 9th, 2011I’ve started reading the Wingfeather Saga series of books by Andrew Peterson. They are excellent. The first two books are On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness and North! Or Be Eaten and the third The Monster in the Hollows is due out in May. I can’t wait. I’ve mentioned Andrew Peterson a [...]
Review: The Lord’s Supper in Human Hands – Epilogue
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011An epilogue to The Lord’s Supper in Human Hands, a treatise on lay and diaconal administration of Holy Communion which I reviewed some time ago, has been made available as a free pdf. I was off-deck when the Appellate Tribunal brought its 2010 response to the Synod of Sydney’s resolution accepting legal argument for non-presbyteral [...]
Review: Surprised By Hope
Sunday, February 20th, 2011I used to think it was my own little heresy – that the gospel was all about the Lordship of Christ and the fulfillment of his Kingdom here on earth when he returns, more than any possibility of being raptured into an ethereal eternity. My “heresy” has found a harbour. Tom Wright’s Surprised by Hope unpacks an [...]
