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The remainder of this review will be my reflections on the positives and problems as I see them.
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But even more problems that make it difficult to recommend. More than a few positives that make it captivating and useful. Its topic is biblical masculinity in contemporary evangelical Christian culture and teaching. It’s a famous book over 1 million copies sold. Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past 15 years, you know the basic premise of WAH. As a book that has been out there for a while (16 years and counting), it was probably about time that I pulled it off my shelf and looked into it. Such is the case this time with John Eldredge’s Wild At Heart (WAH). When that happens, my interest in reading a bestselling Christian book goes up. That’s why I commit to reviewing (nearly) everything I read here at Dangitbill! It’s not for me (although I do enjoy and profit-without-“profit” from the exercise), but for you.Īnd so, every now and then I get asked by friends about the same book. I prefer to read stuff I suspect I’ll want to recommend for my readers. Even though I don’t fancy myself as a watchblogger, I do enjoy critically engaging with Christian books. Plenty of reviewers have noticed that the huge number of evangelical readers out there have created a market for this kind of Christian publishing. Not all high print volume books have these flaws, but I’ve read a few of them to know their common characteristics. In order to aim for a wide audience, they have to minimize doctrinal distinctives, focus on motivation and practice, and sugar-coat the materials so it goes down easy. It’s just that they often have significant flaws as “lower common denominator” books.
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Not that there isn’t anything valuable in these sorts of mass-market volumes. You know which ones I mean: The Purpose Driven Life, Jesus Calling, The Gospel According to Veggie Tales.
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(Hey, I’m a pastor, so I’ve come to expect people will ask about these.) Unfortunately for these folks, I rarely read any of those “It” books that every evangelical Christian is talking about all at once. Usually it’s a popular Christian book, sometimes a bestseller. Every now and then I get asked whether I’ve read such-and-such a book.
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