August Book Battle

So here is something that I would like to try… that is a book battle. Okay so it’s not really a “battle”. What I am going to do here is take two books that I have read recently and compare them. I will give a light review of each and then put the two together. I hope to do this about every month so we shall see how this goes. For the very first match I would like to take two books that discuss the Christian life. The books are Dug Down Deep (D3) by Joshua Harris and Justification and Regeneration (JAR) by Charles Leiter…

First lets begin with D3, I read this book at the beginning of the summer and I have to say that I enjoyed it. This book takes different aspects of the Christian life and goes through them individually and marks biblical ways to approach them. Such as the church, reading the Word, the Holy Spirit, Jesus (specifically to his divine and human nature), God’s character, and so on. Joshua Harris gives a nice over view of these topics. This is both a pro and a con for me. On one hand it is nice to see all of these topics in one nicely fitted book. The bad is that Joshua Harris doesn’t do the greatest job at developing thoughts throughout each chapter. His ideas are often scattered and they leave you hanging, wondering why this was even in the chapter at all. It is almost like he is trying to do to much given the length of each chapter and the depth of each topic. However, the book is still solid and contains much information.

Second is JAR, I have read this book a couple of times last year and I will go ahead and say that apart from the Bible this is my favorite book. Why? Well because this book hits the Christian life entirely from a gospel perspective. What I mean by that is Charles Leiter deals with 3 main ideas: how we are justified by the blood of Christ, the supernatural working of God through regeneration, and how we ought to look at ourselves and this world by which realm we belong to (for example Adam to Christ, earth to heaven, flesh to spirit, etc.). Charles Leiter does a great job at simplifying and yet not losing truth. He will approach each topic with clarity and precision. I have benefitted greatly from this book and I know of others who have as well. There are a couple of issues, the first is that Leiter’s view can be a little controversial (like his interpretation of Romans 7), he does get repetitive in each chapter, and there are chapters 3 pages long and can leave you wanting a little more. However, despite these issues JAR is a wonderfully designed book that keeps you looking to Christ and can really help put your life in perspective with the gospel.

Now to conclude I would like to talk about how I would recommend these books. JAR is a book that I would recommend to everyone for the reasons listed above and because it is a book that is filled with gospel in every chapter. D3 is a book that I would not recommend to everyone. Simply because the book can be scattered and hits a lot of different areas in each topic. I think D3 is a great book for small groups simply because the leader has the opportunity to hit a plethora of topics through one book. The book can be tailored to the group by the leader and the leader can really make this book deep and enjoyable. In short both books are great and are designed to help young Christians understand the Christian life.