Two New Book Reviews: Complementarity and Don't (Only) Blame Tech
And a book drawing
On this lovely Tuesday, I am sending my 100th post here on Substack! That’s worth celebrating, so I’m going to draw three names to mail books this week. If you’re interested in getting a copy of either Cultural Christians in the Early Church or Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic, just leave a comment indicating which book you’d like. I’ll draw three names on Friday morning.
But the main reason I’m sending out a post today is to share two new book reviews. I try to review only (or mostly) books that I’m pretty sure I’d like, and the ones I’ll tell you about today are a great example of this:
Today for The Gospel Coalition, I enjoyed the chance to engage with Gregg Allison’s new book, Complementarity: Dignity, Difference, and Interdependence. I read a 500-page book of systematic theology, all to tell you that you may want to read it too. As I was reading, my main thought was, “blessed are the peacemakers.” Allison strikes me as a peacemaker. This is not an easy read—because most books of systematic theology are not intended to be easy beach reads. But this book will be worth the time you spend with it—the survey of relevant passages he considers across the OT and NT is especially valuable, regardless of where you fall on the complementarianism/ egalitarianism debate.
I appreciated the opportunity to review Clare Morell’s important new book, The Tech Exit, alongside Adrienne Mayor’s magnificent Gods and Robots for the latest print issue of Common Good Magazine—and now available online as well. Both are easily readable books of the sort you could take to the beach. They are very different sorts of books at first glance, but my point in writing about the two of them together is to remind us that our tech disasters right now are nothing new. They reflect human obsessions and temptations that we already see quite clearly in Greek mythology. You can read the full review essay here.
And this is it. We’ll get back to Thucydides Slow Read on Saturday! And if you’re new here and would like to join in, this is a great time to do so.
I enjoyed the Common Good article so much! Having studied archaeology, I regularly feel the urge to encourage those with feathers ruffled over current trends just how *not* new everything under the sun really is. And I love how you bring the technology question back to the gospel.
I’ve read Cultural Christians and learned so much from it. Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic has been on my to-read list for months, so please add me to the drawing!
Thank you so much to all who had entered the drawing! I just sent emails to those who will be getting a book.