Book Review: The Organized Heart

A Woman’s Guide to Conquering Chaos by Staci Eastin.

Staci Eastin is a blogger I’ve known for a while. She runs in my circle of blogging friends, you might say. When I found out she was writing a book for women on organizing the home—or “organizing chaos,” to use the wording of the subtitle—I was pretty sure this wasn’t a book for me, since I’ve never had much a problem with chaos in my home, at least not for long.

But then Staci offered to send me a copy of her book. How could I refuse?

Guess what? It turns out that there’s a chapter especially for me in The Organized Heart; or rather, there’s a chapter for a younger me. (I’ve been at this running a home thing for 35 years now. I’ve worked things out, or more accurately, God has worked in me, and I’m mostly content with things as they are.)

But I’ll get to the chapter that applies to me after I quote what Staci writes about this book.

This book will be different than any other book on organization that you’ve probably read. I have no schedule to offer you, I won’t tell you what day to mop the kitchen floor, and you don’t need to buy a timer. Your standards for an organized home and a reasonable schedule will vary with your personality, season of life, and the needs and preferences of your family.

Staci looks at our difficulties managing our homes through the lens of idolatry. 

Click to read more ...

Book Review: Saving Leonardo

Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and MeaningA Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning by Nancy Pearcey.

I truly enjoyed reading Saving Leonardo, even though it took me a long time to make my way through the text. What’s more, as I mentioned earlier, this is a beautiful book, well-bound with glossy pages, large type and colourful pictures. Once I’ve written that much, however, I hit a bit of a book review roadblock. 

Here’s the thing: I don’t know enough about the subject matter in the heart of this book to feel confident evaluating the contents. The arguments make sense and the information is well-documented, but still, I couldn’t shake the feeling the points might be a bit over-simplified. I know that in an introductory book the issues must be presented as simply as possible and perhaps that’s what Saving Leonardo is—an excellent introduction to a difficult subject. But I just don’t know enough to judge.

Now I’ve told you why I shouldn’t be reviewing this book, so if you stop reading right now, you won’t hurt my feelings. But if you’re still here, I’ll summarize the contents for you.

Nancy Pearcey is a fellow at the Discovery Institute and Editor-at-Large of The Pearcey Report. She has authored or contributed to several books. 

In Saving Leonardo, Nancy Pearcey evaluates secular worldviews on the basis of the fact/value dualism at their core, and shows that a Christian worldview successfully integrates the two. (If you’ve read Pearcey’s previous book, Total Truth, you have a head start by already knowing what the fact/value split is.) Her purpose is for the reader to “learn to recognize and resist secular ideas in science, philosophy, ethics, the arts and humanities.” She seeks to accomplish this by examining

the concepts and events, the thinkers and artists who led the way step by step in creating worldviews that undermine human dignity and liberty. And we will demonstrate that the only hope lies in a worldview that is rationally defensible, life affirming, and rooted in creation itself.

There are two parts to Saving Leonardo: Part 1, which describes how growing global secularization affects everyone everywhere, and Part 2 (the bulk and meat of the book), which following the advance of secularization in history, tracing the two threads of secularism—the Enlightenment thread, focusing on “the fact realm”; and the Romanticism thread, focusing on “the values realm”—especially as they influence the arts and culture.

Click to read more ...

Book Review: Marks of the Messenger

Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living and Speaking the GospelKnowing, Living and Speaking the Gospel by J. Mack Stiles.

A couple of months ago I listened to a lecture by D. A. Carson and heard him recommend this book, so when I was making my January reading list, I added it. (I didn’t, at that point, remember that it had also been reviewed and recommended at a couple of places on my blog roll.) The brief comment by Carson didn’t tell me much about the content of Marks of the Messenger, so I began reading not knowing exactly what to expect.

What I found was a book focused on developing believers with a mindset for evangelism, or growing Christians with heart for the gospel. I’d half-expected a “how to evangelize” book, which tend to leave me feeling guilty and paralyzed, but instead, what this little book is all about knowing, loving and valuing the true gospel so that the gospel soaks into and out from our lives.

Click to read more ...