I’ll be featuring guest posts from time to time. It’ll be a great way to hear different perspectives and recommendations, and also get to know people from across our network. We’ll have a short bio, including favorite book & a fun fact at the end of each guest post.
Our first guest post is from Ben, who is a youth mentor with AYM Bay Area. Take it away, Ben!
I’ve been on a bit of a quest ever since I read the Triumph of Christianity (2011) by Rodney Stark. He tells a very positive story about Christian history and corrects the historical record on things like the Dark Ages (not dark!) and the Inquisition (not nearly as bad as people think it is). This was all news to me so I guess wanted to learn more. Long story short, I have three more books to recommend!
Dominion (2019) by Tom Holland – most of you have probably heard of this book. It is very good! It tells both Christian history, the good and the bad, and charts how Christian ideas have transformed our society. It is also very LONG – and personally I think it loses steam in the second half. But on the upside Holland is an engaging writer and some of the historical detail he gives is riveting.
Bullies and Saints (2021) by John Dickson – this is an awesome book! Basically he owns the evil of church history (like the Crusades) but also reports on what was good and beautiful, and he has a few frameworks for thinking about how the church can be both the light of the world and at times terrible. It focuses on the history and the context, and I learned a lot, even after reading the previous two books. It’s much shorter and more readable than Dominion, with an apologetic angle.
The Air We Breathe (2022) by Glen Scrivener – this book focuses on how our modern Western values, and even the culture wars we’re having, are all grounded in Christian assumptions. He charts how they developed in history but the book is more about thinking through those values. I thought I wouldn’t learn much after the other three but I was wrong! I learned both new history and new ways of thinking about these values and culture today. I’d say it’s like a shorter and punchier version of Dominion but organized topically, not chronologically, and with some other novel material.
If you are are intimidated by Dominion or just not interested enough for such a long book, I totally recommend the other two!
Personally, I think reading all the books above has strengthened my faith. I am less afraid of admitting the church’s faults, and I’ve been inspired by the sacrifices of the saints over the past two millennia. I’ve become much more appreciative of how Jesus has literally changed the world for the better through his church. Indeed, we have a beautiful inheritance!
Emily here with my $0.02. I loved The Air We Breathe and recommend it widely (Book-of-the-Month, January 2024 🙌). I am now motivated to finish Dominion 😅 and will check out Bullies and Saints. Thanks, Ben.
About Ben: Ben grew up as an atheist in southern California but went to UC Berkeley for college and came to Christ through Koinonia, an A2N ministry at UCB. He graduated with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering in 2016 but laments not getting to take more humanities in college! When not working or doing youth ministry, you’ll find him reading, nature walking, bullet journaling, or hanging out with his wife Micaela and daughter Ginny.
Favorite book: The Lord of the Rings // Fun fact: He taught a course on LOTR at Berkeley!
This book was written in 2014, but it doesn’t feel outdated. If anything, it feels even more relevant, especially reading it from the other side of a global pandemic that took screens and their place in our lives to another level.
The reality was we needed them in order to work, go to school, play with our friends, connect with family. In the years since this book was released, there’s also been time to conduct more research about the changes our devices and screens have wrought on children and adults alike.
You don’t have to be a parent or a youth or children’s worker in order to learn from this book. The fact is that all of us have been affected by our screens, whether it’s in how we deal with difficult emotions or boredom or awkwardness, what we consider entertainment and fun, and how we relate to people and view relationships. I think that the “A+ skills” of Affection, Appreciation, Anger Management, Apology, and Attention are useful for each of us to grow in, no matter how old we are! As someone who interacts with children and youth a lot, I’ve seen the effects growing up in the years of the pandemic have had in particular, and this book was helpful in thinking about what kind of skills and values I am instilling into our next generation.
The authors are realistic and offer hope that we can start wherever we are at to make positive changes that will be beneficial for our children, teens, and ourselves, and enrich our relationships with one another, in our families and communities. One thing I kept thinking while reading this book was that it would be difficult for parents who are trying to do this on their own, but thankful that in our community, we could support one another in our efforts to implement some of the relationship-prioritizing principles in the book, by doing it together!
Rather than trying to paraphrase the blurb and description of the book, thought I could just point you to the description on their website!
While this book focuses on the 4-year window of college, the fundamentals of evangelism, disciple-making, and mission mobilization (EDM 😬) apply to each of us as ministers of the gospel!
Acts2 Books 