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Bishop N.T. Wright is one of the most prolific Christian writers of our day. As a New Testament scholar and former Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey, Wright’s work has received a wide reading from a variety of Christians: mainline to fundamentalist, emergent to high-church Anglicans. Yet as wide as his readership is, even the quickest readers cannot seem to keep up with his pace of writing and publishing. As one pastor put it, “N.T. Wright writes faster than I can read!”

Nevertheless, Wright serves as one of the foremost defenders of orthodox Christianity today. We carry several of Wright’s most recent and most respected titles. Simply Christian has merited reviews from many prominent periodicals, and has been lauded as this generation’s Mere Christianity (the classic work by C.S. Lewis), serving to simply, yet faithfully present an introduction to the historic message of Christianity.

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For most modern Americans, the idea of rest or leisure sounds more like something to indulge in, or spoil themselves with, rather than a lifestyle. Take a look at the ads in any magazine or newspaper promoting various spa and health products, vacations, or other products meant for relaxation and you will find a reoccurring theme: “Take a break, you deserve it,” or “Indulge yourself with this special treat today, you’ve earned the break,” or “Escape with us on this cruise, leave the pager behind.” Rest and recreation is seen as an escape from reality—it is something we earn in two-weeks-a-year units. Our rest is defined by our work, not the other way around. Productivity is the highest goal, not leisure, not rest.

But as James Schall argues in his recent book, On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs, this modern approach to life is a grave departure from the Classical and Christian views of work, leisure, and rest. In Unseriousness, regarded as worthy successor to Josef Pieper’s classic work, Leisure: The Basis of Culture, Schall describes leisure not as the escape from the dreary reality of our work demands, but as the natural extension of work which is the context for the highest duties of man. True leisure is the time for contemplating the highest things and participating in the grand activity of play in a way that expresses that which is truest about both our nature and God’s nature.

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Ted Dekker has just released another psycho-thriller called Saint. Carl Strople has been kidnapped and forced to murder someone to save his wife and son. Or has he? Does he even really have a wife and son? As with previous Dekker books, nothing is ever quite what it seems. That’s OK. It makes for a great read, plenty of action, good vs evil in the spiritual realm. All good stuff. But when he ressurects from previous novels the old magic blank books in which whatever is written becomes true, you want to holler “enough already”.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m a huge Dekker fan and I enjoyed this one immensely. But seriously, Ted: get a new shtick.

Our friend and local pundit/author/lawyer/farmer(?) Caleb Stegall recently took on conservative columnist George Will over the issue of Wal-Mart hegemony. Writing in the Dallas Morning News, Caleb argues against both the liberal position that Wal-Mart is bad because it exploits the marginalized and Will’s conservative fight to keep our laws off of Wal-Mart in the name of “consumer sovereignty”. Caleb believes that a more faithful conservative view is wary of any power enclave (whether in Congress or the marketplace) that attempts to exert managerial force over society.

Views like this have earned Caleb and his cohort the title Crunchy Conservatives - i.e. conservatism for the granola and Birkenstock and faith-motivated crowds. Former National Review writer Rod Dreher has written about Caleb et al in a book we like a lot called Crunchy Cons.

Find out more about Caleb at the webzine he used to edit, the New Pantagruel.

John Piper, Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, is one of our favorite authors at Signs of Life. Many authors have solid theology. Many authors have a clear and engaging writing style. Many authors write on pertinent and timely topics. But few have the skill to combine all those elements into books that get us jumping-up-and-down excited about following Jesus.

Whether its his classic Desiring God, his book about the supremacy of God in missions Let the Nations Be Glad!, or biographical works on the puritans and their friends, the theme of Christian hedonism shines through all Piper’s writing. Christian hedonism? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Piper explains via a twist on the famous answer to the first question of the Westminster Confession: it is the Christian’s duty to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. This is the dangerous duty of delight, as Piper would phrase it. We are created for God’s pleasure and He is most pleased when we are delighting in him.
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The cover image shows a blond-haired, blue-eyed knight in shining armor and his white-robed damsel in distress. The series title is Legends of the Guardian King. You immediately dismiss it as trite, poorly-written, romatic fantasy. Not so fast.

In The Light of Eidon and its sequels, Karen Hancock has crafted an intelligent, fast-paced allegory with well-developed characters and excellent insight into the life of faith. Middle-aged male readers (like myself) love it. Teenage female readers (like my daughters) are enthralled. Any Christian will be thoroughly entertained while simultaneously encouraged to trust more fully in our sovereign God who holds all things under his control.