Book reviews are an integral, traditional and valuable part of CGR’s publishing agenda. Our book review editor is constantly bringing new publications to the attention of qualified reviewers from within the Mennonite community and elsewhere.

In Fall 2006, we began posting book reviews on the CGR website because our print issues were becoming increasingly filled with full-length articles that left little or no space for these important items. This meant an unacceptable delay in publishing them; reviews that are indefinitely postponed are of ever-diminishing value to readers – and disappointing to our diligent reviewers. Putting reviews on the web ensures they appear in a timely fashion, though in an admittedly different mode.

We will continue to run book reviews on the CGR website. And, as of Winter 2007, we revived our traditional practice of running as many reviews as possible in each printed issue. However, if an issue is filled to the brim with full-length articles and space is limited, we will run the reviews only on the web for the time being and then publish them in print as soon as possible.

In short, book reviews will appear in print all things being equal, and always on the web as well.

November 2011 Reviews

Book:Teaching that Transforms: Why Anabaptist-Mennonite Education Matters by John D. Roth
Reviewer: Ted Grimsrud

Book: The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith by Stuart Murray
Reviewer: Jonathan Seiling

Book: Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics, and Devotion in the Book of Revelation by Nelson Kraybill
Reviewer: Ted Grimsrud

Book: An American in Persia: A Pilgrimage to Iran by Richard Kauffman
Reviewer: Roy Hange

Book: 2048: Humanity’s Agreement to Live Together by J. Kirk Boyd
Reviewer: Michael Hunter

Book: Power and Practices: Engaging the Work of John Howard Yoder by Jeremy M. Bergen and Anthony G. Siegrist, eds
Reviewer: D. Stephen Long

Book: Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World by John G. Stackhouse, Jr
Reviewer: Jamie Pitts

Book: Defending Constantine: TheTwilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom by Peter J. Leithart
Reviewer: Elmer J. Thiessen

Book: The New Yoder by Peter Dula and Chris K. Huebner, eds
Reviewer: Andy Brubacher Kaethler

Book: Prophetic Preaching: A Pastoral Approach by Leonora Tisdale Tubbs
Reviewer: Allan Rudy-Froese

Book: Sexuality: God’s Gift by Anne Krabill Hershberger, ed
Reviewer: Susanne Guenther Loewen

May 2011 Reviews

Book: Jörg Maler’s Kunstbuch: Writings of the Pilgram Marpeck Circle by John D. Rempel, ed
Reviewer: Ron Kennel

Book: Unlearning Protestantism: Sustaining Christian Community in an Unstable Age by Gerald W. Schlabach
Reviewer: Ryan Klassen

Book: A Peaceable Psychology: Christian Therapy in a World of Many Cultures by Alvin Dueck and Kevin Reimer
Reviewer: Vonda Plett

Book: Christmas: Festival of Incarnation by Donald Heinz
Reviewer: Gareth Brandt

Book: To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World by James Davison Hunter
Reviewer: Elmer J. Thiessen

Book: The Wing-Beaten Air: My Life and My Writing by Yorifumi Yaguchi
Reviewer: Ann Hostetler

Book: Religion and Conflict Resolution: Christianity and South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission by Megan Shore
Reviewer: Lisa Schirch

November 2010 Reviews

Book: A Mennonite Woman: Exploring Spiritual Life and Identity by Dawn Ruth Nelson
Reviewer: Andrew C. Martin

Book: Christian Attitudes to War, Peace, and Revolution by John Howard Yoder
Reviewer: Nathan Funk

Book: The Trinitarian Self: The Key to the Puzzle of Violence by Charles K. Bellinger
Reviewer: Andrew Suderman

Book: At the Scent of Water: The Ground of Hope in the Book of Job by J. Gerald Janzen
Reviewer: Eric Massanari

Book: Beyond Suspicion: Post-Christendom Protestant Political Theology in John Howard Yoder and Oliver O`Donovan by Paul G. Doerksen
Reviewer: Kevin Derksen

Book: Radical Ecumenicity: Pursuing Unity and Discontinuity after John Howard Yoder by John C. Nugent, ed.
Reviewer: Andy Alexis Baker

Book: A Violent Conscience: Essays on the Fiction of James Lee Burke by Leonard Engel, ed.
Reviewer: Arthur Boers

June 2010 Reviews

Book: The Old Testament in the Life of God’s People: Essays in Honor of Elmer A. Martens by Jon Isaak, ed.
Reviewer: Wilma Ann Bailey

Book: The Political Dimensions of Reconciliation: A Theological Analysis of Ways of Dealing with Guilt During the Transition to Democracy in South Africa and East Germany by Ralf K. Wüstenberg
Reviewer: Barry Hart

Book: The Meaning of Sex: Christian Ethics and the Moral Life by Dennis P. Hollinger
Reviewer: Brenda Martin Hurst

Book: Rooted in Jesus Christ: Toward a Radical Ecclesiology by Daniel Izuzquiza
Reviewer: Ryan Klassen

Book: Roots of Concern: Writings on Anabaptist Renewal 1952-1957 by Virgil Vogt, ed.
Reviewer: Andrew C. Martin

Book: System and Story: Narrative Critique and Construction in Theology by Gale Heide
Reviewer: Mark Thiessen Nation

March 2010 Reviews

Books: Good Punishment? Christian Moral Practice and U.S. Imprisonment. by James Samuel Logan
Changing Paradigms: Punishment and Restorative Discipline. by Paul Redekop
Reviewer: Andy Alexis-Baker

Books: Marpeck: A Life of Dissent and Conformity. by Walter Klaassen and William Klassen
Christ in our Midst: Incarnation, Church and Discipleship in the Theology of Pilgram Marpeck. by Neal Blough
Reviewer: Stephen B. Boyd

Book: Awakening Youth Discipleship: Christian Resistance in a Consumer Culture. by Brian J. Mahan, Michael Warren, and David F. White.
Reviewer: Andy Brubacher Kaethler

Book: Peace to War: Shifting Allegiances of the Assemblies of God. by Paul Alexander
Reviewer: Alan Kreider

Book: Worship That Changes Lives:  Multidisciplinary and Congregational Perspectives on Spiritual Transformation. by Alexis D. Abernethy
Reviewer: Marlene Kropf

Book: All Right Now:  Finding Consensus on Ethical Questions. by Timothy J. Geddert
Reviewer: Irma Fast Dueck

Book: The Fullness of Time in a Flat World: Globalizations and the Liturgical Year. by Scott Waalkes
Reviewer: Arthur Boers

November 2009 Reviews

Book: Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire by William T. Cavanaugh
Reviewer: Andy Alexis-Baker

Book: Seeking the Identity of Jesus: A Pilgrimage by Beverly Roberts Gaventa and Richard B. Hays, eds
Reviewer: Rene Baergen

Book: Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System And How We Can Break Free by Ellen Hodgson Brown
Reviewer: George Crowell

Book: Hope in Troubled Times: A New Vision for Confronting Global Crises by Bob Goudzwaard, Mark Vander Vennen, and David Van Heemst
Reviewer: Lowell Ewert

Book: Mennonite Women in Canada: A History by Marlene Epp
Reviewer: Brian Froese

Book: Origen and the History of Justification: The Legacy of Origen’s Commentary on Romans by Thomas P. Scheck
Reviewer: Nancy Heisey

Book: How Do Stories Save Us? An Essay on the Question with the Theological Hermeneutics of David Tracy in View by Scott Holland
Reviewer: Keith Graber Miller

June 2009 Reviews

Book: Liberating Jonah: Forming an Ethic of Reconciliation by Miguel A. De La Torre
Reviewer: Daniel Smith-Christopher

Book: The Amish and the Media by Diane Zimmerman Umble and David L. Weaver-Zercher
Reviewer: John Longhurst

Book: The Fear Of Beggars: Poverty and Stewardship in Christian Ethics by Kelly Johnson
Reviewer: Lynn Miller

Book: Reading the Bible with the Dead: What you can learn from the history of exegesis that you can’t learn from exegesis alone by John L. Thompson
Reviewer: Dan Epp-Tiessen

Book: Growing Up in Turbulent Times:  Memoirs of Soviet Oppression, Refugee Life in Germany, and Immigrant Adjustment to Canada by Waldemar Janzen
Reviewer: Leonard Friesen

Book: Electing Not to Vote: Christian Reflections on Reasons for Not Voting by Ted Lewis, ed.
Reviewer: Victor J. Hinojosa

January 2009 Reviews

Book: Christianity, Democracy and the Radical Ordinary: Conversations between a Radical Democrat and a Christian by Stanley Hauerwas and Romand Coles.

Reviewer: Paul Doerksen

Book: The Beginning of All Things: Science and Religion by Hans Küng.

Reviewer: Daryl Culp

Book: Embodying the Way of Jesus: Anabaptist Convictions for the Twenty-First Century by Ted Grimsrud.

Reviewer: Loren L. Johns

Book: I am Not a Social Activist: Making Jesus the Agenda by Ronald J. Sider.

Reviewer: Doug Pritchard

Book: Green Witness: Ecology, Ethics, and the Kingdom of God by Laura Ruth Yordy.

Reviewer: Luke Gascho

Book: The Steppes are the Colour of Sepia: A Mennonite Memoir by Connie Braun.

Reviewer: Jeff Gundy

October 2008 Reviews

Book: The Purple Crown: The Politics of Martyrdom by Tripp York.

Reviewer: Stephanie Krehbiel

Book: Jesus, the Village Psychiatrist by Donald Capps

Reviewer: Janet M. Berg

Book: God and the New Atheism: A Critical Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens by John F. Haught

Reviewer: Christian Early

Book: Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer

Church by Paul Louis Metzger

Reviewer: Regina Shands Stoltzfus

Book: Road Signs on the Journey: A Profile of Mennonite Church USA by Conrad L. Kanagy. 

Reviewer: Ed Janzen

Book: A Precarious Peace: Yoderian Explorations on Theology, Knowledge, and Identity by Chris K. Huebner

Reviewer: Trevor George Hunsberger Bechtel

Book: Conceiving Parenthood: American Protestantism and the Spirit of Reproduction by Amy Laura Hall

Reviewer: Valerie Weaver-Zercher

Book: Holy Anger: Jacob, Job, Jesus by Lytta Basset

Reviewer: David Augsburger

June 2008 Reviews

Book: Borders and Bridges: Mennonite Witness in a Religiously Diverse World
by Peter Dula and Alain Epp Weaver

Reviewer: Susan Kennel Harrison

Book: Evangelism after Christendom: The Theology and Practice of Christian Witness by Bryan Stone

Reviewer: James R. Krabill

Books: Hearing the Sermon: Relationship/Content/Feeling by Ronald J. Allen; Listening to the Listeners: Homiletical Case Studies by John S. McClure, Ronald J. Allen, Dale P. Andrews, L. Susan Bond, Dan P. Moseley, and G. Lee Ramsey, Jr.; Believing in Preaching: What Listeners Hear in Sermons by Mary Alice Mulligan, Diane Turner-Sharaz, Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm, and Ronald J. Allen; Make the Word Come Alive: Lessons from Laity by Mary Alice Mulligan and Ronald J. Allen.

Reviewer: Allan Rudy-Froese

Book: In Other Words: Incarnational Translation for Preaching by Charles H. Cosgrove and W. Dow Edgerton

Reviewer: June Alliman Yoder

Book: In a New Light: Spirituality and the Media Arts by Ron Austin

Reviewer: Gordon Houser

Book:Creed and Conscience: Essays in Honor of A. James Reimer, Jeremy M. Bergen, Paul G. Doerksen, Karl Koop, eds.

Reviewer: Susanne Guenther Loewen

Book: Making Wise the Simple: The Torah in Christian Faith and Practice by Johanna W.H. van Wijk-Bos

Reviewer: Steven J. Schweitzer

Book: Seeking Peace in Africa: Stories from African Peacemakers, Donald E. Miller, Scott Holland, Lon Fendall, and Dean Johnson, editors.

Reviewer: Ted Koontz

Book: Practicing the Politics of Jesus: The Origin and Significance of John Howard Yoder's Social Ethics by Earl Zimmerman

Reviewer: Mark Thiessen Nation

Book: What About Hitler? Wrestling with Jesus' Call to Nonviolence in an Evil World by Robert W. Brimlow

Reviewer: Ronald J. Sider

Book: Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament by Stanley E. Porter

Reviewer: Derek Suderman

February 2008 Reviews

Books:  The Vice of Curiosity: An Essay on Intellectual Appetite by Paul J.Griffiths. The Passionate Intellect: Incarnational Humanism and the Future of University Education by Norman Klassen and Jens Zimmerman.

Reviewer: Michael A. King

Book: Recovering Jesus: The Witness of the Old Testament by Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld

Reviewer: Jacob W. Elias

Book: Real American Ethics: Taking Responsibility for Our Country by Albert Borgmann

Reviewer: Paul C. Heidebrecht

Book: Of Widows and Meals: Communal Meals in the Book of Acts by Reta Halteman Finger

Reviewer: Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld

Books: Character Ethics and the Old Testament: Moral Dimensions of Scripture, M. Daniel Carroll and Jacqueline E. Lapseley, eds. Character Ethics and the New Testament: Moral Dimensions of Scripture, Robert L.  Brawley, ed.

Reviewer: Ben C. Ollenburger

November 2007 Reviews

Book: Sound in the Land: Essays on Mennonites and Music by Maureen Epp and Carol Weaver, eds.
Reviewer: Alice Parker

Book: Nurturing Spirit through Song: The Life of Mary K. Oyer by Rebecca Slough, and Shirley Sprunger King, eds
Reviewer: Jonathan Dueck

Books: Holy Bible, Human Bible: Questions Pastoral Practice Must Ask by Gordon Oliver
Telling Our Stories:  Personal Accounts of Engagement with Scripture by Ray Gingerich and Earl Zimmerman, eds.
The Bible in Pastoral Practice: Readings in the Place and Function of Scripture in the Church by Paul Ballard and Stephen R. Holmes, eds.
Reviewer: Jennifer Davis Sensenig

Book: The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map by Ursula M. Franklin
Reviewer: Arthur Boers

Book: Christian Ethics and the Moral Psychologies by Don S. Browning
Reviewer: Daniel S. Schipani

Book: Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
Reviewer: Gregory K. Hillis

Books: The Vice of Curiosity: An Essay on Intellectual Appetite by Paul J. Griffiths
The Passionate Intellect: Incarnational Humanism and the Future of University Education by Norman Klassen and Jens Zimmermann
Reviewer: Michael A. King

Book: Radical Protestantism in Spinoza’s Thought by Graeme Hunter
Reviewer: Peter John Hartman

Book: Spinoza’s Modernity: Mendelssohn, Lessing, and Heine. Studies in German Jewish Cultural History and Literature Series by Willi Goetschel
Reviewer: Jonathan R. Seiling

Book: Hermeneutics and Ontology. Vol. 1 of Between Philosophy and Religion: Spinoza, the Bible, and Modernity by Brayton Polka
Reviewer: Matthew Klaassen

June 2007 Reviews

Book: History and Ideology: American Mennonite Identity Definition through History by Rodney James Sawatsky
Reviewer: David R. Swartz

Book: Christ and Culture: A Post-Christendom Perspective by Craig A. Carter
Reviewer: Duane K. Friesen

Book: Spiritual Caregiving in the Hospital: Windows to Chaplaincy Ministry by Leah Dawn Bueckert and Daniel S. Schipani, eds.
Reviewer: Glen R. Horst

Book: Eight Writings on Christian Beliefs by Caspar Schwenckfeld
Reviewer: Jonathan Seiling

Book: Living in Praise by David F. Ford and Daniel W. Hardy
Reviewer: Eleanor Kreider

Book: The Washing of the Saints’ Feet by J. Matthew Pinson
Reviewer: Pieter Post

Book: Politics Under God by John H. Redekop
Exiles in the Empire: Believers Church Perspectives on Politics by Nathan E. Yoder and Carol A. Scheppard, eds.
Reviewer: Sandra Joireman

March 2007 Reviews

Book: Just Policing: Mennonite-Catholic Theological Colloquium, 2002 by Ivan Kauffman, ed.
At Peace and Unafraid: Public Order, Security, and the Wisdom of the Cross by Duane K. Friesen and Gerald Schlabach, eds. 
Reviewer: Andy Alexis-Baker

Book: The Cost of Moral Leadership: The Spirituality of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Geffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson
Reviewer: Weldon D. Nisly

Book: ‘Just as in the Time of the Apostles’: Uses of History in the Radical Reformation by Geoffrey Dipple.
Reviewer: Jonathan Seiling

Book: John Howard Yoder: Mennonite Patience, Evangelical Witness, Catholic Convictions by Mark Thiessen Nation
Reviewer: Gayle Gerber Koontz

September 2006 Reviews

Book: Viewing New Creations with Anabaptist Eyes: Ethics of Biotechnology by Roman J. Miller, Beryl H. Brubaker, and James C. Peterson, eds
Reviewer: Ray Epp

Book: Writing the Amish: The Worlds of John A. Hostetler by David L. Weaver-Zercher, ed
Reviewer: Steven M. Nolt

Books: Religion and Science: God, Evolution, and the Soul by Nancey Murphy
A Universe of Ethics, Morality, and Hope by George F.R. Ellis
The Dialogue between Religion and Science: Challenges and Future Directions by Antje Jackelén
Purpose, Evolution and the Meaning of Life by John F. Haught
Reviewer: Darrin W. Snyder Belousek

Book: Children Matter: Celebrating Their Place in the Church, Family, and Community by May Scottie, Beth Posterski, Catherine Stonehouse, and Linda Cannell
Reviewer: Eleanor Snyder

Book: The Ways of Judgment by Oliver O’Donovan
Reviewer: Paul Doerksen

Book: Development to a Different Drummer: Anabaptist/Mennonite Experiences and Perspectives by Richard A. Yoder, Calvin W. Redekop, and Vernon E. Jantzi
Reviewer: Larissa Fast