Easy Chairs, Hard Words

This book by Douglas Wilson, subtitled Conversations on the Liberty of God, is written as a dialogue between two fictional characters. Martin, the older man is a mentoring pastor who answers questions from a younger Christian man who narrates the conversation.  The book is short and the chapters are brief, but the dialogue is full of biblical discussions and exegetical explanations.

This is not my first book on this topic, I have read several others over the last decade but this one did bring up verses and arguments that I had not heard before.  Since I am in agreement with Martin's position which is the teaching of Reformed theology, it was an enjoyable and helpful read.  I have selected three conversational quotes from three different chapters to help give an understanding of how this book is written and the content contained therein.

Chapter 3: Ideas Have Consequences 

"The basic issue we have been discussing these past couple weeks has been the difference between man-centered religion and God-centered religion."
"I follow that."
"Now, have you ever known any Christian whose beliefs or doctrines, were what we have been calling 'man-centered', but whose life was clearly God-centered?"
I nodded again. "Yes."
"And we would call that inconsistent?"
"Yes."
"And if you wind up changing churches, you will quickly encounter Christians whose doctrines are 'God-centered' but whose lives are man-centered. This is also inconsistent."
"Well this brings us back to my first question.  If this is the case, what difference does it all make?"
"It is quite simple.  The Church, being an assembly of people, will eventually live in a manner consistent with her doctrine over time. If the doctrine is man-centered, then there will come a time when the lifestyle, morals, ceremonies, teaching, etcetera, are also man-centered."
"So even though an individual is inconsistent with his false doctrine, the Church at large will eventually be consistent with it."
"Correct. This explains why certain beliefs can be held by pious Christians, while those same beliefs go on to corrupt and defile the piety of the Church."

Chapter 4: Carnal Reasoning 

"Now if carnal living is a lifestyle that does not submit to God's Word, then how should we define carnal reasoning?"
"The same way, I suppose?"
"Right. It is not enough to submit to what we do externally to God; we must also submit the way we think.
Your friends are trying to defend God's standards for living by abandoning His standards for thinking. It can not be successful."
...
"What does the passage say God is doing?" Martin asked. [Philippians 2:12,13]
I looked down at my Bible again. "It says that He is working in the Philippians, both in willing and doing, and that the result is His good pleasure."
"And what would carnal reasoning do with that?"
"Well, the response would be that if God is doing the willing, and if God is doing the doing, and the result is whatever He wants, then there is no reason for me to put myself out.  It is going to happen anyway."
"Right. The reasoning says that if God is going to do the work, then why should I have to."
I nodded, and Martin went on.
"But what application of this truth does Paul command the Philippians to obey?"
I looked at the passage again. "He tells them to work out their salvation, with fear and trembling. I glanced down further. "And in the next verse he goes on to specific ethical instruction--to avoid murmuring and disputing."
I sat and thought for a moment. "But my friends would say that the application they are making is obvious--common sense."
"Well it certainly is common.  But is it biblical?"

Chapter 16: God in the Dock 

"But couldn't an advocate of 'God allowing sin' say that He allows it for a very good reason?"
"Sure, but the other side could say the very same thing. God controls sin the way He does for a very good reason."
I sat for a moment, stumped. Martin continued. "The reason people accept the view that God allows sin is not because it deals with the question of the problem of evil effectively. It does not, as many non-Christian philosophers have seen very well. The reason people accept this explanation is because of 'the very good reason' God supposedly has for allowing sin."
"What is that 'very good reason'?"
"Free will. Man's free will is, in this view, so important, that God is willing to let little girls be murdered for the sake of that. Beyond that, He is willing for non-Christians never to hear the message of salvation so that messengers may have free will. People are willing to accept horrendous evil, if that evil exists for the sake of free will."
"What is the 'very good reason' of the other side?  Why does evil exist according to the view that God controls everything?"
"God controls everything for His own glory. In the minds of many this is totally inadequate. What is the glory of God compared to the free will of man?"
"Are you being sarcastic?"
Martin smiled. "A little."

Books read in 2012

Image from steelebookish.tumblr.com

Fiction:

The English Air by D.E. Stevenson
No Holly for Miss Quinn by Miss Read who sadly passed away earlier last year.
The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit
Pollyanna by Eleanor Hodgman Porter
Pollyanna Grows Up by Eleanor Hodgman Porter
Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott
Heidi by Joanna Spyri
Heidi Grows Up by Charles Tritten
Heidi's Children by Charles Tritten
The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong

Nonfiction:

Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
Julia Child by Laura Shapiro
The Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason
The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson
Prevailing Worldviews by Glenn Martin
A Christian View of the West by Francis Schaeffer
Pollution and the Death of Man by Francis Schaeffer
Easy Chairs, Hard Words by Douglas Wilson

In Progress:

The Hobbit by J.R. R.Tolkien
Law & Liberty by Rousas John Rushdoony
Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott
and many others

Favorite Authors Discovered:

Henry van Dyke  (borrowing a vintage set of his collected works from my father-in-law)
Beverley Nicholas (humorous British writer recounting adventures of garden and estate life)


Last year's reading list.

No Holly for Miss Quinn

Another delightful story by Miss Read and how this book came into my possession is just as delightful to me, so I'll come back to Miss Quinn in a moment.
Several Sundays ago, when everyone was still happy and healthy, we were all in church together sitting in our pew,(yes, the one we always sit in at the back for quick escapes with unhappy or chatty children) and as Niki and her husband Rob walked past us on their way to their pew, she wiggled two slim books out of her bag and gently laid them on my lap, barely slowing her step. I smiled at her and and then as I glanced down to see what they were, I broke into an excited part-whispering, part-squealing, part-gasping explosion of "They're vintage Miss Read books!"
Several months back in a phone conversation with Niki's daughter, Vanessa, my friend and Sunday School co-teacher, I mentioned to her that I was excited when I saw her Mom blogging about Miss Read books. And so very thoughtfully, Niki surprised me with two titles from her own library. Thank you again, Niki!
And now about the story.
Honestly, I did not think I would like the story as much as other Miss Read books, because I found Miss Quinn herself, not the most endearing straight off. But as she finds herself away from home over Christmas, doing tasks away from her usual routines, I think her change of perspective caused me to change mine of her, which may be precisely what Miss Read hoped for from the reader.
It is a shorter story than most Miss Read novels and of course that is never a good thing, but shorter stories can be read again and again much quicker than longer ones, even during busy times like Christmas! So I definitely can recommend it to you and again thank you, Niki, for your thoughtful and generous gift. You and Vanessa are both treasures to me.



*updated to add a real photo of the books. I love those vintage Penguin orange covers!

Pollyanna

I enjoyed this classic story but did feel a little like the last few chapters were sped up in order to bring the inevitable ending together. But I certainly don't hold that against this wonderful story of an innocent and thankful little girl-soul bringing joy to those around her. Pollyanna learned gratitude from her father, a poor missionary pastor who clearly spent time nurturing his daughter's character and leading by example.
She ends up with a distant aunt who sees her care of Pollyanna as a duty not to be neglected but certainly not to be enjoyed. Transformation comes through Pollyanna's innocent acts of kindness and love but at a certain cost even unknown to her.
Pollyanna Grows Up tells the rest of her story and is next in line for me to read.

The Phoenix and the Carpet

Any book that starts off with a scene of four British siblings deciding to test their small supply of Guy Fawkes fireworks so that they are not shamed in front of their neighborhood peers with fizzled fireworks should tell you what kind of story you are about to read.
It will be the kind of story written long before children's play was all about safety and security. Of course, being a mother myself, I can understand that children need to be kept safe but if the resurgence in the popularity of books like The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Daring Book for Girls says anything, than maybe we have gone too far in protecting children from adventure.
That said, once the magic carpet and the phoenix show up, the story becomes one hair-raising adventure after another and even the children recognize at some point that perhaps a break in their magic-carpeting sprees would be in order.
This book is a sequel to the Five Children and It and as I have not read that yet, I can imagine that that story prepares you for the hazards present in this story.
As is the case of any British story, I find myself longing for tea cakes and seaside holidays, shillings and drawing room fires.
Railway Children is still my favorite Nesbit novel, but I could be convinced to read this again with little difficulty.

The English Air

I think I found this lovely older British novel on the front lawn of someone's yard sale late last summer. I had recognized the Scottish author, D.E. Stevenson from Lanier's lovely summer post. (Btw, her site is one of the most beautiful places on the web. If you want to learn how to cultivate beauty, go, read and do likewise. smile.)



I started to read The English Air on Sunday, New Year's Day afternoon and read it at every chance until I was done sometime on Tuesday. It was written in 1940 and it takes place starting one year before that which was, of course the official beginning of World War 2. I checked the publisher's date after I finished the book and I was struck by how insightful her writing seemed since the war had only just begun. The novel is about a half-German, half-English young man who comes to England to visit family friends of his deceased English mother. And without sounding too cliche, nothing is what it really seems. The characters come across very shallow and trivial, but as the story progresses, they are given depth and interest. I have not read a novel in a long time that held my attention and captured my thoughts even after I was finished reading it. It was a great way to start my new reading year.