Truth be told, I didn't already own this book before I jumped into this book-a-week marathon. But I also didn't purchase it - it was reading provided to assist our teaching team at Bethel for our Christmas services. We decided to share the Gospel story this past Christmas from the metanarrative of God's work in history. So each week, we laid out God's creation, the Fall, Redemption, and Reconstitution.

From previous weeks, NT Wright's assertion in his book How God Became King would suggest that Plantinga misses the essential element of Israel's history. And truth be told, when I was preaching this series, I did have a moment's hesitation in moving so quickly from Genesis 3 to Luke 2. One of the complexities of three 35 minute messages to cover Creation, Fall, and Redemption.

As to the work itself, Plantinga gives a succinct and understandable treatment of how God created the world and how things have gone awry. I would recommend this book for anyone looking for the primer or starting point on the Christian worldview, for sure.

52 for 52: Philip Ryken's "What is the Christian Worldview"

The second installment of books I read for Christmas services was this one, by Wheaton College President Philip Ryken. His Christian Worldview book, which is more of a long pamphlet, to be honest, was excellent. I breezed through it in no time, and found his explanations and illustrations to be informed, helpful, and to the point. I think if you boil down Plantinga, you get this.

Ryken organizes this work into the four categories that we preached on, which also helped me digest this week-by-week. Anyone looking to make sense of the world could benefit from the two hours it takes to read this book.

Up Next: Jesus Without Borders and Global Theology: An Evangelical Perspective
... you can see I'm not doing too well with "reading outside my tribe..." That's coming, though. I promise.