A Book Is Known By Its Review
The art of analyzing a book review is one every student should master. I am an experienced review reviewer because I began writing reviews when I was a junior in Sunday school. I reviewed books from our Sunday school library, which was located on a window sill in our classroom. It was a collection of paperbacks by authors like Paul Hutchens and other juvenile writers—that is, writers of juvenile fiction. I read so many Sugar Creek Gang books that my teacher was afraid I’d get diabetes. Twice I almost fell out of the window.
The first step in analyzing a book review is to note who wrote the review. You must try to figure out why he or she was chosen to write this particular review. Suppose the book is Lectures on Gnosticism and the reviewer is identified as “Horace Postlewaithe, Jr., head pastry chef at Hoffmeyer’s Bakery, Madison, Wisconsin.” This probably indicates that the book review editor is overweight, owes Hoffmeyer money, and is paying off his bill by sending free review books to the employees. On the other hand, it could also mean that Postlewaithe, Jr., is related to the author or the publisher, in which case they are guaranteed an enthusiastic review. Either way, don’t bother to read the review. It will be biased and you will waste money buying the book.
However, if the reviewer is Dr. Qumran Masada, noted professor of dispensational archaeology at Feeblecorn University, you know immediately the review will be over your head. Furthermore, the professor will complain that the book did not have enough information on the Ming Dynasty, and so cannot be trusted on any other subject. Again, you have saved money.
You must also take note of the publisher, because there are some publishers we just cannot trust no matter who the reviewer is. If the reviewer recommends a book from a “bad” publisher, don’t believe him. If he says something critical about a “good” publisher, take it with a grain of salt. After all, a good tree produces good fruit, and a good publisher publishes good books, no matter what the reviewer may say. It’s as simple as that.
Next, check the name of the author. Do you recognize it? If not, don’t waste time reading the book. New authors are always angry at something or confused about the situation. Old authors are safe, especially if this is the tenth book in a series. By now, the author has run out of material and is living in an echo chamber. The book will be boring but safe.
Should you find yourself desiring to read the book whose review you have analyzed, immediately hide your bifocals and donate the price of the book to a worthy cause. Chances are the reviewer didn’t read the book, so why should you? Wait for the digest to appear in paperback, or, better yet, wait for the movie, whichever comes first. And while you are waiting, you can always read more reviews.
EUTYCHUS X
No Turning Back
Karen Burton Mains is to be commended for her view of the perplexity of the modern Christian woman [“It’s A Mystery to Me,” July 17]. I agree that the church is best served if it accepts that the women’s movement has happened. To deny that is like trying to put toothpaste back into the tube.
It is time for pragmatism, not theorizing about women’s role in the church. The women’s movement can be a challenge, not a threat, if viewed as the opportunity to encourage ministry by and for women in all areas of their lives. To define women’s role in terms of restrictions or limitations was not Christ’s view. He said, “You are freed …,” “Go in peace,” and “Go tell …” What if the church were to declare a moratorium on the limitation statements and say only positive things about women’s role and ministry?
The idea sounds exciting enough to try.
KATIE FUNK WIEBE
Hillsboro, Kans.
Self-Examination Essential
Your editorial, “Love of God Demands Love for His Church” [July 17], was excellent and timely. We need to be confronted with the importance of and the necessity for the church in today’s world. It is the body of Christ. If we are to work within the church to improve it (and we must), we will have to examine the church and be willing to be critical. As we examine the church, we will be examining ourselves and when critical, will be critical of ourselves. I trust we are able and willing.
NEIL R. FULTON
Elmhurst, Ill.
It was good to read such strong support for “God’s instrument for introducing love into the barren, loveless existence of the fragmented and isolated life of twentieth-century man.” I have served in three churches in 11 years of full-time service. I have never found a church that did not have serious problems. But we all must realize that the church belongs to Jesus Christ, who “will never leave us or forsake us” and finds “all things to be possible.”
I find myself in graduate school, where the church is under great criticism. Some see no hope in revitalization, and have chosen alternatives. The leadership of the church must itself be open to a “multitude of counselors” for the strengthening of the church. Critics of the church must be willing “to hear reproof” also, that they might obtain understanding.
DONALD PAUL BATES
Wheaton, Ill.
No Help
Kok’s points are well made and communicate a sincere truth: the body must know what the individual is suffering before it can help [“Pastors Shouldn’t Keep Secrets,” July 17]. What he failed to point out is that people around us simply do not help. I can’t count the number of times that when people begin to describe some problem area of their life, what immediately comes is advice, suggestions, and war stories to “help.” It is exasperating and disappointing. Kok’s metaphor of the body is as scriptural as it is accurate. But the body, by God’s great design, almost always responds to its own need properly. The body of Christ (some of its members) frequently fails miserably.
DAVID W. SMITHWICK
Glendale, Ariz.
Before And After
Charles Bussey, in “Bob Dylan: Driven Home” [June 26], quotes from Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” dialogue between Abraham and God and interprets: “Dylan’s theme rings clear and true: only through obedience to God can man achieve peace.”
The said “theme” may be clear and true, but at that time it was not what Dylan was trying to get across. That album, hailed by the secular world as the greatest collection of the poetry of evil since Baudelaire, packs a communicative force awesome even today. But it is a communication of hate, fatalistic despair, and the blackest cynicism. We should not whitewash or reinterpret the blasphemies of 1965 in light of the blessings of 1980. They spring from different motives and different men.
T. S. Eliot’s postconversion “Little Gidding” said of “… the rending pain of reenactment / Of all that you have done, and been; the Shame / Of motives late revealed, and the awareness / Of things ill done and done to others’ harm / Which once you took for exercise of virtue. / Then fools’ approval stings, and honour stains.” Dylan has recently written, “… I was blinded … I was gone … How weak was the foundation I was standing upon.” Both Eliot’s and Dylan’s preconversion poetry contained striking insight into the bitter futility of existing in a world with nothing real to cling to. But their earlier works can still be valuable in an instructive as well as artistic sense. These works show man’s chaotic state and need of peace. But it is only in their works after conversion that their “theme” becomes “obedience to God” in achieving it.
MARTIN SARVIS
Amarillo, Tex.
Nurture For Young Artists
Seerveld’s article, “Can Art Survive the Secular Onslaught?” [July 17], was of interest to me as a parent of a 17-year-old visual artist who has for months been trying to locate a Christian postsecondary art school. Could it be that the reason the Christian community has not caught the vision of arts as a “reasonable service” is because the Christian academic world has convinced us that art has no place there? The Christian academic world is finally catching up in the fields of science and engineering and I would like to see the same in the visual arts.
WANDA F. MILLER
Ellicott City, Md.
Growth Or Decline?
In “The Decline of a Church and Its Culture” [July 17], Lindsell attributes the rise in Sunday school enrollment in the Roman Catholic Church (the Parish School of Religion) to rediscovery of the Bible. Would that were the case! While it is true that there has been a resurgence of biblical interest and scholarship since Vatican II, the PSR increase is a negative factor, not a positive development. It represents a turning away from the full-time Catholic school training, which dominated the Catholic educational scene since the twenties, to the superficial Sunday-only education. As such it can be seen as supportive of Lindsell’s thesis that biblical (religious) literacy is on the decline in the U.S.
SISTER LORETTA PASTVA
Chardon, Ohio
Please Document
Some of Mr. Dinwiddie’s points are valid [“Moneychangers in the Church, June 26], but stripped of integrity because they lack documentation, particularly the opening statements. Specifically, “A popular gospel musician’s fees skyrocket … because his booking agency takes 40 percent … as commission.” This amount seems exorbitant; it is common knowledge in agency circles that the normal booking fee runs between 10 and 20 percent.
Can you validate the statement “Christian artists’ homes break up at an alarming rate”? This sounds like passing judgment, an undocumented generalization which tempts the human nature to suspect the bad rather than encourage the good.
PAULA PILECKI
New Sound Concerts
Walpole, Mass.
All statements were carefully checked by the author, but names were omitted so as to focus on the issue and not the personalities. The artist involved authenticated the 40 percent booking fee. Public records, pastors, and business associates document the increasing rate of breakup of homes among Christian artists. Care was taken to qualify statements to protect the integrity of those who faithfully discipline their talents and lives for the glory of God. Other responses suggest that, if anything, he article understated the seriousness and pervasiveness of the growing commercialism in music ministry.
—Editors
