Book review : Passion: How Christ's final day changes your every day, by Mike McKinley
To review this book I think that first of all it's useful to know what it isn't.
It isn't a magisterial examination of the atonement or a defence of substitutionary atonement. Those books are important. For those you go to Stott or to Jefferey, Overy and Sach.
It isn't a devotional book as such. For those you go to Leakey or perhaps to Mahaney ?
This book isn't an exposition of the closing chapters of Luke as such, either, though it is based on those chapters and there is lots of examination and explanation of the text.
Rather it's a kind of easy-to-read, practical expository devotional, aimed at taking you to the cross and bringing the cross to the heart of your everyday life. How you behave at home. How things go at work. How you face suffering. But not in a simple "Don't be like Judas, Peter or Pilate" kind of way. It's Christocentric, not moralistic.
And in that it succeeds very well indeed. It's easy to read but it doesn't aim at nothing. It wants to see the reader changed by Luke's account.
How many stars ? I thought, "Not 5. There are better devotional books. 5-star devotional books. Not 5. There are better doctrinal discussions. 5-star doctrinal discussions."
Yes, but to review this book you have to know what it is. It's a book that takes you to the cross so that you can be transformed on the freeway and in the home. And as that it's a 5-star book.
Then there are reading guides in the back - 8 days in Luke, The Passion in the Old Testament, Jesus' last week day-by-day, 50 days through Luke. All useful stuff !
The book grew out of a series of sermons and will be 'suggestive to preachers' !
I received this book free of charge from the Good Book Company and Cross Focused Reviews in exchange for an honest review.
It isn't a magisterial examination of the atonement or a defence of substitutionary atonement. Those books are important. For those you go to Stott or to Jefferey, Overy and Sach.
It isn't a devotional book as such. For those you go to Leakey or perhaps to Mahaney ?
This book isn't an exposition of the closing chapters of Luke as such, either, though it is based on those chapters and there is lots of examination and explanation of the text.
Rather it's a kind of easy-to-read, practical expository devotional, aimed at taking you to the cross and bringing the cross to the heart of your everyday life. How you behave at home. How things go at work. How you face suffering. But not in a simple "Don't be like Judas, Peter or Pilate" kind of way. It's Christocentric, not moralistic.
And in that it succeeds very well indeed. It's easy to read but it doesn't aim at nothing. It wants to see the reader changed by Luke's account.
How many stars ? I thought, "Not 5. There are better devotional books. 5-star devotional books. Not 5. There are better doctrinal discussions. 5-star doctrinal discussions."
Yes, but to review this book you have to know what it is. It's a book that takes you to the cross so that you can be transformed on the freeway and in the home. And as that it's a 5-star book.
Then there are reading guides in the back - 8 days in Luke, The Passion in the Old Testament, Jesus' last week day-by-day, 50 days through Luke. All useful stuff !
The book grew out of a series of sermons and will be 'suggestive to preachers' !
I received this book free of charge from the Good Book Company and Cross Focused Reviews in exchange for an honest review.
Comments
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Shaun Tabatt
Cross Focused Reviews