Joseph

Brian Wildsmith | Eerdmans, 1997, 34 pp., $20 | Reviewed by Bekah Mastris

What is most striking about this children’s book is Wildsmith’s vivid, colorful illustrations. Each large, gilded page is teeming with detail, particularly the scenes of Pharaoh’s courts: inviting gardens, walls, pyramids, and columns covered with bright hieroglyphics. The level of detail is reminiscent of a look-and-find book and is sure to delight and occupy little eyes (good Lord’s Day afternoon reading).

Wildsmith’s straightforward telling of Joseph’s story closely follows the biblical account, with very little commentary. The potentially awkward parts (such as the incident with Potiphar’s wife) are handled in an age-appropriate way. Though I appreciated how the text neither adds to nor takes away from Scripture, I was a little perplexed at the lack of context given. There is no mention of how Joseph’s story fits into the overall narrative of the Old Testament. The text simply begins, “Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son” without explaining who Jacob was or anything about his promise-making and promise-keeping God. Also noticeably absent is Joseph’s familiar and beloved speech from Genesis 50: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” The declaration is only very roughly paraphrased, which I found odd compared to how closely the dialogue follows the original through the majority of the book. However, children who are familiar with the Bible will not notice these omissions, and parents can easily provide their own contextual commentary.

The Lord’s Prayer

Tim Ladwig | Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2002, 32 pp., $9 | Reviewed by Lynne Gordon

This picture book with only the words of the Lord’s Prayer is illustrated with the story of a father and daughter in an urban neighborhood. Ladwig’s rich paintings bring the relevance of this exemplary prayer to daily living. Our Father’s providence and care for us is shown in the ordinary, everyday rhythms of life. Ladwig shows how our looking to Him and praying to Him, wherever we are and whatever we are doing, changes us and changes how we look at the world around us. I’d recommend this book for young pre-readers and new readers alike.

Peter Martyr Vermigli

Series: Christian Biographies for Young Readers | By Simonetta Carr | Reformation Heritage, 2016, 64 pp., $18 | Reviewed by Jill Klaassen

Simonetta Carr deftly weaves together Peter Martyr’s spiritual development with the people, events, and theological issues of his life. The book is aesthetically pleasing with thick, parchment-like pages, and includes beautiful pictures and impressionistic illustrations throughout.

I can’t quite place Carr’s intended audience. She uses a number of large words and brings in an almost dizzying amount of information, so it seems too advanced for the young reader. However, I think it would work beautifully as a book parents can enjoy reading and discussing with their children.

My favorite parts were the addendums: “Did You Know,” “What Happened to the Others?” and “From Peter Martyr’s Pen.” Each one provided an opportunity to look back on the biography with a deeper appreciation for the people and events therein.

This book humbled me spiritually and ignited my imagination. As I read, I would have loved to share my enthusiasm with little readers.

Learning to Love the Psalms

W. Robert Godfrey | Reformation Trust, 2017, 275 pp., $19 | Reviewed by Pastor Joe Allyn (Trinity [Wichita, Kan.] RPC)

Here is a warm and insightful introduction to the book of Psalms (ch. 1–8) as well as a commentary on several psalms from each book of the psalter (ch. 9–49). For those new to the Psalms, this book will do much in accomplishing its title—learning to love them. Those familiar with the psalter will find Godfrey’s words helpful in rekindling that love as well as aiding our understanding as we read, pray, and sing them. His discussion of individual psalms combines fresh exegetical insight with pastoral guidance on how the psalms apply to us as Christians. He has a good balance of drawing out the unique details of an individual psalm without ignoring the canonical context or how the psalm contributes to the themes of each of the five books of the psalter. Godfrey ably answers questions such as, “Can Christians pray imprecations of the psalms?” (p 56), “is a Song for the Sabbath useful for Christians?” (p. 173), “Are the psalms too filled with obscure Old Testament material to be very useful or attractive to Christians?” (p 221), in ways that are refreshing for their unashamed commitment to our Reformed heritage. Best of all, Godfrey solidly and consistently ties each psalm and the psalter as a whole to Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Closing of the Muslim Mind

Robert R. Reilly | Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2011, 244 pp., $11.25 | Reviewed by Rev. Bill Edgar

Although the first half of Robert Reilly’s book makes considerable philosophical demands on the reader, Christians will profit by wading through it. In brief, Reilly argues that when Arab conquerors encountered ancient Greek thought in the lands they overran, they initially embraced its search for truth through reason, but then rejected it in favor of an unknowable, all-determining god of will and power.

Reilly gives a plausible explanation from regnant Sunni Islamic theology for the deadness of Arabic culture after a century of flourishing achievement, for traditional Islamic fatalism, and for today’s violent Islamism. He also illuminates the seemingly strange affinity between Islam and Western Leftist thought, which also asserts that reason is a sham, and that all truth claims based on reasoning are mere camouflage for the exercise of power and will.

Although such is not his purpose, Reilly’s book makes it abundantly clear that the living God who revealed Himself in the prophets and in Jesus Christ is not the same god as Allah, despite the claims of well-meaning people that Islam is a third Abrahamic religion alongside Judaism and Christianity. Since Allah is all about power and will, there is no place in Islam for anything like “In the beginning was the logos” (John 1:1), or statements like “By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations” (Prov. 3:19). Likewise, there is little in Islamic theology about Allah’s love for humanity. No statement in the Koran corresponds to “God is love (1 John 4:8),” or “God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). Indeed, only by believing in the Trinity, which Islam so vehemently denies, can we understand the centrality of love to God’s very being.

Reilly’s book furthermore illuminates a profoundly important statement in the Westminster Confession of Faith about God’s providence: “Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly: yet, by the same providence, He orders them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently” (5:2, italics added). In the reality of “second causes,” as well as in the doctrine of Creation according to God’s wisdom, lies the basis for science and confidence in the reality of cause and effect.

I highly recommend this book to readers concerned about the sources of violent modern Islamism—as well as to readers who want to understand some of the most basic teachings of our Confession concerning God, love, providence, and secondary causes.