Lynne Twist. Living a Committed Life. Berrett-Kohler, 2023.

The title of Living a Committed Life tells it all. This written in the tradition of other motivational books. Dale Carnegie may be the best known example. This may be a bit different in that the author spends a lot of time sharing her own experiences. Whatever else one can say, the author thinks big.

She had a kind of epiphany as a young mother around thirty when she met the famous architect Buckminster Fuller. He made her think big. He also was the first of many of her advisors who said to see possibilities rather than problems. Yes, that sounds like a cliché, and there are other similar pieces of advice—except that her own experiences show that they can work.

This is very much an elitist book in the sense that the author is extremely well connected. “Bucky” Fuller is just one of many names that she drops. To be honest, she is not dropping them to impress us, but illustrating how these people learned to navigate the upper atmosphere of the socioeconomic and political worlds. At one point she said that she worried because she was traveling the world rather than staying at home with her kids. (They could afford help.) Her children told her it was fine because they got to meet so many interesting and famous people from all around the world.

Probably the most significant example of commitment for this reviewer was her short tale of how when she was a young mother she was insecure in her relationship with her husband. At some point she realized that they truly were committed. She could be secure in that relationship. A lot of those connections she made were through her husband.

A few years ago everyone was asking, “What is your passion?” Now college applicants are told not to use the word passion on their applications because it has become a cliché. I suspect that will not happen with the word commitment.

Other proverbs she shares that sound wise: Worry is a form of negative prayer. It is not happiness that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us happy.

The author’s main commitment, if you will, has been to end hunger. Fuller convinced her that the resources to feed everyone exist, it is just a matter of making use of them. In her work in this area, she has traveled all over the world and met many different people. She also got involved in restorative justice, and her stories about this are the most moving. The ability to forgive and restore people after brutal civil wars in African countries is in some ways miraculous—but the author shows that it is necessary.

Some aspects of this book are typical of the elites: worries about global overheating, blaming the patriarchy, questioning Western culture, a vague spirituality, even skepticism about democracy. This is an excellent book to see how the one percent thinks and behaves. It can be exhilarating to think that many of the people with wealth and/or power are trying help others. But it can be scary to think that many of the same people believe that government regulation will force people to behave in a way that the elites want them to.

The author gives a key to getting along with others: not you versus me, but you and me. She illustrates this with a legislative compromise in which Trump Republicans and at least some Progressives could agree on. (Van Jones, the author of the book’s introduction, was instrumental in this.) Ironically, she has little good to say about Trump, even though Richard Kiyosaki, one of Trump’s co-authors, also attributes his vision and success to motivation that came from Buckminster Fuller.

At its root this is a motivational book. Of all the various motivational speakers and writers I have come across, the author is most like Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson abandoned Christianity and then Unitarianism for pantheism. Living a Committed Life takes a pantheistic approach as well. The word Emerson liked was enthusiasm. Commitment is probably more effective and enduring, as long as the commitment is to something worthwhile.

The author talks of “spirituality.” She speaks of religious people of all kinds: Christian monks and nuns, Buddhist priests, Muslim poets, and Amazonian shamans. It requires a certain amount of discernment to read Living a Committed Life. See I John 4:1ff. However, if the reader can get past the “Mush God” aspect of this book, it has some very moving examples and may get some people to see things from a new frame of reference.

Sara Ackerman. Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers. Mira, 2018.

Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers is a little gem. It is published by a publisher better known for cookie-cutter plots and quick, light reads. This is neither.

The island is the Big Island of Hawaii. That attracted me. We have made it clear that we like the Big Island. It is the closest thing to a tropical paradise. I suspect that the author, a lifelong Hawaii resident feels the same way.

The story is told in a slightly different manner from most novels. Chapters are headed by one of two characters or narrators: Hawaii resident Violet and her seven-year-daughter Ella. Many stories these days have chapters told by different points of view, but what is distinctive about Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers is that the “Ella” chapters are told in the first person, but the “Violet” chapters are told in the third person.

Because Violet is the adult and we get a lot of background and description from her point of view, the “Violet” chapters are two or three times longer than the “Ella” chapters.

The story begins in 1942. Obviously, Hawaii is on a war footing. Though Pearl Harbor was on a different island, the Big Islanders also have to take the war seriously. There are shore patrols, blackouts, submarine sightings—and all kinds of rumors. And it has been very hard for Violet and Ella Iverson.

Violet’s husband Herman was principal of the local grammar school in Honoka’a, on the north side of the island. I recall being on the southern tip and aware that the next landfall heading south was Antarctica. Similarly, we are reminded the next landfall heading north from the island is Alaska. One day Herman goes out to the north shore in an area overlooking the ocean—it is mostly cliffs—and he does not return. No body is ever found and no one seems to know what has happened to him or what he was trying to do.

Violet’s life is basically on hold. She feels she cannot do much of anything without some kind of closure. She is a teacher at the school and continues there, but spends her time trying to find clues and annoying the sheriff and others to see if they have discovered anything new or remember anything else.

Ella knows something. She tells us that right away, but she also says that she is not telling anyone what she knows. She is clearly afraid. She wets herself sometimes at school. She insists on going to the local Japanese school. Since the war began, the Japanese school has been taught in English and her two closest friends are Hiro and Umi, a brother and sister who are neighbors and of Japanese ancestry. Of course, between thirty and forty percent of the population of the islands is Japanese. In the course of the story their father is arrested and brought to an internment camp. Violet and their mother Setsuko try to find out the charges, but all there is is suspicion.

Violet has a roommate, a single woman named Jean. Jean’s brother Zach has joined the Marines and gets stationed for training on the Big Island. Even today, a major part of the center of the island, the Saddle (so called because it is a high plain between the two highest peaks on the island) is home to a military reservation. When on liberty, Zach brings some buddies with him to visit his sister. Soon relationships develop.

Tensions mount for many reasons. The Marines are going to be sent somewhere to fight. Reports coming back from Saipan and Tarawa give us a sense of the intensity of the fighting. Readers familiar with the War in the Pacific might guess what possibilities could await the young men.

There are tensions with the household and some of their female friends because they become attached to a couple of the Marines who visit them. Are they just there for a fling, or are they truly interested? Will they even think of them when they return home to the mainland?

Ella, meanwhile, is comfortable at the Japanese school until it is closed down. She does not want to return to the other school. Animals bring her some peace. She has a pet cat and rescues a nearly-plucked chicken (some chickens are wild there), and one of the Marines occasionally brings a lion with him.

That is right. Before the war the Marine named Parker was training as a veterinarian and worked at a zoo on the mainland. The zoo in Hilo had a lion cub that was not being fed by its mother, and Parker said he would take it. Many Marine units will adopt a mascot, traditionally a bulldog, so Parker’s unit adopts the lion for its mascot. The lion is still a cub, though growing bigger. We are told it is the size of large German Shepherd. In a note at the end, the author tells us that her grandfather was a principal of a school in Hawaii during the war, and that one of the Marine units on the island actually did have a lion as a mascot.

Parker and Ella take a liking to each other, and soon Violet finds herself attracted to him. But, of course, she is torn. What if Herman suddenly shows up? Was he kidnapped? Did he leave on some kind of secret mission? The soldiers and Marines they encounter complain how their letters home get censored, and some never get sent. Loose lips sink ships and all that. How can she know?

Jean, Violet, and Setsuko earn a little money on the side by selling pies to the men stationed on the Saddle. They set up a table in a flea market area and sell chocolate honeycomb pies and moonshine pies. The military men love them. The ladies call their brand Honey Cow Pies. Honey cow is the way many of the soldiers pronounce Honoka’a.

Island of Soldiers and Sweet Pies is an affectionate tale about Hawaii. At the same time, it is dead serious. There is, after all, a war going on and a missing husband and father. Ella is really too young to understand the reasons for the war or the prejudice against the Japanese. Indeed, Ella’s narrations may remind the reader of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, except Ella is hurting. Yes, there is a sense of injustice, but the reader can tell there is more going on even if she says she can’t say why she keeps things to herself.

One of the Marines misrepresents himself to one of the young ladies on the island. The injustice here is that he treated her wrong. She thinks of a way to get even with him. How she does it is quite clever. Readers could learn something from her.

Violet’s perspective interested this male reader. She loved Herman, her missing husband. But the relationship was not terribly romantic. She had a lousy home life in Minnesota. Her father let their farm run down, and then he disappeared. He would write occasionally, but she never saw him again. After half a dozen years he wrote her mother to say he had failed and was not returning. We are told little about Violet’s alcoholic stepfather, Mr. Smudge she called him, except that she was glad when Herman sent her tickets to Hawaii so they could get married.

So she calls Herman her savior. He delivered her from frigid Minnesota to tropical Hawaii. He loved her, and treated her and everyone else with respect. Everyone liked and respected him. As Shakespeare would say, he was an honorable man, and she admired him. He was a good father, and she was thankful for that. She truly does miss him. Character counts.

Parker is different. He rides in the rodeo and looks good without a shirt. He is caring and likes Ella, but there is also some chemistry between Parker and Violet—their relationship remains chaste, but they can’t wait to see each other. She will remain faithful to Herman, just in case. I could not help think a little of Casablanca. Herman is Victor Lazlo; Parker is Rick. One could say that the perfect man would somehow be a combination of the two.

We meet a number of other characters that populate the island: fishermen, a moonshiner, a popular shop teacher, the Marines’ captain. Irene Ferreira is a telephone operator and for that reason seems to know more about what is going on on the island than anyone. She also has a crush on Jean’s brother. There are many interesting people. And most of them do care for one another as best as can be under the circumstances.

To say this is like To Kill a Mockingbird is only partly true. I was also reminded of the stories by Chris Bohjalian. He writes about a different distinctive state, Vermont, but in his stories there is underlying pain, crime, and family conflict. There is clearly an element of those things here as well, especially concerning Herman’s disappearance—not exactly Gothic, but intense. As I suggested earlier, it is unusual to see a piece with literary quality from this publisher, but I am glad someone picked it up.

James VanderKam and Peter Flint. The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Harper, 2004.

I have wanted to read something about the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) that took into account all the scrolls. Years ago I had read some things by Burrows and De Vaux, but those were written before many of the scrolls had been opened or deciphered.

The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls is comprehensive. The title may be a bit misleading. The authors do draw certain conclusions about the scrolls, especially about the community at nearby Khirbet Qumran that kept and in most cases probably copied the scrolls. A few of the scrolls deal with community behavior and membership; those were probably authored by the community. In spite of the title, the book is more of a presentation than an interpretation.

The book does a good job of explaining the history of the DSS since 1947 when the first ones were publicly discovered. This includes the eleven caves that were eventually found to contain old manuscripts and the people who found them and worked on assembling them and publishing their contents. It also includes a few professional squabbles and the details of one lawsuit concerning the scrolls. Typically, in the suit there would be “a large chunk of money to pay the lawyers” (402).

I had the opportunity a number of years ago to see some of the scrolls (or facsimiles) when they came for display in New York City. I noted that at least one Greek document had the name of God in paleo-Hebrew letters. Not only did that show respect to the name of God (YHWH), but also the use of the older lettering showed that the scribe did not even want to mess with the way Moses would have written the Name.

Most DSS were written in Hebrew, but some were written in Aramaic and some in Greek. Most were written on parchment—DNA tests showed the fine leather came from different animals: sheep, cattle, and wild antelope. A few were written on papyrus. One was written on a copper sheet.

While there were over 900 separate pieces, they were found to be from about 200 different documents. Many of the pieces would painstakingly be put together to show that they were parts of the same document that had fallen apart over the centuries.

I can recall in the seventies reading an article that one fragment with just a few Greek words on it may have come from a Gospel, rather than a Judaic document. Years later, people realized that the piece was part of a larger document that they could reassemble as they matched the papyrus fibers. It turned out to be from the Apocryphal Book of Enoch, which is both Messianic and Apocalyptic and uses language that would be found in the New Testament.

The DSS have been a godsend for Bible scholars. They show that for the most part the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Scriptures is probably closest to the originals. However, texts more similar to the Greek Septuagint (a translation made around 200 B.C.) were also found. Differences were especially notable in the Book of Jeremiah.

There are at least some portions of every book in the Jewish Bible (a.k.a. the Old Testament) except Esther. There are also numerous commentaries. There were many portions from the Pentateuch, the first five books, indicating the importance of Moses and the Law. That fact also suggests, along with some of the other writings, that the Qumran community was a priestly party. While they clearly believed in angels and the supernatural, their sympathies were with the Sadducees rather than the Pharisees. The authors present both sides of the case that they were a group of Essenes. While they likely were, the authors leave the final determination open.

There is a chapter on dating methods. The scrolls all date from the the third century B.C. to the first century A.D. The community was likely disbanded or destroyed in A.D. 68 by the Romans. The book also takes into account a few scrolls discovered at Masada, a location not too far away in the desert that held out against the Romans until A.D. 73.

The most substantive chapters for the Bible student are the chapters devoted to the different types of writings. There are discussions about the Hebrew canon and the apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings. There are fairly long chapters devoted to the Biblical scrolls and the non-Biblical scrolls. Many of the non-Biblical scrolls are commentaries, so they shed light on how the Scriptures were interpreted in those days or by that community.

According to several scrolls, the community began 390 years after the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, or around 196 B.C. After twenty years an unnamed Teacher of Righteousness led the group for about forty years. There may have been a hiatus around the time the Herod began to rule, but they were back in business a few years later.

They were very strict about behavior and seemed to emphasize celibacy. They were also apocalyptic. Because of the upheavals in the Promised Land (the Syrians, the Egyptians, the Hasmoneans, the Herodians, the Romans), they believed that they were living in the end times. A lot of the non-Biblical literature such as that Book of Enoch (at least three and maybe as many as eleven manuscripts of this book are represented) have to do with the end times. Interestingly, the single New Testament quotation from this book, Jude 1:14-15, is about the coming of the Lord at the end of the age.

Because they were Apocalyptic, they were also Messianic. There may be hints in some of the writings that they treated the Teacher of Righteousness as a kind of Messiah figure, but there does not seem to be an actual cult developed around him. I think of the late Rabbi Menahem Schneerson who had a following and was considered a potential Messiah.

Even today, Jews discuss whether Messiah will be merely human or divine as well. This was a discussion even before the time of Jesus. While Jews today tend to see Messiah as merely human in reaction to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, it seems pretty clear that the Qumran community considered Messiah divine as well as human. Citing Isaiah, for example, they say he will be “Son of the Most High,” “Son of God,” and speak of “when God has fathered the Messiah” (335-336, 266). There are also a few references to a “suffering servant,” not only in the way Isaiah 53:11 is worded (see p. 133) but in some of the interpretations.

Some of the Qumran writings, as is typical of other Jewish intertestamental writings, suggest two Messiahs, a priestly Messiah from Levi and a Kingly Messiah from Judah. However, some of the Qumran writings also treat Melchizidek (Genesis 14:18-20) as a Messianic figure since he is both a priest and king. Citing Psalm 82:1, a scroll calls Mehchizidek, who shall appear again at end times, as a “god-like being” (225). To use the authors’ term, this “authenticates” the ideas that Messiah is divine and that he is like Melchizidek, a discussion detailed in the New Testament Book of Hebrews.

While the authors wisely are hesitant to say much about any reflection or influence of the Qumran writings with the New Testament, they do say that the DSS “authenticate” (344, authors’ italics) the New Testament. That is, the scrolls illustrate that the concepts and language in much of the New Testament were consistent with Jewish thought during that time period.

Two scrolls known as the Apocryphon of Moses include supposed extra details on the life and teachings of Moses. One stands out. The Scriptures tell us about the Urim and Thummim (Exodus 28:30), two stones kept in the high priest’s breastplate. They were consulted to give the priest and the people direction. Apparently one stone’s reply meant yes and the other meant no. The Apocryphon of Moses tells us that the stone that was giving God’s answer would be “lit with tongues of fire,” (229) similar to what was experienced in Acts 2:2-4 on Pentecost.

The Damascus Document must have been important to the Qumran group as ten copies have been found. It uses the Biblical term sons of Belial to describe sinful people who reject God and His Law. Specifically, it warns about the “three nets of Belial (fornication, wealth, and defilement of the sanctuary)” (215, authors’ italics). This corresponds fairly precisely to the three worldly temptations in I John 2:16, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and pride of life.

One interesting item that no doubt has helped Bible scholars and translators put together a more authentic Hebrew text was from Psalm 22:16. A verse from this Psalm was quoted from the cross by Jesus. Verse 16 in the Septuagint says “they pierced my hands and my feet,” the Masoretic text literally says something like “like a lion are my hands and my feet.” The Masoretic text is a little vague, to say the least. The DSS text of the verse has the Masoretic text except that the word lion is rendered as a verb, literally, “they lioned my hands and my feet.” In other words, they attacked my hands an my feet like a lion attacks with its claws. This helps us understand the Septuagint translator’s choice of words and likely is what the original text meant (125).

One of the group’s leaders, perhaps the Teacher of Righteousness, had successfully predicted the Roman conquest of 63 B.C. (he was off by two years and thought it would be the Syrians but he was close), and after that the community grew to about 4,000. He had also predicted the end of the age by 34 B.C. When that did not happen, the whole community broke up for a few years. It would later be reconstituted. The more things change the more they stay the same.

There are many other interesting details about the scrolls, their history and their content. This book is well worth reading.

The authors note near the beginning:

A problem faced by archaeologists and by anyone doing careful research is achieving as much objectivity as possible—not letting one’s assumptions or hopes influence the reporting of results. This issue has frequently arisen in excavating and explaining the data from places mentioned in the Bible. Depending on one’s theological stance, confirming or debunking biblical accounts has been prominent on the agenda. As we shall see, Qumran archaeology has not escaped the charge of bias. (21)

While the authors are pretty careful to present the various sides of an issue, their bias came through in a couple of things that perhaps tell us something of their approach. For example, they call Ernest Renan (1823-1892) “a renowned Bible scholar” (321). Notorious might be a better word. No doubt he was familiar with Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, but his scholarship was focused on a Unitarian, if not atheistic, view of Jesus. He also would take an anti-Semitic view of history. Indeed, his view that Jesus “Aryanized” the Scriptures was similar to the thesis which Hitler apparently believed as described in Ibsen and Hitler.

This reviewer’s biggest quibble is with their view of the Book of Daniel. The Biblical book tells us Daniel was the author and that he was an advisor to kings during the Babylonian Captivity and the early Persian rule. The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls tells us that the Book of Daniel was written much later, around 165 B.C. They claim that “most scholars” agree with this.

Perhaps “most scholars” like Renan a hundred and fifty years ago might have accepted this, but now it is just Bible skeptics. Anderson first wrote his Daniel in the Critics’ Den in 1899 to debunk this theory. McDowell had a book with the same title in 1979. Peeler presented a paper on the subject in 2001, so the need to refute the idea persists.

That position is especially surprising because the DSS take Daniel seriously as a canonical book. If the authors are correct, the community and its Teacher of Righteousness both appear before Daniel was written, yet there are eight copies of the book among the scrolls and at least ten other works that cite Daniel. It seems strange that would be the case if the book were not written until thirty years after the Qumran group was established, especially considering the apocalyptic nature of so much of their theology.

Enough of my soap box. The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls gives thorough background story to the discovery and dissemination of the DSS. It also notes significant readings and summarizes many of the texts. Perhaps most importantly to this reader, it shows the challenges the scholars had in piecing the scrolls together and reading them, all to further enhance what we know about the origin and interpretation of the Bible and Biblical and Apocalyptic literature.

Lee Strobel. The Case for Heaven. Zondervan, 2021.

          Heaven is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
                              — Stephen Hawking (23)
          …atheism is a fairy story for people afraid of the light.
                              — John Lennox (24)

Readers may be familiar with Lee Strobel’s approach to various issues. Most of his books follow a similar pattern. Strobel was a journalist with a law degree who specialized in reporting on legal cases. His books follow a legal investigator’s technique. He conducts interviews with a series of experts and from them draws conclusions from the evidence he accumulates. Readers can follow along and draw conclusions for themselves.

This topic is perhaps a bit more tricky. It is a challenge to find eyewitnesses. As Hamlet said, death is “the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.” Still at this point with medical advances in the world, many of us have heard of accounts of so-called near death experiences (NDEs), so we may have some kind of secular starting point.

Strobel begins by noting that this is not merely a scholastic exercise.

People often talk about an “epidemic of suicide”…but the real problem is the increasing rejection of a robust belief in an afterlife. That’s what is miring more and more people in hopelessness. (12)

Life is hard for most of us. If there is nothing to look forward to, it can be depressing. Even the Bible in the Book of Ecclesiastes notes that in life “under the sun” everything is in vain (translations usually say “vanity” or “useless”). The purpose is found in life “under heaven” (see Ecclesiastes 3:1 NKJV)—if there is a heaven.

Strobel follows a logical progression as he interviews various experts. He begins with a philosopher analyzing whether or not a soul exists outside the body. This is a crucial question in the materialistic first and second worlds of today. He then takes a look at NDEs.

This may be the most lively and attention-getting part of the book. We have reviewed a few books by people who have experienced NDEs. Some have proven to be falsified. They are not all the same, but certain patterns emerge. Strobel mentions, for example, Eben Alexander, whose book we reviewed in some detail because of the two people who recommended it to us. Strobel notes an article that attempts to discredit Alexander as well as a piece Alexander wrote in response. (I read them both. The article in Esquire can best be described a hit piece by someone the Lennox quotation above describes. On the other hand, the Alexander’s article in Time is rather tepid.)

Still, such experiences get us thinking that there might well be some kind of afterlife. Strobel then develops what he calls a “pyramid to heaven.” This begins with the concept of truth and builds from that. Sadly in our culture today, especially in the academic realm, truth no longer exists, just power. Still, Strobel makes a case that truth does exist and notes a number of principles based on truth with the help of an interview with a professor of philosophy.

He then discusses evidence for the existence of God and the reliability of the Bible. (Other books he has written go into more detail on the specifics of these subjects: The Case for a Creator and The Case for Faith). He does this through interviews and discussions of different views of the afterlife.

Of course, a believing Christian and others who have studied history know that Jesus rose from the dead. If someone can come back whole from being dead for three days, he must know something about the afterlife. Here Strobel quotes the late Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, author of a book we reviewed on these pages.

In our post-enlightenment world, especially in university settings, it’s a popular belief that there is no such thing as the supernatural. What the resurrection means, then, is that this is wrong. There’s something more to this world—something that can bring people back from the dead. And if that is true, then that means if it comes to a point in your life where it seems there is no hope—where it seems like even death is inevitable and there’s no way to escape it—well, death is not the end. There’s more. There’s hope—no matter what. (223-224, author’s italics)

Strobel notes that even among believing Christians, not everyone has the same idea of what heaven is like. The Bible really has very little to say other than it will be far better than this world, e.g. I Corinthians 2:9. He also notes various alternate hypotheses of the afterlife such as reincarnation, purgatory, annihilationism, and universalism.

One quotation really stood out. It was from the late Richard Wurmbrand, a pastor in Romania who was repeatedly tortured by Communist authorities there in the fifties and sixties. Probably the worst torture was watching his twelve-year-old son being tortured before his eyes. Wurmbrand did not recant his faith, but he does reflect on what atheism can lead to:

The cruelty of atheism is hard to believe. When a man has no faith in the reward of good or the punishment of evil, there is no reason to be human. There is no restraint from the depths of evil that is in man. The Communist torturers often said, “There is no God, no hereafter, no punishment for evil. We can do what we wish.” (146)

And they did—and still do.

So, yes, there is also a discussion of hell. Again, there is little in the Bible specifically telling us what it is like other than saying it is “torment,” but the Bible gives many warnings. It also discusses in some detail the question that has become popular in the last two centuries: If God is good, why is there a hell?

In reflecting on this, Strobel cites theologian Alan Gomes:

“There is…every reason to expect the wicked in hell to suffer great bodily pains there. It will not arise from God burning sinners in a cauldron or turning them over on a rotisserie spit,” he wrote.

“Rather,” he continued, “they will suffer the natural consequences of rejecting God and his goodness toward them, in which they will experience the pain of complete abandonment, remorse unmingled with comfort, and the relentless torment of their own consciences, which will burn forever but never finally consume. This cup they will drink to the full, experiencing unmitigated pain in both body and spirit.” (156, author’s ellipsis)

Ultimately, Strobel develops the case made by Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle:

When it comes to hell, we can’t afford to be wrong. This is not one of those doctrines where you can toss in your two cents, shrug your shoulders, and move on. Too much is at stake. Too many people are at stake. And the Bible has too much to say. (159)

Strobel does leave open the possibility that someone who dies without ever hearing about the salvation of Jesus or unable to understand it may get a chance after death because God is just. This is not a doctrine that all Christians subscribe to, but Strobel does cite a few authorities, notably Martin Luther, for the possibility of what he calls postmortem salvation. He notes that it “can be inferred,” but not directly stated. The strongest argument may be from the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16.

While Strobel does make his case, he does not come across as dogmatic or self-righteous. This book gives us a lot of food for thought, research—and prayer.

Reid A. Ashbaucher. Christianity 101: A Simpler Way Forward. Achbaucher, 2020.

As suggested by the title, Christianity 101 was ostensibly written for people new to the faith. Different ministries often have booklets or workbooks with titles like Now that You Believe or What’s Next? This book was apparently meant to fill that need for Ashbaucher’s church and ministry.

Christianity 101 begins in a manner similar to those other books. It reviews what the Gospel is and what some basic Christian teachings are. It devotes a chapter to discussing where the Bible came from. Most similar works do not have that; they assume the Bible as a given.

We begin to see that Ashbaucher is writing for a more educated audience. From my experience, which is a lot more with youth and with people on the streets, the question of canonicity is not one they are concerned with. Either Jesus is real or He isn’t; either the Bible is true or it isn’t. If Jesus is real, the Bible is true. But for someone who learned about the Bible from Bible skeptics, this may be very helpful.

There is also a chapter on church organization. This again probably goes into more detail than most such books would. Most just tell the reader to find a Christ-centered, Bible-believing church and let it go at that. Still, more educated or analytic types may have questions when they visit a church: Who are these people? Why are they doing what they are doing?

The author is fair minded. Because he goes into more detail than most such introductory works, he tells upfront that not all churches agree on certain teachings because they interpret the Bible differently. He notes the differences among Reformed, Baptist, Arminian, and Dispensational teachings, for example. While he confesses that the prefers the latter, he treats each one fairly from a historical perspective.

The book ends with a collection of quotations from commentaries on the Book of Romans. True, if one is interested in a systematic presentation of Christian theology found in the Bible, the place to begin is Romans. However, this gets into some arcane pieces of theology that I fear may be over the heads of or simply irrelevant to many readers.

Let me illustrate a similar experience. When I was in graduate school for a degree in English Literature, I took a course on the Bible in American Literature. The professor decided to devote a class to the background of the Bible and proceeded to discuss in detail the so-called Documentary Hypothesis, the idea that the first five or six books of the Bible were assembled with input from three or four diverse groups, usually abbreviated as J, E, D, and P. This was a subject I had read about and had been taught, so I was somewhat familiar with what he was talking about.

To others in the class this was brand new. One said to me, “I don’t get it. How are we supposed to tell which passages are J and which ones are the others?”

I told her, “Don’t worry about it.” To understand the American Literature, she just had to know the Bible stories and a few basic teachings. How the ancient Hebrews compiled the books of Moses was not a big concern.

It seems like Christianity 101 ends with a similar rabbit trail. It does not come across as a “simpler way.” Such a collection of observations may come in handy for someone who wonders about Romans or is challenged by certain doctrines, but for the average believer, it’s a non-issue. to most of them, the Bible is God’s Word regardless of what different writers may think about its authors.

Ultimately, such a chapter illustrates the book’s real intent. After all, the title Christianity 101 suggests a college course. In other words, this book may be written for new believers, but for new believers who have been exposed to various skeptical secular teachings about God and the Bible that are often taught in colleges like that JEDP theory. For them, understanding controversies and challenges to the historical faith may be just what they need.

Tez Brooks. Debriefing. Purple Mountain Literary Services, 2022.

Chaplain Tez Brooks wrote Debriefing for first responders. This book was not what I was expecting, but it has great potential for good. It actually is a devotional or meditational book written for lifesaving and law enforcement professionals. Brooks gets it.

I was a first responder when I was in the Coast Guard. While I did occasionally get search and rescue duty, my main job was responding to chemical and oil spills. At times work would get slow. We would joke that we were waiting around for nothing to happen. I recall one day one of my men came in and complained about the inactivity and said, “What we need is a real good oil spill.”

That day we got the biggest oil spill of my three years stationed there. There was heavy black oil covering about twenty miles of the Connecticut River. The next day, after being up most of the night, the young man who complained said, “I didn’t mean it, honestly, I didn’t!”

We get it. We are prepared to handle something bad, but we hope it does not happen. A prison warden told Rev. Brooks, “Some days, I’m sure my officers hope an inmate would escape, if for no other reason than to break the monotony” (118). A lot of times that is the way it is. How do you deal with that monotony? Hey, you are still doing your job. There are still security checks to be made, whether prison security or port security. Even Jesus tells us to be faithful in the little things (see Luke 16:10).

Probably the hardest situation I had on search and rescue duty was when the station got a radio call at about 10 in the evening from a nine-year-old girl. She was on a boat that had gone aground somewhere on a small uninhabited island. Both of her parents on the boat were drunk, and she was asking for help. This was before GPS, so it took a while for a helicopter to find the boat. We were mostly just telling her over the radio what she could do to help and to keep the boat steady.

Some dispatchers have instances like that almost daily. “Whether walking a child of seven through CPR to keep her mother alive or convincing a suicidal dad to put down his gun” (152), it can be hairy, especially when you know someone’s life could be in danger and you are miles away.

When I got home the next day after that experience with the little girl on the boat, one of my roommates asked me what I was doing at ten o’clock the night before. When I told him, he said that he was in a Bible study and at that time a couple of the people had the impression that they should pray for me. I am thankful they did. God knows what is going on.

As Brooks writes, dispatchers are professionals that “have the God-given ability to comfort those needing a calming presence” (153). The guys on duty that night including myself might not have felt very calm, but we were careful to talk calmly to the that little girl and help her keep her family afloat. Ability? Well, maybe training with some common sense. But we must be glad God is in on it.

Brooks tells a number of similar stories or shares quotations from a variety of first responders: EMTs, firemen, policemen, prison guards. He serves as a police chaplain and clearly knows what is going on.

Certain calls can really bother us. While I was in the Coast Guard, one of my roommates was a state policeman. He was really shaken up once when he responded to a call involving a baby that had been killed in a gruesome manner. He was shaken up, yes, but he did what he had to do. First responders have to have relatively thick skins. Brooks includes this prayer:

Dear Father, thank you for providing a well-armored personality for my job. You created me different on purpose, and that is a blessing, not a curse. I need not be ashamed of who I am or how you made me. Amen. (597)

Lest it sounds like he encourages his readers to “tough it out,” he understands that PTSD is real. There is nothing wrong with asking for help. Over the years, Chaplain Brooks has helped many officers deal with the trauma they have witnessed or experienced. While a first responder may have a thicker than average skin, he or she still needs a sensitive response. “When we (in the name of toughness) avoid empathy, we fail to understand and fulfil our role as first ‘responders’” (633, italics in original). After all, what does respond mean?

Dispatch is written from the perspective of the front lines. While aimed at the professionals mentioned above, other types of veterans might benefit from the book as well. It is direct, it is honest. The book itself shows empathy. “Been there, done that, got the scars to show it.” This little book can help heal the scars.

One of the problems first responders have is maintaining a perspective on life. When I was in the Coast Guard, I usually went to a beach because someone reported an oil spill, and it was my job to observe it, investigate it, and oversee cleanup. Once, when I was doing a final inspection of a cleanup, I went to the affected beach, and it was full of people swimming and sunbathing. “Oh, yeah,” I had to remind myself, “most people go to beaches because they want to have some fun and relax, not to check for oil.”

First responders, especially police and 911 dispatchers, often see the evil side of people. You do not have to explain to most police officers that we live in a fallen world. They know it. What they need is hope. This book gives the reader some hope. It also includes a few QR codes for help with certain problems or challenges. (I hope the writer or publisher keeps tabs on these because URLs are notorious for changing.)

The book ends with a list entitled First Responder Affirmations of Truth. It is a number of sentences that are meant for the readers to speak out and affirm or confirm. It begins, “I am not a first responder by accident” and goes on from there (801). It is easy to imagine the seven short paragraphs of those Affirmations printed out or disseminated to encourage first responders and even to frame them on their desk, hang them in their locker, or post them on their wall.

There is a lot more as well. Some things may make you laugh as you look back on things, but there is hope and a future. And yes, first responders, we do need you.

N.B.: The references above are Kindle locations, not page numbers.

Edward S. Ellis. The Life of Colonel David Crockett. 1884. Winston, n.d.

When I was eight, my parents let me stay up later than usual on three Sunday nights so I could watch the Davy Crockett rebroadcast miniseries on The Wonderful World of Disney television show. The morning after the last episode, I walked to school. School began at nine but the doors usually did not open till about 8:55. By the time a teacher opened the doors, the crowd of young students was normally pretty rowdy, but not that morning. The boys were all subdued. A friend of mine came up to me and spoke in a low, serious tone.

“Did you see it?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. We both nodded our heads wistfully.

The night before had been the last installment where we watched Davy Crockett and his 182 companions die at the Alamo to save Texas.

Along with Abraham Lincoln, my historical boyhood hero was Davy Crockett. Ellis’s The Life of Colonel David Crockett must have been a popular tome. It would be considered Young Adult today. Though originally published in 1884, the edition I was reading must have come out three decades later in a series of biographies. The inner flaps had a drawing of a biplane as part of the illustration for the series. There was no other date on the book, but it probably came out no earlier than, say 1909, and likely later.¹

While the book occasionally shows some evidence of what we could consider a florid style more typical of the nineteenth century, it is an honest and fair account of an American hero who achieved some legendary status. Ellis is careful to separate the legend from what we know to be true. He does not exaggerate.

Born in 1786 in Tennessee, Crockett was a subsistence farmer most of his life. We might even call him a hunter-gatherer. He was a crack shot. Witnesses tell of him killing thirty bears in less than a month. This was not gratuitous. He preserved them all for food for his family and friends for the winter.

We first really see him in action in his twenties in the War of 1812. As The Frontiersmen tells us, in the territory west of the Appalachians this meant not so much fighting the British as fighting their Indian allies. After the 1813 Fort Mims Massacre, Crockett joined his local militia and fought the Creeks under Andrew Jackson. He would soon be elected Colonel of the militia. The title and rank stuck.

Like most folks from Tennessee, Crockett at first was a big supporter of Jackson. Old Hickory was a war hero, a patriot, a Tennessean, and he cared for the common man. However, by the time Crockett ran for Congress, he was a Whig, not a Democrat. He took issue with a number of Jackson’s policies, especially the Indian Removal Act.

The most detailed part of this story has to do with his politics and his three terms as member of the American House of Representatives. That is simply because there is a paper trail. His most famous speech, on the Constitutionality of welfare, has been reprinted many times. The book includes it in its entirety along with Crockett’s story of how he changed his understanding of the Constitution.

Crockett’s popularity in elections was based in part in his sense of humor. He was an entertaining speaker. The Life of Colonel David Crockett includes a traditional shaggy dog story whose origin goes back into the distant past. I had read years ago that both he and Abraham Lincoln told variations of it.

The way Crockett told it, a blacksmith who had no anvil would make a tool, but only if the customer helped him. The blacksmith got fatigued and, as the process was taking too long, requested progressively simpler tools. He originally was going to forge an axe; then the axe became a mattock, then a plowshare, then, as things were taking too long, the blacksmith suggested a skow. The customer, at this point getting exasperated, agreed. The blacksmith took the red-hot piece of iron, and as he plunged it into the water, “it sung out ‘skow’” with a hiss. (90)

The book devotes two chapters to one the most closely documented part of Crockett’s life, a tour he took of the North. He started in Baltimore and visited Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Cincinnati, and Louisville, stopping at other sites in between. He was especially moved by the Revolutionary War sites in Boston and Philadelphia. Because of his stint in Congress and his down-home manner, he was a celebrity, so each stop was recorded in newspapers.

Aware of tensions in the nation, he “urged his Southern associates to follow his example of visiting their Northern friends, assuring them that their mutual good-will would be greatly strengthened when they should come to meet and know each other better.” (170) We have more in common than we have differences.

The story ends, of course, with Crockett’s emigration to Texas. Even in 1836, most settlers from the United States anticipated that Texas would eventually become a state. Andrew Jackson had actually hoped all of Mexico would join the union.

Ellis explains the political background fairly well, though clearly hostile to the “tyrant” Santa Anna. The stand at the Alamo lasted eleven days. Ellis pieces together what he can from the testimony of some inhabitants of San Antonio and the few non-combatant survivors of the siege.

I had read various accounts over the years including at least one that said the Mexicans killed the last survivors after they had thrown down their weapons and surrendered. Ellis finds no evidence either way of that. He does note that Jim Bowie was found killed in his bed (he had taken ill) with ten to twenty dead Mexicans in the room. Indeed, Ellis includes some background on both Sam Houston and the Bowie Brothers. Rezin Bowie, the inventor of the Bowie Knife, also died at the Alamo.

We are told one curious detail about Sam Houston. When Crockett met Houston, Houston was somewhat indisposed and was clothed only in a newspaper covering his private parts. He seemed unselfconscious about this, but Crockett was embarrassed. This reminded me of another Texan, President Lyndon Johnson, who once gave an interview to a woman reporter while sitting on a toilet. If I recall, it was embarrassing for her, too.

As most people familiar with American History know, the siege of the Alamo delayed Santa Anna’s army long enough and did enough damage that when the Mexican forces assembled six weeks later at San Jacinto, the Texans under Houston had organized enough to soundly defeat them, and Texas became an independent republic. By 1840 many European countries had recognized the nation of Texas. When it joined the United States in 1845, that precipitated the Mexican War. That story is told well in another book we reviewed some time ago.

Yes, The Life of Colonel David Crockett is something of a hagiography written for boys. I wonder if Walt Disney read it when he was a boy. But the author is careful to separate fact from legend—there is nothing, for example, of Davy killing a bear at three years old. He notes Crockett’s honesty and conscientiousness is worth emulating. In our era of historical iconoclasm, he and Lincoln are two American political leaders from the nineteenth century who are still admired today. Character counts.

Note

¹ We did find two other titles by Ellis that were reprinted by Winston in 1912 and 1914, so that probably gives us an approximation of when this edition was released.

Peter DeHaan. Visiting Online Church. Rick Rooster Books, 2021.

Author Peter DeHaan presents Visiting Online Church as a journal or diary, Like most of us who became involved with online church or online school or online work, it begins in March 2020. Most churches closed and many provided services or masses online. Some had been doing this for years and were quite sophisticated. Others posted sermons recorded at the pastor’s home on a cellphone.

In the next year and a half or so, Dr. DeHaan viewed hundreds of online services and videos from a wide variety of churches. He also surveyed participants to see what their reactions were. These observations and surveys were of many different kinds of churches, Protestant and Catholic, Mainline and Evangelical. From these observations, he draws a number of conclusions and recommendations.

He emphasizes time and again that online experiences are no substitute for person-to-person experiences. To use the “Christianese” term, the biggest problem over the pandemic was lack of fellowship. Even when churches had live meetings, they were socially distanced, and people were wearing masks. That made it difficult to see their faces and hear exactly what they were saying. And no hugs or handshakes. It was hard. This was true for both indoor and outdoor meetings.

Because he took notes and surveys, though, Dr. DeHaan has made a number of observations which could be helpful to people doing church services online or thinking about it.

Because of the differences, he suggests, “Don’t feel a need to replicate and in-person service online” (31). There are perhaps ways to make the online experience more presentable. After all, “Producing online content allows for options that aren’t available for in-person gatherings” (53). For each of these observations, and many others, he gives concrete examples to show how this might work.

An observation that probably predated the Covid restrictions says, “Streaming is the new front door to church” (67). If people were looking for a church, in the past they may have consulted the Yellow Pages or a local directory. In recent years, they probably used the Internet and checked out a church’s web site. Now, with so many churches posting services online or streaming their service, people can watch a service and decide whether that is a place they would like to go.

This means that churches that have a minimal Internet presence may want to consider what they can do online to attract people.

While most of the book is about what appears to work and not work online, Dr. DeHaan does share a few relevant sermon notes. One sermon he heard spoke about how people were getting restless and annoyed by the various quarantines. That sermon talked about the Israelites being forty years in the desert. They were understandably frustrated and annoyed with the sameness and apparent lack of progress.

Our minister points out three things. First, the people aren’t wrong to be upset about being in the desert. Second, the problem begins with what they do about their feelings; they complain and blame Moses. Last, Moses responds differently. He takes his pain to God and honestly shares his heart. (83, cf. Exodus 17:1-6)

He notes in the survey that for those who attended church regularly, the sermon or homily was not as important as the worship and the fellowship. It is almost a Christian cliché that the cross represents the two important relationships for a believer, the vertical one with God (as illustrated in worship) and the horizontal one with others (as illustrated by fellowship).

He also made a reasonable recommendation for churches that post things in American Sign Language. For most churches, the signing is in a sidebar or corner, but that makes it hard to see, especially for someone using a cell phone. He suggested putting the preacher in the sidebar. Hearing people who might be watching will still get what the preacher is saying just fine while making it easier for the hearing-impaired.

One of the hardest things about online church is the lack of connection with what he calls the worship experience. Worship is more effective in a group. Even singing along with the songs at home, while better than nothing, is still not the same. He criticizes churches that do not post their worship sessions online; however, for any copyrighted songs or arrangements, churches must pay a royalty just as anyone else does. For some churches, the cost or complications from this make it easier or more legally compliant simply to not post them.

Visiting Online Church notes that the online experience caused by Covid has changed things. Even though in the United States most churches are open, a certain number of congregants have not returned and are not planning on returning. They seem content to visit their church online. For others, churchgoing was more of a routine than a commitment, and now they have new routines.

Visiting Online Church is a personal notebook, but it has many ideas and suggestions for those streaming or posting services online. One thing is clear: We are not going back to the former way of doing things.

Patricia Pulliam Phillips and Jack J. Phillips. Show the Value of What You Do. Berrett-Koehler, 2023.

Show the Value of What You Do is a very specialized book that thousands, if not millions, could benefit from. It presents a paradox—people may need the information here, but they may not know or even believe they do. The authors operate a consulting firm that specializes in analyzing the cost benefits or returns on investments (ROI) of projects and productions of all kinds. This books shows how such an analysis can be done—or in many cases, why a consultant might be helpful to do this.

In some ways the book is very dry. It is, after all, based on mathematical analyses. Still, the book comes alive because of its many examples or case studies. We observe organizations of all kinds and how they determined whether a certain project, production, or method of business was worth it.

The first example comes from the Methodist Church. It was supporting chaplains in over fifty large hospitals. Was it worth supporting these specialized ministers? Did their work make a difference in the places where they worked?

Each chapter begins with two epigraphs, one labeled “Myth” the second labeled “Reality.” It might sound to many people that such positions as chaplain might be considered “intangibles.” They could add to morale but there appears to be little to quantify in the companies’ bottom lines. That turns out to be a myth in this case.

While there is a chapter devoted to intangibles, many such things can be quantified. Often the authors use the basic scientific method or inductive reasoning to demonstrate this. Is there a cost benefit when comparing units with chaplains and similar units without them? After some serious data analysis, they determined that patients in ICUs with chaplains had a statistically significant shorter stay in the ICU than those without chaplains. That certainly benefited the patients, but what about the hospital’s bottom line?

It turned out that the study showed chaplains provided three or four benefits: shorter stays in the ICU, greater contact and concern for families of the patients, fewer costs for the hospital, and more availability of ICU units for people who needed them.

There must be fifty such examples, and they cover a wide variety of instances and situations from nonprofits to police SWAT teams and corporations around the world.

Show the Value of What You Do demonstrates that solutions to problems are not always obvious. It illustrates the importance of setting objectives and ways to collect data. The data may not always be financial, but many times abstractions can be made more concrete.

Impact measures may be hard or soft. You will find them in operations reports, databases, benchmark studies, and sometimes a simple conversation. Some measures and their baseline performance will be more obvious than others. When the impact is not so obvious, you may need to resort to a more determined effort to find the impact. (43)

As the title suggests, this book may be especially helpful for someone in a situation where those in authority are thinking of downsizing, wondering whether someone’s job is necessary, or thinking of making changes to the way things are done. I am reminded of the story in the first chapter of the Bible’s Book of Daniel. Daniel and his friends are being educated in the Babylonian court and are presented with non-kosher food to eat and drink. Daniel simply tells his supervisor to feed him and his fellow Jews a kosher diet and see the difference it makes in their health. This books shows that the same approach still works.

The method may also show what is not working well:

Remember that failure is okay. Progress is important. The cornerstone of this methodology is a relentless focus on project improvement. (133)

Show the Value of What You Do goes into detail to tell how to make sure the data is reliable and how to account for exceptions. The authors admit that some things truly are intangible, but many things can be statistically broken down.

A simple illustration shows this. The authors note the difference between ROI and benefit to cost ratio (BCR). They both can describe the same data but they are computed differently. Some places prefer one over the other, but they have to be explained clearly.

The ROI is a percentage and shows how the cost of something yields a return relative to the cost. So, for example, if a project cost $10,000 and yielded a benefit of $12,000, that would be a $2,000 yield or 20% of the original cost. The BCR would divide the benefit by the cost or 12,000/10,000, yielding a BCR of 1.2. The formulae are the following: ROI=(Yield – Cost)/Cost and BCR=Yield/Cost.

When Show the Value of What You Do comes out, I personally know a couple of people who would probably get a lot out of reading this. One is a management consultant to nonprofits; the other is a fundraiser for a religious organization. The first is looking for concrete ways to show how the nonprofit can effectively accomplish its purposes. The second is looking for ways to show donors that their money would be well spent. This book covers both kinds of situations. The authors of this book are experts and we can be glad they are sharing their expertise.

Dorothy L. Sayers. Strong Poison. 1930. Narrated by Ian Carmichael, BBC Audio, 1989.

Strong Poison introduces us to Dorothy Sayers’ sleuthing duo of Sir Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, just as The Secret Adversary introduced us to Tommy and Tuppence, the Agatha Christie detectives. The similarity pretty much ends there.

Harriet Vane has been arrested for murdering her lover and potential fiancé, Philip Boyes. Everything points to her. They had been living together for some time, and then they broke up. There are witnesses noting that she was mad at him. The most serious piece of evidence, though, is that Mr. Boyes was poisoned by arsenic, and Miss Vane had purchased quantities of arsenic and other poisons in the past half year or so.

As has been pointed out by many, some versions of the Medieval ballad “Lord Randal” tell us specifically that the lord’s betrothed poisoned him with “strong poison.” (See version 12H on the linked page, stanza 2).

Miss Vane is a novelist, and she claims that she purchased the poisons because she was working on a murder mystery and wanted to see for herself how easy or difficult it was to purchase regulated poisons. (It is no spoiler to say that it was pretty easy for her.)

Now Dorothy Sayers had written a few other novels featuring Lord Peter, but this was the first with Harriet Vane. So this is a unique way to introduce the person who would become Lord Peter’s partner and eventually his wife. He sits in on her trial as he has done on other trials to observe things for his own detective work. He becomes smitten with Miss Vane; hence, he cannot believe she is guilty.

He visits her in prison and explains that he might be able to help her. After about the third meeting together he asks her to marry him. Considering that she was “living in sin” with Boyes, she is not interested in someone she hardly knows.

This becomes a case of “follow the money.” Yes, Boyes had named Harriet in his will, but he did not have a whole lot money. The focus goes to the famous retired actress known by her stage name Cremorna Garden. She is the great aunt of both Boyes and his solicitor Norman Urquart. She is now in her nineties and senile. Could her wealth be the reason someone wanted Boyes out of the way?

Winsey has a challenge. It does take time for him to figure out a plan and execute it. He does have some talented people he can employ including Miss Climpson, an agent in her own right, and Miss Murchison, the impeccably honest employee of Mr. Urquart. Wimsey has a few connections, too, including a friend on the police force and a few businessmen.

Strong Poison is not so much about finding clues and solving a mystery that way—though a certain typewriter and a draft of a will do figure into the story. Instead, we observe the plot that Lord Peter has hatched to find the clues and discover the guilty party. How he does it is fascinating. Miss Climpson’s parody of a spiritualist meeting is a hoot, but it helps her gather some evidence.

One note on the style: While this is primarily a plot driven story, it is mostly told through dialogue. It is easy to imagine reading this as a play rather than a prose novel. If there is a weakness, it is that the story begins with a long judge’s summary before as jury. We do not hear the trial except for what the judge and others say about it. The trial ends in a hung jury, which means Miss Vane must be tried again. Still, some Shakespeare plays, e.g. The Comedy of Errors or Othello, begin largely by someone explaining the backstory. Like those Shakespeare plays, get through that introduction for the background, and soon the action begins!

We listened to the above BBC compact disc. The actor who played Lord Peter in a 1963 BBC radio series of Sayers mysteries is the reader on the CD. He does a fine job voicing each character in a distinctive manner. North Americans might have a tough time understanding the accents of a few of the characters, but the main ideas come through pretty well.