Living in light of biblical wisdom

Christian values and virtue

To Live Well

Alan Noble
IVP, 200 pages

Alan Noble has a heart for Christians wanting to live well in a society fraught with competing moral messages and pathways to fulfillment. He contends that faith matters, our model is Christ, and living in the reality of the “creational design” gives life meaning and purpose. Without telos, as he calls it, there’s a lack of coherence. We’re restless, confused, and anxious, wondering what the Right Choices are when it comes to work, marriage, children, and any number of things. Rather than present another theory or how-to manual, he points toward a more robust solution—the cultivation and practice of seven traditional virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith, hope, and love. In each chapter, he introduces the historical and biblical value of a virtue, defines it, and then applies it to real life, revealing how each one layers upon and enhances the others. Readers discover God is calling them to a way of walking in the world that relies on the Spirit rather than expressive individualism. Virtuous living grows when it is fed by and flows into the richer context of doing life in community, especially in the body of Christ. —Jody Lane

Ethics and morality

Biblical Wisdom for Everyday Life

Daniel Darling
B&H Books, 160 pages

In this brief book, WORLD Opinions contributor Daniel Darling offers biblical perspectives on a variety of subjects in which Christians often find themselves at odds with the wider culture. Topics include abortion, cohabitation, gay marriage, divorce, transgenderism, reproductive technologies, war, gambling, substance abuse, and euthanasia. It’s quite a list, and Darling approaches each chapter with both biblical clarity and nuance, reminding his readers that most questions of Christian morality are clear-cut. Our job is to find out what the Bible says, and then apply it. Even so, Darling employs a pastoral tone that points to Christ and His grace. Each short chapter ends with discussion questions and further reading on the topic, making this a great primer for new believers who have questions about Christian living. It also makes for a great resource for longtime Christians seeking to articulate to the world why we believe what we believe. —Collin Garbarino

Ethics and morality

Pandemic of Lunacy

J. Budziszewski
Creed & Culture, 248 pages

It’s not safe to refer to what plagues our culture as “issues.” Rather we have crises all around: men claiming to be women, boys demanding access to girls’ locker rooms, mail-order abortions and tax­payer-funded sex-change operations, and everywhere people insisting that we celebrate deviance as “identities.” What makes it crazy is that people seem to be complying. Speaking to this chaos, professor and philosopher J. Budziszewski exposes 30 lunacies grouped into six categories of delusion: about happiness, politics and government, the family and sexuality, human nature, reality, and God and religion. Drawing in part from his classroom encounters teaching at the University of Texas at Austin, Budziszewski reveals the folly of modern thinking, showing how to unravel its confusion with logic and philosophy. His chapters are readable and short, and his arguments are clear and accessible to regular people. “Derangement has real-world consequences,” says Budziszewski. “Against everyday delusions, everyday sanity is fighting for life, and the everyday lives of adults and children are increasingly disordered.” Our age may not have invented all of these lunacies, he says, but “in ours they run riot.” Pandemic of Lunacy is his effort to elevate common sense and “make a small contribution to sunny sanity.” We need it. —Candice Watters

Christian women’s issues

Lead Like Jael

Emma Waters
Regnery Faith, 240 pages

For all the hype about aimless young men, there’s little attention given to the crisis facing young women. Christian women in particular may feel forced to choose between girl-bossing their way to a C-suite or learning how to make sourdough. But neither the girl-boss nor the so-called “tradwife” ideals lead to satisfaction. By applying scriptural examples and principles, Emma Waters presents a holistic, lifelong vision of womanhood, one that places the home at the center of human flourishing. Balancing responsibilities as a wife, mother, and senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, Waters speaks from experience. She admits she once nearly chickened out of marriage, believing saying “I do” meant trading work that “really mattered” for wiping noses. Rather than setting forth hard-and-fast rules for balancing responsi­bilities, Waters offers seven biblical principles that mirror the path of female maturity from maidenhood to matriarchy, showing that true femininity isn’t simply a repackaging of male characteristics, as Hollywood implies. “Being good at being a woman means embracing and cultivating distinctly feminine strengths,” Waters writes. If you’re a woman or if you have daughters and want to help them discover their calling, you will be greatly edified by reading. —Bekah Bernhardt

Religious philosophy

The Immortal Mind

Michael Egnor & Denyse O’Leary
Worthy Books, 272 pages

In his introduction to The Immortal Mind, Michael Egnor lays his cards on the table: “When I was a medical student, I believed science could explain everything.” But his studies in neurology and his early years as a brain surgeon contributed to doubt about science as the absolute explainer. A health crisis involving his infant son brought him face to face with God and to a critical conclusion: “I had followed the evidence, and it had showed me that the supernatural is real.” The following chapters lay out the evidence, including the abundance of near-death experiences, the presence of personal awareness even when the brain registers no activity, the ability of patients to function with severely damaged brains, and the utter inability of materialist science to explain human consciousness. The text is conversational and easy for a layman to understand. It concludes with a clear statement of the gospel and of what science itself indicates: that humans are exceptional and possess immortal souls, and that this “is the most important thing about us.” —Janie B. Cheaney