Mystery and meaning: eight books

Psychology

Embracing Hope

Viktor E. Frankl
Beacon, 160 pages

Neurologist and psychologist Viktor Frankl was a Holocaust survivor of four concentration camps, including Auschwitz. After the war, he rose to prominence as a philosopher and psychotherapist, founding the school of logotherapy, a method of helping people find meaning in life. Embracing Hope is a compelling collection of two lectures, an interview, and an article that capture the central concerns of his work. Frankl’s organizing insight was that human beings crave meaning. This indisputable truth lies at the heart of the existential challenge of modernity. It’s also where the Christian will find Frankl both helpful and lacking. He is helpful in identifying perhaps the most important characteristic of our modern malaise: the widespread experience of lack of meaning. He is lacking in his focus on meaning rather than truth. We are not made simply to seek meaning—any meaning that gives shape to our lives—but truth that gives a very specific shape to our lives. —Carl R. Trueman*

Read WORLD’s full review of this book here.

Children’s fiction

When We Flew Away

Alice Hoffman
Scholastic, 304 pages

New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman typically writes for adults, but occasionally she pens works for youth. Such is When We Flew Away, a fictional account of what life might have been like for Anne Frank in the months leading up to her family’s sequestering and the start of the world’s most famous diary. Hoffman writes with a poetic urgency as she weaves historical fact with imagined reality about Anne’s world. One tendency with stories about beloved historical characters is to idealize them and gloss over their flaws, something Hoffman succumbs to with her characterizations of Anne. Anne knows how special she was, and she “knew she was something more.” The Frank family’s mounting desperation is palpable as the story progresses amid intensifying Nazi aggression and Otto Frank’s failed attempts to get his family out of Amsterdam. The story, however, suffers from too much “telling” rather than “showing,” and it lacks the kind of action that engages younger readers, making it more suited for adults already fascinated with Anne’s story. —Kristin Chapman

Economic History

How Economics Explains the World

Andrew Leigh
Mariner, 240 pages

The title of Australian MP Andrew Leigh’s new book gives the author an ambitious task. In addition to offering an overview of economic history, Leigh argues that “societal changes tend to be driven more by technology and ­policy than social norms.” The problem is a fair number of his examples contradict his thesis. He points out, for instance, that the Reformation encouraged Bible reading, which boosted literacy and economic growth—and that even today German Protestants have higher incomes than German Catholics. Similarly, he notes that “tight bonds of trust among Jewish communities” led to success in finance. But these are examples of culture and social norms affecting economics, not the reverse. He also notes that Chinese inventions such as the magnetic compass didn’t transform ancient China’s economy because elites held a low view of commerce. But isn’t this another example of social norms affecting economics? None of this is to say that Leigh’s book is bad. He offers interesting takes on the development of money, the benefits of market economies, and the ideas of notable economists. How Economics Explains the World is a good book, though it doesn’t live up to its audacious title. —Timothy Lamer

Theology

Ancient Wisdom for the Care of Souls

Coleman Ford and Shawn Wilhite
Crossway, 256 pages

Coleman Ford and Shawn Wilhite aim to help pastors escape the ministerial hamster wheel that can leave them feeling disillusioned. They suggest turning to the timeless wisdom of the early church, and offer prominent Church Fathers as exemplars of the “classical pastor,” which they define as a “quiet pastor who displays a peaceful temperament and ministers to souls in his local setting.” This ministry requires depth and skill. They identify five marks of such a ministry: classical theology, virtue, integrated spirituality and theology, local community, and the care of souls. Ford and Wilhite argue that to properly care for the souls of those to whom one ministers, pastors must pursue theological depth. This devotional approach avoids being both faddish and academic. —James R. Wood*

Read WORLD’s full review of this book here.

History

Keeping the Faith

Brenda Wineapple
Random House, 544 pages

In Keeping the Faith, the latest of many works on the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial,” author Brenda Wineapple warns against Christian demagogues. She suggests that during the historic battle over teaching evolution, officious religious people tried to tell secular people what to do—and she sees the past repeating itself today, with “white supremacists promising that a revitalized white Protestant America” will “rise again, regardless of what or whose rights and freedoms might be trampled.” This is standard rhetoric in partisanship-as-history. Wineapple retells the trial’s story in a tone nearly identical to Inherit the Wind, still the most popular portrayal of the trial. She calls William Jennings Bryan—defender of Tennessee’s anti-evolution statute—a “religious bigot” and a “white supremacist.” Clarence Darrow, who defended the dissenting science teacher John Scopes, predictably comes through as the book’s hero. There’s plenty to criticize about Bryan, of course. But Wineapple makes some mistakes; e.g., falsely claiming Bryan affirmed a “literal” six-day creation when in fact he was an old-earth creationist. As an alternative read, I recommend Edward Larson’s Pulitzer Prize–winning book Summer for the Gods (1997). It’s a more persuasive story than Wineapple’s simple tale of secular “good guys” versus religious “bad guys.” —Thomas S. Kidd*

Read WORLD’s full review of this book here.

Mystery/Crime

Breaking the Dark

Lisa Jewell
Hyperion, 384 pages

Breaking the Dark launches Marvel’s newest endeavor: a slate of mystery novels featuring street-level superheroes. Superhero-turned-sleuth Jessica Jones must leave New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen to investigate the uncanny transformation of two well-to-do teens. The character’s adventures in comics and television contain gritty storylines, so she easily falls into the noir genre. But the “Marvel-ness” sits uneasily on this story. The mystery’s resolution hinges on super­villain mechanics that will test the belief of the most die-hard comic-book fan. The original Jessica Jones comic headlined Marvel’s R-rated “MAX” imprint, but this tale stays PG-13. Christian readers may appreciate the value for unborn life that emerges as Jones wrestles with a possible pregnancy. (However, some characters don’t acknowledge this value until checking that she “wants” the child.) But ultimately, this saccharine novel trades one cultural lie, social media’s illusory perfection, for another—the notion that you’re already perfect. Readers with a sweet tooth for insubstantial mystery could better spend their calories elsewhere. —Jonathan Boes

Technology

The Extinction of Experience

Christine Rosen
W.W. Norton, 272 pages

Twenty-five years ago, books critiquing the internet were rare, because so much was so new and so promising. But in the last 15 years, our immersion in online life has sparked ­several trenchant critiques. Now Christine Rosen offers keen analysis premised on the claim that our technologies often impoverish our lives without our noticing it. For example, the uniquely human endeavor of handwriting a card, note, or letter has been replaced by texting, which is impersonal and usually perfunctory. Laptops allow students to take voluminous notes (when they aren’t succumbing to online distractions), but studies indicate that taking notes by hand is better for deeper learning. The desire to capture images on cell phones to post online has caused people to withhold help from those in dire conditions, resulting in deaths. These insights are marred, however, by Rosen’s Darwinitus (to use Raymond Tallis’ term). She repeatedly appeals to evolution to ground her critique, but this yields no intrinsic value for human beings. Nor does it give us any models for virtue, since nature is but an impersonal and materialistic ­system with no purpose or design. —Douglas Groothuis*

Read WORLD’s full review of this book here.

Christian Science Fiction

The Nightmare Virus

Nadine Brandes
Enclave, 368 pages

As dream technology goes awry, people across the globe find themselves trapped in a shared nightmare when they fall asleep. Cain Cross has only 22 days before his mind is imprisoned in the dream forever after becoming infected with the “nightmare virus.” Determined to find a cure, Cain works tirelessly in both the real world and the nightmare to release everyone trapped inside a fantastical Roman Colosseum—a dreamscape of unknown origins that seems to break all the rules of dream drafting. Brandes incorporates Christian themes throughout the story. Cain’s quest for a cure parallels humanity’s search for freedom from sin and the ruler of this age. It also explores the question of how far is too far when we create—or as Tolkien would say, “sub-create.” Are we creating with God and in submission to His authority, or are we attempting to be our own gods? Nadine Brandes’ masterful storytelling explores themes of doubt, imagination, and Christian ­community. —Marian Jacobs