8 great smarts, and other reviews

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• Book Review: 8 Great Smarts: Discover and Nurture Your Child's Intelligences by Kathy Koch -- "I would have like a bit more information about each smart and how to develop it in my children, and myself..."
• Book Review: Forgotten Songs: Reclaiming the Psalms for Christian Worship -- "It could also be subtitled: Modern Baptists Discover Psalmody."
• Book Review: Helping without Hurting in Church Benevolence, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert -- "Whether your ministry setting is urban, suburban, or rural, you’ll inevitably encounter people stuck in poverty...At the same time, throwing money at people is really a way to keep them at a distance and therefore to only love ourselves."
• Book Review: Preaching Old Testament Narratives -- "He considers popular approaches to preaching and assesses their strengths and weaknesses before delving into his own method."
• God is no Thing by Rupert Shortt -- "Rupert Shortt has written a welcome addition to the growing number of books taking on the new Atheists and presenting a coherent version of the basis of Christian faith."
• Going Public: Why Baptism is Required for Church Membership -- "The books aims, by and large, to help those who are already convinced of believer’s baptism and formal church membership sift through the issues related to “open” versus “closed” membership."
• Jonathan Edwards for Armchair Theologians -- "Written by experts but designed for the novice..."
• Notes on Where the Conflict Really Lies by Alvin Plantinga -- "...it is as impossible to conceive that ever pure incogitative Matter should produce a thinking intelligent Being, as that nothing should of itself produce Matter."
• Review: Is 'Hidden Figures' Family-Friendly? -- "'Hidden Figures' is a microcosm of everything that we want to remember and forget about the 1960s."
• The Amish by Steven M Nolt -- "Their beliefs are essentially mainstream Christian and would find much support in most Baptist churches...[but]...the Amish challenge the most widely accepted values of US culture and indeed modern Western thought."
• The Givenness of Things Review – Marilynne Robinson’s passionate defence of Christianity -- "...the 17 essays in Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson’s impassioned and erudite defence of Christianity make an interesting antithesis to the Richard Dawkins-inspired new atheism that has dominated in recent years."
• You Carried Me - a Book Review -- "Melissa Ohden is fourteen when she learns that she is the survivor of a botched abortion."