Against the Flow #bookreview

Against the Flow (Monarch, March 2015)

A wide-ranging discussion of the place of Christianity in the public square

Daniel’s story is one of extraordinary faith in God lived out at the pinnacle of executive power. It tells of four young men, born in the tiny state of Judah around 500 b.c., and captured by Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of Babylon. Daniel describes how they eventually rose to senior positions of administration.

Daniel and his friends did not simply maintain their private devotion to God; they maintained a high-profile witness in a pluralistic society antagonistic to their faith. Their story carries a powerful message for us today. Society tolerates the practice of Christianity in private and in church services, but increasingly it deprecates public witness. If Daniel and his compatriots were with us today they would be in the vanguard of public debate.

This is a lucid and erudite examination of the life of Daniel from a leading expert on faith and science. In his first biblical work, Dr. Lennox provides a unique perspective on both Western society and biblical exegesis that will make Against the Flow an instant classic encouraging Christians to speak out in our modern Babylon.

John C. Lennox is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College. He lectures on Faith and Science for the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. He is author of a number of books on the relations of science, religion and ethics. He and his wife, Sally, live near Oxford.

My thoughts:

Before reading this book I didn’t feel like I knew Daniel.  Oh I knew Daniel was in the Bible and that he played a vital role, but I didn’t have a vast knowledge of him.  After finishing this book I feel like Daniel and I are best buds.  

There is much that happened during the life of Daniel that is glossed over.  Most people remember that Daniel went into the lion’s den and came out alive, but do they know why he was in that country to begin with?  Do they know who he was and why he did what he did?

Read this book and you will feel that you lived with Daniel and truly experienced life with him.  I especially loved the side notes on what other things were going on in the same time period of history.  I like to see where we are in relation to everything else.  Oh and there is an awesome section in the middle with pictures and such.

This is definitely a book that should be in every church library as well as the home.