Against the Flow

This book by John Lennox is an examination of the core themes of the biblical prophetic book of Daniel, and extrapolating ideas from this to apply to how we as God's people might continue to live faithfully in a world that is increasingly secular and idolatrous. I bought this book as a gift for my dad's birthday, so I'm actually quite late in vetting it (which usual readers will know I do for all books I intend to give people, to make sure they're up to scratch) - but I've not seen him since the actual occasion so it's probably alright.

   Anyway, sorry, the book, yes. It's okay, I guess. The scholarship is rigorous - both in biblical and historical terms; Lennox demonstrates having done a great deal of thinking into the text of Daniel and the ancient context of 1200ish BCE Babylon, which makes for a great deal of well-footnoted and illuminating insight into exactly why certain points in the text work well. He also spends a fair amount of effort explicating why and how certain themes in the original prophet's writings apply to trends in modern society - I think his heart is in the right place here, but in my opinion most of these arguments come across as a bit heavy-handedly out-of-touch with the pulse of secular culture. Almost as if this were a book written to aid people in apologetics by someone who hadn't actually needed to apologise for over a decade because everyone else he knows is a devout and well-read biblical scholar. I mean, I don't know you, John Lennox, so forgive me if that seems like a harsh reading, but that's how it came across to me. I can't really imagine any non-Christian perusing this text to have a mind-blowing revelation of "wow that's what I'm missing from God", nor any juvenile believer studying your book to pick up anything from it that makes them think "wow now I can really convert all my apostate friends". It's deep yes, but it's scholarly more than anything; and while that is far from worthless - especially with a book as prophetic and rich as Daniel - Christians, study that all you can - I don't think this would be the top of my list of recommendations for people of any or no faiths.

   At least my dad doesn't read this blog. He's still getting it (albeit late) for his birthday.