{"id":235,"date":"2016-11-02T16:00:02","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T22:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=235"},"modified":"2017-09-10T16:16:44","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T22:16:44","slug":"book-how-then-shall-we-live-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/02\/book-how-then-shall-we-live-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: How Then Shall We Live? (2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/images.gr-assets.com\/books\/1450153249l\/28206111.jpg\" alt=\"How Then Shall We Live?\" width=\"316\" height=\"475\" \/>How Then Shall We Live?<\/u><\/strong><br \/>\nYear: 2015<br \/>\nAuthor: Stephanie Rodda<br \/>\nLength: 146 pages<\/p>\n<p>The book with a question that\u2019s practically answered from page one is as close as one could ever come to an \u201capocalyptic utopia\u201d story. As a Christian, I understand the power of what God can do, but I also understand that some things come with His timing. In this book, each time a challenge arises, God seems to step in immediately and solve it, which really detracts from any thematic tension that could be present. Nothing really ever gets to the point where there\u2019s an unbearable hardship because then it would seem like God isn\u2019t instantly answering the characters\u2019 prayers.<\/p>\n<p>Then there\u2019s the characters. While I understand from reading the \u201cstudy questions\u201d at the end that these are based somewhat on real people, I found the characters in this book to be flat, cookie-cutter versions of ideal Christians. They didn\u2019t feel human to me at all. I\u2019d expect people in their situation to be more frustrated and hopeless than they actually were. A single moment of the mother\u2019s wavering faith should have happened more often, especially if her prayers weren\u2019t answered on the spot (as I mentioned before). Maybe it\u2019s just the lifestyle of rural people I don\u2019t connect with, because the homeschooled family of seven adopted children seems to be what\u2019s preached as the \u201cideal Christian life\u201d sometimes. Of course, I can\u2019t say that I really agree with The Message translation of the Bible either (as it\u2019s used a few times throughout).<\/p>\n<p>After having read this book, I can honestly say that it probably isn\u2019t going to convert anyone to Christianity. In fact, as a Christian, I found it to be a bit too preachy, even if it\u2019s preaching to the choir. I would hate for someone to turn to it, looking for advice on how to get through their own struggles, only to find that the world really doesn\u2019t work as perfectly as it does in this story. Along with all my previous qualms, the inconsistent formatting really took me out of the story a bit too often as well (indented vs. not indented and extra line vs. not extra line all smashed together in a single book).<\/p>\n<p>An idyllic view of a generic and non-descript apocalypse, I give <em>How Then Shall We Live?<\/em> 1.5 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<h1><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a01\/2<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How Then Shall We Live? Year: 2015 Author: Stephanie Rodda Length: 146 pages The book with a question that\u2019s practically answered from page one is as close as one could ever come to an \u201capocalyptic utopia\u201d story. As a Christian, I understand the power of what God can do, but I also understand that some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236,54],"tags":[33,55,12,237,8,238],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-5-stars","category-book","tag-33","tag-book","tag-christian","tag-how-then-shall-we-live","tag-review","tag-stephanie-rodda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}