One of the Few

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Jason Ladd served as a Marine pilot and is a father and husband. In his early adulthood, he became a Christian. This book talks about the process he went through to become all of the above, and what he thinks and believes about Christianity. This is an interesting approach to a book – it's mostly a collection of autobiographical anecdotes from childhood through adulthood, with a focus on his military training and service. These anecdotes are then used to illustrate spiritual insights/teachings/beliefs of the author. The earlier portions of the book are more obviously connected – a clear storyline can be seen.

I'm only saying this because Ladd told me that his book was “especially relevant to Reformed Protestant Theology Nerds.” But the theology in this thing is a mess, there isn't a coherent Christian Worldview put forth in this book – there are portions of Christian(ish) Worldviews, but not one. And if there's a Reformed Protestant view mentioned here, I missed it. I'm not saying that Ladd's not a Christian, or that he doesn't have a coherent Worldview, but he didn't do a great job of displaying that Worldview in these pages – instead, we get a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a dash of something else. If this was the kind of blog that critiqued theologically oriented works, my critique of Chapter 12 (for example) would be at least three times as long as his chapter. I think we're all relieved that this isn't that kind of blog.

The later in the book we go, the less the organization makes sense to me – clearly Ladd had an organization in mind, I just didn't see it. He kept saying “Now it's time to talk about __.” What made it time to do so is beyond me, there was rarely an obvious link between topics when he said that. It doesn't take away from the worth of the material, but the scatter-shot approach makes it hard to follow.

I recommend this with reservations – and have actually recommended it to a couple of people who I thought would appreciate it more than I did – the writing is crisp, the autobiographical/military training anecdotes are well-written and interesting, the theology needs a lot of work, but isn't wholly without merit. If you like the concept, you'll probably find it worth your time.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest thoughts about it. I thank him for his patience – this is horribly overdue.