Thinking ahead to what is on the calender in the next week, here are some excellent books I’ve discovered in recent months.

May 11: Mother’s Day

The Christian Grandma’s Idea Book: Hundreds of Ideas, Tips, and Activities to Help You be a Good Grandma by Ellen Banks Elwell.

The Christian Mom’s Idea Book: Hundreds of Ideas, Tips, and Activities to Help You be a Great Mom by Ellen Banks Elwell.

* In both of these books, Elwell puts her own encouragement and insight into the mixture along with the words of hundreds of other mothers and grandmothers. These books are short on ivory-tower theory, and long in practical advice, sensible living, and Christian encouragement.

May 14 : The 60th Anniversary of the state of Israel

On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend by Timothy P. Weber.

Future Israel: Why Christian Anti-Judaism Must Be Challenged by Barry E. Horner.

* Sixty years. Given the furor Israel faced in even the first few days of existence, sixty years is quite an accomplishment. Here are two books that focus on the relationship between Israel and Evangelical Christianity.

Timothy Weber is an outstanding church historian who has focused most of his career in this area. His work traces the history of the relationship of Evangelical Christianity, specifically dispensational teaching, with the state of Israel. He shows how dispensationalism attempts to match biblical prophecy with current events relating to Israel, and how Christian fervor in this area makes for strange bedfellows. I found this book very hard to put down.

Barry Horner provides a strong critique of “supercessionist theology” which believes the church superceded Israel in God’s plan of redemption. Horner persuasively argues for belief in the biblical prophecy of a restored state of Israel with acceptance of Jesus Christ as Messiah. This work calls for a reevaluation of the standard Christian understanding of the relationship between the church and Israel.

May 16: The release of the new C.S. Lewis movie, Prince Caspian

A Reader’s Guide to Caspian: A Journey into C.S. Lewis’s Narnia by Leland Ryken & Marjorie Lamp Mead.

Is Your Lord Large Enough? How C.S. Lewis Expands Our View of God by Peter J. Schakel.

* Next week marks the release of Prince Caspian, the second installment of the movie series based on C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. There is a continual flow of books related to Narnia and Lewis, and here are two to add to the collection.

Schakel provides an overview to the Christian theology portrayed in the writings of Lewis. Topics such as prayer, the church, doubt, and heaven are explained via interaction with Lewis’s writings - Narnia and otherwise.

Focusing solely on Prince Caspian, Ryken and Mead take the reader on a guide through Caspian, revealing things you might otherwise miss. Characters, setting, and framework - these are highlighted to plumb the depths of Lewis’s imagination and literary skills. The authors tell you to read Prince Caspian itself before coming on over to their book, but once you have done so, this guide will take you “further in.”