Title:Is This Book Any Good?

From: News & Notes from Walther Library, 1998–99 School Year, Issue #4 (December 1998)
Rev. Richard A. Lammert, Author, Rev. Robert V. Roethemeyer, Editor

Is This Book Any Good?

EVALUATING THE ACCURACY OF A BOOK OR JOURNAL ARTICLE IS A PART OF LIFE-LONG LEARNING SKILLS

During the course of your seminary studies you will read many books and journal articles. Many of the books will be selected by your professors for your courses; you can depend on them to be authoritative and accurate (unless your professor purposely has you read a book which he wants you to critique).

Even if you don’t read much besides required texts during your seminary days, you will certainly be spend-ing time during your pastoral ministry reading books and articles which no one has “pre-evaluated” for you. At that time, it will be up to you to evaluate those books and articles. We offer in this article some guidelines for your use later in your life for knowing whether a book is any good. (These same guidelines will also work while you are still in seminary as you do expanded reading.)

An initial appraisal can be done even before you start reading the book or article. An authoritative book will be written by someone who has the credentials for such writing. Is the author one whose name you have heard in class or seen mentioned by others in your reading? Writers cite other persons because they are worth citing. Arguments of people who “have an ax to grind” are not refuted; they are simply ignored. And simply having a recognizable name doesn’t make a person an authority in theology. Isaac Asimov was a biochemist, and a great science fiction writer, but does that mean he has something important to say about the Bible? Steve Allen is a great comic; does that give him credentials for writing about the Bible, religion, andmorality? (Publishers have answered these questions “yes,” but you may certainly disagree.)

Then by reading the back cover of a paperback, the jacket blurb on a hardcover, or the foreword to the book, you can make some more determination of the value of the book to you. Is the author’s approach comfortable to you? Is the author starting from a point known to you before proceeding to the unknown?

Another step in the process of evaluation is done while reading the book or article. During this process you get to apply many of the skills you have learned during your years at the seminary. Some of the questions to consider are the following: Is the author careful in his reasoning? Is he aware of arguments that oppose his position? Does he respond to them in a scholarly manner, or simply dismiss them out of hand? Does he cite his sources carefully? (Accurate footnotes are important here. It also helps to know the authors who are being cited. This will help you to determine if quotations are taken out of context, or if only selective quotations are used to give a slanted view.)

he evaluation you make by asking the questions in the preceding paragraph give you a scholarly evaluation of the material. But another question to ask your-self is this one: “Is the theology found in this book consistent with a confessional Lutheran theology?” You may, of course, be reading a book to learn a viewpoint different from your own—in that case, you won’t criticize it from a confessional viewpoint. But you will need to critique it from a confessional viewpoint to determine how much is useful to you.

Some of the questions to consider in a confessional evaluation are the following: Does the author make the proper distinction between law and Gospel? Does the author properly consider the role of the sacraments as God’s means of grace? Does the author consider the Bible the norma normata for theological study? Does the author make use only of ministerial reason, avoiding the use of magisterial reason?

Active reading with a questioning mind ultimately will answer the question, “Is this book any good?” ?