Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

AMISH GRACE:            HOW FORGIVENESS TRANSCENDED TRAGEDY By    Donald Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt,     & David L. Weaver-Zercher Reviewed by    Geoffrey W. Sutton The horrific slaughter of Amish children attending school in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, garnered international attention in October, 2006. When the Amish responded with forgiveness and reconciliation, people were doubly shocked. Christian teaching and psychological research on forgiveness can appear as sterile narratives until tragedies upend everyday life. The authors of  Amish Grace offer informed readers the kind of details and analyses that allow Christian clinicians and researchers to consider how Christian virtues and psychological research on forgiveness and reconciliation may be integrated. The authors explore the virtues of grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation as they review the Amish response to the tragic school shooting of October 2, 2006 in Nickel Mines, Pennsy

THE NEXT CHRISTIANS:        THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE END OF  CHRISTIAN AMERICA By     Gabe Lyons   2010 Reviewed by    Geoffrey W. Sutton How do young Americans perceive Christians? Lyons reports the results of a study he commissioned to "understand the perceptions that sixteen-to twenty-nine-year-olds have about Christians (p. 3)" In the eleven chapters, Lyons explores these findings in the context of anecdotes and other research to suggest changes that appear to occur among Americans who self-identify as Christians. The book is a highly readable report of survey findings likely of interest to anyone following trends in American culture and religion. This book extends Lyon's previous interests reflected in unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity and Why itMatters , which he coauthored with David Kinnaman. I would characterize Lyon's approach as Purpose Driven Research . In the first part of   the book he outlines his case for th