Neil T. Anderson

“Have you read Neil T. Anderson?” “You’ve got to read Neil T. Anderson!” “I can’t believe you haven’t read Neil T. Anderson!”

We heard it over and over before we left the U.S. Apparently, Neil T. Anderson’s description and explanation of encounters with hostile spiritual forces was unparalleled and essential for life in a “non-Christian” country.

Well.

Victory Over The Darkness, the first of the pair, is sort of a theology of the demonic for people who don’t like words like “theology” and “demonic”. His arguments are incoherent. His scriptural exegesis is sloppy. And he builds it all on a dualistic worldview that is incompatible with the scriptural assertion that God is sovereign even over evil.

The Bondage Breaker was better, in part because quick skimming (see Alder and Van Doren) allowed me to see that the first few chapters were repetitions of Victory Over The Darkness. The last several chapters, though, are helpful guides to prayer, and I would recommend them highly, especially for anyone who can’t find more concise and biblical guidelines for healing prayer.

Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth is oversimplified to the point of condescension. There are a few insightful parts, but it shows an overall lack of appreciation for literature and church history.

Alder and Van Doren’s How to Read a Book treats the subject more thoughtfully and thoroughly.

Mortimer J. Alder and Charles Van Doren

I don’t include much trivia on the lives of authors reviewed on this site for one reason: I don’t remember much of it.

For those of you who are interested, though, I remember that Charles Van Doren was the guy involved in the TV game-show scandal portrayed in the film Quiz Show.

And then he went on to co-author a very good book with Mortimer Alder: How to Read a Book.

If there’s a prize for least-sexy titles, this has got to be a top contender. But read the title as though the authors were aware of its lack of sales appeal, and wanted to get a chuckle at the expense of the marketing department, and you’ll have a sense for the type of dry humor and dead-on insight you’ll find in the book.

I wish I followed its advice more thoroughly—especially with authors like Denis Johnson and Larry Brown, whom I know I read too quickly—but my failure only proves Alder and Van Doren’s success: they know how to describe the work it takes to appreciate the great ones.

There is no book I would recommend more highly for language teachers.

Neil T. Anderson

“Have you read Neil T. Anderson?” “You’ve got to read Neil T. Anderson!” “I can’t believe you haven’t read Neil T. Anderson!”

We heard it over and over before we left the U.S. Apparently, Neil T. Anderson’s description and explanation of encounters with hostile spiritual forces was unparalleled and essential for life in a “non-Christian” country.

Well.

Victory Over The Darkness, the first of the pair, is sort of a theology of the demonic for people who don’t like words like “theology” and “demonic”. His arguments are incoherent. His scriptural exegesis is sloppy. And he builds it all on a dualistic worldview that is incompatible with the scriptural assertion that God is sovereign even over evil.

The Bondage Breaker was better, in part because quick skimming (see Alder and Van Doren) allowed me to see that the first few chapters were repetitions of Victory Over The Darkness. The last several chapters, though, are helpful guides to prayer, and I would recommend them highly, especially for anyone who can’t find more concise and biblical guidelines for healing prayer.