The Mandalorian and Grogu

Shortly after season 3 of The Mandalorian television series and paraphrasing the opening crawl (found here):

Though the Empire has fallen (this is set after Return of the Jedi), Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to secure systems, they have enlisted the help of the Mandalorian and his young apprentice Grogu to hunt down these criminals in the Outer Rim. 

Here, Mando and Grogu get their hardest mission yet: tracking an elusive warlord whose whereabouts are known by the Hutts. But to get their cooperation, Mando has to do them a favor . . . and can the Hutts be trusted?

There was a lot I enjoyed about this film. I love the time period, it was fun seeing more of the Hutts (and some characters that appeared in previous series or films), the effects were good, some of the characters/moments were amusing, and the overall message was outstanding. Mando summarizes with this line:

The old protect the young. Then the young protect the old. This is the way.

That theme of sacrificing for the good of others is powerful.

I didn't love everything. My main complaint: this felt like two episodes of the television show stitched together, with a climax about halfway followed by a long dead period as the next storyline built up. Also, the delivery was quite linear with no side-stories or sub-plots. That's not bad, but it had points where it plodded along as a result. Finally, it didn't do much to close out the overall story of these two characters. 

Ultimately, this movie felt like they starting planning a fourth season of the television show, then abandoned that and decided to make a movie instead. I think it would have been better (and more powerful) as a mini-season. If you're a Mando fan, watch this, but you can wait until it hits Disney+.

Rating: B

How (Not) to be Secular (James K.A. Smith)

In 2007, Philosopher Charles Taylor published A Secular Age, “a book that offers a genealogy of the secular and an archaeology of our angst.” It looks at where we are and how we got here. And his approach is “not concerned with what people believe as much as with what is believable.”

In 2014, Theologian James K.A. Smith published How (Not) to be Secular, which is "a book about a book—a small field guide to a much larger scholarly tome." It takes Taylor's magisterial 900-page work and boils it down to a 133-page guide.

In 2026, amateur blogger John Mark McLean published this post, which is a 3-page summary of the book that summarizes Taylor. (I dare you to summarize my summary of Smith's summary of Taylor.)

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We live in a secular age. But what is that? Taylor defines three kinds of secular.

Secular₁: in classical/medieval times, temporal or earthly things (which presupposes a sacred/secular divide).

Secular₂: “a nonsectarian, neutral, and areligious space or standpoint.” (Which presupposes such a stance is possible.) Here, people grow disenchanted with religion, believing it to be irrational and divisive, and argue it is possible to “be governed by universal, neutral rationality.”

Secular₃: Here, “religious belief or belief in God is understood to be one option among others, and thus contestable (and contested). At issue here is a shift in ‘conditions of belief.’”

He believes we inhabit a Secular₃ age that masquerades as a Secular₂ age. It claims neutrality and poses as a natural shift away from religion that brings a positive benefit. Being secular is “not just unbelief,” however. “The emergence of the secular is also bound up with the production of a new option—the possibility of exclusive humanism as a viable social imaginary—a way of constructing meaning and significance without any reference to the divine or transcendence.” Our underlying framework has changed. So what happened?

In medieval times, Taylor argues its social imaginary contained three things:

1. “The natural world was constituted as a cosmos that functioned . . . as a sign that pointed beyond itself, to what was more than nature.”
2. “Society itself was understood as something grounded in a higher reality; earthly kingdoms were grounded in a heavenly kingdom.”
3. “People lived in an enchanted world, a world ‘charged’ with presences, that was open and vulnerable, not closed and self-sufficient.”

Over centuries, there was a shift (due to a host of factors, including the Renaissance, Enlightenment, Reformation). In modernity, he sees five elements:

1. “Disenchantment and the ‘Buffered’ Modern Self.” Things have natural causes/explanations, it’s more about our mind and interpretation, and we are insulated/isolated.
2. “Living Social.” Individuals “are the locus of meaning . . . [so] disbelief no longer has social consequences.”
3. “The carnival is over: ‘Lowering the Bar’ for Flourishing.” Instead of “trying to maintain an equilibrium between the demands of creaturely life and the expectations for eternal life,” the modern age says “you can stop being burdened by what eternity/salvation demands and simply frame ultimate flourishing within this world.”
4. “The Fullness of Time.” There used to be the notion that “time is transcended by ‘higher’ time” which is “not merely chronological or linear.” But here, “nothing ‘higher’ impinges on our calendars—only the tick-tock of chronos, and the self-imposed burdens of our ‘projects.’”
5. “From Cosmos to Universe.” “The shift from cosmos to universe—from ‘creation’ to ‘nature’—makes it possible to now imagine meaning and significance as contained within the universe itself, and autonomous, independent ‘meaning’ that is unhooked from any sort of transcendent narrative.”

And the tide kept turning. He talks about other shifts, including a “fourfold process of ‘immanentization.’”

• A shift away from “a sense of obligation ‘beyond’ human flourishing” [Christians say “thy will be done” of God] to “a new emphasis: providence is primarily about ordering this world for mutual benefit, particularly economic benefit.”
• A shift away from needing grace to “we can figure this out without assistance.”
• A shift away from God’s inscrutability/mysterious ways to “mystery can no longer be tolerated.”
• A shift away from the idea that God is transforming us (making all things new!). “We lose the sense that humanity’s end transcends its current configurations . . .”

He also sees a shift in politics to a “modern moral order” which “amounts to an ordering of society for mutual benefit” but is “unhooked from the specifics of Christian doctrines and tethered to a more generic deistic god,” making it “independent of any specific—and hence contestable—claims about . . . God.” “The ultimate and transcendent are retained but marginalized and made increasingly irrelevant.” This “is a kind of secularization of Christian universalism.”

He sees the shift in religion, too. To a view that God is impersonal and inactive.

What do these shifts mean in aggregate? It has changed “what we take for granted.”

Aside: we all live with “an unchallenged framework” that “becomes part of the background that governs our being-in-the-world.” And that “our ‘take’ is not something reasoned to as much as it is something we reason from.” All of us live with basic orientations that (no matter how seemingly ‘neutral’) are value-laden. What do you consider uncontestable (or uncritically accept)? That is a clue to your framework. Nobody is intellectually independent; we all serve some authority, even if we don’t recognize it.

Where are we today? The shifts mentioned above have produced a different imaginary (what Taylor calls “exclusive humanism”). And yet “Our secular age is [not] an age of disbelief; it’s an age of believing otherwise. We can’t tolerate living in a world without meaning. So if the transcendence that previously gave significance to the world is lost, we need a new account of meaning—a new ‘imaginary’ that enables us to imagine a meaningful life within this now self-sufficient universe of gas and fire.” And while some “assume that this is just ‘the way things are,’ in fact what we take for granted is contingent and contestable.” And we all contest it, in our own way, as we sense something has been lost. “’We moderns’ are not entirely comfortable with modernity.”

So we live in a time “where ‘the secular’ and ‘the religious’ haunt each other in a mutual dance of displacement and decentering.” Indeed, “our age is haunted. On the one hand, we live under a brass heaven, ensconced in immanence. We live in the twilight of both gods and idols. But their ghosts have refused to depart, and every once in a while we might be surprised to find ourselves tempted by belief, by intimations of transcendence . . . on the other hand, even as faith endures in our secular age, believing doesn’t come easy. Faith is fraught; confession is haunted by an inescapable sense of its contestability. We don’t believe instead of doubting; we believe while doubting. We’re all Thomas now.”

What is the result of this mutual haunting? A “nova effect”—“an explosion of options for finding (or creating) ‘significance’” because “all sorts of people find themselves caught” in “’cross-pressures’—pushed by the immanence of disenchantment on one side, but also pushed by a sense of significance and transcendence on another side, even if it might be a lost transcendence.” This book’s ultimate argument “is that most of live in this cross-pressured space, where both our agnosticism and our devotion are mutually haunted and haunting.” We have “doubt and longing, faith and questioning.”

Where to from here? How should the Christian respond? Perhaps not by focusing on evidence or data (which in a sense concedes the game and points to human reason as the highest ideal) “but rather to offer an alternative story that offers a more robust, complex understanding of the Christian faith”. Ultimately “the appeal is to a ‘sense,’ a feel for things.” “It is not demonstrable except insofar as it offers a better account of our experience.”

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Smith's book is great; I assume Taylor's is, too. A highly useful guide to understanding our times. Recommended.

Rating: A

The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad (Various)

In Howard Pyle's The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur, the author mentions that Sir Galahad had many adventures "of which no account hath been given" before he achieved the Grail. Rejoice . . . for account hath now been given! In this collection from Rabbit Room Press, 25 authors provide as many stories of what happened in that time, claiming discovery of "a hidden trove of medieval manuscripts" that finally shed light on Galahad's adventures.

Listed as for children (aged 8 and up), I was unexpectedly pleased with this volume. The authors do a good job maintaining the spirit of classic Arthurian tales while infusing a more accurate (yet softly-spoken) Christian message in them. (Many of the original tales show a distorted/works-based view of the Gospel, in my opinion.) There is okay humor and fun cultural references, too (mostly geared towards juveniles, but some gems only adults will catch). Recommended.

Rating: A

Excalibur

Today's review is of the 2026 release, Excalibur. For 2-8 players, it takes 20 minutes.

Overview

In this party game, your goal is to become king of Avalon by possessing the legendary Excalibur sword when the game ends. But you must be cunning . . . for thieves and other characters abound who also yearn for the blade. Do you have what it takes?

Excalibur is a chip-based game. Two of the game's three swords—Excalibur and the Cursed Blade—are set aside at the start. Other chips are randomly chosen and added to the initial pool to equal the number of players, all are shuffled and secretly handed out (so each player has one to start), then each player draws chips from any region (there are three) in Avalon so that all players start with four chips. The game begins.

The three regions of Avalon; image from here

One player starts with the crown. All players secretly choose one of their chips, hold them in their hand, then reveal them simultaneously. The starting player goes first and the chips are resolved in clockwise order. Each chip has a role and ability on it; generally, these allow you to draw chips (from Avalon), steal (from other players), swap (with chips in Avalon or other players' hands), and so on. The game comes with a reference card that clarifies each role.

example chips; image from here

the rules and role references; image from here

As chips are used, they are trashed. Once all players have resolved their chips in a round, the crown passes clockwise, players draw back up to four chips, and the next round starts. Play continues until one or two regions in Avalon are empty; then the player with Excalibur wins, the player with the Cursed Sword loses, and the player with the Squire's Sword shares the win *only* if they are adjacent to the player with Excalibur.

Review

This is a fun and fast party game. Almost like hot potato inverted; you want to end up with the sword when the music stops. Chances are, you'll be able to figure out who has it at some point in the game, and chaos ensues as each player scrambles to get it. The chips have some fun abilities on them, and enable players to steal, swap, or even put the sword back in the middle. As you can keep shuffling your chips, even players who steal from you might not get what they want . . . it reminded me of the "where's the baseball" game at Camden Yards, where the ball is hidden under one crab and you try to track it as it is whirled around the screen with other crabs. The Arthurian theme is just pasted on (unfortunately), but this is still a winner.

Rating: A

Replayability (GDJ 6)

"Man Writing" by Oliver Ray

It's been almost six years (!) since my last game design journal post. But my dream of making a game some day remains, and 'never stop starting'. Today's post looks at replayability, with a simple thesis:

A good game has high replayability.

Okay . . . so what is replayability? A starting point: a replayable tabletop game is "a game that is enjoyable even after many plays." What makes a game enjoyable? As I explore here and here, that is based on some mixture of meaningful choices, chance, and challenge. Through that lens, I would define a replayable tabletop game as "a game that consistently presents players of all skill and familiarity levels with an engaging and enjoyable challenge." 

Why does replayability matter? It is perhaps easiest to describe this through looking at the antithesis. A non-replayable game is one easily solved—where there is one obvious path/strategy to victory, and once a player gains enough familiarity with the game, must choose that path/strategy if they care about winning. In short, a non-replayable game does not present a challenge after many plays, leaving players bored and looking for other options.

All games can be solved to some degree (veterans of a game will have an idea of which strategies are more effective), but in good games, the decision tree doesn't narrow much: there is enough 1) balance, 2) variation, and/or 3) skill required in execution that even veterans will have meaningful choices to make and view it as a challenge. I think it comes down to those three factors, which I explore more below.

Balance. By this I mean that the game is fundamentally sound and well-designed; there is no superior strategy built in (knowingly or unwittingly) by the designers that would narrow the decision tree from the outset. If a given strategy is more likely to succeed, it must be harder to implement. A silly example of a perfectly-balanced game: rock-paper-scissors. 

Variation. Many games use variation to boost replayability. Here are a few ways designers do this:

- modular boards (changing game board itself)

- unique player abilities (by being assigned a character, for example)

- different win conditions or objectives, randomly chosen before each game

- different ways to earn points

- common chance elements (shuffling decks, rolling dice)

- introducing expansions to add elements (and, in cases of Collectible Card Games, rotating older expansions out of legality, forcing players to use new cards)

Skill in execution. Think chess. There is no variation in setup or chance elements in that game—just pure skill. And it has remained a popular tabletop game for centuries. Just because you know how the pieces move doesn't mean you can play well . . . every board state requires a tremendous degree of analysis. You could argue that this is a subset of the variation category . . . but I think it merits separate contemplation, as the variation is caused solely by the movements each participant chooses.

Are there any other categories to consider for replayability?

If you love games, think about which ones have proven replayable for you and why. Or which ones have been 'solved' and left untouched as a result.

Building a Godly Home

This past weekend was an annual men's retreat. As is my custom, I summarize and post the talks below. The speakers this year were Bob, Geoff, Kendall, Wayne, and Edward, all speaking on aspects of what it means to build a Godly home.

Session 1: God creates the home

When we think about building anything, you need to know what materials you have. God tells us this in Scripture. In this talk, we look at three things that were true before the fall of man.

1. A call to radical optimism
• In Genesis 1:28, God commands man to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion. How can we possibly achieve this?
• Look at Genesis 1:27. God creates man in his own image, and it goes on to use a singular pronoun (created ‘him’) followed by a plural (created ‘them’). We are individuals within a plurality; God’s design for our home [or sphere of influence] is as an individual plus being with others in community.
• We should thus have a radical optimism on what we can build.
2. A call to humble realism
• Consider Genesis 2:19-20. There was Adam and all the animals . . . and no suitable helper for him. Before the fall, by design, we need help! We cannot do it on our own.
• It is easy for us to begrudge each other and grow weary of the other’s persistent imperfections, but remember that the people you are building with are image-bearers and need help. We also need to be humble enough to accept help—to embrace our own need.
3. We are utterly compatible
• See Genesis 2:18, 21-23. Woman was taken from man. Made in the same place, out of the same stuff, for the same purpose. Adam calls Eve “bone of my bone.”
• It is tempting to view man and woman as entirely different. Instead, appreciate and celebrate the compatible person God gave you. Look to unity of purpose, and not what divides.

Session 2: Sin wrecks the home

How did the fall of man affect building a Godly home?

We were created with a purpose and obligation to serve God. We were never intended to be free agents, but with our whole being, we were to consecrate all that we do as an offering to God, demonstrating we are not our own. We consecrate ourselves primarily through listening and doing what God says, and not considering alternatives to what God tells us. Man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deut. 8:3 and Matthew 4:4). This should be a joyful obedience . . . but man fell (see Genesis 3).

After the fall, our consecrated purpose and obligation continues (see Hebrews 11:4 about Abel). But we are now evil (and God remains holy). Sin crouches at our door and wants to rule us (Genesis 4:6-7). What hope do we have?

In order for God to dwell in our midst (which is the essence of truly building a Godly home), Man needs to be consecrated—set apart for God as sinless, or holy through purging of evil and putting off sin. And that is only possible in Jesus. Paul tells us that through our union with Christ, we have died to sin and raised with him to new life (see Colossians 2:12-14).

Through Jesus, God is accomplishing his goal of building a Godly home. We are sinless through the work of Christ, and God's Spirit now indwells us, sanctifying us from inside out. God is dwelling in our midst now, and will be building a permanent, more glorious home yet in the future (Revelation 21:3). In this present life, we are to make all our actions as consecrated actions, doing all things in His name (Colossians 3:17, 23-24) and through His strength (John 15:5). And it is through the Spirit that we can break the bond of sin (Romans 8:1-9).

Yet as we continue to struggle with our sinful nature (Romans 7:19-25), we recognize we are in a spiritual battle., where we need to "put off " the sinful, selfish nature and at the same time "put on" the new nature being re-created in us by God's Spirit working in us. This leads to seven practical steps we should take:

1. We must choose: will we worship God or worship ourselves?
2. Commit to live by God’s word, not our own sense of right and wrong
3. Realize the spiritual battle (within and around us) and decide what to do about it
4. Recognize our need for forgiveness and boldly approach our Savior for it
5. Commit to repent and live differently (Colossians 3:5)
6. Be bold, courageous, and lead speaking truth. Don’t give up, knowing God is working in and through you. He will complete what He starts (Philippians 1:6)!

Session 3: God redeems the home

Though man fell (see previous session), God had a plan to redeem him.

In Genesis 17:1-8, God establishes a covenant with Abraham (God always acts first), promising blessing and multiplying and to be his God. Though we rejected God . . . He didn’t reject us. He rescues us from our burdens (see Exodus 6:7), adopts us (Ephesians 1:3-5), and is with us now (Matthew 28:20) and will dwell with us forever (Revelation 21:3). He wants to be with us!

Have you ever taken count of your blessings? We are blessed in so many ways . . . and yet we have darkness and struggles. Idols dominate relationships. There is evil, death, and hardship. And yet . . . we are in Christ.

Jesus uses hard things to grow and help us. He is sovereign even over the darkness in our life. We are promised trials, but it is to bring about God’s good purpose (see 1 Corinthians 4:11-13, James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 1:6-7). “God wastes no pain.”

Jesus wants to be our God, and for us to be His people. He gifts/equips us (2 Timothy 1:6-7) and sanctifies us (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). He prays for us to be one with Him and the Father (John 17:20-23). Because of the redemption we have in Christ . . . the darkness will not overcome.

Session 4: We have a mission

The Christian life is not about yourself. We are commanded to go and make disciples (in and outside of your home). Consider how Jesus did so.

Read Matthew 10:1-7. Jesus appoints disciples and immediately sends them out to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, heal the sick, and more. That Jesus sends them out before being fully mature shows that their effectiveness (and ours) depends on the Spirit, not our competence, and indicates that we should not wait until we feel we are ready before we obey. (Indeed, one way to grow and fight our self-centeredness is to help others—see Philippians 2:3-8.) In doing this, the disciples learned 1) that they needed help (both God’s strength and each other) and 2) avoided hubris.

How did Jesus tell them to do things? To behave in a way that doesn’t impede the gospel (see 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 or 10:24).

What are we to do? To be just, kind, and walk humbly with God (see Micah 6:8). To visit the needy and keep unstained from the world (see James 1:27).

What is our motive? Love, without which we are nothing (see 1 Corinthians 13:1-7). Love involves doing good things and laying down our life for others, and when we do so, we are doing so for Jesus (see John 15:13-14, 1 John 3:16, and Matthew 25:31-40).

Our call is to outward mission. Our motivation is love, which we can model because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). When the journey gets hard, here are four meditational aids to help us remember that we are loved.

1. Be reminded of the creator/creation intimacy (see Psalm 139). We are known! The Creator knows me well and calls me his child.
2. Think seriously about how sin severs that relationship (see Psalm 32:3-5) and not being right with others can hinder our prayers (see 1 Peter 3:7). We need the greater affection of being with Jesus to take over to overcome our sin.
3. Reflect on examples (real or fictional) where people lay down their life for others. These stories can be flawed but powerful and pack an emotional punch, pointing us to what Christ did for us and demands of us (John 15:12-13). We should meditate on the perfect and real sacrifice of Christ until it moves us at least as much—the Lord’s Supper is for that purpose.
4. Remember a sense of belonging and our end (see Matthew 25:21)—entering the joy of our Maker!

Session 5: Building like a man

God created the home. Sin wrecked the home. God redeemed the home. We have a mission. So how do we build a Godly home? There are five pillars to consider, using 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 as the text.

1. Diligent Watchfulness
• Whatever flows out of our hearts flows into our homes. We are called to watch two things: our hearts (Proverbs 4:23) and for the enemy (1 Peter 5:8).
2. Firmness in the Faith
• Cultivate a hunger for the truth of God (Proverbs 23:23)
• Where does our time/attention go? Is it on knowing Christ and making Him known?
3. Courageous Masculinity
• We are called to be bold like the righteous (Proverbs 28:1). How can we? It is given to us/declared of us in Christ. We must therefore strive for bold, fearless action, avoiding fear, passivity, pride, and anger.
4. Active Strength
• To be strong, we need to recognize our innate weakness and sense of need (2 Timothy 2:1), modeling humble reliance on the grace of God.
5. All-encompassing Love
• Let all we do be done in love (1 Corinthians 13)
• “A Godly man must be all of love or all he does is all for naught.”
• “Love is biblical faith worked out in proper order.”

Maul—Shadow Lord: Season 1

It is a year after Revenge of the Sith. Jedi Master Daki and his Apprentice Devon hide on an unnamed planet, eking out an existence in the shadows. Elsewhere on the same world, Maul does the same. When the Imperials learn that these Force-wielders are present, they send Inquisitors to eradicate the problem. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend . . ." but can Jedi fight beside fallen Sith without being corrupted?

Maul—Shadow Lord is an excellent animated series, filling in the gaps between Episode III and Solo (from a movie perspective) and between Bad Batch and Rebels (from a television perspective). The title character is intriguing—a Sith dedicated to destroying his former master. It creates some intriguing dynamics. Though you know how his story ends, and this series is largely an extended hunt/chase sequence, it is suspenseful and captivating. Recommended.

Rating: A

Scythe

Today's review is of the 2016 release, Scythe. For 1-5 players, it takes two hours.

Overview

In a steampunk-inspired version of Europe after the Great War, five factions vie for dominance. You will construct buildings, gain resources, build mechs, and perform other actions to expand your influence and earn stars (once one player has completed six, the game ends and is scored). You'll want to increase military power, popularity, resources, money, and territory to be successful. That's a lot . . . do you have what it takes to prevail?

In Scythe, each player gets a character, associated faction board (showing their faction and unique abilities) and action board (showing eight standard actions arranged in four columns of two each, but arranged differently on each—more on that below). Everyone gets mechs (placed on their faction board), workers, and cubes (placed on their action board). After setup (placing your character in its starting space and placing two workers in adjacent hexes), turn proceeds clockwise. 

game box showing contents; image from here

On your turn, you choose a column and take one or both actions, from top to bottom, in that column if you can. The actions simplified:

Top row (economic or movement):

• Move (move up to 2 units (worker, mech, or character) to an adjacent hex) or Gain (1 coin)
• Produce (gain resources from two territories containing workers)
• Resources are metal, oil, wood, food, and workers
• Bolster (increase military power and draw a combat card)
• Trade (pay 1 coin for any two resources or two popularity)

Bottom row:

• Upgrade (pay enough oil to improve your action board by moving a cube from a top action [increasing yield of that] and moving it to a bottom action [reducing the cost of that])
• Deploy (pay enough metal to build a mech, which is required to move over certain terrain and help fight battles)
• Build (pay enough wood to construct a building to unlock bonuses)
• Buildings are armory (helps military), mill (helps resource generation), mine (helps movement), and monument (helps popularity).
• Enlist (pay enough food to recruit personnel by moving a cylinder from your action to your faction board, gaining both an immediate bonus and an ongoing effect based on what adjacent players do)

On your next turn, you must choose a different column, so plan wisely! Efficiency is key; it's best if you can take both actions in the chosen column. And note: each action board has different action pairs per column (so one board might pair Move with Upgrade, while another pairs Move with Build). 

A word on combat: if your figure or mech enters a space with another player's character or mech, a battle ensues. Each player gets a combat dial, where they secretly choose a value (from 0 to 7) of combat power (which cannot exceed their current total), then secretly may add combat cards (from 2 to 5) based on how many plastic figures (character+mech(s)) they have in that space. Totals are revealed, combat power is reduced on that track based on what the player spent [which doesn't count combat cards], and the winner kicks the loser back to their starting space, gaining any resources they had in the combat hex.

A word on stars: you can earn up to six, but there are more ways to earn them:

• Complete all 6 Upgrades
• Deploy all 4 Mechs
• Build all 4 Structures
• Enlist all 4 Recruits
• Have all 8 Workers on the board
• Complete 1 Objective Card (a secret mission on a card given at the start of the game)
• Win a Combat (up to 2)
• Reach 18 Popularity 
• Reach 16 Power

After one player earns six, the game ends and victory points are tallied (a coin total, which is obtained by summing categories (stars, territories controlled, resources held, and structure bonus tiles), each of which is multiplied by a value determined by your popularity level. The highest wins!

You can watch how to play here.

Review

This game is currently ranked 26 overall on BoardGameGeek, a tremendously high ranking that hints at its popularity and quality. And I see why: the asymmetric factions are fun, the mechanics are tight, the nuances (like the action pairing) are intriguing and highly replayable. The art and theme are cool. I enjoyed it overall.

As with other asymmetric games, this is complex. There's a lot going on, it takes a long time, and it was very hard for me to track my own actions and everyone else's given different faction and action boards. I could 'micro-strategize' (plot out the next 2-3 turns) well enough, but the bigger picture and larger strategy was lost on me. The varying action boards are intriguing but inherently give some faction/action board combinations an unfair advantage [in fact, some pairings have been banned by the game designers as a result]. Though they have banned the most egregious examples, I believe there can still be some competitive imbalance from the start due to this factor. A few more plays could change (or confirm) my opinion. 

Overall, I would recommend it, but for a serious gaming crowd.

Rating: A-

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be (Farley Mowat)

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be is a humorous memoir about a boy and his dog growing up in Dustbowl-era Saskatchewan (1930s).

Mutt is a unique dog. Bought for four cents off a boy trying to sell ducks, this unorthodox canine had an intriguing life in the Mowat household. His misadventures could infuriate the family (and the locals), but he would grow to be a tremendous (if quirky) hunting dog, much beloved by the boy and parents.

This book is a lot of fun. Mowat is a master of writing—the tales are amusing enough, but the delivery (his words and phrases are nigh-poetic) increases the enjoyment tenfold. It's more than humorous, though; it is a poignant look at a bygone era, when boyhood meant exploration and adventure, traipsing around with a dog (or an owl . . .) before modernity's technology and limitations. It also offered glimpses into the all-too-familiar (and often hilarious) relational dynamics between husband and wife, parent and son. Highly recommended.

Rating: A

God & Culture (Various)

God & Culture is a 1993 work by a number of notable theologians of the time, dedicated to honoring Carl F.H. Henry. It presents essays on a number of topics related to culture, including pluralism, eschatology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, history, economics, law, politics, literature, art, media, science, environmentalism, bioethics, leisure, and more.

Since this covers a wide range, I make no attempt to summarize it here. I recorded eight pages worth of notes for a class I am preparing . . . of those, I present a few highlights below as representative of themes throughout the book.

Culture is "a shared set of human activities and works that express ultimate beliefs and values." It matters because it is "the fruit of a theology or worldview." (Kevin Vanhoozer)

Pluralism is the expectation of our age, and open-mindedness with it. This pervades our culture. But note: "in the popular mind open-mindedness is no longer connected with a willingness to consider alternative views but with a dogmatic relativizing of all views." (D.A. Carson) People claim there is no objective truth, which is self-contradictory, as that is held up as an objective standard. We all operate with some truth in mind.

Our culture (and all disciplines) are "shaped by shared assumptions and value commitments." (Robert Priest) Our work and approach to it reflects "a value-laden judgment that is how the world ought to be described." (Ian Smith) But because of our sinful natures, "What we want, heaven help us, is simultaneously to be perfectly ruled and perfectly free." (Philip Johnson) In recent centuries, we appeal to reason. But "If human reason aspires to be the judge of God’s statements, it makes itself the unevaluated evaluator—which is to say that it takes God’s place." (Philip Johnson) One key here is recognizing our assumptions (both individually and collectively held) and asking how they align to what we claim to be ultimately true. What are our presuppositions—unquestioned (and largely unprovable) truths that drive us?

As we examine culture, we need to sift it finely. It may be that we approve of one aspect "without endorsing all of it," or we might "disagree with part of it without devaluing it entirely." (Leland Ryken)

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As with any compilation, the entries varied. Some essays were outstanding; others only so-so. Some have stood up well; others felt dated (thirty years is a long time in terms of cultural change—society has changed a lot since then). But overall, this is a solid read and recommended.

Rating: A-

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Continuing the story from The Super Mario Bros. Movie . . .

Bowser Junior wants revenge—and he knows how to get it. Kidnapping Princess Rosalina, he intends to harness her power to destroy worlds. Can Peach, Mario, Luigi and crew stop him? 

Much like the first film, don't expect character development or much in the way of story or message (though Mario does show grace to his enemies on several occasions). Those (big) things aside, there were elements to enjoy. The animation is spectacular, the music is a well-done homage to classic video game fare, and there are plenty of nods to various Nintendo titles. If you are unfamiliar with the video games, I don't see you enjoying this. But if you are—even a few of them—you can find something to enjoy.

Rating: C+

Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

Today's review is of the 2012 release, Legendary: a Marvel Deck Building Game. For 1-5 players, it takes 30-60 minutes.

Overview

You and your friends need to fight villains, rescue bystanders, and take down the mastermind before too many villains escape with bystanders. This is a semi-cooperative game: you'll either win as an individual (if you have the most points if the team collectively wins the scenario) or all lose.

Game play follows the typical flow of deckbuilding: after choosing a mastermind, scheme, and set of hero cards [shuffling all heroes together to form a hero deck], each person starts with the decks of 12 cards (basic resource or damage cards), draws 6, and play begins. On a turn, the active player:

- draws a card from the villain deck and adds it to the city, shifting existing cards down the row and/or doing any effects as stated (which may trigger scheme or mastermind effects)

- plays cards from their hand to damage/defeat villains or buy cards from HQ to add to their decks (all purchased cards go in the discard pile)

- discards unused cards

- replenishes the HQ by adding cards from the hero deck to it

- draws 6 cards (shuffling the discard pile to create a new deck if needed)

The game board; image from here

Play continues until the winning (or losing) conditions are met. Once that happens, if the players collectively have defeated the scenario, the one with the most points (gained by defeating villains and rescuing bystanders) wins. If the players lost the scenario . . . everyone lost.

Other things to note: 

Some cards from the villain deck will trigger mastermind or scheme effects. 

Villains can escape the city if they are shifted off the board and may take bystanders with them (you lose if 8 total bystanders leave in this way). 

Masterminds can be defeated by doing damage to them equal to or exceeding their stated value, but you have to defeat them four times to win the scenario. 

Buying cards from HQ is key to winning. These hero cards have different abilities, which could mean doing more damage or gaining more resources than the basic cards or having a special ability.

You can see a more in-depth overview here at Watch It Played.

Review

I enjoyed this one. The semi-cooperative aspect is fun. The customization/replayability are high (but that also means long setup/teardown times due to preparing decks). Like any deckbuilder, the HQ can get clogged with higher-cost cards (that happened to us), and the villains can be clumped disadvantageously (that also happened), meaning some turns are wasted. But that aside, the game was intuitive and interesting. Recommended.

Rating: A

For Sale

Today's review is of the 1997 release, For Sale. For 3-6 players, it takes 30 minutes.

Overview

You are a real estate mogul, intent on buying the best properties—and selling them for the most profit.

Each player starts with 14 coins (each is $1,000), the two types of card decks are shuffled independently, and then the game is played over two rounds.

Round 1: buying buildings

There are 30 building cards, valued 1-30. Each turn within this round, X building cards are placed in a row (X= number of players). The players bid clockwise and can either raise the current bid or pass. If they pass, they take the lowest-valued building still in the row (and return half of their bid, rounded up, to the game box). That player is out of the rest of the turn. The other players continue bidding or passing until all buildings are purchased. (The last player standing must pay their entire bid.) Then the next turn begins, with X more buildings laid out in the row. Turns continue until all buildings have been purchased.

example building cards; image from here

Round 2: selling buildings

There are 30 "check" cards, valued 0 or 2-15 (and there are two copies of each). Each turn within this round, X check cards are placed in a row. The players secretly choose one of the building cards they received in the first round. When all have chosen, the cards are turned face-up, and the owner of the highest-valued card takes the highest-value check. The owner of the next highest-valued card takes the next check, and so on until all checks are taken. Then the next turn begins, with X more checks laid out. Turns continue until all checks have been taken.

examlpe check cards; image from here

At the end of the game, the player with the most money (total check card value + remaining coins from round 1) at the end wins!

Review

This game is a light, fast, and fun auction experience—both open and secret. Better with more people (5-6). Since you start the game with only 14 coins, you must bid carefully; run out of coins early in round 1 in the open auction, and you'll be stuck with low-value properties the rest of that round. And round 2 has that secret auction element, enabling you to get back in the game even with lower-valued properties if you can play your cards correctly. Overall, this is a winner.

Rating: A-

Carl's Doomsday Scenario (Matt Dinniman)

Picking up from last time, where Carl and Princess Donut made it through the first two levels of the dungeon that has become their world now that the Apocalypse has come (and is televised) . . .

Level three is the Over City—a sprawling world replete with ruins and echoes of a past calamity that have left its surviving inhabits in rough shape. But still dangerous shape—even the inhabited towns hold secrets and horrors that force our heroes to choose: will they help these pitiful souls and complete mysterious quests? Or is it really all about survival?

I enjoyed book one well enough, but I expected the sequel to be more of the same and grow stale. I was wrong. I liked this better—though the entire book covers just one level (remember, there are 18 total . . .), there is a surpising depth to this (on top of the endearing absurdity) that makes the tale thoroughly engrossing. The standard warnings from before apply: beware profanity/violence/crude humor. But if you can stomach that, this is a good one. And I'm hooked. 

Rating: A

Daredevil: Doing Time

Continuing from last time . . .

Daredevil is in prison, wrestling with his conscience and faith as friends try to talk him out of his decision to serve behind bars. Elektra has assumed his role as protector of Hell's Kitchen. And enemies abound . . . the Knulls have invaded.* The new Kingpin is asserting herself. And the prison warden wants Matt dead . . . 

This was a good story, looking at Matt fighting with himself on what it means to be a man of God. The art was great, too. The only detriment was the Knull storyline, that seem to burst in and disappear just as quickly. Apparently that is part of a larger story arc, and as I haven't read the other titles, I was lost there. Otherwise, this is solid.

Rating: A-

*Which is apparently part of the King in Black event.

Dungeon Crawler Carl (Matt Dinniman)

One minute, Carl is trying to coax his ex-girlfriend's cat (Princess Donut) out of a tree in the middle of a freezing night. The next, he finds himself one of Earth's few survivors as he is shepherded into a dungeon and told to fight for his life. Apparently, the apocalypse will be televised to an intergalactic audience, and Carl and Donut must find a way to survive by gaining new skills, leveling up, and finding a stairway to the next level of the dungeon before the current one collapses. If they can make it to level 18, they may just survive . . . but this game might be rigged.

This book—the first in a Literary Role-Playing Game (LitRPG) series—is all the rage, and I wanted to see why. I enjoyed it; its absurdist humor and clear parallels to video game RPGs were fun (but beware profanity, innuendo, and violence). There is also an overarching element of mystery involving those responsible for Earth's collapse and their motives/goals which was captivating and stays unresolved as the book ends. Speaking of—it ends somewhat abruptly, making it clear that the series is not a sequence of self-contained tales but one long story arc. With book eight due out this year and no end in sight, I am questioning if I want to invest in reading the rest of the series. But I do want to know what happens next . . . so I'll keep going for now.

Rating: B+

The Clay Pot Conspiracy (Dave Harvey)

In The Clay Pot Conspiracy, Pastor Dave Harvey argues that for those in ministry, "leadership was never about exactling out strengths. God's plan was always to deliver his strength through our weakness." He delivers an equation:

Our Weakness + God's Power = Resilient Ministry

and then discusses what he calls 'seven wonders' that collectively show this to be true:

1. Store Treasure in Clay (see 2 Corinthians 4:7)
• Our "weakness reveals our inadequacy," and reveals that "it's about God's power, not ours. It's about God's grace, not our grit." "The perfection of Christ is greater than the cracks in your pot."
2. Make Death Produce Life (see 2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
• "Paul's vision of leadership was to carry death in your body so that God can display the life of Jesus." "What if the heart of leadership is more about becoming living displays of broken vitality?" What if God is "silencing one brand of confidence to cultivate another"?
• "Your burdens and pain are not obstacles to resilience. They're the means of producing it."
3. Let Repentance Stoke Resilience
• We always need to repent. When we see more of Christ, we see more of our sin—and it never ends. "The biggest threat to leadership resilience is our unrelenting battle against indwelling sin."
• "Sin always subverts God's good things with the promise that vice will deliver a greater delight." "Sin cons, then consumes. It deceives, then devours." We fight and fail and keep fighting. Ultimately, "our brokenness moves us toward humility and dependence, not moral perfection."
4. Learn Love When the Church Wounds You
• "We are limited and fallible—flawed shepherds leading imperfect sheep." "To truly love the church, we must come to terms with her imperfections." People will hurt us (and we them). Our love will be "misunderstood or unrequited. Or . . . our own wins [will] blunt the impact or intent of our friendship or service." "The church will disappoint you in ways that attack your faith to love and serve her." "Yet even when she acts ugly, she is still Christ's bride. You must see her, not simply by how she fails but in light of who she is becoming."
5. Remember God Uses Enemies to Enlarge Your Soul (see Psalm 56)
• "Leadership is a call to come under assault." "God will use our enemies to uncover our idols. He will use foes to build our faith." "God will help you embody what you have said to others about grace and love."
6. Build Strong Teams Through Weak Leaders
• We tend to focus on the wrong things when building teams. Instead, we should "aim for HEALTHY practices:"
• Honor others
• Encourage more than you want to be encouraged
• Acknowledge weaknesses more than parading strength
• Look to the interests of others
• Talk less, and listen more
• Help the weak
• Yearn for Christ
7. Run Together to Finish Well
• "God made us relational, and he made ministry a shared endeeavor." Like Christian in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, we are "never a stunning specimen of determined law-keeping." We are prone to wander and stumble . . . and yet we are never running the race alone. The Lord puts people in our lives to help us, and empowers us with His spirit. We will finish the race well, but we will not do it alone. We must run together. 

This book's content was outstanding; the delivery was okay. It would have benefitted from more exploration and examples. Some things were powerful mentioned in passing but could have been moreso if more deeply probed. Nevertheless, check this one out. 

Rating: A-

Daredevil: Truth/Dare

Continuing from last time . . .

Things are returning to normal in Hell's Kitchen. Well, normal for Hell's Kitchen . . . the mob war has been quieted as Kingpin manipulates things to his liking. Matt seeks a way to save the residents from losing their homes as he wrestles with his past demons. Ultimately, he decides to turn himself in . . . Daredevil is going to jail. Who will protect the people now?

An excellent story continues . . . this one felt a bit like important backstory as the tale builds to a crescendo.

Rating: A-

Project Hail Mary

The Sun is being eaten. Earth has just decades before it cools to the point of mass extinction. The world launches a one-way interstellar spacecraft to study the one known star unaffected by this phenomenon . . . and send the results back to save the world.

Scientist Ryland Grace wakes up on-board the spacecraft with no idea how he got there. He's alone . . . and Earth's only hope. Or is he? When he encounters an alien craft near the unaffected star, hope is born. But it will require sacrifice.

This movie is outstanding. It's an amazing blend of story, mystery, suspense, humor, effects, and message. It is at its core a powerful look at the need for others and self-sacrifice. Highly recommended.

Rating: A

X-men Origins: Wolverine

Logan (aka Wolverine) was heavily featured in the first three X-men films from 2000-06. This 2009 film looks at his backstory. 

Logan his brother Victor are different. with claws and regeneration abilities, they seem nigh-immortal and destined for unending battles, fighting in the Civil War up to present day. And Colonel Stryker has taken notice. 

Stryker recruits them for his strike force, and they live as mercenaries fighting around the globe—until Logan has had enough. He abandons the team and seeks a new life.

With peace, a girlfriend, and job as a lumberjack in the Canadian Rockies, Logan enjoys solitude for a few years . . . until he learns that someone has been hunting down his old team. He will be forced to confront his past—and face his future—with everything on the line.

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I wanted to like this movie, and there were elements that satisfied (like the action, some of the twists, and seeing Gambit make his big-screen debut). But ultimately, I think this movie suffered from trying to do too much. Was the focus on Wolverine? His relationship with his brother? His enmity towards Stryker? The rise of Deadpool? The origin of the X-men? Or just being a simple action-laced spectacle? The answer is yes and no to all of those. 

Stepping back to look at the X-men franchise, it gets confusing. Wolverine has a trilogy of his own (2009-2017), which is interlaced with (and yet separate from) the other films. Ultimately, this movie was subsequently retconned with the X-men:First Class series (2011-19), especially Days of Future Past. See my overview page for the X-men films and links to each. It is best enjoyed as an action-filled romp that held promise but tried to deliver on too many fronts and was since superceded by better tales.

Rating: B-

The Last Manager (John W. Miller)

The Last Manager is a biography about Earl Weaver, the legendary and controversial manager of the Baltimore Orioles from 1968-82 and 85-86. It covers his childhood in St. Louis, minor-league career,  brief foray into the big leagues, years spent at the O's helm, and life after retirement. 

Weaver was a spitfire. He yelled at Umps. He kicked dirt on home plate. He screamed at this players (but never held a grudge). He cussed, smoked, drank, and threatened. Ultimately, he rallied and united his players through hatred—of him.

Weaver was also a visionary. He was years ahead of his time in using data to make decisions. He preached approaches now widely used throughout the sport. He was respected and successful, winning four pennants and one World Series and coaching Hall-of-Famers including Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Jim Palmer, and Cal Ripken Jr.

This book was a fun read, presenting a complex portrait of a man both revered and disdained by friends and foes alike. I wish it was longer. I'd recommend it for baseball fans and middle-aged Orioles fans in particular, whose memories of the players and times mentioned will increase their enjoyment.

Rating: A-

Venom

When journalist Eddie Brock tries to expose Life Foundation owner Carlton Drake as a criminal, he loses everything—his job, his reputation, his relationship. But he will soon gain something much more . . .

Carlton Drake's company has found alien life, and is secretly studying the specimens on Earth. These symbiotes cannot survive on their own; they need a suitable host. And one just got away . . .

As a symbiote bonds with Brock, he discovers his tremendous new powers even as he learns the terrible truth: this is an invasion force. Is there anything he can do to stop them? And will his parasite—who calls himself Venom—let him?

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I finally got around to watching this 2018 film today. It was . . . okay. 

- Tom Hardy stole the show . . . he must have had a lot of fun playing this character. He does a great job wrestling with his new-found "dual nature."

- It was different than the typical superhero flick, as this is about an antihero. You're not sure whether you're rooting for or against Venom.

- The plot had its good points but suffered from uneven development. It starts off nicely, but without warning or much explanation, Venom's goals and motivation shift mid-movie. Then a bunch of other stuff happens that was poorly explored.

- I wasn't clear on what the message was. Maybe it is about co-dependency and how we need each other. Or maybe it's that everyone is a loser, so do what you can to look out for yourself.

- It was scary and gross in places. 

Overall, the potential for something amazing was there—a superhero movie off the beaten track—but it didn't quite deliver.

Rating: C

Thunderbolts*

Shortly after Captain America: Brave New World . . .

Yelena Belova, Black Widow's sister, mourns her passing as she struggles with other demons in her past. And everyone has regrets—John Walker, the failed Captain America. Red Guardian, silent father. Bucky Barnes, brainwashed killer. Ghost, tormented soul. Many of these are sent, individually, on one final mission with a promise to wipe their past and start anew. But things take a turn when they discover they've been set against each other to clear crooked CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine's name. They join forces but face a great foe. They're not super, and not heroes. But if they stick together, they may just make it.

I did myself a disservice by skipping Brave New World; that omission left me confused, and I only vaguely remember the immediately preceding MCU films. That aside, this film took a markedly darker and more pyschological tone than the standard MCU offering. The themes were failure, regret for past sins, loneliness, and the need to belong. Yelena summarizes: "There's something wrong with me. An emptiness. I thought it started when my sister died, but now it feels like something bigger. Just a void." The movie looks at that. A worthy theme to be sure, and one message (sticking together despite failures) was top-notch. The humor was decent. But it is dark, so approach with caution.

Rating: B

Battle of Hoth

Today's review is of the 2025 release, Battle of Hoth. For 2-4 players, it takes 30 minutes.

Overview

The opening of The Empire Strikes Back is the famous snow battle scene on the ice planet of Hoth. The Battle of Hoth game seeks to re-create that event. Will you be the courageous Rebels or ruthless Empire? Regardless of which side you choose, you will maneuver your units with Command Cards, roll battle dice, and seek to meet your objectives—before your opponent beats you to it. Will you prevail?

game in progress; image from here

The game comes with a rule book, scenario book, and campaign books. For a new game, you select a scenario in that book (probably the first one) and set up the board as shown there (placing terrain and miniatures of the right type in the specified grids). Each player draws a specified number of Command Cards and the game begins (with the first player determined by the scenario). 

Turn Order:

1. Play a Command Card. This tells you how many units you can activate (and in which zone; the board is divided into three).

2. Order. Announce which units you intend to activate (within limits stated by your Command Card).

3. Move the ordered units, one at a time, within their movement restriction.

4. Attack with the ordered units, one at a time, within their combat range constraints. 

5. Draw a new Command Card.

For attacking, roll dice and record hits as indicated. The number of dice you roll here depends (generally) on range: if you are in an adjacent hex from the defending unit, you can roll 3 dice. Hit units are removed from the board (but a given hex can contain several miniatures, and some may survive to perform their own attack).

The goal in a given scenario is to earn a certain number of 'medals' (generally by defeating units). Sometimes you can earn more medals if you defeat a specific type of unit.

And speaking of units, each has different movement ranges, attack ranges, and other abilities. Play continues until one side earns the stated number of medals. They are crowned the victor!

Review

This is a light and fast miniatures game based on the Memoir 44 rules system, a classic WWII game. It also reminded me of a simplified version of Star Wars Miniatures. The Command Card component is the largest element of choice in this game—and can be the most maddening (if your cards don't align with your existing unit placement or desired strategy). But overall, this is enjoyable as the light experience it is intended to be.

Rating: B+

The Way of Kings (Brandon Sanderson)

Roshar is a world subject to fierce tempests called Highstorms. Alethkar, one of the lands therein, is at war against the Parshendi on the Shattered Plains, seeking to avenge their slain king. Against this backdrop . . .

- Kaladin, surgeon-turned-warrior-turned-slave, leads a bridge crew on the Shattered Plains. He wrestles with his blessings and curses, fighting for hope and purpose in a world that seems devoid of both.

- Dalinar, brother to the slain king and uncle to the current, is one of many highprinces fighting the Parshendi. Subject to horrific visions during Highstorms, he fears something is coming . . . and needs to unite his fractious people before it's too late.

- Shallan, ward to the heretic Jasnah in the City of Bells, will stop at nothing to see her family retain its status. But she soon realizes something much bigger is at stake . . .

 

- Szeth-son-son-Vallano is an assassin, beholden to a secret master and unable to disobey or force his own death. Horrified by his lot, he is given one final assignment . . . 

The past is a vapor. The truth is uncertain. Were the Knights Radiant traitors or heroes? Who are the Voidbringers? When is the Last Desolation . . . and can anyone stop it?

So begins The Stormlight Archive, a massive saga (book one was 1250 pages). I had delayed reading this for years because I was daunted by the length; I'm glad I finally picked up this work. I enjoyed the story—it moved along at a good pace, seeming neither complicated nor boring. The characters were excellent. The world was intriguing. There was wisdom, action, suspense, and mystery. As with Tolkien, Sanderson brings the readers into a much larger world and gives us only glimpses. And that's a good thing.

Rating: A

Heart Aflame for God (Matthew Bingham)

"This book is about living the Christian life. And a basic biblical assumption about the Christian life is that it ought to be a growing life." We are to grow "in grace and knowledge" (2 Peter 3:18), "into maturity" (Colossians 1:28), "up into salvation" (1 Peter 2:2), and "in conformity to the image of Christ" (Romans 8:29). "Such growth in Christ is, first and foremost, the work of the Holy Spirit" . . . but "the Bible also makes clear that growth in the Christian life involves our active, intentional effort and energy." How are we to do this? And do we do it today, or is there a 'sanctification gap' in the church, where we do not pursue growth as we ought? 

In A Heart Aflame for God, Matthew Bingham walks through core concepts related to growth (or spiritual formation), using the Puritans as our guide (arguing that "good, biblical solutions" are found there). Highlights follow.

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Part 1: Foundations

The Bible commands us to keep our heart with all vigilance (Proverbs 4:23), which is a holistic charge (encompassing all we say/think do) and involves not only battling sin but also "a positive cultivation, an activate maintenance, and a daily 'fight for joy.'" This book examines the "means or tools" God gives us to do so—to pursue spiritual formation.

Spiritual formation is the conscious process by whiche we week to heighten and satisfy our Spirit-given thirt for God (Psalms 42:1-2) through divinely appointed means and with a view toward "work[ing] out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12) and becoming "mature in Christ " (Colossians 1:28).

Bingham starts by looking at how the Reformation's Five Solas (see here) shifted our understanding of how we approach our spiritual formation, "distinguishing between God's work for us in justification . . . and God's work in us through sanctification." We pursue growth not to earn salvation but out of love for God and what He has already done in giving it. We both "rest in justification" and "work in sanctification." From that basis, we have a Reformed approach to spiritual formation, which Bingham argues has "three interrelated emphases". It is:

- Word Centered ("God's people are most profoundly shaped and formed by God's Word.")

- Marked by a Biblical Simplicity ("shorn of all extrabiblical accretions")

- Committed to Engaging the Heart via the Mind ("the ordinary God-ordained means for keeping the heart and cultivating God-honoring affections involved setting one's mind on God's truth.")

Part 2: The Reformation Triangle

The Reformers identified three areas from Scripture that are foundational to spiritual formation. They are "three sides of the same basic thing: communion with God" which "reinforce each other and merge into one another. They are Scripture, Meditation, and Prayer.

Scripture (Hearing from God)

• "Scripture is God's appointed means for communing with his people. And it is through communion with the living God that the people of God are conformed more and more to his likeness." In short: read your Bible.
• We must read Scripture "frequently, actively, and expectantly."
• Frequently: "By pursuing daily devotion in the morning and often again at night, early modern Protestanst bookended the day with God, acknowledging themselves to be made in his image, fallen in Adam, redeemed in Christ,a nd renewed daily by the Spirit."
• Actively: we should have "an approach to Bible reading that is strategic, intentional, and thoughtfully designed to maximize . . . one's time in God's word." This could include reading "with pen in hand," ready to take notes on texts that hit home (comfort, convict, confuse, or direct toward Godly living).
• Expectantly: We need to come to the Bible with "a sense of expectation that herein I am meeting with the one who made me and sustains my every breath." That reading is communion with God (which mean we may wrestle with it!).

Meditation (Reflecting on God)

• Meditation can be a loaded term. What the author means by the term is not deliberate "physiological manipulations" but "directing one's attention toward God and his promises as revealed in Scripture with the aim of stirring up God-honoring affections." In short: deliberately dwelling on God to move his truth from our heads into our hearts.
• This "involves taking God's word to heart, chewing it over, pondering it, and working through its implications for every facet of life."
• Meditation transforms "mere thoughts about God and the things of God into heartflet, soul-stirring, life-transforming convictions about the same." "Who we are is revealed by what we give our sustained attention to."
• Meditation forces us to slow down in an increasingly busy world and helps us avoid a dry intellectualism that knows about God but doesn't really know God.
• Five tips on doing this:
• Hold meditation and Scripture closely together
• Distinguish between 'settled' and 'occasional' meditation
• Grab hold of a thought and don't let it go
• Apply God's truth to yourself
• Don't overthink it

Prayer (Responding to God)

• "Prayer is real communication with a God who is actually there and really does listen." It can be done during set and focused times or be short and spontaneous.
• Prayer is essential: "it is the vehicle through which we express praise and thanksgiving to God" and "it is largely in response to our prayers that God has promised to bless us." In it "we express and cultivate our childlike dependence on our 'Father who is in heaven'."
• Prayer must be:
• Thoughtful: consisting of carefully chosen and "coherent, intelligible petitions and praises" 
• Heartfelt: it "must actually reflect one's desire for and interest in God and the things of God"
• Tightly tethered to scripture: "fidelity to God's revealed will was [and is] a key mark of a true and effectual prayer." "God has addressed us through his word, and we respond to him through our prayers." 

Part 3: Widening Our Scope

In this section, Bingham looks at self-examination, the natural world, and Christian relationships, and how each aids in spiritual formation.

Self-Examination (Looking Inward)

"Life contains deep wells of memory, emotion, and meaning, wells that are often unexplored, or are least underexplored," and "part of our spiritual formation is to try and unearth a little bit more of [truth] each day." The Bible calls us to be a "remembering people," which includes both our fallenness and God's goodness. 

We examine ourselves to identify and battle against indwelling sin; through this we "come to better understand [our] characteristic weaknesses and vulnerabilities to [we] can more effectively guard against them." As we look inside, we find "unacknowledged sin" and "a storm of scarcely perceived attitudes, assumptions, and motivations [that] swirls underneath our outward actions."

We also examine ourselves to "think deliberately about one's life as a story that God is writing." We are called to be "a people who never forget and actively call to mind God's redemptive dealings with them," as remembering God's past faithfulness to us is "fuel for present-day strength and hope."

The Natural World (Looking Outward)

Pondering creation "draws our thoughts and affections toward the one who called it into being by the power of his word." "If creation is a theater, or mirror, of God's glory one could do no better than study diligently the splendors God has placed there" (William Dyrness). 

The natural world reflects God's glory, teaches God's truth, and aids in spiritual formation. "God is both invisible to us and yet continuously seen through his creation," and so long as we look at creation in a way that "accords with and flows from God's word," we can use these reflections on the world to "call to mind what I've learned from Scripture, illustrating it, amplifying it, and helping me apply it in fresh and invigorating ways."

Christian Relationships (Looking to One Another)

We all have an "intrinsic need for social connection," and so "Christianity is an inherently corporate endeavor." In community, we use the God-given gifts to build each other up and learn from each other, as "we humans are more quickened and stimulated by example than by instructions and warnings" (Campegius Vitringa).

Friends "coordinate their energies to accomplish common goals," "hold each other accountable," "encourage each other to pursue godliness and run the Christian race with joy," and "pray for one another."

Part 4: Challenges

Bingham concludes by considering the role our physical bodies (and senses) play in spirtual formation, and then looks at "when things go wrong," focusing on the reality of spiritual struggling (it won't always be easy, for a number of reasons).

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I really liked this book. Bingham focuses on how the Reformation and Puritans considered spiritual formation, not because they are to be idolized but because they 1) were thoroughly biblical in their approach, and 2) they represented a shift in the Christian religion's approach to the topic—they offer a "helpful corrective" to our present age.

Rating: A