Well, the good news is that I've got BookTuesday back on Tuesdays for the next month. The other news is that I've got about a month's worth of books left to do. Let's get to business, shall we?
I've reviewed a book or two by Randy Alcorn before (see here, here, and he's got a chapter in the book here). I've also mentioned a few of his blog posts. In all, I've found his work to be challenging and thought-provoking, even when I haven't found it agreeable.
What work of his do I have today?
It's entitled The Treasure Principle and it looks like this:
 | The Treasure Principle: Unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving (LifeChange Books) |
First, some basics: this is a small book. It's printed on 120 pages of 4x6 paper. The font is big enough, but not oversized. No pages are wasted with fluffy illustrations, so the book is all content. We're just not looking at a large amount of content.
Since, then, we're not talking a lot of content, to be worth the time, the content had better be good. Is it?
Alcorn has an accessible writing style. Between work, graduate study, and free books for blog reviews (like this one, from Multnomah), I read a broad spread of books. The ones I read range from work for the general public to people with doctorates who are just showing off. Alcorn writes at a level that I would hand to teens and above.
The content of The Treasure Principle is focused on…..stuff. Money, most specifically, but material stuff is the theme. This book is helpful to wrestle with the question of what Christians should do with their money. How to handle what we have in the abundance many of us live in.
Alcorn is direct. He expresses that Christians need to understand that none of the stuff they have is actually their own stuff, which it isn't. It truly does belong to God because we all belong to God. Beyond this, he has several practical suggestions of where and how to start.
Finally, though, as to value: this book is small. I'm not entirely sure it's worth buying at the cover price for an individual, but books like this are rarely sold at that price. If it's on sale, it's worth purchasing. It would also make for an excellent, affordable small group study.
In all, 4 stars out of 5.
Doug
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