Book Review: Don't Call It a Comeback, Kevin DeYoung, ed.

I've read quite a few books in the past year with multiple contributing authors, but none of them have read with the clarity and consistency of Don't Call It a Comeback. Perhaps it is due to the shared commonality of the authors: a rising generation of evangelical and reformed thinkers (and more than a few bloggers) shaped by the likes of Piper and Carson. But what ever the cause, the result is a book that is cogent, consistent, and a joy to read.

The book is broken up into three sections:

1. Part 1: Evangelical History: Looking Forward and Looking Back
   
2. Part 2: Evangelical Theology: Thinking, Feeling, and Believing the Truths That Matter Most
   
3. Part 3: Evangelical Practice: Learning to Live Life God's Way
   

The first section is a brief two-chapter introduction to evangelicalism, and section two has all the perennial topics you would expect (God, Scripture, the gospel, Jesus Christ). But section three really shows why this book is "The old faith for a new day". In "Part 3: Evangelical Practice" the authors (Kevin DeYoung and Justin Taylor, e.g.) address such topics as homosexuality, abortion, gender confusion, and social justice.

While the chapter on missions was as fitting an ending as any, my one complaint is that the book ended awkwardly without a summary or epilogue. Lacking such a tidy conclusion, the book seems to halt abruptly.

That one fault aside Don't Call It a Comeback has, in my humble opinion, done exactly what it set out to accomplish:

"to introduce young Christians, new Christians, and underdisciplined Christians to the most important articles of our faith and what it looks like to live out this faith in real life."

Not bad for a bunch of pastor/bloggers.

Westminster Bookstore has Don't Call It a Comeback for 33% off retail ($11.38).

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Recommended for: "young Christians, new Christians, and underdisciplined Christians"

This book was a free review copy provided by Crossway.