Book Review: All That’s Good

This book review was included in the December 2018 Meadowcroft Monthly. For an archive of all book reviews, click here.

Yeah, I know I reviewed a Hannah Anderson book a couple months ago. I don’t care. She’s that gifted of an author and I would love to see men and women at MPC read all of her books (she has three so far).

In All That’s Good, Anderson takes on the topic of discernment.

Typically when we hear about discernment (especially in the church), we think of someone angrily writing or speaking about some topic they don't agree with. There are certain Christian “discernment” websites that give the impression that the first tenet of following Jesus is to be really upset about anyone that deviates in the slightest from what the authors believe is appropriate theology and practice.

Anderson, however, takes a different view on discernment. She shows that “in broader usage, discernment simply means developing a taste for what's good.” She bases her book on Philippians 4:8, where Paul starts to conclude his letter to his friends saying - “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Developing discernment might be important today than ever, because of the incredible glut of information, entertainment and distraction almost always at our fingertips. We can log on to Facebook and hours can pass without even realizing it. Anderson helps us think about this, saying:

Asking questions like “Does this deserve my attention? Does this deserve my respect? Does this deserve my time?” disrupts these cultural forces long enough for us to entertain the possibility that not every innovation is an improvement, celebrities do not automatically deserve our consideration, and the latest news story may not be worth reading.

Any time we think about wisdom and discernment, it can be easy to look back on times when we did not show wisdom. Perhaps we’re still paying for a bad choice that we made. And so it’s helpful that Anderson also discusses what it looks like when we make a poor decision, showing how Philippians 4:8 informs our thought process. She’s worth quoting at length:

Truth enables us to face it and speak honestly about it; Honor reassures us that our worth does not rest on our good choices; Justice leads us to repent, receive forgiveness, and move toward repairing the situation; Purity teaches us to reflect on why our heart made the choice in the first place; loveliness reminds us that good things are worth the sacrifice.

As usual, I highly recommend anything that Hannah Anderson writes, and this is no exception.