Book Reviews: Byzantium and The Treasure Principle

 Time for a couple more book reviews. Before we move on to Byzantium a quick review of Randy Alcorn’s The Treasure Principle: This is a quick read. Alcorn is speaking from real experience and encouraging others from that real life experience. Giving is powerful and giving radically is possible for all of us. I recommend his book.

Here are the treasure principles from Alcorn’s book: 

“You can’t take it with you ~ but you can send it ahead.

#1. God owns everything. I’m His money manager.

#2. My heart always goes where I put God’s money.

#3. Heaven, not earth, is my home.

#4. I should live not for the dot but for the line. [Sorry, you'll have to read it to understand this.]

#5. Giving is the only antidote to materialism.

#6. God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.”

Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead is one of those books I’d read over again. In fact this is my second reading of it. It’s even more special this time as I’ve seen copies of the Book of Kells and I’ve been to the Isle of Iona where it is believed the Book of Kells was written.

Byzantium, quotes from Part I that I love:

“God be with thee on every hill,
Jesu be with thee in every pass,
Spirit be with thee on every stream,
Headland, ridge, and field;
Each sea and land, each moor and meadow,
Each lying down, each rising up
In wave trough, on billow crest,
Each step of the journey thous goest.”

                    

‘King of Mysteries, who wast and art,
Before the elements, before the ages,
King eternal, comely in aspect,
who reigns for ever, grant me three things:
Keenness to discern your will,
Wisdom to understand it,
Courage to follow where it leads.’

“Word of God’s Word, I thought, I am the vellum and you are the Scribe. Write what you will, Lord, that all who see me shall behold your grace and majesty!”

“Remember, Aidan, ‘he said, leaning forward slightly, ‘never doubt in the darkness that which you believed in the light. Also this: unless the pilgrim carry with him the thing he seeks, he will not find it when he arrives.’

This is a beautiful work of historical fiction that takes you to the heights and depths of emotion. It can be quite graphic at times. The time period that this story takes place in history was unknown to me and I enjoyed learning of a different time and place without reading a textbook. There are many good reviews at Amazon.com for this book. I’m including part of a review because having recently visited the Isle of Iona I was excited to read that St. Aidan was an actual historical monk and he spent time on the Isle of Iona.

This book is a fictional retelling of St. Aidan’s life. St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Ontario has a St. Aidan’s Chapel that has a beautiful set of tapestries depicting the life of this servant of God. St. Aidan died in 651 after serving at home in Iona, among the Gauls – first as a slave and then as a Bishop, and he even visited Byzantium in his lifetime, and the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Reviewer:

Steven R. McEvoy “MCWPP” (Canada)

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