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A review by alangmaack
One of the Few: A Marine Fighter Pilot's Reconnaissance of the Christian Worldview by Jason B. Ladd
3.0
When Jason Ladd asked me to read and review his book, I was excited to learn more about how life in the Marines relates to life as a Christian. I've read a few fiction books with a military backdrop and find myself fairly comfortable with a majority of the terminology. Unfortunately, while reading One of the Few, I found myself incredibly lost within the jargon and acronyms used to explain the life of a marine.
This book is split into three parts. First, you are given some background on Ladd and his life growing up and how he become a Christian. While the use of military acronyms was distracting to the story, I enjoyed learning about how Ladd grew up in a military family, how that led to him entering the marines himself, and how he became a believer. In this section, Ladd explains some ways that life in the marines echoes the life of a Christian, and I found those analogies fascinating. I think that if the book had stayed with this style of writing, or ended here, I would have enjoyed it much more than I did.
The second section, titled Be Not Deceived, is where things started to go downhill for me. The third section is titled Always Be Ready. The point of these two sections, I think, was to lay out a clear doctrine of Christianity. I myself have read several books on apologetics and have taken courses in college on the subject. I found these chapters to be an attempt to fully explain a secular worldview versus a Christian worldview, however, the arguments were not laid out clearly for me. Jumping between marine analogies, quotes from Bible scholars, Scripture, and descriptions from history or media were extremely hard to follow.
I was very excited to read Ladd's words saying he was going to lay out the groundwork for leaving a legacy of faith for our children, but I found it to be an unfulfilled promise. Each chapter was thoroughly researched, as you could tell from the evidence presented in each chapter. But the layout of it was hard to follow. It definitely felt like the first part of this book was a separate book from the second two parts.
I received a copy of this book from the author. This review is my honest opinion.
This book is split into three parts. First, you are given some background on Ladd and his life growing up and how he become a Christian. While the use of military acronyms was distracting to the story, I enjoyed learning about how Ladd grew up in a military family, how that led to him entering the marines himself, and how he became a believer. In this section, Ladd explains some ways that life in the marines echoes the life of a Christian, and I found those analogies fascinating. I think that if the book had stayed with this style of writing, or ended here, I would have enjoyed it much more than I did.
The second section, titled Be Not Deceived, is where things started to go downhill for me. The third section is titled Always Be Ready. The point of these two sections, I think, was to lay out a clear doctrine of Christianity. I myself have read several books on apologetics and have taken courses in college on the subject. I found these chapters to be an attempt to fully explain a secular worldview versus a Christian worldview, however, the arguments were not laid out clearly for me. Jumping between marine analogies, quotes from Bible scholars, Scripture, and descriptions from history or media were extremely hard to follow.
I was very excited to read Ladd's words saying he was going to lay out the groundwork for leaving a legacy of faith for our children, but I found it to be an unfulfilled promise. Each chapter was thoroughly researched, as you could tell from the evidence presented in each chapter. But the layout of it was hard to follow. It definitely felt like the first part of this book was a separate book from the second two parts.
I received a copy of this book from the author. This review is my honest opinion.