“Hand in Hand” by Randy Alcorn is basically a shorter
version of his book “If God is Good,” but with stronger emphasis on explaining
the various Calvinist and Arminian positions regarding human free will and God’s
sovereignty. The two books share a lot of the same content. Alcorn’s conclusion
in “Hand in Hand” even focuses on explaining how a good God allows evil to
happen, the idea emphasized in “If God is Good.”
There’s unique content, though, albeit sometimes repetitious.
Alcorn makes his own Calvinist leanings evident, but goes back and forth
between the various positions, providing a good overview that is fairly
non-partial. Several illustrated charts and headlines make the book easy to
read, and Alcorn uses a lot of Scripture, in addition to some quotes from other
authors. I do wish his chapter on “voices of the past” had included more
historical voices on more topics than finding neutral ground.
At the end of the book, I still hadn’t quite wrapped my head
around the book’s topic. I had plenty of unanswered questions and thoughts. Alcorn’s
purpose seems more focused on bringing his readers to a position of Compatibalism
that can lean toward either side of the debate, so he spends a great deal of
space making it clear that the paradox of Sovereignty and Choice can work, even
if we cannot understand it.
At any rate, Alcorn provides a good book for beginners, but
perhaps he could write another book more the length of his previous books that
goes into more detail.
*Disclaimer: I received this book for free in exchange for my honest review.
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