HTALJ in Relevant Magazine
Joe and I have an adapted excerpt from How to Argue Like Jesus in Relevant Magazine.
In Touch Magazine and How to Argue Like Jesus
This month (August) we have an article in In Touch magazine entitled “The Message and the Messenger.” You can access the full article here. You can download a PDF of the August issue here. And In Touch is carrying copies of the book in their bookstore. We hope you’ll check it out!
Win an Autographed Copy of HTALJ!
Terry Delaney of Christian Book Notes interviewed Joe and me for his website. Check out the interview, and blog about it, tweet it, or ask questions in the comments. We’re picking two particpants to win free copies of How to Argue Like Jesus.
Marvin Olasky in World Magazine
Marvin Olasky gives HTALJ a shout-out in World Magazine: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/15360
John Coleman profile in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
John Coleman is profiled in the April 18th edition of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, and the interview includes a lengthy discussion of How to Argue Like Jesus. An excerpt:
“The title of your book is “How to Argue Like Jesus.” Do you contend that Jesus was argumentative, or would you say he was persuasive (as the subtitle suggests)?
I’d say both. Fundamentally, this is a book about persuasion and communication, and argumentation is an essential communication technique. The chapters detail many of the basic elements of rhetoric, including logic, emotional appeal, credibility, and the proper implementation of narrative and imagery. And the content extends beyond argumentative techniques to deal with methods by which readers can train others in communication and build organizations capable of spreading and sustaining their messages. Jesus provides a vivid illustration of these principles — teaching, encouraging, correcting, managing those around him, and, yes, arguing. There are numerous instances in the New Testament when Jesus debated vigorously, particularly with the religious authorities of his day.”
New HTALJ Reviews
Matt Milligan at 1340MagBooks.com: “When I see so many conversations about faith and about what God is doing in the universe descend into shouting matches, I think this book is a great step toward reconnecting with the inspiration and privilege of sharing a message which was delivered to us in a most loving manner - the person of Jesus Christ… A great read!”
Carrie at Reading to Know: “Do you have to be a Christian to be able to profit from this book? No…How to Argue like Jesus
Pastoral Musings: “I recommend this book to someone who is interested in honing their rhetorical skills. I believe this book will be helpful to someone who desires to learn how to speak more convincingly and more logically.”
Essay on Persuasion in Toastmaster Magazine
John has an article on effective persuasion in this month’s Toastmaster magazine (starting on page 8).
John Coleman on Effective Persuasion for Toastmasters
John Coleman has a new article on effective persuasion in the Toastmaster magazine that repeats some of the lessosn outlined in How to Argue Like Jesus. A full text of the article can be found here starting on page 8.
Harvard Business School review
The Harbus has run a dual review of How to Argue Like Jesus. An couple of excerpts:
From Charles:
What both JCs share though, is a gift and talent for communication. Coleman has demonstrated his prowess as winner of the Fall 2008 HBS Speech Club’s BS Competition. However, some of Coleman’s oratory skill is undoubtedly modeled off of the other JC. While Jesus Christ of Nazareth roamed the earth thousands of years ago, his persuasive communication skills are still apropos today in the 21st century (ahem) argues John Coleman and his co-author Joe Carter (JC again?!?!) in the recently published book, “How to Argue Like Jesus”.
From Justin:
How to Argue Like Jesus is not just for followers of Christianity. Coleman and Carter successfully use scripture as one of many examples to illustrate powerful principles of persuasive communication. The book presents a set of foundational principles and techniques, and illustrates how Jesus effectively used these techniques to evoke emotion and passion in his followers. Coleman and Carter extend beyond religion, touching topics of government, business, and personal life.
Upcoming events
John will be participating in the following events related to the book:
- March 2nd: Discussion with the Harvard Faith-Based Entrepreneurs, Land Hall 7:00 pm (Facebook Link)
- March 9th: Harvard Business School Book Event, Aldrich 112 3:00 pm
- March 18th: Discussion with the Harvard Business School Christian Fellowship, tbd 6:00 pm
- April 9th: Discussion with the Harvard Kennedy School Christian Fellowship, tbd
- April 13th: Book event at the Harvard COOP, 7:00 pm (Link to the COOP)
Please email media@arguelikejesus.com for additional information or to request Joe or John for an event.
Harvard Kennedy School Book Event with John Coleman
Please join John for a book event at the Kennedy School this weekend. (PDF below)
Harvard Kennedy School Book Event
Homeless and at home: A review of City Ubiquitous
In my time as a management consultant, I visited dozens of disparate locales, but my experiences in those places inevitably bled together. Hotels in Ohio felt like those in New York. Starbucks in Singapore looked a lot like Caribou Coffee in Atlanta; and airports – the broad walkways, constant motion, and fleeting encounters with “single-serving friends” – exuded a similar anti-septic aura from Hong Kong to Chicago. I travelled extensively, but wrapped in the enclave of my Blackberry, an iPod, and these carefully manufactured corporate surroundings, I always felt as if I was missing something.
Professor Andy Wood captures these tensions perfectly with his newest work, City Ubiquitous: Place, Communication, and the Rise of Omnitopia. Wood, author of works as disparate as Motel America: A State By State Tour Guide to Nostalgic Stopovers and Online Communication: Linking Technology, Identity, and Culture, uses his latest book to synthesize his thoughts on modern life; and the result is an engaging, insightful read that works as both scholarly discourse and personal revelation.
At base, City Ubiquitous is a sophisticated academic treatise that explores a theoretically frame for understanding life in the 21st century. Wood has deployed the term “omnitopia” to help describe the way in which we can now “flow from place to place, experiencing it all as one vast interior, cocooned in [our] own bubble[s], interacting with other people and natural parts of the world only as a series of objects…” And he offers up a careful account of the ways in which this omnitopia manifests for contemporary Americans – in hotels, malls, airports, and the “aural enclaves” of our iPods and mobile phones – even as he marshals a rigorous knowledge of both history and academic research to support his claims. Despite this rigor, Wood’s writing is never dry – the text is sprinkled with commentary on topics as diverse as Tom Hanks’ performance in The Terminal, the origins of the Holiday Inn, and the hopefulness of Battle Mountain, Nevada (the so-called “The Armpit of America”). Throughout the book his arguments are nuanced, intelligent, and compelling.
On a second level, however, City Ubiquitous reads as a deeply personal journey and a work of passion. Wood isn’t writing about the world as a detached observer. He’s a fascinated tenant of Omnitopia seeking to make sense of the enclaves around him, and my favorite parts of the book detail Wood’s own eclectic personal journeys. The introduction initiates this journey with a fitting tale – Wood’s attempt to travel the entire length of the United States by car without speaking to anyone along the day (he succeeds, speaking only 5 words in 3,000 miles); and chapter after chapter proceeds with anecdotes of Wood’s personal experiments in omnitopian life. He shoots zombies in West Edmonton Wall. He spends the night in an airport just to see what it feels like. He journeys to play baseball on the original “field of dreams”. And the pages of City Ubiquitous are sprinkled with vivid imagery from the author’s private collection of postcards and photographs that illustrate his principles. Wood isn’t purely an academic. He is a resident. And that personal touch makes all the difference.
It’s hard to categorize City Ubiquitous. It’s an academic volume, a personal journey, and an accessible perspective on a new world that – for better or for worse – we now hold in common. Throughout, Wood manages to combine theory and story in a way that’s both enlightening and enlivening, and his thoughts on our new omnitopian reality resonated deeply with me. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a way to explain that unsettling feeling that, in our age, we’re all both homeless and always at home.
Review from a professor of communication
Professor Andrew Wood reviews the book at Woodland Shoppers Paradise:
If you speak to do well - but also to do right - Joe Carter and John Coleman’s How to Argue Like Jesus is a worthy addition to your library. I say this not only as an occasional instructor of public speaking classes but also as an agnostic who, nonetheless, is impressed with the message contained in this book.
HTALJ Review in Harvard Kennedy School’s The Citizen
How to Argue Like Jesus
by Victoria Criado, Asst. Culture Editor on February 11, 2009 in Culture
How to Argue Like Jesus by Joe Carter and John Coleman (MPA/MBA ’10) offers a thoughtful exposition on the rhetorical tools employed by the Christian figure of Jesus of Nazareth. Their writing nicely draws upon a variety of historical references and renowned works on the elements of proper speech and language. The authors argue that both Christians and non-Christians can benefit from understanding and utilizing the communication methods espoused by the life and works of Jesus as narrated by the Gospel and the Epistles in the New Testament. Read the whole thing.
A few initial reviews
I’ll try to post a list of initial radio interviews and reviews here:
Dustin Steeve at the Evangelical Outpost.
Seth McBee at Contend Earnestly.
George Wood offers his thoughts at AGThinkTank.com and GeorgePWood.com.
Prime Time America radio interview Part I and Part II (You’ll have to fast-forward 15-20 minutes)
Our amazon reader review page
Radio appearances
Joe and I have started doing a few radio appearances.
We’ll be on Moody’s Prime Time America with Greg Wheatley today and tomorrow sometime between 5-7 pm EST. You can listen online here or find an affiliate station.
Also, I’ll be on Pilgrim Radio (West Coast) Fri., Jan. 30 on “His People” (2:04am; 12:04pm; and 9:04pm PST) at www.pilgrimradio.com.
If you here us, let us know what you think! Also, remember to leave us comments and reviews here or at Amazon.
Finally, if you’re on Facebook, please join our group!
Free Sample Chapter
Crossway just posted a short summary of the book on their blog, including a sample chapter (Chapter 5: Discipleship). Check it out!
Update: We’ve loaded the excerpt on this site as well. Please visit the “Excerpt” tab above or link directly to the PDF.
Malcolm Gladwell on the Cellular Church
One of the best articles I read while preparing our chapter on Discipleship was a New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell entitled, The Cellular Church. One of the key dilemmas posed by the article is found this paragraph:
Churches, like any large voluntary organization, have at their core a contradiction. In order to attract newcomers, they must have low barriers to entry. They must be unintimidating, friendly, and compatible with the culture they are a part of. In order to retain their membership, however, they need to have an identity distinct from that culture. They need to give their followers a sense of community—and community, exclusivity, a distinct identity are all, inevitably, casualties of growth. As an economist would say, the bigger an organization becomes, the greater a free-rider problem it has. If I go to a church with five hundred members, in a magnificent cathedral, with spectacular services and music, why should I volunteer or donate any substantial share of my money? What kind of peer pressure is there in a congregation that large? If the barriers to entry become too low—and the ties among members become increasingly tenuous—then a church as it grows bigger becomes weaker.
This probably sounds familiar to many of you — and the problem extends beyond churches to other large organizations including corporations, universities, and government bureaucracies. Gladwell posits Rick Warrens solution: small groups. In How to Argue Like Jesus, we discuss the importance of this organizational model and its importance in Jesus’ own circle of disciples. What do you think?
Welcome to the How to Argue Like Jesus Blog
Welcome to arguelikejesus.com, online home of the book How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History’s Greatest Communicator published by Crossway Books. Joe and I hope to use this online forum to deliver news and information about the book and our appearances, sponsor contests related to the book, get feedback, book media appearances, and encourage discussions about rhetoric and communication. Specifically, we will use this blog to discuss topics related to the content of the book and keep you posted on reviews, news, and appearances. We hope you’ll bookmark this site and check back frequently. Also, please purchase How to Argue Like Jesus at Amazon, Crossway, or your local bookstore; and if you’d like to run a review, schedule an appearance, or talk about using the book at your school, church, small group, or business, please contact us here. Thanks for dropping by!