reading
- Scandal and Madam Secretary: A Tale of Two Political Dramas - In days when it’s hard to not be cynical about anything remotely political, I really appreciated Alissa Wilkinson’s attitude toward the new show Madam Secretary. It reminded me what it means to “hope all things”.
- Disorderly (mis)Conduct: The Problem with ‘Contempt of Cop’ Arrests (PDF) by Christy E. Lopez. Ms. Lopez apparently now works for the DOJ and is part of the federal Ferguson investigation. A good piece documenting issues with the ‘contempt of cop’ arrests and making recommendations for making improvements.
- Justice then Reconciliation - Austin Channing Brown bringing the truth. “Reconciliation is what we practice after we have chosen justice.” Powerful.
- College Girls: Education, Imago Dei, and the Gospel - Hannah Anderson bringing truth on why we educate both boys and girls: “We educate girls and women for the same reason we educate boys and men. We educate our daughters because they are made in God’s image. Full. Stop.” Bravo.
- How does the iOS 8 Time-lapse feature work? - Just so I’m not linking to all political and theological heaviness, here’s some nerdiness to go along with it. Apple came up with a fiendishly clever and simple way to do the time-lapse video thing. Really neat.
- I really enjoyed Richard Beck’s Unclean.
- I read the first chapter of Vanauken’s A Severe Mercy and found it slow-going stylistically. I’ve heard so many folks say so much good about it I’ll keep at it and see if it gets better, though.
- I started O’Donavan’s Resurrection and Moral Order and wow, it’s dense. That’s not necessarily bad, but wow. Of course, maybe I should’ve taken the hint when Alistair Roberts told me that you had best read it slowly.
- I read a quick WEB Griffin novel and a short popular history.
- Surprised by Scripture, NT Wright
- Merton: A Biography, Monica Furlong
- Meditative Prayer, Thomas Merton
- Resurrection and Moral Order, Oliver O’Donavan
- Paul and the Faithfulness of God, NT Wright
- A Severe Mercy, Shelden Vanauken
- From Bible Belt to Sun Belt, Darren Dochuk
- Parables of Judgment, Robert Capon
- Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris
- Evangelical Theology, Karl Barth
- Confessions of a Guilty Bystander, Thomas Merton
- The Wounded Healer, Henri J. M. Nouwen
- The Monster in the Hollows, Andrew Peterson
- The Kingdom of Christ, Russell Moore
- Jesus Manifesto, Frank Viola & Leonard Sweet
- The Fiddler’s Green, A. S. Peterson
- The Sacredness of Questioning Everything, David Dark
- When I Was a Child I Read Books, Marilynne Robinson
- Between Noon and Three, Robert Capon
- Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture, Brandon Hatmaker
- Center Church, Tim Keller
- The Pastor: A Memoir, Eugene Peterson
- Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity, Frank Viola
- Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis, Robert Edsel
- Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality, Richard Beck
- Why Holiness Matters: We’ve Lost Our Way–But We Can Find it Again, Tyler Braun
- Surprised by Scripture, NT Wright
- Merton: A Biography, Monica Furlong
- Meditative Prayer, Thomas Merton
- Resurrection and Moral Order, Oliver O’Donavan
- Paul and the Faithfulness of God, NT Wright
- A Severe Mercy, Shelden Vanauken
- From Bible Belt to Sun Belt, Darren Dochuk
- Parables of Judgment, Robert Capon
- Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris
- Evangelical Theology, Karl Barth
- Confessions of a Guilty Bystander, Thomas Merton
- The Wounded Healer, Henri J. M. Nouwen
- The Monster in the Hollows, Andrew Peterson
- The Kingdom of Christ, Russell Moore
- Jesus Manifesto, Frank Viola & Leonard Sweet
- The Fiddler’s Green, A. S. Peterson
- The Sacredness of Questioning Everything, David Dark
- When I Was a Child I Read Books, Marilynne Robinson
- Between Noon and Three, Robert Capon
- Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture, Brandon Hatmaker
- Center Church, Tim Keller
- The Pastor: A Memoir, Eugene Peterson
- Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity, Frank Viola
- Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis, Robert Edsel
- Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality, Richard Beck
- Why Holiness Matters: We’ve Lost Our Way–But We Can Find it Again, Tyler Braun
- Surprised by Scripture, NT Wright
- Merton: A Biography, Monica Furlong
- Meditative Prayer, Thomas Merton
- Resurrection and Moral Order, Oliver O’Donavan
- Paul and the Faithfulness of God, NT Wright
- A Severe Mercy, Shelden Vanauken
- From Bible Belt to Sun Belt, Darren Dochuk
- Parables of Judgment, Robert Capon
- Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris
- Evangelical Theology, Karl Barth
- Confessions of a Guilty Bystander, Thomas Merton
- The Wounded Healer, Henri J. M. Nouwen
- The Monster in the Hollows, Andrew Peterson
- The Kingdom of Christ, Russell Moore
- Jesus Manifesto, Frank Viola & Leonard Sweet
- The Fiddler’s Green, A. S. Peterson
- The Sacredness of Questioning Everything, David Dark
- When I Was a Child I Read Books, Marilynne Robinson
- Between Noon and Three, Robert Capon
- Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture, Brandon Hatmaker
- Center Church, Tim Keller
- The Pastor: A Memoir, Eugene Peterson
- Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity, Frank Viola
- Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis, Robert Edsel
- Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality, Richard Beck
- Why Holiness Matters: We’ve Lost Our Way–But We Can Find it Again, Tyler Braun
- Surprised by Scripture, NT Wright
- Merton: A Biography, Monica Furlong
- Meditative Prayer, Thomas Merton
- Resurrection and Moral Order, Oliver O’Donavan
- Paul and the Faithfulness of God, NT Wright
- A Severe Mercy, Shelden Vanauken
- From the Bible Belt to the Sun Belt, Darren Dochuk
- Parables of Judgment, Robert Capon
- Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris
- Evangelical Theology, Karl Barth
- Confessions of a Guilty Bystander, Thomas Merton
- The Wounded Healer, Henri J. M. Nouwen
- The Monster in the Hollows, Andrew Peterson
- The Kingdom of Christ, Russell Moore
- Jesus Manifesto, Frank Viola & Leonard Sweet
- The Fiddler’s Green, A. S. Peterson
- The Sacredness of Questioning Everything, David Dark
- When I Was a Child I Read Books, Marilynne Robinson
- Between Noon and Three, Robert Capon
- Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture, Brandon Hatmaker
- Center Church, Tim Keller
- The Pastor: A Memoir, Eugene Peterson
- Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity, Frank Viola
- Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis, Robert Edsel
- Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality, Richard Beck
- Why Holiness Matters: We’ve Lost Our Way–But We Can Find it Again, Tyler Braun
- Surprised by Scripture, NT Wright
- Merton: A Biography, Monica Furlong
- Meditative Prayer, Thomas Merton
- Resurrection and Moral Order, Oliver O’Donavan
- Paul and the Faithfulness of God, NT Wright
- A Severe Mercy, Shelden Vanauken
- From the Bible Belt to the Sun Belt, Darren Dochuk
- Parables of Judgment, Robert Capon
- Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris
- Evangelical Theology, Karl Barth
- Confessions of a Guilty Bystander, Thomas Merton
- The Wounded Healer, Henri J. M. Nouwen
- The Monster in the Hollows, Andrew Peterson
- The Kingdom of Christ, Russell Moore
- Jesus Manifesto, Frank Viola & Leonard Sweet
- The Fiddler’s Green, A. S. Peterson
- The Sacredness of Questioning Everything, David Dark
- When I Was a Child I Read Books, Marilynne Robinson
- Between Noon and Three, Robert Capon
- Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture, Brandon Hatmaker
- Center Church, Tim Keller
- The Pastor: A Memoir, Eugene Peterson
- Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity, Frank Viola
- Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis, Robert Edsel
- Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality, Richard Beck
- Why Holiness Matters: We’ve Lost Our Way–But We Can Find it Again, Tyler Braun
- Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power by Andy Crouch
- The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection by Robert F. Capon
- Prototype: What Happens When You Discover You’re More Like Jesus Than You Think? by Jonathan Martin
- Gospel Wakefulness by Jared Wilson
- The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture by Christian Smith
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
- Silence by Shusaku Endo
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
- The Fiddler’s Gun by A. S. Peterson - a fun Revolutionary War novel focused on the adventures of a teenage girl. (I’ve got the sequel, The Fiddler’s Green, sitting in my to-read pile… should get it read in 2013 sometime.)
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - a short Young Adult novel focused on two teenagers who are dying of cancer. It’s not as painful as it sounds, but it’s challenging and insightful.
- Redshirts, by John Scalzi - an odd sort of meta sci-fi romp that otherwise defies comparison
- The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr. - a fascinating fantasy story which I’m indebted to the Rabbit Room folks for recommending.
- Gathering String, by Mimi Johnson - a top-notch suspense/mystery novel whose author is a lovely lade I met once at a tweetup in Cedar Rapids.
- Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candace Millard - a fascinating tale of the election and assassination of President James Garfield.
- When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson. - This book of essays by the Iowa City author and professor is dense in the very best sense of the word. Thoughtful, insightful pieces on life and theology.
- An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land by William Stringfellow - powerful social critique of organizational and governmental “powers and principalities”.
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. This is a futurist masterpiece of a novel that reads really fresh even though it was written back in 2000. Really good stuff.
- The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. A fantasy novel that doesn’t get so lost in the fantasy world that it forgets to have a plot. This is basically your favorite con-man story set in a fascinating fantasy world. I understand that the second book in the series is out now, so I need to get on it.
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. This one has been at the top of a lot of year-end lists, and while it may not deserve that, it was very entertaining. Set in the future, but full of 1980’s nostalgia, this was a fun, engaging read. (Stephen Granade has a good post outlining some ways that Ready Player One could’ve been changed to be a much better novel.)
- Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxes. This biography of the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer is both thorough and thoroughly fascinating. A long but worthwhile read.
- A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul E. Miller. A highly practical book on incorporating prayer into your everyday life. An easy read, very worthwhile.
Assorted recommended reading
I haven’t had a lot of original thoughts to share in long-form here on the blog lately, but I can pass along some links that are good recommended reading:
So yeah, there’s some recommended reading. Enough for now, I’m going to bed.
I'm still reading...
So, what have I been up to reading-wise? I don’t know that any of you were actually asking yourselves that, but I’m going to answer anyway.
Business trip again next week so maybe I’ll get some more substantive reading done.
As an aside: I mentioned a discussion this week with a couple of co-workers that I’ve logged and rated every book I’ve read over the past 8 years. They looked at me like I was nuts. I trust you, dear reader, won’t judge me near so harshly.
The book pile:
Books I’ve started but not yet finished:
Books I wanna re-read:
Unread on my Kindle:
A couple more knocked off the list
I had a business trip last week which gave me extra reading time, so… two more knocked off the list.
First, Merton: A Biography by Monica Furlong. This one underwhelmed me. The first part of the story (up to the point where Merton joins the Trappists) is told in a much more interesting fashion by Merton himself in The Seven Storey Mountain (which I read a couple years back). The second half of the story mostly exists to make you repeatedly ask why anyone in their right mind would join the Trappists.
Second (and much more highly recommended): The Pastor: A Memoir by Eugene Peterson. Peterson is a hero among pastors to me - a man planted a church and stayed there for 30 years, who focused not on numeric growth but on spiritual growth, who made it his goal to simply consistently pastor (an active verb) the flock that God brought him… Peterson recounts his childhood, his call to ministry, and the lessons learned from decades of pastoring in his usual winsome way. Well worth the read.
I’m now cheating a bit - I found a novel that looked interesting at the library and I’m reading it this week. Then I’ll be back to something off my pile.
The book pile:
Books I’ve started but not yet finished:
Books I wanna re-read:
Unread on my Kindle:
The pile keeps shrinking...
I’m slowly whittling down my bedside book pile, completing Darren Dochuk’s From Bible Belt to Sun Belt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism last week. This was a fantastic book. Dochuk traces the history of evangelicalism from the early days of the Depression, as evangelicals migrated west from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and the like, to California. As a child of evangelicalism in the 80s and 90s, it was very enlightening to read about J. Vernon McGee, Billy Graham, E. V. Hill, Bill Bright, Tim LaHaye, and others. It was a bit slow going through the 1920s and 30s, but from the 1940s onward it was a wonderful, interesting read. I owe Brian Auten bigtime for recommending it.
I’m now a few chapters in to a biography of Thomas Merton which I’m not real excited about yet, but I’ll give it some time.
The book pile:
Books I’ve started but not yet finished:
Books I wanna re-read:
Unread on my Kindle:
One down, 25 to go
I finished up NT Wright’s Surprised by Scripture the other night. A nice short form of several of his arguments, some will be very familiar to those who have read his other popular works. There were a couple chapters, though, on politics and on women leading in the church that were new to me and quite good.
For review, here’s the list of books piled next to my bed that I’ve yet to read but want to before I buy any more. I think the next one I’ll be reading is From the Bible Belt to the Sun Belt by Darren Dochuk.
The ones I’ve not read yet:
Books I’ve started but not yet finished:
Books I wanna re-read:
Unread on my Kindle:
No More Buying Until I Do Some Reading
…that’s the promise I’m making myself. The book pile next to my bed is just too high, and I keep accumulating without making much progress. So, it’s time to whittle down the pile.
In no particular order, here’s what I’ve got piled up.
First, the ones I’ve not read yet:
Books I’ve started but not yet finished:
Books I wanna re-read:
Unread on my Kindle:
By my count, that’s 26 books. At my current rate, I might finish them by the end of the year.
Unless I hit the Half Price Books or the library again and find another pile of reading material. But I’m gonna try not to.
The Lost World of Genesis One
Last week I finally got the chance to read The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John H. Walton. Dr. Walton is a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College. His PhD is from the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, which is, curiously enough (per Wikipedia), the primary seminary for training rabbis in Reform Judaism. All that to say the guy has a better-than-average understanding of the Old Testament, Jewish culture, and the Hebrew language.
Walton’s premise is one that, while previously unfamiliar to me, makes the most sense of how Genesis 1 - 2 should be understood as anything else I’ve read on the topic. The Lost World of Genesis One is structured around 20 premise statements, and in summary where he lands is this: we need to read and understand Genesis 1 in the same way the original audience read it. This turns out to be significantly different than we often hear it understood. As a very high-level summary, here’s what he says:
Ancient Cosmology is Functional
What does it mean for the universe to exist?, Walton asks. He proposes that people in the ancient world “believed that something existed not by virtue of its material properties, but by virtue of its having a function in an ordered system.” In such a view, he says, something could be manufactured physically but still not “exist” if it has not become functional.
Walton compares the creation stories of several different ancient cultures and notes that in each case, the creation story suggests not the creation of physical elements, but in the god ordering and purposing those elements into a functioning world. Certainly it’s not a stretch to think that the Israelites would’ve understood their creation story similarly.
Divine Rest is in a Temple
What’s up with God resting? Day seven, says Walton, is the climax of the story. Key, he says is
the piece of information that everyone knew in the ancient world and to which most modern readers are totally oblivious: Deity rests in a temple, and only in a temple. This is what temples were built for. We might even say that this is what a temple is— a place for divine rest. Perhaps even more significant, in some texts the construction of a temple is associated with cosmic creation…
…in the ancient world rest is what results when a crisis has been resolved or when stability has been achieved , when things have “settled down.” Consequently normal routines can be established and enjoyed. For deity this means that the normal operations of the cosmos can be undertaken. This is more a matter of engagement without obstacles rather than disengagement without responsibilities.
The Seven days of Genesis 1 Do Not Concern Material Origins
Says Walton:
If the seven days refer to the seven days of cosmic temple inauguration, days that concern origins of functions not material, then the seven days and Genesis 1 as a whole have nothing to contribute to the discussion of the age of the earth. This is not a conclusion designed to accommodate science —it was drawn from an analysis and interpretation of the biblical text of Genesis in its ancient environment. The point is not that the biblical text therefore supports an old earth, but simply that there is no biblical position on the age of the earth. If it were to turn out that the earth is young, so be it. But most people who seek to defend a young -earth view do so because they believe that the Bible obligates them to such a defense. I admire the fact that believers are willing to take unpopular positions and investigate all sorts of alternatives in an attempt to defend the reputation of the biblical text. But if the biblical text does not demand a young earth there would be little impetus or evidence to offer such a suggestion.
Empirical Science Cannot Speak to Purpose
“If public education is committed to the idea that science courses should reflect only empirical science, neither design nor metaphysical naturalism is acceptable because they both import conclusions about purpose into the discussion,” says Walton.
For those concerned with the purity of science, the focus on descriptive mechanisms in an empirical discipline will be welcomed, and considering legitimate weaknesses in the reigning paradigm should pose no problem since science always accepts critiques— that is how it develops and improves. For those concerned about the Bible and the integrity of their theology, the descriptive mechanisms that compose the evolutionary model need not be any more problematic for theology than the descriptive disciplines of meteorology or embryology. [This hearkens back to a point he made earlier in the book.] … If all parties were willing to agree to similar teleological neutrality in the classrooms dedicated to instruction in empirical science, the present conflict could move more easily toward resolution.
This is a conclusion that I find very liberating. It suggests that we can simultaneously affirm that God is the creator and origin of everything, and at the same time not be afraid of following science wherever it’s currently leading. Science can’t prove or disprove purpose or fundamental origins, and theology (in this view) need not lead us to dispute the current scientific understanding of origins.
The Lost World of Genesis One is a straightforward read, and I highly recommend it for any casual student of theology who wants a different perspective on understanding the creation account. The Kindle edition is currently less than six bucks, which is a pretty good deal.
Books I read in 2013
Here’s my one year-end post: a little summary of what I read this year. I’m not gonna list ‘em all - you can go check out the list on Goodreads if you’re really interested - but I’ll include some highlights.
I finished 57 books this year - about average for me over the past several years - and 27 of them were non-fiction, which is as close to fiction/non-fiction parity as I’ve ever gotten before. My non-fiction was mostly theology this year, which reminds me I need to pick up some more history, biographies, and the like in 2014.
Top Non-Fiction
I really need to write a full review post on Playing God. It was probably my favorite of the year, and the one that I then bought two copies of to give as Christmas gifts. I’m feeling a little bit better about my theological variety, too - it isn’t just all Anglicans on my list this year!
Top Fiction
It feels like a cheat to list Robinson’s book here, since she uses the fictional narrative to drive home a bunch of theological and philosophical points, but hey, it’s good stuff.
The worst I’ve gotten better at just putting books down if they seem like clunkers, so I have just a single one-star reviewed book on my list this year: The Panther by Nelson DeMille. Here’s what I wrote on Goodreads:
Plot is thinner than thin. Hundreds of pages and nothing happens except we get a tour of Yemen and page after page of insufferable narrative. It’s as if Mr DeMille had a quota of smart-ass internal dialog per page that he had to fill. If you cut out half of it, the book would shorten by 20% and still be just as boring.
I’m ashamed I wasted as much time on this one as I did. Avoid.
Plans for 2014 I’m likely to always be a theology, politics, and sci-fi geek, but I really would like to read some more history, some classic literature, and maybe even a little poetry. Hit me up if you have recommendations!
Jim Belcher, "In Search of Deep Faith"
I first became acquainted with author Jim Belcher back in 2009 when I read Deep Church. It appears I didn’t review it here on the blog, but my Goodreads review gave it four stars: solid but not revolutionary. Now Belcher is back, with In Search of Deep Faith.
I feel like I’ve seen bits and pieces of this book already, having followed Belcher on Twitter for the past few years. In Search of Deep Faith reads like a travel journal crossed with Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, as Belcher recounts his family’s adventures through several months of “pilgrimage” in Europe. Belcher, his wife and four pre-teen children spent several months in Oxford, England, where he was a visiting scholar at the university there. They then spent time exploring European sites that were notable because of the saints who had lived there.
Belcher’s chapters bounce back and forth as he shares his family’s adventures in finding and exploring the locations - from Corrie Ten Boom’s house in Holland, to C. S. Lewis' home in Oxford, to a fruitless search for the location of Bonhoeffer’s hidden seminary - and then interspersing the stories of these saints, with an emphasis on how their deep faith led them to be devoted even during times of crisis and under threat of death.
Belcher’s concern in this memoir seems not primarily for his own spiritual health, but for that of his young children. He reminds us (several times) of studies telling us that children with shallow faith roots will abandon their faith in adulthood. How, Belcher wonders, can he inspire the faith and spiritual understanding that will allow his children to remain firm in their faith throughout their lives?
In Search of Deep Faith is an entertaining read. Most readers will find at least one of the historical faith stories to be new to them - the full story of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was particularly interesting to me - and Belcher drives the reader to reflection on the health of one’s own faith.
[caption width=“640” align=“aligncenter”]
Cranmer burned at the stake[/caption]
My one big gripe with the book is Belcher’s style of driving his argument via what I’m assuming must be invented dialogue. Sure, some of the conversations on his trip probably happened as they are written, but even though page after page of his book is filled with quoted dialog ("‘why do you think he did that?’, my wife asked."), either he provided a script for his family to read their questions from, or he’s putting words in their mouths later as a device to move his arguments along. And while literature has been using the forced question-and-answer format at least since Plato did it in The Republic, after too many chapters of it from Belcher it just feels contrived.
In spite of that gripe I’d still recommend reading this one if you think you’re at all interested. Style aside, it’s an encouraging and educational read.
Disclosure: InterVarsity Press provided me a free ebook copy of In Search of Deep Faith in return for posting a review here and at Amazon.com. The contents of the review are mine alone.
Recommended Reading: The Journey of Ministry
Recently I’ve been reading The Journey of Ministry: Insights from a Life of Practice by Fuller seminary professor Dr. Eddie Gibbs. (Thanks go to Gibbs' son-in-law Brian Auten (a fellow BHT patron whom I’ve had the pleasure to meet once, for far too short a conversation) for pointing it out when it was on sale.) While it seemed to start out a bit slowly, the second half of the book is chock full of good insights on the Western church and its needs in the 21st century.
A couple of choice bits:
The church also needs to multiply points of contact by taking the initiative in becoming involved in all aspects of community life and being seen making a transformative impact. We also need churches small enough for everybody to feel that they are valued, that their questions are welcomed and that they can make a contribution to expand and deepen the various expressions of ministry. The serious challenge we face today in older, traditional denominations and in many independent churches is that our model of church is not easily reproducible. It’s too expensive, consumerist and controlled. It also is increasingly out of step with a networking, relational culture.
A bit later:
The pulpit no longer provides the platform from which the neighboring community and beyond can be addressed. Its message seldom reaches beyond the dwindling ranks of the faithful, and sometimes it even falls on deaf ears in the pews.
Oh, OK, one more:
The preacher must not be allowed to become the sole interpreter of a poem. Turning poetry into prose destroys the power of the medium. It’s like explaining a joke. Poetry needs to be restored to the prophet.
Gibbs' Chapter 6, ‘Communicating’, on the roles of apostle, prophet, evangelist, teacher, and pastor is worth the price of the book all by itself. Worth reading if you get the chance.
On Book Reviewing and Control
My friend Geof wrote a good post yesterday about really taking time to digest and consider a book before publishing a review. He appreciates his friend Adam for taking 6 months before responding to Rachel Held Evans' book. (I’m curious whether Adam’s really been chewing on it for a while or whether he just took a while to get to the book in the first place, but that’s only tangential to Geof’s point.)
When it comes to any book review, I simply question context: who is the reviewer, and does it seem that they’ve taken the time to read it well? Often the former is easily deduced—this is the Internet—but one never really knows if a book has been carefully considered or read simply to be discarded….
…I think you need to spend time thinking about a book if you are going to lend/demand authority to your response to the reading. I think that too many high-profile theology types rush through book reviews purely knowing that their authority rests in their brand. I think that’s a dangerous mistake.
Geof has a good point here, and I wonder how my own review of Rachel’s book would change if I read it again now that I’ve had time to think and interact with others about it.
Geof omitted, though, another critical aspect of why the big-name theo-review-bloggers rush through their reads and get their reviews out early: control. These theo-review-bloggers want to direct their readers' purchases in ways that they think are “safe”. If a critical review will keep a “dangerous” book out of hundreds of hands, let’s get it published ASAP. Waiting for six months to publish a review might allow time for those folks to buy the book, read it, and *gasp* think about it for themselves.
Don’t get me wrong - I appreciate good book recommendations, and I appreciate folks telling me when a book might be a waste of my time. But Geof is right - there’s far more authority to be had when you’ve ruminated on a book over time before reviewing than when your release-day review is ***DO NOT WANT OMG HERESY STAY AWAY***.
My 2012 reading
Time for my annual roundup of what I read over the past year. While I’m often lousy at cataloging things, this list is easy enough thanks to Goodreads and their nice little iPhone app.
(If you just want to look at the list, go check it out over on Goodreads.)
I read 59 books this year. 36 were fiction, 23 were non-fiction. Most of that non-fiction was theology, with just a couple of biographies / histories thrown in. (I need to read some more history. I don’t read enough of it anymore.)
I rated far more things with five stars this year than I have in previous years. (15 books got 5 stars! That’s more than a quarter of everything I read!) I don’t know whether that means my rating standards are slipping or that my book selection standards are improving, but at least it means I have some good books to recommend.
There are five novels I gave five stars this year:
On the non-fiction side, there were more 5-star books, but a few among those that particularly stood out:
I’m back at the reading for 2013, trying to finish up some Thomas Merton that I started back in December. If you’re so inclined, add me as a friend on Goodreads so we can interact about our reading throughout the year!
The Anxious Christian - Rhett Smith
Sorry for turning this into a book review blog of sorts. One of these days I’m going to get to some more serious posting. For now, though, I’m going to get the books reviewed that I need to. Bear with me.
The subtitle of Rhett Smith’s book The Anxious Christian is either a very silly rhetorical question or designed to feed the anxieties of the target audience. “Can God use your anxiety for good?” Well, of course He can. God’s ability in that regard has never really been in question. If you’re one of Smith’s anxious Christians, though, maybe your anxiety about God’s ability will drive you to buy the book.
Smith uses the early chapters of the book to recount his own struggle with anxiety as a young man. The loss of his mother and several other close relatives at an early age drove him to compulsive behaviors in an attempt to bring some control to his anxious, insecure life. Smith then explores the lessons he has learned from seeing God’s work in his life.
Christians who don’t wrestle with anxiety on a regular basis may immediately point to Phillippians 4 where Paul instructs us to “be anxious for nothing”. Smith addresses this directly in the first chapter, saying that while the instruction is “powerful” and is often counseled by those who “mean well”, we can inadvertently communicate the wrong message.
When we discourage others from safely expressing their anxiety, then we are essentially saying to them that anxiety is a bad emotion, and that it is something to be done away with. It communicates to them that perhaps something is wrong with their Christian faith…
Kierkegaard referred to anxiety as our “best teacher” because of its ability to keep us in a struggle that strives for a solution, rather than opting to forfeit the struggle and slide into a possible depression.
There, in a nutshell, is what Smith is going to come back to in nearly every chapter of the book: to recognize that God is continuously at work in us, and that our anxiety can be useful if it drives us forward to continued struggle and action. He says that God “uses [your anxiety] to awaken you and help turn you toward Him.” In chapter four he goes further to say that “God wants you to pay attention to it [anxiety]. He wants you to listen to it. For in your anxiety God is speaking to you and He is encouraging you to not stay content with where you are.”
In the last few chapters, Smith puts his experience as a marriage and family therapist to good use as he provides some practical suggestions for working in areas that often cause anxiety; he discusses setting good personal boundaries, refining personal relationships, and asking for help.
With a topic like this, an author runs the risk of playing the victim card, but Smith handles it deftly. As one who has struggled with anxiety at various times in my adult life, I appreciated the reminder that God is at work in my life. While I know it to be true, Smith’s book was a welcome kick-in-the-pants reminder.
Note: Moody Press provided me a free copy of this book asking only that I give it a fair review.
My 2011 Reading
The end of the year means it’s time for a summary of my last year’s reading. Thankfully Goodreads keeps it easy for me to track things; I don’t have to remember to do much more than log my books when I’m done with them (on the handy Android app) and at the end of the year I have this nifty list.
By the Numbers I finished 51 books this year, which made it an average year for me. 19 of those were non-fiction, leaving 32 as fiction. (You can see the whole list on Goodreads if you really want to.) As usual, my non-fiction is basically theology, with a little bit of science and history thrown in. The fiction is essentially scifi, fantasy, and legal/political thrillers.
Best fiction I gave 5-star ratings to 3 novels this year that were first-time reads. They were:
Best non-fiction
There are two books that deserve mentions here.
The Stinker
There was only one book that I gave just one star to this year, and I won’t even give it the honor of linking to it on Amazon: Abyss by Paul Hagberg. I can do no better than to quote my review from goodreads:
I should’ve known just from the cover and flyleaf that this particular bit if genre fiction was going to be a train wreck. And yet, like a train wreck, once I started I couldn’t look away.
Ridiculous plot premise, unbelievable protagonist (former CIA director turned bodyguard?!?), uninspired prose and underdeveloped characters fill the 400+ pages of this tome. The author seems contractually obligated to describe each female character in terms of breast size, but mishandles the interpersonal scenes so badly that you wonder if he’s actually ever had an interpersonal relationship.
The cover of the book proclaims it to be “A Kirk McGarvey Novel”, leading me to believe that there are more books out there starring this ridiculous character. My advice: avoid them. Avoid this one, too.
So that’s my 2011. Here’s hoping that 2012 finds me reading the best of books new and old. (Leave any recommendations in the comments below!)
Introverts in the Church
I’ve been doing a slow-and-steady re-read of Adam McHugh’s Introverts in the Church, and words don’t well express how much I resonate with what he is saying. Just as I read Dilbert and think that Scott Adams must’ve worked where I work to get it that right, I read McHugh and think he must’ve served in the same churches I’ve served in. Amazing.
Last night I got to chapter 5, “Introverted Community and Relationships”, and found a few paragraphs that were so apt that I couldn’t resist sharing them.
As introverts seek to enter into and participate in particular communities, their trajectory of commitment may take a different shape than that of their extroverted counterparts. extroverts, who want to increase their level of involvement, may proceed roughly in a straight line as they move from the periphery into the nucleus of the community. … The journey of introverts into a community, however, is better conceptualized as a spiral. They take steps into a community, but then spiral out of it in order to regain energy, to reflect on their experiences and to determine if they are comfortable in that community. They move between entry, retreat and reentry, gradually moving deeper into the community on each loop.
The introverted path into community, much to the confusion of many extroverts, never reaches a point in which the spiraling form is shed.
You know how it feels when someone puts words to something that you’ve always felt and experienced but haven’t been able to describe? That’s how I feel when reading that passage. That’s what my pattern has been, or has needed to be, for the past 10 years.
Some more:
An introverted college student I worked with…encountered several reactions when he chose to step outside of his community after two years of consistent participation. Extroverted leaders chided him for his lack of commitment and were convinced that his pulling back was indicative of a larger spiritual problem infecting his heart. The pastor of the community arranged meetings with him to understand what was happening and what was the source of his dissatisfaction with the group. These efforts, as well intentioned as they were, only pushed him further away instead of drawing him back into his previous level of commitment.
And yes, I’ve been there. And I’m thankful to be in a place now where that isn’t happening.
Slowing Down
I’ve read a lot of books the past few years. As my Goodreads account will attest, I’ve averaged a book every 5 - 6 days for the past four years, and to date in 2011 I’m still on that pace. The book pile next to my bed waxes and wanes with library visits and Amazon shipments. I’ve always been a quick reader. This can be a beneficial thing at times, but it also means that sometimes I’m still picking up detail on my second and third times through a book. I’m coming to the conclusion now, though, that I need to slow down.
I’ve read a number of books over the last few years that have, at the time, stuck out to me as being particularly insightful and helpful to me thinking. (Wright’s Surprised by Hope, Capon’s Between Noon and Three, and McHugh’s Introverts in the Church quickly come to mind in this category.) But with the exception of Surprised by Hope (which I read through multiple times, underlined extensively, and attempted to blog), the other books I read quickly, went “wow, that’s good stuff”, and then put them down.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to me, but it holds more impact when written down in black and white: the value I get from reading the book is in direct proportion to the amount of time I’m willing to devote to digging in to it.
So, I want to slow down. I want to cut down on the number of frivolous novels I read, and focus in on the valuable stuff. I want to take books a chapter or two at a time, chew on the thoughts, and fill up a Moleskine making notes on them afterwards. I want to use this blog as a place to wrestle with and promote the good stuff I find in those books. I want this exercise to sharpen my thinking, hone my writing, and draw me closer to Christ. By His grace may it be so.
I’ll keep you posted on what I’m doing.
Books in my reading queue
My reading queue has been backed up for a while now, and I’ll admit that I only make things worse by buying books and regularly hitting the library. I’ve been entertaining myself with some light popular spy thrillers lately, but it’s time to put those down and work through some better stuff. Here are a few that are in my pile:
Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions: Engaging the Mystery of Friendship Between Men and Women by Dan Brennan. 
I had this one on my Amazon wishlist for a while after John Armstrong wrote about it. Becky bought it for me for Valentine’s Day and it’s been sitting in the pile ever since. The author’s premise is that there is a meaningful place in the Christian life for close friendships between members of the opposite sex who are not married to each other. Typically this has been something that Christians have advised against, usually on the basis of wanting to protect marriage… but I’m interested in what the author has to say.
Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace by Robert Farrar Capon 
I got this one for Christmas and have already read it once, but it really merits a re-read and perhaps a blog post or two or three. This is a fascinating little book on grace, and there were two or three particular places in it that caught me square on and have gripped my thinking ever since. Definitely time for a re-read.
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. 
I don’t even remember what blog I was reading that recommended this sci-fi novel, but the review was good, and the summary looked good, and the library had it… so it’s in my queue. I do love me some sci-fi.
Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture by Adam McHugh. 
This goes into the re-read category as well. I read things too quickly sometimes, and this was one that I buzzed through on the way to some other book. It deserves a more thoughtful re-read; there’s a lot in it that could be very helpful to me and other introverts out there.
Well, enough for now. Any recommendations on other books I should add to the queue?
The Perils of Hipster Christianity
Brett McCracken’s column that appeared on the Wall Street Journal website yesterday really hit home for me. McCracken, 27, outlines the increasing efforts that the evangelical church has made to try to attract and keep 20-somethings. Whether it’s the obsession with being culturally savvy, or with being technologically cutting-edge, or with using shock tactics (‘you’ve never heard your pastor talk about *this* before’), McCracken argues that they are simply gimmicks that may bring people in the door; “But”, he asks “what sort of Christianity are they being converted to?”
Quoting David Wells, he further adds:
And the further irony is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them.
McCracken concludes that “cool Christianity” is not a “sustainable path forward”, and that, “when it comes to church, [twentysomethings] don’t want cool as much as we want real”.
It’s worth reading the whole post. I, for one, give him a hearty Amen.
Doctrine good, stories bad?
I have learned much over the past several years from brothers and sisters of the Reformed theological persuasion. I love and respect them deeply. But the good Dr. Daniel J. R. Kirk today puts his finger on a point which has provided me some unease in my conversations with my Reformed brethren, saying it, as usual, more succinctly than I could.
Quoth Daniel:
Doctrine Good. Stories Bad. That’s the mini-theme of this month’s Christianity Today.
I begin with the most egregious offense. There’s a short inset on p. 26, snipped from a book by J. I. Packer and Gary A. Parrett (Grounded in the Gospel; Baker, 2010) entitled, “The Lost Art of Catechesis.” The point? Back in the old days, folks used to have to learn their theology. That waned for a bit, but was revived in all its glory in the Reformation. Doctrine. The church has to learn its doctrine.
When did this all go astray between then and now? When Sunday Schools entrusted instruction to lay people and rather than teaching people theology substituted “instilling of familiarity (or shall we say, perhaps, over-familiarity) with Bible stories” (26).
Daniel, though, strongly disagrees, and he hammers it home here:
This is the classic inversion of sola scriptura: no longer do we really want you to do what the Reformers did (read your Bible), we want you instead to read and memorize what they said after they had read their Bibles.
And that is the unease I’ve always had w/ the Reformed types. So often when asked a question, they don’t respond w/ Scripture, but rather with a quote from one of the Confessions or with a paragraph from Calvin or Edwards or Spurgeon or Packer.
I know, I know, those Confessions are a distillation of the church’s understanding of the whole Scripture over the years, and useful as a doctrinal reference and as a safeguard against taking any single Scripture passage wildly out of context. But Dr. Kirk makes a great point here: our first priority and focus should be to the Scripture, and the Confessions and Institutes need to come later.
I’d love to hear from some of my Reformed buddies on this one. And yeah, I’m afraid what I might be in for when they pile on. :-)
Book Review: <em>The Echo Within</em> by Robert Benson
There is a particular class of inspirational book these days that you can identify on the shelf without even looking at the content. First is the book’s size - usually no larger than 5 by 8 inches. Second is the cover art - typically a scenic vista or natural landscape, meant to soothe and inspire. I didn’t get a look at the cover art before I agreed to accept a free copy of The Echo Within from Waterbrook Press and review it on my blog, but as soon as I pulled it out of the envelope, I started to wonder. Is this gonna be another one of those fluffy inspirational books?
Robert Benson is the author of over a dozen books, all of which he describes on his website as being about one thing: “paying attention”. Says Benson:
I write about paying attention for the things that can point us to the Sacred in our lives. About the longings that we have for home and community and a sense of belonging. About practice and ritual and work and contemplation and the way that such things can be constant reminders of who we are and who we are to become.
And in this little volume, as you might guess from its title, Benson urges us to listen to “the echo within” - the little voice within ourselves that gives us some inclination of choices we should make, directions we should take, things we should believe. In the first chapter he describes it this way:
I am coming to believe that the small voice within me is an echo of the Voice that is still speaking the incarnate word that I am here to become, an echo of the Voice that spoke us all into being, an echo of the Voice that spoke all that is alive.
Sometimes we are hesitant to trust that small voice within us because we think it is just ourselves doing the talking… because we have heard a similar voice inside us say things that are hurtful and angry and hateful, to ourselves and about others.
We must learn to listen deeper and deeper, seeking out the true voice within us that echoes the Voice of the One Who made us…
The fact that the Voice that calls to us often sounds like our own is not something to be mistrusted or feared. It is a sign of how close God is to us.
Benson has some good insights in The Echo Within about recognizing the talents, inclinations, and desires that God has built into us - sometimes we do tend to make this whole “God’s leading” thing more difficult than it needs to be - but on the whole Benson strays just a little too far in the “listen to your inner voice” direction, with no balance of recognizing the Truth that is revealed to us in Scripture.
For the person running weary and needing some quiet encouragement, The Echo Within might be a nice little volume to pick up. Read and consider it with discernment, though. That inner voice might be God, but then again, it might not be.