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Grace invader

20 of My Top Reads During 2019

12/5/2019

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2019 was a "bigger than usual" reading year for me.  Thanks to a reading plan, kindle, audible, and  the usual printed books, I'm edging up close to 70 books for the year. However, I thought I'd sketch out a more modest list of  the 20 books I'm most glad to have read this year.
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The End of Our Exploring

by Matthew ​Lee Anderson
Our questions drag us about like chariots, which is precisely why letting them go can be so hard... 

​This book is about how Christians should embrace questioning  as a good and proper part of the believer's life.

When should we boldly ask God questions? When should we be content to leave our questions unanswered?  What do our questions tell us about our view of God?  How can we begin to question well BEFORE things get hard? 

The book also explores the relationship between questioning, faith, and doubt.  I loved the section of the book that explored how a deepening faith in God's promises, actually frees us up to ask harder, and more unsettling questions of God.
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Dying Well

by John Wyatt
​A book that essentially aims to assist Christians, well... die well.  It also has plenty of really helpful things to to say to those of us who are caring for loved ones as they approach death.

Wyatt provides us with a modern take on what used to be a common genre of christian writing called ARS MORIENDI (the art of dying well). The book considers the death of a believer from bodily, medical, spiritual, and relational angles.  

Reading the book convinced me that there is much more to LIVING through the experience of dying than simply avoiding pain.  Oliver O'Donovan says that "dying" is the last sphere of ethical action that the Christian will face - I'm confident that this book really will help many of us do that much better, and with a greater sense of peace.
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A Salve for a Sick Man

by William Perkins
​Perkins uses Ecclesiastes 7:3 as his main text, “The day of death is better than the day that one is born.” 

​​I found the use of this text a little jarring, and some exegesis of it unconvincing.  However, this puritan classic really is a great example of a genre of Christian writing (ARS MORIENDI) that I only just discovered this year.

Perkins aims to assist believers focus our attention upon those  obligations we have to God, ourselves, and one another in the face of death.
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True Feelings

edited - Michael Jensen
Emotions, as much as logic and rationality, are good and wonderful aspects of creaturely existence. This book of essays considers the place of emotions in christian life and ministry.

I especially enjoyed the way Michael Jensen unpacked the significance that emotions have for properly understanding our own actions, our experience of our bodies, and our exercise of rationality.

Rhys Bezzant's chapter was a very helpful reflection upon the modern obstacles we face in attempting to re-order our emotions in the face of busyness, self-medication, phones, and electronic devices.

Other chapters considered the way the scriptures use the language of emotion in communicating who God is, as well as exploring the significance of emotion in Jesus' own ministry.
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Zone One

by Colson Whitehead

This take on the Zombie genre was probably my favourite of the handful I've read this year.  

It follows the attempt to re-settle Manhattan following a devastating outbreak of a zombie-inducing pandemic.

Without ever labouring the point, Whitehead alludes to a dozen different ways in which the scenario of an undead apocalypse might offer sober insights into the nature of contemporary western life; which is exactly what a good zombie book should deliver on!
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Empire of Democracy

by Simon Reid-Henry
I actually feel rather inadequate to offer an assessment of this book, such is the immensity of its scope!  It was a amazing (if exhausting) read about the development of western democracy following the World Wars, all the way through to the election of Trump.

The book also locates developments in Australia, NZ, and Canada within the wider global context of western democracy.   Reid-Henry describes how globalisation's impact upon western economies and international relations, have transformed the nature of democracy in some rather unsettling ways.  

Reid-Henry attempts to track how both conservatism (through neoliberalism) and progressivism (through the embracing of identity issues) have BOTH ended up  reshaping contemporary democracy in ways that have left society highly individualised and fragmented.


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In Search of the Common Good

by Jake Meador
I read this book before I read "Empire of Democracy".  But having read "Empire" I now appreciate better what Meador was aiming to achieve with this enjoyable short read.

Meador does not so much make a case for a particular political vision that will "fix" the world;  rather he makes a case for why the conception of "Common Good" may be exactly what is needed in our highly individualised and fragmented world. 

Using reflections from his own upbringing, his Christian faith,  illustrations from literature, and socio-economic research, Meador reflects upon why our culture is so polarised, anxious, and lonely. He then goes on to suggest why a commitment to pursuing a "common good" might help us better navigate the fractured mess that is our time.


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The Dangers of Christian Practice

by Lauren F. Winner
There has recently been renewed focus (among quite a number of Christian writers) upon the spiritual benefits of distinctly Christian practices such as Prayer, the Lord's Supper,  and Baptism.  Winner has a genuine appreciation for this renewed focus.

However, this book explores the various ways in which very good Christian practices can become significantly distorted, and therefore damaging to Christian witness.

Winner describes the way the Lord's Supper had been used in Europe as a weapon of anti-semitism. Using actual prayer journals written by slave owners in America's south, Winner shows how even something as pious as personal prayer could  end up nourishing racism.

It is a VERY sobering read.  It is also a wonderful help in reminding us of the need to be attentive to those motivations that fuel our Christian practices.  Winter exposes the folly of ever assuming that Christian practices in themselves are a formula,  or a sure guide, to deepening one's faith.
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A Pastoral Rule for Today

by Burgess, Andrews, and Small
This book does not strictly belong in my "favourite" 20 books of 2019.  Rather,  I've included it here because it really did provoke my thinking about the assumptions, rhythms, and habits that shape my own pastoral ministry. 

The subtitle of this book, "Reviving an Ancient Practice" rubbed me up the wrong way, a little bit.  The book is not really about "reviving" some long lost mystical key to pastoral ministry.  Rather, it is a selection of essays that recount the  various ways in which people have sought to shape and nourish their own pastoral ministry throughout Church history.  

My own approach to pastoral ministry has not really been changed in the reading of this book. However it has been a much needed reminder that everyone operates with assumptions that will shape how they carry out pastoral ministry. The book stimulated me to reconsider and refocus upon what practices and attitudes I want my pastoral ministry to be most shaped by.  

If you were to read only one book in this area I'd choose instead "The Care of Souls" which I've reviewed at the end of this list.
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The Book of Common Prayer: a biography

by Alan Jacobs
The Anglican Book of Common Prayer continues to shape the Christian devotion of countless protestant believers. It has  also been one of the greatest influences upon the development of English language, politics, society, and culture.

Alan Jacobs tracks the ways in which Cranmer's original work has been used and misused. He also explores how and why the one prayerbook eventually became many.  I was especially fascinated by how the liturgical practices of the Episcopal church in the US were shaped by the Scottish additions to Cranmer's  prayer book.

This really is a wonderfully readable book! And short. And insightful.
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A Man on the Moon

by Andrew Chaikin

Amazing. This book is a exhaustive exploration of the Apollo space program; from its inception through to its completion.

The technical obstacles the program had to overcome, and the challenges endured by the astronauts themselves are breathtaking.  One astronaut prepared for his Apollo mission by dramatically altering his dietary intake in the weeks leading up to take-off, just so that he could avoid the truly traumatic procedures he'd have to follow in order to relieve himself in space;  He "held on" for the entire trip!

I was captivated by some of the later Apollo missions to the moon and their explorations of luna landscapes that I'd never heard about before.

It is a long book. Leave it by the bedside and dip into it over 2020.
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by Lionel J Windsor
This study really was a wonderful help as I prepared to teach on the book of Ephesians. The book caused me to linger longer in some very familiar sections in Paul's letter,  focussing my attention upon the importance of Ancient Israel in God's mission of salvation.  I won't teach Ephesians again without first consulting this study.

Lionel Windsor has also produced a podcast and blog to offer some of his work in a more easy-to-read form. It is really worth it for anyone intending to read through Ephesians/Colossians.

http://www.lionelwindsor.net/publications/lift-your-eyes/

Note: the term "supersessionism" is also sometimes called "replacement theology" - the view that the church just replaces wholesale the Jewish people in God's plans. Windsor is aiming to critique and correct this mistaken view of Israel's place in God's plans.


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Enduring Divine Absence: the challenge of modern atheism

by Joseph Minich
I took a little time to really get into this book. However, I'm so glad I persevered: the second half of the book had some wonderfully helpful insights into why so many of us find believing in God so difficult.  Minich writes out of his own prolonged wrestling with belief.

The value of this book is not so much in any single intellectual "answer" it offers to atheism's critique of faith. Rather, the book aims to unmask, or demystify, the contemporary allure of atheism. Minich seeks to explain WHY atheism now seems more reasonable than it used to:  why God's absence might seem so obvious to our particular generation in a way that was not true of previous generations.  

Atheism is not the inevitable fruit of living in a more scientifically "enlightened" age. Rather, atheism draws its apparent credibility from some questionable assumptions we've made about the nature of human knowledge and existence.  

Minich unpacks how the "popularity" of atheism actually has very little to do with the reasonableness of the Christian faith itself, and far more to do with the unique pathologies of our own particular time in human history.

I've already shared one reflection on this book here:
http://www.graceinvader.com/blog/enduring-divine-absence-the-discipline-of-a-loving-parent
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Four Books on Sexuality, Sex, and the Body

I've previously written a review of the four following books here:
http://www.graceinvader.com/stuff-from-books/sexuality-singleness-the-body-four-books
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Entering Into Rest

by Oliver O'Donovan
It took me a while to work through the previous two books in this trilogy from Oliver O'Donovan, but I read this book in record time (at least for an O'Donovan book)!

Entering into Rest is about how we can experience God's rest.  O'Donovan reflects not only upon God's ultimate promise of rest; he also considers what degree of rest is possible in the midst of all our ongoing daily activity.

In O'Donovan's own words the book is about - 
"...how our sanctification is a work of God in which we may rest in thanksgiving... in work, in friendship, and in communicating meaning. And... about how we rest in death." 

I found O'Donovans reflections upon the Christian's understanding of dying particularly moving. At the end of life our own work is something to pray over in hope, not something to  rest confidently in.  Christ alone could pray "it is finished" over his life work.  And in his work alone can our own work ever hope to find any lasting rest.


This book (indeed the whole trilogy) pointed me to Christ, and awakened in this wearied, harried, middle-aged man a wonderful taste of rest .
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City of God

by Augustine
This year my aim was to make it all the way through Augustine's  City of God  (unabridged audio book). 

I think I'm going to make it!  ​I'm more than 90% of the way through at present.

The opening books of CofG involved a fascinating critique of Pagan objections against the Christian faith. It got me wondering what a contemporary equivalent might look like for our own age.

Books 12-14 of CoG included some stimulating insights into the creation and fall of Adam and Eve that I'm looking forward to revisiting.

Having gained a (very) rough overall feel this year, I'm intending to go back in 2020 and carefully re-read specific sections of book 19 (using the New City Press translation).
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Book 19 particularly considers the question of what we should understand as the supreme good,  and what shape happiness truly takes for believers, both now and in the next life.

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Station Eleven

by Emily StJohn Mandel
What relevance might Shakespeare and graphic novels continue to hold for human life in the apocalypse?  How might the collapse of civilisation give us a new perspective upon the mid-life struggle to secure a legacy for ourselves?  These themes are nicely woven together in this easy to read dystopian novel,  Station Eleven.  The book threads together the story lines of several survivors, as they navigate the collapse of western civilisation.

It was my "breeziest" read of 2019, despite the "end of the world" theme.

I've decided to sneak in one extra book which I've not yet finished... 

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​The Care of Souls: cultivating a pastor's heart

by Harold L. Senkbiel
I've only got through 50% this book so far, but thought I'd sneak it in here none the less!

This book is a great way to finish off 2019 and begin 2020.
It is essentially a collection of essays on the nature of pastoral ministry, centred around the preaching & ministering of God's Word (publicly and privately) and the sacraments (Lord's Supper and Baptism).  

Senkbiel is a pastor with 50 years pastoral experience.  He does a wonderful job of pushing deep into the complexities of ministering God's Word to folk struggling through all kinds of grief, shame, guilt, and various life stages.

Chapters 3-4 offer some wonderful advice about the great care a pastor must take in diagnosing the various spiritual ailments that   congregation members may bring to him.   

Senkbiel also goes on to reflect upon how pastoring a congregation with God's word will dovetail with mission, the pursuit of holiness, and intimacy with God. He then concludes with a chapter on maintaining Joy in the exercise of pastoral office.

Pastors would do really well to read this book before the panic of 2020 sets in!

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Genesis & Cultural Critique - book review

12/1/2019

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Here is a link to a Themelios book review of a really wonderful book by Dr Chris Watkin: 
***I contributed the 2nd half of the review***
BOOK REVIEW: Thinking Through Creation
In the first half of the review Rob Smith outlines the structure, purpose, and argument of the book.

In the 2nd half of the review I describe how I've used it in discipling others - particularly uni students.


You really should also check out Watkins quickly growing apologetics resource web page at www.thinkingthroughthebible.com
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Sexuality, Singleness, & the Body: four books

6/30/2019

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Were the 1960s really "ground zero" for the sexual revolution?  I'm usually as quick as anyone to point (or waggle) the finger at the baby boomers. The cultural turmoil of the 1960's no doubt marked a significant moment in the west's changing attitudes towards sex and relationships. However, the decade of "free love" turned out to be neither the founding moment, nor the final flowering, of the sexual landscape we now inhabit. 

Below I'll share some reflections on four books I've read this year that attempt to come to terms with our culture's current experience of sexuality. (although several of these books go well beyond simply discussing sexuality)
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A SECULAR AGE - an infographic (1st draft)

5/14/2019

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This is a diagram I have begun to put together as an attempt to process various aspects of Charles Taylor's book, "A Secular Age".
It is a rough diagram sketched while reading the book. I used the simplified diagram in order to present the book's broad argument to the ministry staff team I'm a part of.
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Click on either of the "Download File"  links  below.
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a_secular_age_diagram.pdf
File Size: 11739 kb
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simplified_secular_document.pdf
File Size: 4082 kb
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2018 Book reviews:  30 books reviewed in two sentences each

12/30/2018

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My top four reads of 2018 are highlighted at the bottom of this post.  All books receive a meagre 2 sentences by way of review!


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12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, by Jordan B Peterson.

"Read" on audible so as to best appreciate his engaging manner, Peterson presents his cultural analysis of the present moment in 12 candid theses (dressed up as rules).  His use of ancient texts/myths is a masterclass on how to engage an audience with ideas they'd be suspicious of if communicated in a more progressive/activist manner, but the ideas themselves were less convincing.


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Island Home, by Tim Winton.

Read by the beach, while soaking up the landscape of my Island home.  A wonderful reminder that what at first may look like a wasteland, may actually a dazzling wonderland: an insight that is often as true for ideas as it is for landscapes.

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Work & Leisure in Christian Perspective,  by Leland Ryken.

Read as a spur to thinking through what it might look like to think theologically about the place of "leisure" (whatever that is!) in the Christian life.  A helpful primer, some great ideas, but lacking when it came to expressing a coherent theology that one may be able to build upon.

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Of Leisure,  by Seneca

Read as a classical foil for thinking through the scripture's teaching on rest.  Sort and punchy.

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The Pleasures of Leisure, by Robert Dessaix

Not a pleasurable read.  The prose promised insight that never came.

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Leisure and Spirituality: Biblical, Historical, and contemporary perspectives,  by Paul Heintzman

Read a little like it was a dissertation rushed into the form of a book.  Paul's manner was warm, but the content was far more weighted towards "leisure studies" than either Biblical or Contemporary analysis.

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Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief,  by Jordan Peterson

Don't read if you are after a more in depth version of 12 Rules.  The book gave me valuable insight into why Peterson chooses to use myth, ancient stories, and familiar scripture to persuade his readers to embrace his psycological insights. Interesting that Peterson is confident that the literary form of scripture still has plausibility, even if he doesn’t believe the truth of them.

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On Prayer: Conversation with God,  by John Calvin

Really great (and short) little compendium of Calvin's writing on both the theology and practice of prayer.  Loved both some of the strategies Calvin suggests for encouraging his readers in prayer, and his use of pre-written prayers!

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 Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God,  by Timothy J. Keller

Pleasingly this book relied heavily upon some wonderful resources from traditional reformation theologians, and less upon Keller's own personal insights (which I find always stimulating, but less often enduringly convincing).   The "experiencing Awe and Intimacy" aspect of prayer was helpfully qualified and critiqued more than I had expected from the title: Keller's usual fascination with experiencing "transcendence" made very little appearance.

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A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, by Paul Miller

Wanted to enjoy this book, but felt more disconnected with each personal story that Miller told about his own experience of prayer. Ultimately I'm not convinced by the model that Miller employs for discerning God's answers to our prayer.

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Prayer and the Voice of God, by Philip Jensen and Tony Payne
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​Few of the books about prayer that I read (re-read) in 2018 had the scriptural clarity and modest care of expression that this book does. I was surprised by how helpful this book was in keeping my thinking focused as I read more widely on the topic of prayer. 

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Prayer, by Ole Hallesby

The warmest and most stimulating book on prayer that I've ever read. It got me noticing (and delighting in) some of the most obvious truths about prayer:  truths that left me wondering "have I really not noticed that before?"

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The Two Kingdoms: A Guide for the Perplexed, by W. Bradford Littlejohn

Already reviewed this book  HERE 
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The Peril and Promise of Christian Liberty: Richard Hooker, The Puritans, And Protestant Political Theology, by W. Bradford Littlejohn

Already reviewed this book  HERE

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The Good Life in The Last Days: Making Choices When the Time is Short, by Mikey Lynch

One of the very few books that takes seriously both the goodness of this world God has called us to live within, while also exhorting us to anchor our hope firmly in the life to come.
I plan to read it again in 2019.

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The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences have, by Chip & Dan Heath

​A handful of great insights for someone like me: someone not great at celebrating and acknowledging those big, small, and precious moments that pass by quickly. This has given me a great little collection of things to work on celebrating in 2019 in both the family and ministry context...

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When: The Scientific Secrets Of Perfect Timing, by Dan Pink

It had insufficient insights or interest to warrant reading.

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Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It,  by Steven Pressfield

Some great reminders for writers (of whatever sort) to not blame one's readership when they have little interest in reading your work. Would perhaps have been better as a punchy blog entry.

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The Lost World of the Flood, by John Walton and Tremper Longman III

This book was not as helpful as Walton's earlier books on the opening chapters of Genesis. It had some helpful insights on the text and context of the narratives surrounding the Flood, but felt a little too focussed upon answering the objections of the particular "6 day creationist" audience it was addressing.

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​The Mercersburg Theology and the Quest for Reformed Catholicity, by W. Bradford Littlejohn

An interesting introduction to a debate I'd previously been unfamiliar with: the debate between 
John Nevin + Philip Schaff, and Charles Hodge over i) what shape Reformed theology could properly take,  and ii) what continuity it might legitimately maintain with Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.   I was left with the impression that John Nevin and Philip Schaff need not have looked far beyond the English/Continental reformers for the theological resources they needed to critique Hodge's vision of Protestantism.

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Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity,  by Kim Malone Scott

Great book on the value (and pitfalls) of Candor in management and leadership.  The book helpfully focusses on how a leader's candor can serve and benefit those who work under them.

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Personality and the Fate of Organisations,  by Robert Hogan

The book unpacks the ways in which Personality and Performance are are linked, and the way in which Personality impacts an individual's leadership ability, style, team performance, and overall organisational effectiveness: the interplay between Personality and Organisational management.

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The Meek One,  by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A tale of how the narcissistic love of a pawnbroker drives his wife to suicide. A confronting story of a husband's self-delusion.

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The book follows the personal/professional development of Kenji, a curator who finds vintage maps easier to read than people.  As Kenji moves from Japan to the UK, US, and Europe, his changing understanding of cartography mirrors his struggle to read people in ways foreign to him.

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The Enchiridion,  by Augustine

Designed as a personal handbook to the Christian faith, it was written by Augustine at the request of a man who had written to him.  It is structured around the key theological concerns of Faith, Hope, and Love - although Augustine's structuring of these themes wasn't always immediately clear to me. 

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The Keeper, by Graham Norton

A great read.  A woman discovers that her recently deceased mother was even more of a mystery to her than the father she never knew.

My Top Reads for 2018


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The Shepherd's Hut,  by Tim Winton

I love the way that Winton writes about men: about their insecurities, their dealings with one another, and their grappling with their own pasts. This book has all that in spades!

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Finding and Seeking: Ethics as Theology,  by Oliver O'Donovan

Best book I've read since O'Donovan's first book in this series:  Devotional, penetrating, humorous, and deeply scriptural.  I was especially gripped  by the extended treatment that O'Donovan gives to what he calls our "sin against time" - the ways we misunderstand the bible's view of past/present/future time (and the resulting anxiety so typical of our modern moment).

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Thinking through Creation: Genesis 1 and 2 as Tools of Cultural Critique,  by Christopher Watkin

One of my top reads for 2018, its the perfect book to read with those navigating the world of university or academic scholarship. Don't be fooled, this book isn't simply about Genesis: it unpacks the wonderful resources God offers us in the scriptures, for understanding ourselves, creation,  AND for assessing competing visions of our place in the world.

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How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith, and Politics at the End of the World, by Alissa Wilkinson and Robert Joustra

An engaging and clear restatement and reflection upon several key themes from Charles Taylors "A secular Age" - a thesis on the shifting plausibility of faith.  I much preferred this book to James K. A. Smith's "How Not to be Secular" (another book aiming to restate Charles Taylor's thought).
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Richard Hooker:  "identity politics",  conscience,  freedom, & the State

9/4/2018

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​​How should the Church respond to modern “identity politics”?
What sort of separation should there be between church and state? 
Must Roman catholics abandon confessional confidentiality?  
Should Christian citizens expect “freedom of religion”?
Is there a bible verse for that?
Are the pressies right that Episcopacy is just a very “naughty” idea?
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​In the last 12 months each of the above questions have surfaced on my facebook feed. Earnest posts with cascading replies churning in their turbulent wake, and not a few side-eddies sucking their participants below the troubled surface.

In each instance my thoughts were immediately drawn to three books I’d recently read. These books made me freshly aware of the unacknowledged currents drawing along my own thinking on these kind of questions.

1. Richard Hooker: A companion to His Life and Work 
2. The Peril and Promise of Christian Liberty: Richard Hooker, The Puritans, And Protestant Political Theology
3. The Two Kingdoms: A Guide for the Perplexed

Each was authored by W. Bradford Littlejohn who founded The Davenant Institute and completed his PHD under Oliver O’Donovan at Edinburgh.

What follows is a brief commendation of each book. The three of them  overlap somewhat, but were uniquely compelling in their own way.


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1. Richard Hooker: A companion to His Life and Work
(W. Bradford Littlejohn, Cascade Books, 2015)

In many ways this was the most enjoyable read of the three books, and a great place to start. In the wash-up of the reformation in protestant England, we're introduced to the life, times, and theology of Richard Hooker:  part biography,  part theology,  part scholarly review.

Littlejohn provides an engaging overview of the long-standing contentions surrounding the Anglican Divine, Richard Hooker: a man claimed by everyone from Anglo-Catholics, to Evangelical-Reformed types, to even the odd Presbyterian! Without ever getting bogged down, the opening chapters introduce us to the scholarly myths surrounding Hooker and flag the various agendas fuelling them. The book is worth buying for its bibliographic resources!

In the background the whole time is Hooker’s engagement with the “Precisionists” (1) and the “Conformists” (2). The book outlines Hooker’s attempts to correct the errors of both extremes. Hooker offers not so much a compromise between the extremes of the two parties, but his own developed permutation of Luther’s “Two Kingdoms” doctrine (see review below). We are introduced to Hooker’s key work “”Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity” - which I found myself ordering online before I’d finished reading Littlejohn’s chapter about it! 

(1) The precisionists were the more “bolshie” Puritans: Hooker received his own theological training under moderate Puritans.
(2) The conformists were supporters of Royal Supremacy and “sacred kingship”.


Littlejohn highlights Hooker’s distinctively Christological approach to matters of Liturgy, Sacraments, Soteriology, Assurance, and Church Governance: sparking great moments of insight into ongoing modern tensions in Reformed and Evangelical circles (more generally) and Anglicanism (more specifically). 

The book closes with a chapter noting the relevance of Hooker’s theology for issues as diverse as the “Identity Politics” of the Gay Right’s Movement, and the question of what constitutes “adiaphora” in matters of Church Liturgy and Governance.

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2. The Two Kingdoms: A Guide for the Perplexed
(W. Bradford Littlejohn, The Davenant Trust, 2017)


I read this book last out of the three, but I’d recommend it as a follow-up. It is actually more of a “guide” than a book, coming in at barely 100 pages. Littlejohn sums up the significance of Hooker’s formulation of the "Two Kingdoms"  doctrine…  


“…for the Reformers, the two-kingdoms doctrine was not primarily about church and state, or even necessarily political theology more broadly construed, even if it had very important implications for political theology, which we will explore in this book. The two kingdoms were not two institutions or even two domains of the world, but two ways in which the kingship of Christ made itself felt in the life of each and every believer. As such, they were tangled up with all the various forms of “twoness” that run through Christian theology on every front.”

“two-kingdoms doctrine is above all a call to recover the exercise of prudence and wisdom, freed by the Spirit to creatively re-apply Biblical principles and precedents to situations and questions where God has not always supplied us with detailed blueprints and timeless answers…” 


The guide concludes with three chapters exploring the relevance of Hooker’s “Two Kingdom” theology for matters concerning i) Pastoral ministry,  ii) Church unity and Ecumenicism iii) Church and State interactions, and  iv) “The Market” and economics.


3. The Peril and Promise of Christian Liberty: Richard Hooker, The Puritans, And Protestant Political Theology
(W. Bradford Littlejohn, Eerdmans, 2017)


This book is a more involved read than the previous two. However, if you enjoy either of the previous two briefer books, this will certainly be worth it!

Through focussed exploration of Richard Hooker's engagement with Puritan/Conformist debate over Christian freedom, Littlejohn offers compelling insights into modern liberalism, the nature of Church/state, conscience, and the public good. It covers all that is included in the previous two books, at a more involved level and with deeper direct engagement with Hooker’s own writing.
Even so, it is not difficult to spot where both the content and manner of Hooker’s theology and polemics are relevant to the currents directing much modern controversy!

The conclusion engages with David Bentley Hart, Oliver O'Donovan, and Richard Baukham, and even offers insights into the underlying convictions of writers such as Joshua Harris and Mark Driscoll !

Below is an extended quote from the concluding chapter:


"On the one hand, to speak of a liberal order sustained by Christian confession seems downright oxymoronic in contemporary pluralist discourse. And yet it is hard to see exactly how else one might sustain the all-important desacralization of political power... The modest pretensions of liberal politics depend on the conception of the political realm as relative, penultimate, and temporal. And yet, all these terms only make sense in relation to their opposites. Relative in relation to what if not the absolute? Penultimate in relation to what if not the ultimate? Temporal in relation to what if not the eternal? ...according to Luther, the proclamation of Christian liberty and its concomitant doctrine, the two kingdoms, is in fact the only way to avoid, in the long run, the sort of totalitarianism that Berlin feared in his exposition of positive liberty."
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Making ideas stick!

8/1/2016

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I recently read this book by Chip & Dan heath, on how to make the ideas we speak about “Sticky” – memorable. The book contained some well thought out ideas for communication that I intend to revisit in the “packaging” aspects of my sermon writing. As with any attempt at being persuasive, one always needs to guard against being manipulative. If we fail to LOVE OTHERS, or LOVE the TRUTH with our ideas, the whole point to our speaking is undermined: we’ll end up being nothing more than a noisy gong (that is an example of point 3 below).



In reading these kind of books I often forget the details. So I’ve whipped up a graphic to remind me. Below the graphic is an explanation of each key point.

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Here are some quotes from the book to fill out the bare bones of the graphic above:

1. Sticky ideas are SIMPLE IDEAS. Simple does not mean simplistic. We need to find the essential core of our ideas. To strip an idea down to its core, we must be masters of exclusion. We must relentlessly prioritize. Saying something short is not the mission – sound bites are not the ideal. Proverbs are the ideal. We must create ideas that are both simple and profound. The Golden Rule is the ultimate model of simplicity: a statement so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime learning to follow it.

2. Sticky ideas reveal GAPS in our knowledge that provoke/stimulate engagement. “Surprise” can grab people’s attention, but not hold it for very long. We can engage people’s curiosity over a longer period of time by systematically “opening gaps” in their knowledge – and then filling in those gaps.

3. Sticky ideas are CONCRETE ideas. We must present our ideas in terms of “physical” or “sensory experience” :  concrete concepts, images or metaphors. For example, in proverbs, abstract truths are often encoded in concrete language: “A bird in the Hand is worth two in the bush.” This proverb is much more memorable than saying “Having one of something in your immediate possession is of equal value to possessing two of something which you can’t access.”

4. Sticky ideas are CREDIBLE ideas.  Ideas will stick in people’s heads far more easily if people are able to mentally assess their usefulness or reasonableness.  At the least that we need to be willing to engage with the incredulity people might have towards our ideas.

5. Sticky ideas are AFFECTIVE: they give us a targeted reason to CARE about them (not the same as simply being emotive). People are more likely to make a charitable gift to a single needy individual than to an entire impoverished region. We are wired to feel things for people, not for abstractions. We need to consider what moves people. For instance, it is difficult to get teenagers to quit smoking by instilling in them fear of the consequences, but it’s easier to get them to quit by tapping into their resentment of the duplicity of Big Tobacco.

6. Sticky ideas can be MENTALLY REHEARSED. Mentally rehearsing a situation helps us perform better when we encounter that situation at a later date. Relating your idea in the context of a story or posing hypothetical situations act as a kind of mental flight simulator: they help us habituate the new idea in our thinking processes.

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