What Are You Currently Reading?

[One Bad Pig]

What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey
Constantine's Bible: Politics and the Making of the New Testament by David L. Dungan - this one gets a . His theory is that Christianity was nice and diverse until Constantine imposed a Catholic straight-jacket and ruthlessly suppressed the rest, in large part by forcing the adoption of a canon of scripture, which is a religious aberration (most religions don't have one). Facts that help his case are positively spun, and facts that don't help his case (like the Muratorian canon) are not so much as mentioned.

John Climacus: The Ladder of Divine Ascent trans. Colm Luibheid - the translation suffers from not being broken up into verses, so I can't really follow the recommended Lenten reading schedule.

[Teluog]

Tell me how the Yancey one is. I hear he's fairly popular.

Also, should we expand this thread to include websites, journal articles, etc.? Or just stick to books?

[One Bad Pig]

Tell me how the Yancey one is. I hear he's fairly popular.

It's pretty good so far. I'm about half-way through. Philip Yancey is just about the only popular (as in, "can be found on the shelf of Christian bookstores") Christian authors that I like. Unlike the other books of his that I recall reading, this one is somewhat autobiographical.

Also, should we expand this thread to include websites, journal articles, etc.? Or just stick to books?

I'm guessing the intent of the OP was for book-length works, but there's nothing stopping you from including those.

[Teluog]

It's pretty good so far. I'm about half-way through. Philip Yancey is just about the only popular (as in, "can be found on the shelf of Christian bookstores") Christian authors that I like. Unlike the other books of his that I recall reading, this one is somewhat autobiographical.

Yeah my pastor (scholarly-minded, OT/Hebrew ThD, critical thinker) recommended his Why bother With the Church? book in last year's Sunday School class on the nature of the church, and has it as a textbook for one of the courses he taught at a local seminary.

I'm guessing the intent of the OP was for book-length works, but there's nothing stopping you from including those.

It's just that there is a lot of good articles and non-book stuff out there these days. I figure might as well

[Hamster]

Not currently reading anything except "Till We Have Faces" which I always read once in a while. Thinking about re-reading Fast Food Nation

[JB]

Also, should we expand this thread to include websites, journal articles, etc.? Or just stick to books?

Including websites and journal articles could lead to being hunted down by Vatican assassin warlocks.




Also, right now I'm mainly reading Warrant: The Current Debate by Alvin Plantinga as well as some of the hymns and poems of Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, a wonderful Christian poet of the dawn of the fifth century.

From his hymn for Christmas Day (Liber Cathemerinon 11.13-48):

Unveil Thy sweetness, Child divine,
The fruit of virgin Motherhood
And chastity inviolate,
Our Mediator, God and Man.

Though Thou didst come from the Mouth of God,
Born as His Word on earth below,
Yet as His Wisdom Thou didst live
Forever in the Father's Heart.

This Wisdom uttered made the sky,
The sky and light and all besides;
All by the Word's almighty power
Were fashioned, for the Word was God.

But when the universe was formed
And ordered by unchanging laws,
The Cause and Architect divine
In the Father's bosom still remained,

Until the slow revolving years
In centuries at length had passed,
And He Himself vouchsafed to come
Down to the world grown old in sin.

For men whom passion had made blind
Were led into idolatry
And put their faith in gods of bronze,
Or wood, or cold unfeeling stone,

And thus misled by Satan's guile,
They fell beneath his fearful yoke
And plunged their souls, enslaved to sin,
Into the fiery pit of Hell.

But such destruction of mankind
The Heart of Christ could not endure;
And lest His Father's handiwork,
Unvindicated, should be lost,

He clothed Himself in mortal flesh,
That by arising from the tomb
He might unlock the chains of death
And bring man to His Father's House.

And from his hymn on St. Lawrence the Deacon (Liber Peristephanon 2.441-444):

Let Rome behold the lands discrete
Made one in Christ's redeeming grace;
Let Romulus embrace the faith,
And even Numa now believe.

[Manwë Súlimo]

I'm not one for poetry (bad iambic pentameter against PitchforkPat notwithstanding) but that Clemens guy is not bad. Not bad at all.

Anyway, got something in the mail today. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's a fantasy that's been getting rave reviews, and one guy even going so far as calling Rothfuss our generation's Tolkien. I haven't read fantasy outside of The Hobbit/LOTR/Silmarillion so maybe this will broaden my horizons.

[Manwë Súlimo]

Heh, I think I'll like this book. Take a look at the little saying printed on the back of the book:

My name is Kvothe.

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread the paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved woman, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

You may have heard of me.

[Manwë Súlimo]

Read the first chapter tonight. It's still far too early to affirm the claim of "Our Generation's Tolkien", but it's a well-written book.

[Teluog]

From his hymn for Christmas Day (Liber Cathemerinon 11.13-48):

Unveil Thy sweetness, Child divine,
The fruit of virgin Motherhood
And chastity inviolate,
Our Mediator, God and Man.

Though Thou didst come from the Mouth of God,
Born as His Word on earth below,
Yet as His Wisdom Thou didst live
Forever in the Father's Heart.

This Wisdom uttered made the sky,
The sky and light and all besides;
All by the Word's almighty power
Were fashioned, for the Word was God.

But when the universe was formed
And ordered by unchanging laws,
The Cause and Architect divine
In the Father's bosom still remained,

Until the slow revolving years
In centuries at length had passed,
And He Himself vouchsafed to come
Down to the world grown old in sin.

For men whom passion had made blind
Were led into idolatry
And put their faith in gods of bronze,
Or wood, or cold unfeeling stone,

And thus misled by Satan's guile,
They fell beneath his fearful yoke
And plunged their souls, enslaved to sin,
Into the fiery pit of Hell.

But such destruction of mankind
The Heart of Christ could not endure;
And lest His Father's handiwork,
Unvindicated, should be lost,

He clothed Himself in mortal flesh,
That by arising from the tomb
He might unlock the chains of death
And bring man to His Father's House.

That might be the best poem I've ever read. So theologically rich, and rhetorically pleasing to the ear.

[Manwë Súlimo]

So theologically rich, and rhetorically pleasing to the ear.

Teluog, Art Critic.

[Kelp]

Finished The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester and Lord of the Flies.

Almost halfway through The Irish Americans: A History by Jay P. Dolan.

[One Bad Pig]

The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia - and How It Died by Philip Jenkins - This is an interesting look at the history of the historical churches outside the pale of Orthodoxy (mostly - he sometimes mixes in Eastern Orthodoxy without making a clear distinction). The author mostly avoids talking about theological differences - which is good, because when he does his accuracy is suspect. For example, he states in the Introduction that "According to the Catholic or Orthodox, . . . Christ had two natures, which were . . . commingled." This position was rejected at at least two Ecumenical Councils (Chalcedon and II. Constantinople). He also manages to work in global climate change a couple times. It's a good read for all that - it just needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

[Manwë Súlimo]

CURRENTLY READING:

Til We Have Faces, by CS Lewis

JUST FINISHED:
The Weight of Glory
Learning in War-Time
Why I am Not a Pacifist
Transposition
Is Theology Poetry?
The Inner Ring
Membership
On Forgiveness
A Slip of the Tongue
Surprised by Joy

All of these are also by CS Lewis. I'm on a Lewis binge.

[Kelp]

Finished Black Like Me. Now reading Kafka's The Trial.