I thought I would take a break from writing about the new objectives of Pacific Islands (soon to be University) Bible College and tell you a little about some of the books I have been reading lately. Since I finished my dissertation about 3 years ago I have been enjoying reading whatever I want and have taken the opportunity to get caught up on books in my field and some books I just read for fun. I am not going to give an extensive review of anything but basically just tell you what it was about and whether I liked it or not. For those of you who know me, you can take that for what it is worth. Here are some books I have made it through in 2009.
The best novel I have read this year is
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini. Last year the best novel I read was his
Kite Runner. Like
Kite Runner,
1000 Splendid Suns takes place in Afghanistan during the 70's to 2000's and tells the story of two women who are married to an Afghani Muslim man. In some places it was hard for me to read because it was hard to experience even vicariously the abuse these women endured. There are heroic moments of great love and self-sacrifice in the story, but a lot of brutality and senseless violence (but true to life and history). I would highly recommend it. It shows very clearly that the God you worship has a great effect on the way you live your life and the way you treat others.
Probably the book the most made me think was
The Mission of God by Christopher Wright. Mostly focusing on the Old Testament, Wright looks at the big picture of how the Bible fits together to reveal God's mission to the world and from that derives what our part should be within that mission. Wright builds his biblical hermeneutic theocentrically, around who God is and what He is trying to do in the world. God wants to make Himself known and be in relationship with His creation, which, in a sinful world, means redemption and servant ministry for which he chooses people in His image (Israel, the church and of course, ultimately Jesus) to be his representatives. Seeing the Bible through this light opened up the old Bible stories to me in a lot of new ways. Normally I read straight through a book in a couple days, but I could only handle a chapter a day with this one, because I wanted to think through what he was saying.
It was fun to work through Wright, while at the same time reading through Bruce Waltke's
Old Testament Theology. This is also a book you don't get through quickly and I have been re-reading it as I teach my Old Testament Survey class. Waltke is also looking for the big picture or big idea that would tie the Old Testament together or as he says, to find the "center" of Old Testament theology. He sees the center of the OT as the "irruption of God's Kingdom into the created universe" though chosen representatives. It was cool to see how Wright and Waltke fit together as they unfolded the OT. Waltke's OT Theology is definitely a book you would want in your theological library.
Finally, another book I have enjoyed within the last few weeks was
Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill. The book explained how philosophy, art and science developed in the Middle Ages by focusing in on different prominent people of the period, some well-known, some not so well known. One of the surprising things to me was the important influence women had on the developments of the period. Cahill always writes in an entertaining style which makes learning history fun, as it should be.
The best novel I have read this year is A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini. Last year the best novel I read was his Kite Runner. Like Kite Runner, 1000 Splendid Suns takes place in Afghanistan during the 70's to 2000's and tells the story of two women who are married to an Afghani Muslim man. In some places it was hard for me to read because it was hard to experience even vicariously the abuse these women endured. There are heroic moments of great love and self-sacrifice in the story, but a lot of brutality and senseless violence (but true to life and history). I would highly recommend it. It shows very clearly that the God you worship has a great effect on the way you live your life and the way you treat others.
Probably the book the most made me think was The Mission of God by Christopher Wright. Mostly focusing on the Old Testament, Wright looks at the big picture of how the Bible fits together to reveal God's mission to the world and from that derives what our part should be within that mission. Wright builds his biblical hermeneutic theocentrically, around who God is and what He is trying to do in the world. God wants to make Himself known and be in relationship with His creation, which, in a sinful world, means redemption and servant ministry for which he chooses people in His image (Israel, the church and of course, ultimately Jesus) to be his representatives. Seeing the Bible through this light opened up the old Bible stories to me in a lot of new ways. Normally I read straight through a book in a couple days, but I could only handle a chapter a day with this one, because I wanted to think through what he was saying.
It was fun to work through Wright, while at the same time reading through Bruce Waltke's Old Testament Theology. This is also a book you don't get through quickly and I have been re-reading it as I teach my Old Testament Survey class. Waltke is also looking for the big picture or big idea that would tie the Old Testament together or as he says, to find the "center" of Old Testament theology. He sees the center of the OT as the "irruption of God's Kingdom into the created universe" though chosen representatives. It was cool to see how Wright and Waltke fit together as they unfolded the OT. Waltke's OT Theology is definitely a book you would want in your theological library.
Finally, another book I have enjoyed within the last few weeks was Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill. The book explained how philosophy, art and science developed in the Middle Ages by focusing in on different prominent people of the period, some well-known, some not so well known. One of the surprising things to me was the important influence women had on the developments of the period. Cahill always writes in an entertaining style which makes learning history fun, as it should be.
3 comments:
I have yet to read 1000 Splendid Suns but I did read Kite Runner and loved it. Thanks for the recommendation-
Since I'm a very slow reader, I haven't read a book since about 30 years ago (Michener, Milton Friedman)except Books In Book Lovingly Eternal :-). I think I should get back to reading other books again to learn more about The Book.
BTW, Mia and I talked about Culture and Christianity. Because mankind re-started with a monotheism (after the Flood) and became other-theisms (after Tower of Babel), then cultures should and must be a subset of the monotheistic Christian Culture, not the other way around(her view). Therefore, if that is true, then Christianity, which was started by Christ and 12 disciples should have the attitude of resisting the incursion of cultures or parts of cultures.
I heard on AM800 that the Christianization of Rome resulted in the Romanization of Christianity. [I suppose God let the "dilution" of Christianity happen to prevent decimation of Christians. As for the Reformation, God's Purpose is to bring Christianity back to its 1st Century Beginnings]. Based on the radio speaker's view, we need another reformation due to the Globalization of Christianiy.
I suppose God blesses growth and allows decay--including Christianity.
Hi Dan, Yes I do think it is very important to read both within Christianity for accessing how the Spirit is leading other Christians and outside it to understand the people and cultures we minister to. We also need to understand that Jesus and the 12 disciples lived within a culture - 1st century Judaism under Rome - and, though Jesus was supracultural, his ministry was to that culture and needs to be understood in the context of 1st century Judaism. The Bible and Gospel, wherever they go, change culture and also produce a newly culturized version of Christianity. If we believe that people bear the image of God, distorted by the sin nature, then every culture will also bear the image of God with distortions. The growth of a Christian culture is a work to change the distortions into the accurate image of Christ so that the multi-faceted image of Christ is seen in the Kingdom with all cultures in their uniqueness around the throne praising him
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