Things I Think…
1. The 4th of July is almost upon us…which has come to mean for me the day when you get your pets inside to inoculate them from people celebrating the freedom to get liquored up and shoot stuff they haven’t already blown up…
2. I’ve never been very comfortable with patriotism for the same reasons I’ve never been comfortable in the church…the stated values rarely match the lived experience…
3. I cannot be proud to be a citizen of a country led by Donald Trump…or a church that embraces him…
4. The Supreme Court upheld a ban on transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports. This to me is simply common sense and important for women’s rights. It doesn’t absolve anyone from treating transgender people with dignity…I’m not culturally or intellectually capable of saying much more on the subject…
5. Sometimes I mourn the fact that I’m a man without a country or church…but I rejoice that I’m left with a singular identity in Christ…
6. I do not blame Jesus for either my personal failures or the failures of the church…
7. In the 25 years we’ve been here online, we’ve turned over the readership multiple times. We’ve done that again in the last couple of years…but this is the first time its happened that I’m having a hard time identifying who our readers are.
So…I’d like to ask you all some questions…
8. What or who are you reading?
9. What do you watch/listen to?
10. Who do you consider helpful when speaking about faith?
Good questions, Michael!
Reading: Christianity Today, Tim Keller, Elisabeth Eliot, Spurgeon, CS Lewis, lots of fiction by British authors, Julie Roy’s, Warren Throckmorton, The Wartburg Watch, and lots of
other stuff.
Talking about faith: the Bible, Tim Keller, Krista Bonatager (spelling), CS Lewis
Watch/listen: NPR, Nat Geo Wild, PBS Mastepiece Theater and cozy mysteries, old movies on TCM, CNN specials.
Listening: Christian/clasdicsl/jazz on AccuRadio
Linn,
Thanks for answering!
Glad to see Keller and Lewis are still being heard…
Reading a book on Paul and his theology of love by Nijay Gupta, Worship and Awe in Christian Psychology by Josh Knabb, Julie Roys and the Roys Report, any columns from Russell Moore, David French and Esau McCauley.
Devotionally I have been using The Divine Hours – Sunmertime compiled by Phyllis Tickle. Wonderful! So glad
I came across it.
Reading CS Lewis, Henri Nouwen, Maclaren, Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, Tim Keller, Russell Moore, various books recommended to me like Theo of Golden, Lincoln Highway. Also NY Times, BBC
Listening to Russell Moore, Steve Cuss’ podacast, NPR, Bible Project from time to time, Heather Cox Richardson occasionally
Watch Brit Box, PBS, tennis channel (husband is a big fan and player) Various movies and documentaries
Lynn Quinn,
That is a diverse and wonderful group of authors…and I’m always friends with people who read Nouwen…and I love the Bible Project… thank you!
bob1,
Thank you…the Gupta book is on my list…I enjoy the way he thinks, even when we disagree…
I”m reading The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride, and rereading Beginning to Pray, by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, which never leaves my bedside reading table and I’m actually constantly rereading. I recently finished reading Liberation Day, a short story collection by George Saunders.
We don’t have a TV, or watch TV. We have a small DVD player, and get DVDs from the library. Currently we are watching the BBC Britbox series Sister Boniface Mysteries.
Thomas Merton, C.S Lewis, D.B. Hart, Rowan Williams and a host of others too many to enumerate have helped cobble together and talk about my faith after it had been almost totally obliterated in my first decades of life.
I think you and I feel very much alike about the Fourth, the 250th, patriotism, and this country from what you’ve said in this post.
Reading (books and blogs): N.T. Wright, Bradley Jerzak, Richard Beck, Roger Olson, Brian Zahnd
Watching/Listening: Michael Bird, Davis Bentley Hart, Marty Solomon
Helpful speaking about faith: Kenneth B, Michelle Van Loon
RobertF,
Tell me about “Beginning To Pray’…good to see Rowan Williams make an appearance here.
Patriotism has been difficult for me most of my life…it seemed odd to feel superior to other people because of where I was born and what my countrymen did with endless resources taken by force…
Terry,
Thanks…good to see D.B. Hart mentioned here more than once…Michael Bird and Wright are companions of mine as well…
Michael,
Beginning to Pray is a short book, obviously not meant to be an exhaustive instruction manual. Let’s call it an unsystematic introduction to the relationship with God that grows out of a prayerful approach to him. Bloom talks gently about the pitfalls one may find oneself in when beginning to pray, and about the mood and attitude one has in approaching God in prayer. The introduction is a short interview done by someone associated with the publisher, wherein Bloom outlines his very adventurous and often perilous early life as a child refugee from Russia with his family, some of the circumstances of his reluctant conversion as a teenager, and his subsequent work both as a surgeon and a priest in France with the Resistance during WWII. The interview is incredibly charming and gentle, as if one were sitting in his kitchen and listening during the interview. It’s the spirit of gentleness and quiet wisdom that always keeps the book near at hand for me, and my need to continually begin again in prayer with an encouraging hand on my shoulder.
Here is a link to the Wikipedia article about Anthony Bloom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_of_Sourozh
There was a time when I wanted to be or feel patriotic, though I never really did– it was an aspiration, based in the sense that there was something deficient about me for not to feeling or being patriotic. But now, those millions of yahoos that loudly vaunt their own performative patriotism have filled the word with such loathsome content, I no longer feel any deficiency for not feeling or performing it. The word and idea leave me cold at best.
I’m both one of those clods who loves mortars on the Fourth, but has dogs who hate the noise and concussions…quandry. I’m a former patriotic person who holds out hope for a legit resurgence of American know how, work ethic, care for neighbors and the land, and respect for the law. I’m writing more than reading–first book off to editor and publisher within the next few weeks–but on a Madeleine L’Engle streak now. I’m a big Krakauer fan too. Under The Banner of Heaven is immense.
We need to get together for lunch one of these days.
…and Wendell Berry.
I’m plowing through the OT again hopefully with fresh vision and healthy wonder. I was overdue for a re-read.
Robert F,
I’ll pick that up…thank you.
Your thoughts on patriotism mirror mine…well said.
fil,
Good to hear from you…excited that you have a book on the way!
I rarely come out of my cave…but I’ll make an exception for you…
8. What or who are you reading?
Isaiah
9. What do you watch/listen to?
Old movies/fake news
10. Who do you consider helpful when speaking about faith?
My wife
I think I’ve been here over 20 years now and so much has changed.
I don’t comment as much as I used to, but I still read this blog almost every day. I read Rose Madrid Swetman Reflections, on Substack, anything that Wade Burleson writes in his critique of Southern Baptist stupidity, Hallelujah Anyway by Anne Lamott, Just call me Lopez, Getting to the Heart of Ignatius Loyola by Margaret Self, and the papers of the seminary students I am teaching.
I don’t listen to sermons. I listen to a small amount of Richard Rohr (over and over again to discern the wheat from the chaff). I also listen to 90’s alternative music and current worship music. I cue up Rich Mullins sometimes.
Who do I consider helpful when speaking about the faith? Everyone I read and listen to. Also, a small group of friends who speak into my life.
8. What or who are you reading?
A: I have a ton of books on my phone and bookshelf. Some of which I mean to dig into and finish are on prayer — Praying by Packer and Nystrom; A Praying Life by Paul Miller; What If I Don’t Desire To Pray? by John Onwuchekwa; and When Prayer Is A Struggle by Kevin Halloran. Also, Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges (especially the chapter on preaching the Gospel to yourself).
9. What do you watch/listen to?
a) mostly YouTube, like we watched various channels on cable back in the day. Mostly Christian channels, including the Bible reviewers and teachers (Nickels, Dojo, Wildsmith, John Miles), car chase channels (Midwest Safety, Sgt. Curtis), alternate history, local and national news, and others. smart christian, Mark Ward, Wes Huff and Wild Disciple are good. I’m watching John 14:6 for the Michael Heiser content. Ryan Hall Y’all is great for breaking weather coverage. I have been watching Breaking Points but I’m starting to think they’re as click-baity as anyone.
b) live sports, whatever is on the streaming services I can afford right now. Watching a lot of World Cup and really enjoying it. I miss baseball, but I’m not paying $150 a year to watch MLB.
10. Who do you consider helpful when speaking about faith?
A: Right now, dead people. I’m trying to read the early church fathers, like Augustine. Spurgeon is someone I’m getting into and being blessed by. I hold Packer in high regard. I could listen to Charles Stanley preach all day because he preached in a way that had mass appeal backed by the gospel and didn’t feel watered down. I could listen to Jimmy Swaggart preach and sing all day as well.
Two dead saints passed on to heaven, and two saints still with us, are on my reading and podcast lists: Tim Keller and David Powlison, and Steve Brown and Paul David Tripp.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, by the way.
And I haven’t forgotten about N.T. Wright…sometime between the time you recommended him to me for my daily Bible reading and now he dropped off my radar. But I still have the commentaries, and I’ll start reading through the ESV or BSB around the first of the month.
1. The increase in drone-based light displays has been a little encouraging. While I’m all in favor of big explosive fireworks, I know enough people (and pets) who hide in the basement all night. My dream is getting people an afternoon of sparklers, smoke bombs, snakes, and other fun quiet fireworks followed by a drone show at dusk….
1a. The neighbors who blow stuff up all night need a talking to. At least do us a favor and stop by 11pm, k?
8. The reading has been wide, intentionally so: Dorothy Day’s autobiography, George MacDonald’s “Light Princess.” Henry Nouwen’s “Return of the Prodigal Son” for a church group. “Beauty Will Save the Earth” by Winifred Bevins. The Wild Robot for a great children’s book about sacrifice and love. The Green Ember series about fighting rabbits.
Check out The Kamogawa Food Detectives for some light and joyful reading, and enjoy the cat character featured in all of the stories on the front cover.
9. I’m actually limiting my podcasts these days due to information/opinion overload. I still like Esau McCaulley and Kaitlyn Schiess (Holy Post can be a bit one-note some weeks), Good Faith and Not Dead Yet now and then. Pray as You Go every day. Watching music biographies and stories (YouTuber Pop Goes the 60s has some great ones, loved hearing about The Free Design). Project Hail Mary is probably the best movie I’ve seen all year, with Hoppers and Sheep Detectives in a battle for 2nd place.
For music it’s much wider — the prophets from years past: Mark Heard, Rich Mullins, Steve Taylor. They still have endless amounts to say. Modern church musicians like Porter’s Gate, Sandra McCracken, IAmSon, or Jon VanDeusen write circles around the usual CCLI types. Classics like Chicago, modern weirdos like Angine de Poitrine.
10. This may sound like sentimentality but I assure you it is not: I work with people with disabilities and run a Bible Study during the school year for a similar group of people. They are first on my mind when it comes to seeing the Lord’s work in the earth. Reading scriptures together last year was a blessing in ways that cannot be quantified, and your church/community may be starving if people with disabilities are not present. Again, not sentimentality — but rather life in the Spirit.
Anyone who starts with “There is a God who sees widows and orphans” and “The one who gave a few tokens gave more than the rich dude with endless supply” has got my ear.
DavidP said:
“1a. The neighbors who blow stuff up all night need a talking to. At least do us a favor and stop by 11pm, k?”
Our neighbor to the south waited for 12:01 am to officially start lighting M80s.
DavidP,
When amateurs set off bottle rockets near residential neighborhood homes, that scares the pudding out of me. That’s sheer drunken stupidity. And the cops never do anything except act irritated for getting the call, since the culprits are gone before they can be identified.
In Redondo Beach CA, on the Fourth of July they used to let people have bonfires on the sand and have any illegal fireworks on the beach. We arrived in California July 5, 1962 after driving from Maryland, arriving at my grandparents apartment a block from the beach at 10pm. I vividly remember the next morning, seeing all the spent fireworks and campfire remains when my grandpa walked my cousin and I to the beach.
They discontinued that during my college years, and now fireworks on the beach are strictly prohibited.
A good 4th of July movie: Smoke Signals.
It starts with the narration,
“On the Fourth of July, 1976, the reservation celebrated white man’s independence…”
John in AZ,
In PA many types of fireworks are legal for non-commercial use. Vendors set up sales tents on the corners of parking lots in many places. The legality makes people think they can set them off any old place, which they are not supposed to. The laws regulating non-commercial use of fireworks are mostly observed in the breach, and on the beach (obviously not ocean).
pstrmike,
This is gold…
“Who do I consider helpful when speaking about the faith? Everyone I read and listen to. “
John in AZ…I have that movie (Smoke Signals) at home, but have yet to watch it. Thanks for the recommendation.
BrianD,
That’s a well rounded group of people you’re reading and watching.
I’m glad someone else here watches those car chase videos on YouTube… 🙂
DavidP,
Thank you for the comment…and especially for this:
“Anyone who starts with “There is a God who sees widows and orphans” and “The one who gave a few tokens gave more than the rich dude with endless supply” has got my ear.”
Mine as well…
Those of you who’ve been here awhile know that the town I lived in burned down a few years ago.
Fireworks are not my friend…
What do I read?
I just finished Stephen King’s ‘Rose Madder’.
It’s about an horrifically abused wife who escapes her abuser (he’s a cop).
She makes new life for herself as an audio book reader in Chicago.
Hubby tracks her down, and in the final showdown, he gets his just desserts.
BrianD,
Ever read any alternate history fiction, like say Harry Turtledove?
I worked through Walter Wink’s trilogy and … was kind of underwhelmed. The actually good ideas in Wink’s books obviously came from G B Caird and Richard Horsley. Horsley might come off as a self-citing quasi-Marxist one-trick pony but his observation that Jewish demonological speculation erupted in the wake of Alexandrian military conquest really is a pretty great observation. And G B Caird’s little book on powers and principalities in Pauline literature covers things so well Wink’s work seems like, well, a kind of paradoxical proto-Clintonian blue-state American Christian nationalism, paradoxically.
I wouldn’t say Wink’s trilogy is bad, exactly, but I found his arguments pretty unpersuasive overall. And Robert Ewusie Moses was right to point out that the entire Watchers tradition as a reception history of Genesis 6:1-4 renders most of Wink’s points about the powers impossible to seriously sustain.
The reason contemporary alt right Christian nationalists have such an easy time expropriating Wink’s idea that the powers can be redeemed is because there is a paradoxically Christian nationalist Americanism at the core of Wink’s ostensibly internationalist progressive democratic ideal, or as David Bowie could’ve put it, Walter Wink’s God is still an American god.
That said, the idea that the powers can be redeemed as an approach to encouraging aesthetic pluralism in a kind of post-Herder/Rudolph Otto/Gerardus van der Leeuw sense is still appealing. I think Wink’s ideas, even when I think they’re unpersuasive or bad as he originally stated them, have salvageable elements.
I’ve been reading Victor Anderson lately and am liking his work. I learned about him via the trail of Anthony Bradley referencing Alistair Kee (radical Scottish theologian). Anderson’s book Beyond Ontological Blackness is a mid-1990s book and is a brisk read. He charted the ways black and womanist liberation theologies inadvertantly and paradoxically mimicked the cult of the heroic genius for the individual and for race as developed across the late Enlightenment and Romantic eras. The issue I had with Cynical Theories being such a useless book is Lindsay and Pluckrose are the kinds of secular(ists) who don’t seem widely read enough to grasp that within the mainline traditions some hefty criticisms of ontological conceptions of race have already been made (Theodore Vial’s sympathetic critique of racial conceptions in Herder and Schleiermacher is more recent but is still in keeping with the point I”m making about anti-woke polemicists don’t seem to even be aware that intra-progressive critique has actually been happening).
James Clarke & Co, I think, is getting Emil Brunner back in print and so I’m glad to see some version of Justice and Social Order is back in print. People don’t have to scour the internet in the hopes of finding 1940s first print editions of the book for sale at less than highway robbery prices.
Of the neo-orthodox theologians I find I lean toward Brunner rather than Barth. Brunner didn’t have a mistress/secretary ghostwriter fleshing out his work. 😉
Revisiting Adolf Schlatter’s Do We Know Jesus. It’s a compelling devotional book.
As an antidote to the kind of takes on Song of Songs I kept hearing in the MH years I’ve been reading Richard Sibbes’ sermons from texts in Song of Songs.
HT to Daniel Kleven’s blog for mentioning Frances Grimke, an African American Presbyterian who had a formative role in the early NAACP (the kind of Presbyterian you’ll never hear about from Doug Wilson. ;-). Adam Gussow mentioned Grimke in one of his books, Beyond the Crossroads, about the distinction between white guy blues fans mythologizing blues players and a more circumspect historiographical approach. Reading about how Black clergy in the mainlines detested blues is interesting because of the contrast with Black Pentecostal receptivity to blues around the same time (see Robert Stone’s Sacred Steel for a swift and sweeping overview of the development of pedal steel traditions in Black Pentecostalism).
I haven’t been officially Pentecostal in decades but I still appreciate the scholarship of Gordon Fee. Reading Wink on 1 Cor and Revelation reminded me that I was far more impressed by Fee than Wink’s take on those NT books.
Dostoevsky fans, the Michael Katz translation of The Idiot hits at the end of this month! I am stoked! I have dug Katz translations of Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov and am starting into Notes from Underground.
On the manga front it’s been Dan da Dan, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, and, er, My Dress-Up Darling. I can’t be reading heavy-duty stuff ALL the time.
Ra’s,
Absolutely. I read through Turtledove’s Great War series and enjoyed it. I have many of the alt-history classics, like Plot Against America, Years of Rice and Salt, Fatherland, Yiddish Policemen’s Union, SS-GB, Two Georges, and others.
I also read the entire Left Behind series back in the day 🙂 An alternate history of sorts, since it was written during the 1990s and the authors didn’t really bother to conjecture how technology might have advanced in the “future” it was set in. As an aside, if anyone read Salem Kirban’s 666 which was releated a couple of decades earlier, did anyone notice the number of coincidences between Kirban’s novel and Jenkins/LaHaye’s series?
My favorite genre is alternate Cold War/World War III. Red Army, Team Yankee and Red Storm Rising are probably the best novels IMO. But some of the best writing in the genre is at alternatehistory dot com, especially Protect and Survive.
I also recommend alternatehistoryhub on YouTube.
Michael, I’ve heard bombs go off a few times starting this afternoon. I looked up just now, my ceiling’s still there, so it must be fireworks.
BrianD,
Tom Clancy’s work is legendary (not just Red Storm Rising).
Turtledove’s World War series (alternate history to WWII when aliens arrive during the war) is good.
For other Sci-Fi alternate history, there is always Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Disk (and its TV series on Amazon).
I never read any of the Left Behind series as I left dispensationalism behind (Pun Intended) so I viewed it as bad fiction masquerading as a cloak of bad eschatology.
A couple of alternate WWII history fiction books I read years ago (this time the invasion of Japan) were Lighter Than a Feather and The Burning Mountain (both based upon the plans for Operation Olympic and Coronet). Another one which I did not read was 1945 by Robert Conroy. As an aside, take look at the plans for Operation Olympic and Coronet and the estimated casualties for both sides and you can see why Truman authorized the nuclear strikes. For a bonus, read up on the attempted coup to prevent the surrender of Japan and the transmission of the Emperor’s surrender message.
‘Christian Nationalism’ is Fascism, plain and simple.
No way around it.
The United States is the latest iteration of the Beast.
No way around that, either.