This week I've stumbled upon several interesting reviews and interviews:
The Hole in our Holiness
The first, a review of Kevin DeYoung's The Hole in our Holiness. I haven't yet read the book, but have read several other by this author, and am looking forward to DeYoung's new title. Christianity Today is publishing a four part series of reviews. Mark Labberton composed the second of these reviews, saying,
"DeYoung examines various facets of the biblical call to holiness and considers some of the strongest voices for holy living within his own Reformed tradition. He writes with theological conviction and passion, laying out a case for the recovery of faithful character and piety as one of the highest priorities of Christian pastors, leaders, and laity alike. Surely DeYoung is right about how needed holy living is among God's people, because it is both our calling (it's intrinsic to identification with our holy God) and our mission (it's essential as an authentication of our new life in Christ)."
Read the rest of the review here.
The Creedal Imperative
Also in Christianity Today is a review of Carl Trueman's book The Credal Imperative. Fred Sanders reviews the book, pointing out Trueman's advocacy of creed's as a counter-cultural expression of faith.
"Trueman builds up this biblical case for creeds, layers over it the historical case from both the patristic church and confessional Protestantism, and puts the burden of proof on what he calls the "'No Creed but the Bible!' brigade." Given this biblical and historical trajectory of churches using creeds, "the question is not so much 'Should we use them?' as 'Why would we not use them?'"
Trueman acknowledges that there is a case to be made against creedalism, but he thinks that case is spurious because it is entirely cultural: The spirit of our age ignores history, distrusts institutions, values emotions more than words, and hankers after novelty. For moderns, the loftiest goal is to be authentic, to speak spontaneously from the heart, giving voice to unique insights from our own points of view. For this mindset, the idea of reciting a set of ancient words in public agreement with a group is, if the word be allowed, anathema.
As a result, anti-creedal evangelicalism is, ironically, "not countercultural, but culturally enslaved." Trueman is passionate and eloquent about how creeds enable churches to dig in their heels and stand with the great tradition, pushing against the modern temperament."
Read the rest of the review here.
Why You Should Read Chesterton
Trevin Wax has included several interesting author interviews on his blog in recent weeks. Most recently, he interviewed Kevin Belmonte. Belmonte compiled the book A Year with G. K. Chesterton: 365 Days of Wisdom, Wit, and Wonder (Thomas Nelson, 2012). I have only read one of Chesterton's books, Orthodoxy, and the post introduced me to several other titles.
In the post, Belmonte shares a number of insights from Chesterton's life, as well as key quotations from his work. He writes of Chesterton,
"When he most greatly needed to make sense of life, that shard of truth returned to Chesterton. A scene from a much-loved children story rallied to his aid. It gave him courage to believe. He began to see the world, once more, like a great tapestry woven by the Master Story-teller. He followed the thread of thanks he re-discovered to back the light—to faith."
Read the full post here.
28 November 2012
Snippets: The Autobiography of G. K. Chesteron
"No man knows how much he is an optimist, even when he calls himself a pessimist, because he has not really measured the depths of his debt to whatever created him and enabled him to call himself anything. At the back of our brains, so to speak, there was a forgotten blaze or burst of astonishment at our own existence. The object of the artistic and spiritual life was to dig for this submerged sunrise of wonder; so that a man sitting in a chair might suddenly understand that he was actually alive, and be happy."The Autobiography of G. K. Chesterton
27 November 2012
Quick Reads: The Evernote Bible
Brandon Collin's short book, The Evernote Bible is a guide for using Evernote to increase productivity. Though I have used Evernote for several years, particularly to sync notes between different devices, Collin's introduced me to many new features and uses for the software.
Evernote is a free software program/service, available to download from evernote.com. Its primary purpose is creating notebooks to organize personal information. The Evernote Bible begins by explaining the basic features, such as organizing notebooks and tags. I was introduced to several other features, including
Evernote is a free software program/service, available to download from evernote.com. Its primary purpose is creating notebooks to organize personal information. The Evernote Bible begins by explaining the basic features, such as organizing notebooks and tags. I was introduced to several other features, including
- e-mailing notes directly into Evernote
- clipping information from the web into Evernote
- encrypting information within a note
- sharing notes and
- automatically importing folders and documents into Evernote.
Her.meneutics: Holy Homemaking: A Response from Rachel Held Evans
A few weeks ago I reviewed the book A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans. The book has been widely debated, and as I noted in my review, though I didn't agree with everything in the book (particularly the hermeneutical approach), Evans nonetheless says many valuable things about living biblically in the modern world.
The following blog post by Evans in Christianity Today addresses one fault often found with her book, as some reviewers take issue with the fact that she may seem to undervalue the role of homemaking. She writes,
Another rumor you may have heard is that the book disparages homemaking. Several readers inferred this from Jen Pollock Michel's recent Her.meneutics article, "What You Don't Know about Complementarian Women," but nothing could be further from the truth.
In A Year of Biblical Womanhood, I devote an entire chapter to homemaking. As I refocused on my own homemaking skills (or lack thereof!), I confess at one point that "it was out of ignorance and insecurity that I ever looked down my nose at women who make homemaking their full-time occupation.” Keeping the home, I say, “requires creativity, problem solving, innovation, and resourcefulness.”
The chapter concludes with the following reflection. As you’ll see, it’s in full agreement with Michel’s view that keeping a home is sacred and dignifying work:
When Brother Lawrence sought sanctuary from the tumults of 17th-century France, he entered a Carmelite monastery in Paris, where his lack of education relegated him to kitchen duty. Charged with tending to the abbey’s most mundane chores, Brother Lawrence nevertheless earned a reputation among his fellow monks for exuding a contagious sense of joy and peace as he went about his work—so much so that after his death, they compiled the few maxims and letters and interviews he left behind into a work that would become a classic Christian text: The Practice of the Presence of God.
“The time of business,” explained Brother Lawrence, “does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”
For Brother Lawrence, God’s presence permeated everything—from the pots and pans in the kitchen sink to the water and soap that washed them. Every act of faithfulness in these small tasks communicated his love for God and desire to live in perpetual worship. “It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God,” he said.
After reading Brother Lawrence, I tried to go about my housework with a little more mindfulness—listening to each rhythmic swishing of the broom, feeling the warm water rush down my arm and off my fingers as I scrubbed potatoes, savoring the scent of clean laundry fresh out of the dryer, delighting in the sight of all the colorful herbs and vegetables and cheeses on my countertop. And sure enough, I found myself connecting to that same presence that I encountered during contemplative prayer, the presence that reminded me that the roots of my spirit extended deep into the ground. I got less done when I worked with mindfulness, but, somehow, I felt more in control.
I get the sense that many in the contemporary biblical womanhood movement feel that the tasks associated with homemaking have been so marginalized in our culture that it’s up to them to restore the sacredness of keeping the home. This is a noble goal indeed, and one around which all people of faith can rally. But in our efforts to celebrate and affirm God’s presence in the home, we should be wary of elevating the vocation of homemaking above all others by insinuating that for women, God’s presence is somehow restricted to that sphere.
If God is the God of all pots and pans, then He is also the God of all shovels and computers and paints and assembly lines and executive offices and classrooms. Peace and joy belong not to the woman who finds the right vocation, but to the woman who finds God in any vocation, who looks for the divine around every corner.
Read the rest of the post here:
Her.meneutics: Holy Homemaking: A Response from Rachel Held Evans
For my review of the book, click here
The following blog post by Evans in Christianity Today addresses one fault often found with her book, as some reviewers take issue with the fact that she may seem to undervalue the role of homemaking. She writes,
Another rumor you may have heard is that the book disparages homemaking. Several readers inferred this from Jen Pollock Michel's recent Her.meneutics article, "What You Don't Know about Complementarian Women," but nothing could be further from the truth.
In A Year of Biblical Womanhood, I devote an entire chapter to homemaking. As I refocused on my own homemaking skills (or lack thereof!), I confess at one point that "it was out of ignorance and insecurity that I ever looked down my nose at women who make homemaking their full-time occupation.” Keeping the home, I say, “requires creativity, problem solving, innovation, and resourcefulness.”
The chapter concludes with the following reflection. As you’ll see, it’s in full agreement with Michel’s view that keeping a home is sacred and dignifying work:
When Brother Lawrence sought sanctuary from the tumults of 17th-century France, he entered a Carmelite monastery in Paris, where his lack of education relegated him to kitchen duty. Charged with tending to the abbey’s most mundane chores, Brother Lawrence nevertheless earned a reputation among his fellow monks for exuding a contagious sense of joy and peace as he went about his work—so much so that after his death, they compiled the few maxims and letters and interviews he left behind into a work that would become a classic Christian text: The Practice of the Presence of God.
“The time of business,” explained Brother Lawrence, “does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”
For Brother Lawrence, God’s presence permeated everything—from the pots and pans in the kitchen sink to the water and soap that washed them. Every act of faithfulness in these small tasks communicated his love for God and desire to live in perpetual worship. “It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God,” he said.
After reading Brother Lawrence, I tried to go about my housework with a little more mindfulness—listening to each rhythmic swishing of the broom, feeling the warm water rush down my arm and off my fingers as I scrubbed potatoes, savoring the scent of clean laundry fresh out of the dryer, delighting in the sight of all the colorful herbs and vegetables and cheeses on my countertop. And sure enough, I found myself connecting to that same presence that I encountered during contemplative prayer, the presence that reminded me that the roots of my spirit extended deep into the ground. I got less done when I worked with mindfulness, but, somehow, I felt more in control.
I get the sense that many in the contemporary biblical womanhood movement feel that the tasks associated with homemaking have been so marginalized in our culture that it’s up to them to restore the sacredness of keeping the home. This is a noble goal indeed, and one around which all people of faith can rally. But in our efforts to celebrate and affirm God’s presence in the home, we should be wary of elevating the vocation of homemaking above all others by insinuating that for women, God’s presence is somehow restricted to that sphere.
If God is the God of all pots and pans, then He is also the God of all shovels and computers and paints and assembly lines and executive offices and classrooms. Peace and joy belong not to the woman who finds the right vocation, but to the woman who finds God in any vocation, who looks for the divine around every corner.
Read the rest of the post here:
Her.meneutics: Holy Homemaking: A Response from Rachel Held Evans
For my review of the book, click here
20 November 2012
Snippets: Heaven Without Her
Kitty Foth-Regner's book Heaven Without Her is an interesting mix of personal memoir and apologetics book. At the heart of the book is Foth-Regner's spiritual journey from agnosticism to Christianity, set against the backdrop of her mother's immanent death. She moves from rejecting the Christian tradition of her parents, to setting out on a spiritual quest for truth. Interwoven throughout the story is the intellectual path that she travels; she often describes the impact of various books on her quest for truth. In one such discussion, she quotes from the writings of A.S.A Jones"Describing the Bible as a spiritual stereogram, Jones wrote, 'You need two aspects of the intellect to see the reality of God in its pages; you need to utilize both the logical and spiritual (or poetic) component of your thinking to see Him. If you use only one in the absence of the other, you will lose the effect. It's like covering one eye'
Jones pointed out that depth is key to seeing the truth in the Bible just as it is in stereograms. 'I think the reason a lot of people aren't seeing its truth today', she said, 'is that we have become a nation of shallow thinkers'.' (epub edition, 258)
Heaven Without Her: A Desperate Daughter's Search for the Heart of Her Mother's Faith
Links: From Scroll to Screen
Though many articles have been published in recent years about the transition from paper books to increased e-reading, this one in the New York times is one of the most interesting I've read. In it, Lev Grossman writes about the major transitions in the technology of reading: the development of the codex, and the development of e-reading platforms. The way in which the form of the book influences reading is a major theme in his article: the codex allows for a certain type of reading- moving from section to section in a single work- that is more difficult with digital documents (not to mention, with a scroll). He writes,
"But so far the great e-book debate has barely touched on the most important feature that the codex introduced: the nonlinear reading that so impressed St. Augustine. If the fable of the scroll and codex has a moral, this is it. We usually associate digital technology with nonlinearity, the forking paths that Web surfers beat through the Internet’s underbrush as they click from link to link. But e-books and nonlinearity don’t turn out to be very compatible. Trying to jump from place to place in a long document like a novel is painfully awkward on an e-reader, like trying to play the piano with numb fingers. You either creep through the book incrementally, page by page, or leap wildly from point to point and search term to search term. It’s no wonder that the rise of e-reading has revived two words for classical-era reading technologies: scroll and tablet. That’s the kind of reading you do in an e-book."
Read the rest of the article from the New York Times here.
"But so far the great e-book debate has barely touched on the most important feature that the codex introduced: the nonlinear reading that so impressed St. Augustine. If the fable of the scroll and codex has a moral, this is it. We usually associate digital technology with nonlinearity, the forking paths that Web surfers beat through the Internet’s underbrush as they click from link to link. But e-books and nonlinearity don’t turn out to be very compatible. Trying to jump from place to place in a long document like a novel is painfully awkward on an e-reader, like trying to play the piano with numb fingers. You either creep through the book incrementally, page by page, or leap wildly from point to point and search term to search term. It’s no wonder that the rise of e-reading has revived two words for classical-era reading technologies: scroll and tablet. That’s the kind of reading you do in an e-book."
Read the rest of the article from the New York Times here.
16 November 2012
Snippets: Succeeding When You're Supposed to Fail
Rom Brafman's book, Succeeding When You're Supposed to Fail explores the personality traits and character qualities that help people to succeed, even if they have faced significant adversity. He refers to these successful individuals as "tunnelers", and among other things, notes that those who live accomplished lives in spite of obstacles share a common set of characteristics. Among other characteristics, Brafman notes that "tunnelers" are those who take responsibility for their current situation, who search out meaning in life, that maintain a calm approach to difficulty and who use humour well. While most of the book is focused on an individual's personal characteristics and approach to life, the last section of the book highlights the importance of mentors, who Brafman calls satellites. He also outlines ways in which mentors can help others succeed. In this context, he notes,"What qualities, then, define a satellite? One of the most important ingredients is unconditional positive regard, a term coined by the psychologist Carl Rogers. It refers to the giving of support and acceptance with no strings attached -- with no quid pro quo. A strong satellite is there no matter what, without an overriding agenda to govern the interaction" (170).
"It's easy to overlook how important that unconditional support can be. We're so used to paying attention to the other details of leadership -- whether setting boundaries, providing feedback, or teaching -- that we sometimes forget to communicate the most basic element: that we're there to be counted on no matter what" (178).
"They key is to be honest and direct while also being caring and respectful. That's what makes it so challenging. When we're in a position of power, most of us either think of ourselves as the 'authority figure' who lays down the law, or the 'nice guy/gal' who's there to be a friend and supporter. Combining the two -- which is what makes for an ideal mentor -- forces us to consistently shift roles (180)".
Succeeding When You're Supposed to Fail: The 6 Enduring Principles of High Achievement
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