Archive for the 'Recommended Reading' Category

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Harpers interviews Metaxas on his Bonhoeffer biography

Published on January 4, 2011 in Bonhoeffer and Recommended Reading. 0 Comments Tags: , .

If you are looking for a good biography to read, then I recommend Eric Metaxas’ work on Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bonhoeffer was not only a  brilliant theologian.  He also stood against Hitler and was eventually executed by the Germans.

Harpers recently posted a fascinating interview of Bonhoeffer which begins with asking Metaxas to explain why he dedicated the book in German:

 

Eric Metaxas, whose best-selling biography of William Wilberforce, Amazing Grace, provided the framework for an important motion picture, is now out with a thick review of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian who played a key role in one of the attempts to kill Adolf Hitler. I put six questions to Metaxas about Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy:

1. You dedicate your book, in German no less, to your grandfather. Tell us the significance of that dedication, and how in the course of your own life you were drawn to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

My grandfather was a genuinely reluctant German soldier who was killed in the war in 1944, at the age of 31. My mother was nine. The tragedy of my mother’s losing her father at that age has been a big part of my life. My grandfather didn’t want to fight in Hitler’s war. My grandmother said that he used to listen to the BBC with his ear literally pressed against the radio speaker, because if you were caught listening to the BBC you could be sent to a concentration camp. The boss in the factory where he worked was a friend of the family–I met him in 1971–and he was able to keep my grandfather from being drafted until 1943. Of course that wasn’t quite long enough.

When I first heard the story of Bonhoeffer in 1988, I was staggered. I was slowly returning to the Christian faith that I had lost as a student at Yale, and Bonhoeffer’s personal story and his magnificent book, The Cost of Discipleship, really spoke to me and helped me as I struggled with my questions.

 

Read the rest here.

 

 

HT: Grateful to the Dead

“Auld Lang Syne”: What the song is about

Published on December 31, 2010 in Recommended Reading. 0 Comments

Who will you remember at 11:59PM this evening?

“Auld Lang Syne” is a song that asks the rhetorical question, “Should loved ones who have gone before us be forgotten?”  The song essentially answers, “No, the end of one year and the beginning of another is the time to remember those who have gone before us.”

In a Wall Street Journal article, Peggy Noonan explains the song we will be singing this New Year’s Eve and how it asks and answers a very appropriate question.

You know exactly when you’ll hear it, and you probably won’t hear it again for a year. The big clock will hit 11:59:50, the countdown will begin—10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4—and the sounds will rise: the party horns, fireworks and shouts of "Happy New Year!"

And then they’ll play that song: "Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of auld lang syne?"

It is a poem in Scots dialect, set to a Scots folk tune, and an unscientific survey says that a lot of us don’t think much about the words, or even know them. The great film director Mike Nichols came to America from Germany as a child, when his family fled Hitler. He had to learn a lot of English quickly and never got around to "Auld Lang Syne": "I was too busy with words like ‘emergency exit’ on the school bus," he told me. "As a result, I find myself weeping at gibberish on New Year’s Eve. I enjoy that."

The screen and television writer Aaron Sorkin, who this year, with "The Social Network," gives Paddy Chayefsky a run for his money, says that every year he means to learn the words. "Then someone tells me that’s not a good enough New Year’s resolution and I really need to quit smoking."

"Auld Lang Syne"—the phrase can be translated as "long, long ago," or "old long since," but I like "old times past"—is a song that asks a question, a tender little question that has to do with the nature of being alive, of being a person on a journey in the world. It not only asks, it gives an answer. . .

The question it asks is clear: Should those we knew and loved be forgotten and never thought of? Should old times past be forgotten? No, says the song, they shouldn’t be. We’ll remember those times and those people, we’ll toast them now and always, we’ll keep them close. "We’ll take a cup of kindness yet."

Read the rest here.

HT: Josh Harris

Douthat: A Tough Season For Believers

Published on December 21, 2010 in Christmas, Culture and Recommended Reading. 0 Comments

Ross Douthat has written a concise and profound column for the New York Times.  In it he points to one of the most important books of the year, James Davison Hunter’s book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World.

I am sorely tempted to share Douthat’s conclusion because it so concisely summarizes the question we wish to address here in Stillman Valley.  But, I’ll make you click through to read it. Douthat deserves the traffic.

Christmas is hard for everyone. But it’s particularly hard for people who actually believe in it.

In a sense, of course, there’s no better time to be a Christian than the first 25 days of December. But this is also the season when American Christians can feel most embattled. Their piety is overshadowed by materialist ticky-tack. Their great feast is compromised by Christmukkwanzaa multiculturalism. And the once-a-year churchgoers crowding the pews beside them are a reminder of how many Americans regard religion as just another form of midwinter entertainment, wedged in between “The Nutcracker” and “Miracle on 34th Street.”

These anxieties can be overdrawn, and they’re frequently turned to cynical purposes. (Think of the annual “war on Christmas” drumbeat, or last week’s complaints from Republican senators about the supposed “sacrilege” of keeping Congress in session through the holiday.) But they also reflect the peculiar and complicated status of Christian faith in American life.

Read the rest here.

HT: Denny Burk

Tim Challies shares his favorite books from 2010.

Published on December 20, 2010 in Recommended Reading. 0 Comments

A good list from an indefatigable reader.  Click here.

Looking for a good read?

Published on December 10, 2010 in Recommended Reading. 0 Comments

If you’re looking for a good read, then consider this list by the widely read Trevin Wax.  Carson, Mextas, Tim Kellen and even Grisham are on it.

You won’t be surprised to learn that I clicked through to order two.

See Trevin’s 10 favorite reads.

Why Hafemann’s essay alone is worth more than the price of the book

Published on October 26, 2010 in biblical theology, Piper and Recommended Reading. 2 Comments

Crossway recently published For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper.  It’s over 500 pages long and filled with good material.  The people in my church will probably find some of it to be very challenging reading (for instance the chapter by Mark Talbot).  But, the risks of mining notwithstanding, it’s worth the effort to dig for treasure.

We cannot expect that we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds if we only scratch about in the loose gravel on the surface.

I have insisted in the title of this post, your money would be well if only to read the chapter by Scott Hafemann.  Now I am a pastor in the rural Midwest.  I come from a long line of frugal (“tight-wadish”) farmers.  I understand that $22 is a fair amount for a book.  But the reason that I so highly recommend Hafemann’s chapter is that he outlines the big picture of what existence is all about.

In only 17 pages, Dr. Hafemann surveys Scripture to show that:

God’s mission is to glorify himself by creating a people who obey the commands of God their King and thereby exercise a dominion characterized by dependence on God himself.

You might initially respond, “Well, that doesn’t seem incredibly profound or compelling.”

If that’s your response, then you especially need to fork out the $22!  Here’s the thing. Beginning with this thesis, Hafemann shows us how Genesis, Original Sin, the call of Abraham, John the Baptist, and our Lord Himself demonstrate that existence must be about glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.

Indeed, if you read Hafemann’s essay, and really digest it, then you will more clearly see what Scripture and life are all about: $22.74 well spent.

See also posts on biblical theology.

A book I look forward to reading

Published on October 6, 2010 in Piper and Recommended Reading. 0 Comments

Since seminary, no theologian has helped me clarify my thinking like John Piper.  As I wrote in Unpacking Forgiveness, Piper helped me understand that there is not a tension between God’s glory and my joy.  As he has said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”

This book is sure to stretch our thinking, but it will be worth the effort.
Continue reading ‘A book I look forward to reading’

Exercises to stop thinking about how you have been wounded – – (reading Unpacking Forgiveness isn’t one of the exercises)

Published on September 20, 2010 in Forgiveness, Psalms and Recommended Reading. 3 Comments

If you are struggling to stop thinking about a wound – - if you are on the mental gerbil wheel – - then reading a book on forgiveness is probably not the best way to escape the turmoil.  Rather, through the below suggestions enlarge your thinking about what Christ will do in the future.

On Friday, I posted that a biblical strategy to escape the mental turmoil of past wounds is to cultivate a vivid picture of the final redemptive work of Christ.  (See here).

Below are some practical suggestions for cultivating a vivid picture of the final redemptive work of Christ.  Notice that this list is NOT so much about reading books about forgiveness – - though there may be some good ones out there!  Reading about forgiveness may only cause you to think about the wound more.  Rather, absorb your mind with what Christ will do in the future!

  • Memorize Scripture about what Christ will do upon his return. Rather, than choosing verses that apply to the wrong someone did to you, memorize Revelation 21 or Revelation 22.  (For help with memorization, see here).  Repeat to remember, and repeat to meditate.  Or, memorize 2 Cor 4:16-18 or Matthew 5:1-12.  Notice that the beatitudes talk in large part about what will happen in the future.
  • Think creatively about what it will be like when Christ returns.  Decide where you and your Christian loved ones will meet.  My family is going to meet at the 5th tree on the right side of the river as we face the throne!  How can you lead your family in vividly contemplating glory?
  • Carefully read Jonathan Edward sermon, “The Excellency of Christ.” Reading this sermon is hard work.  But, it’s worth the effort.  This paragraph alone will make your heart sing.

When the saints get to heaven, they shall not merely see Christ, and have to do with him as subjects and servants with a glorious and gracious Lord and Sovereign, but Christ will entertain them as friends and brethren. This we may learn from the manner of Christ’s conversing with his disciples here on earth: though he was their Sovereign Lord, and did not refuse, but required, their supreme respect and adoration, yet he did not treat them as earthly sovereigns are wont to do their subjects. He did not keep them at an aweful distance, but all along conversed with them with the most friendly familiarity, as a father amongst a company of children, yea, as with brethren. So he did with the twelve, and so he did with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He told his disciples, that he did not call them servants, but friends, and we read of one of them that leaned on his bosom: and doubtless he will not treat his disciples with less freedom and endearment in heaven. He will not keep them at a greater distance for his being in a state of exaltation; but he will rather take them into a state of exaltation with him. This will be the improvement Christ will make of his own glory, to make his beloved friends partakers with him, to glorify them in his glory, as he says to his Father, John 17:22, 23. “And the glory which thou hast given me, have I given them, that they may be one, even as we are one I in them” etc. We are to consider, that though Christ is greatly exalted, yet he is exalted, not as a private person for himself only, but as his people’s head; he is exalted in their name, and upon their account, as the first fruits, and as representing the whole harvest. He is not exalted that he may be at a greater distance from them, but that they may be exalted with him.

Parenting is never over

Published on September 10, 2010 in Parenting and Recommended Reading. 0 Comments

One of the things I often say that I have learned as a pastor is, “Parenting is never over.”  At one time I naively thought that parenting was basically an age 0-18 exercise.  Not so.  To have children is to think about them from that point on.

This in mind, I’m enthused to see that Elysse Fitzpatrick and Jim Niewhiser have written a book along these lines.  For more information, click over to the indefatigable JT.

I haven’t read the book.  But, I’ll bet it’s good.

Alan Jacobs: pockets and watches

Published on September 7, 2010 in C.S. Lewis and Recommended Reading. 1 Comment

Alan Jacobs explains why he prefers 5 pocket jeans and in the process shares memories to which many can relate.

I try to wear jeans or jeans-like trousers whenever possible — “five-pocket style,” it’s sometimes called, the fifth being the watch-pocket that’s tucked just above the right front one. Of course, such a pocket is in one sense as atavistic as an appendix, since no one carries pocket watches anymore, but in most of my jeans it serves as a nearly ideal receptacle for an iPhone. It was utterly ideal when I carried a smaller phone, but the iPhone sticks out a little too much, usually, and I am hoping that future trouser designers will take us smartphone users into account and (a) keep the fifth pocket where it is while (b) making it a little deeper.

The rest here.
I continue to recommend Jacobs’ writings including his excellent book on C.S.The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis