Takeaway: Bonhoeffer is a complicated and fascinating figure in Christianity.
There were two biographies of Bonhoeffer published in 2010. It was not a coincidence. This was also when the final editions of Bonhoeffer’s complete works a 15 volume set were being completed. There is a trove of documents and letters that have been discovered since the classic biography from Bonhoeffer’s best friend Eberhard Bethge’s was first published in 1970. (A new translation was released in 2000.)
Marriage is a deeply important topic for Christians. Many think about it primarily in public policy terms (gay marriage and/or divorce). But I think it is more important for discipleship and church health reasons. I absolutely do not believe that everyone should get married. But I do think, that for those that do get married, the church has a significant responsibility to them and their marriage. And married people have a significant responsibility back to their church for mentoring younger marriages.
One of the best things that happened to our marriage was the last two years that my wife and I lead a newly married small group. If you ever want to feel good about your wisdom in marriage go hang out with a bunch of newly married couples. Some of the couples in the groups had been married a matter of weeks when they joined. They didn’t even know how to tell ‘their story’ yet.
I have read a lot of books on marriage. This is one of the ones that I would most recommend to people regardless of the length of time they have been married (or even if they are single). It is not perfect, I disagree with several points. But I respect the Keller’s ability to speak even when I disagree with them. The tone of this book is just right.
Takeaway: This is now my most recommended book on marriage.
My wife and I have led two newly married small groups in the last two years. And given my proclivity to over reading, and reading as one of my primary ways of processing, I have read a number of marriage books in our 15 years of marriage, especially in the last two years. Given that introduction, I think this is the most balanced, most thorough explanation of the purpose and meaning of marriage I have read.
This is the oldest of the books that I am listing among my favorites of 2012. My requirement is that I read them in 2012, not that they were written in 2012. One of my goals this year was to read more old books. And I certainly did that. But I was disappointed in many of the older books I read. Some of the disappointment is because I did not work hard enough to understand the background (one of the comments on my review of Alice in Wonderland essentially said that I just didn’t get all of the jokes.)
It is certainly true that not all literature that is great travels well through time. But The End of the Affair did travel well (albeit only about 60 years.) Tragedy, love and romance may be particularly easy subjects to travel through time. A good audiobook often helps.
Takeaway: Hate is a way to know that you love.
The problem with reading is that no matter how much you do, there is so much you will never get to. There are more than 1 million new books published each year, just in English. And then there are the thousands of a classics that even a serious reader will never get around to reading.
So I am glad when I run across one of the beautiful books accidentally. I would have never picked up The End of the Affair on my own. I thought I had watched the movie, but I had not (although I will now.)
Audible.com has been commissioning “A List Actors” to read classic books. The Wizard of Oz read by Anne Hathaway, that I read a couple week ago, was from this collection. And luckily for me, Audible.com has been giving away a couple of the books to promote the series.
In The End of the Affair, Colin Firth reads the melancholy and beautifully haunting story of a couple having an affair at the end of World War II in London. This is a tragedy, and like all tragedies, nothing turns out the way you want it to.
I reviewed John Armstrong’s little book The Unity Factor earlier this year. It is a helpful short book that talks about why the church should work together as a whole and the theological important of unity. David Daniels at Wisereader.com posted a review of it early this week that gets the point of the book … Read more
Over the next 12 days I am going to share my 13 favorite books of 2012. The list is not based on the ‘Best books’ but rather the books that stayed with me, that I kept thinking about and that I have frequently recommended to others. My only requirement is that I read them first … Read more
It is nearly the end of the year. I am looking forward to posting my books of the year and recycling some content over a Christmas break so that I read some books I am looking forward to without as much pressure.
So I looked through the books I was currently reading and decided I just do not want to finish Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda.
It is not that TE Lawrence is not interesting. He is fascinating. And Korda tries (although not quite as successfully as I had hoped) to be a story telling biographer more like Laura Hillenbrand (Unbroken and Seabiscut) than monumental biographer like William Manchester’s three volume biography of Churchhill.
Korda starts with an exciting couple of battles during WWI and then goes back and gives us a brief look at his childhood. Returns to WWI and stays in WWI for a long time. I gave up the book when I had completed about 8 hours of 14 hours on audiobook.
Most of the time I finish books that I start. Sometimes it is months for me to finally work through a book. But I usually do eventually finish.
But this week I stopped reading two books. I was bored and just didn’t want to struggle through these books that were no longer interesting. I had already given them a good trial. I was about half way into both books (11 hours of audio between the two of them).
I picked up When I Was a Child I Read Books at the same time I picked up Gilead. I started When I Was a Child first. And pretty quickly switched to Gilead. I loved Gilead. It is a wonderful novel written a lot like a memoir. It is honest and real and a bit sad but still hopeful for the idea that a pastor can still make a difference in the world.
Takeaway: An essential novel for Pastors.
Gilead is one of those books that pretty much everyone should read. Gilead won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. And all kinds people have it as on lists of their all time favorite books. Which means that I have been reluctant to read it ever since I was aware of it.
Why is it that as soon as a book is one that you ‘should read’ it instantly becomes less interesting?
I finally decided to pick it up when I needed to buy another book from Audible to get a $10 credit. And when Englewood Review of Books put it on their list of 10 novels every pastor should read.
Gilead is the story of John Ames. Ames is a congregational pastor in the small town of Gilead, Iowa. Ames is now an old man (76). After being single for most of his adult life, he married late in life and now has a young son (6). Ames’ heart is bad and throughout the book we know he is going to die soon. So he is writing to his son. He wants his son to know who he, and the rest of his family history since it is unlikely that he will be around much longer to tell him.
Summary: Ivan finally gets to play lead in this long running series.
Science fiction is such a moldable setting. There are the hard science books, the space opera, the mystical fantasy books, the near term commentary and a ton more. Readers that dismiss genre fiction are really missing out. (Slate had an article about Ursula Le Guin that made this point well.)
For me, there are two types of science fiction types that I really like. One is the idea fiction. Use a science fiction setting to create a world and take it to its logical conclusion to explore various ideas about society, religion, ethic and/or philosophy.
The other type is the hero story. This is a wide group. It can include everything from Star Wars to Ender’s Game.
Summary: A series of 18 essays about the implications of the Trinity of a variety of areas of a theology and practice. Compiled in honor of Jürgen Moltmann’s 80th birthday.
There were two reasons I picked up this book. One, I am trying to read about the Trinity as part of my annual reading goals. Two, I am reading it because Miroslov Volf’s name is on it. I have been hearing about Volf for a while and just have not had a chance to read him.
Volf is a professor at Yale and is best known for his work in the areas of social Trinity and forgiveness (Exclusion and Embrace, The End of Memory and the less academic Free of Charge). He also has controversial book on Christian response to Islam (Allah) and a well reviewed book on Christianity and the Common Good (Public Faith).
What is interesting to me about Volf is that he is academically responding to real issues around him. Volf was born and raised in what is now Croatia. He studied in Germany under Jürgen Moltmann and eventually came to the US to teach at Fuller until moving to Yale in 1998.