Adam Shields

Through the Eye of a Needle by Peter Brown

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Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD by Peter Brown

Takeaway: The variety of ways that the Christian church understands wealth and economics has a long history.

One of the reasons that we should read Christian history is because it can give us context for our own modern issues.

Because there are limited sources for late Roman history, Brown uses a variety of historical methods. Most interesting for me was the personal narrative of Christians, Augustine, Ambrose, and a number of people that I had no knowledge of prior to this book.

Culture has always influenced Christianity. So late Roman culture expected those of great wealth to give gifts to the city either through the games and circuses or through community building projects.

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Heat Wave (Nikki Heat) by Richard Castle

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Heat Wave by Richard CastleSummary: First of a series of book that are written to be the books of Richard Castle (the author in the TV series Castle.)

My wife and I are huge fans of the TV show Castle.  So ever since I found out that there is actually a series of books that were written to coincide with the books that Richard Castle writes in the show.

I was interested enough to want to read this, but not enough to actually buy it.  I picked it up at my library on audiobook.

In the TV show, Richard Castle is a mystery writer that works follows the police murder detective Beckett.  He is inspired to write the book Heat Wave about the police detective Nikki Heat and the journalist Rook.

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A Passion for God: The Spiritual Journey of A. W. Tozer by Lyle Dorsett

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Takeaway: God uses people. They will not be perfect, but those that are used, are usually changed by God.

A. W. Tozer has had a resurgence in my world lately. I have not read anything that he has written and really did not know anything about him, other than I know my grandfather liked him and people quote him all the time. Louie Gigglio only started using twitter after he decided to start doing Tozer Tuesday quotes. And then Out of Ur blog decided to copy the idea. After a friend, Matt Erickson, blogged about this book, I figured I would start reading here.

Lyle Dorset was a professor at Wheaton when I was there and I have met and talked to him several times, but never had him for a class. I really liked his biography on Dwight Moody, A Passion for Souls and the very brief biography of E. M Bounds (it was free last month at christianaudio.com but the offer is no longer good.)

Dorset’s biography was well done. It is brief (just under 200 pages), but very well documented with lots of personal interviews personal correspondence that was not available to the previous two biographers. Dorset does what I want in a biography, especially one of a Christian, showing the whole person. But part of my issue with a new introduction to Tozer (not having read any of his books before) is that he was a very broken man. Like many mystical oriented prayer warriors in Christian history, Tozer likely suffered with depression throughout his life. He was an introvert and almost never greeted people before or after church on Sunday. Instead he went to nursery to play with the children.

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Dude, You’re Gonna Be a Dad! by John Pfeiffer

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Dude, You're Gonna Be a Dad! by John PfeifferSummary: Humorous look at the pregnancy process from the Dad’s perspective.

If you are just joining us, my wife is pregnant and our first child is due in early November.  I process by reading.  So, I am reading.

John Pfeiffer does a good job writing a book that most guys will actually enjoy reading.

There is good info, good advice and mostly just warnings about what to expect.  I am not completely unaware of pregnancy.  I was a nanny for 5 years, I have been around a lot of pregnant people.  But as a guy, there are some things that just don’t get shared unless you are the actual father involved.

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The Year I Almost Drowned by Shannon McCrimmon

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The Year I Almost Drowned by Shannon McCrimmon

Summary: 19 Year old Finn just found her grandparents, the love of her life and started college. 

A couple weeks ago I went on cruise.  I did almost nothing except sit by the pool (or in the pool) and read.  Except for when I was sitting on our balcony reading. It was very nice.

I had decided before leaving that I just wanted to read fiction and relax.  So I loaded my kindle with about 75 fiction books and didn’t make a plan.

One of the books was The Summer I Learned to Dive.  I chose it primarily because I liked the cover.  It was a vacation and I was looking for beach reading.

The Summer I Learned to Dive told the story of how Finn found her grandparents, realized that all she had been preparing for was not really what she wanted to do with her life.  And she found Jesse, a boy of her dreams.

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Enemies of the Heart: Breaking Free from the Four Emotions that Control You by Andy Stanley

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April 30th is the last day to get Enemies of the Heart free as an MP3 Audiobook from Christianaudio.com

Enemies of the Heart: Breaking Free from the Four Emotions That Control YouTakeaway: Emotions can harm us.  Spiritual Disciplines can help us overcome harmful emotions.

I did not realize this when I started, but Enemies of the Heart is a revision of It Came From Within.  I have not read It Came From Within, so it is a new book to me, but I know many people have.

This book covers four emotions that damage us: guilt, anger, greed, and jealousy.  In each case he has a method of how to combat the unhealthy emotion.  With guilt, we need to seek forgiveness, not just from God, but from the actual person we wronged.  With anger, we need to forgive the people that wronged us, not just generally, but specifically and explicitly. With greed we need to get over the fear that makes us be greedy by being generous.  With jealousy we need celebrate those things we might be jealous of in those around us.

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Reflections on the Psalms by CS Lewis

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Reflections on the Psalms by CS LewisSummary: Lewis reads the Psalms as an insightful outsider.

I am continuing my quest to read more CS Lewis after reading McGrath’s new biography a few weeks ago.  (And to justify the fact that I have purchased so many of Lewis’ books recently.  Many of his non-fiction books are less than $3, this one is currently $2.24 on kindle).

This was the first of Lewis’ non-fiction books I read after reading McGrath’s biography.  Psalms and I have had a difficult relationship.  I am not extraordinarily fond of poetry and for too long I have viewed Psalms as a book of poetry, not a book of prayers.

Part of this is that I grew up in a church background that values extemporaneous prayers, not written prayers.  So it has only been recently that I have started regularly using prayer books like Phillis Tickle’s Prayers for Summertime or the Book of Common Prayer.

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