Adam Shields

Takeaway: Still not the book I am looking for on the bible.

Last week I stumbled on the Very Short Introduction series and was very impressed with Mark Noll’s book on Protestantism.  This week I ventured in again and was much less impressed.  The bible is a hard topic.  But I was really put off by the focus and direction.  The first chapter was on approaching the Bible as either classic literature or sacred text took me a while to get over.  I actually had to go back and re-read it after reading the whole book.  After the second reading I was not as irritated once I had some context, but I think it shows some of the editorial problems of the book.

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Takeaway: The Bible has a long history.

I started listening to this because I am looking for a book on the history of the canon and how we use scripture to recommend as an introduction.  Before this week I have told people that I have read and enjoyed this book.  But once I was into it a little but I realized I have not actually read this before.  I thought I had read it, and maybe I had started it, but I had not read it.

Jaroslav Pelikan is an important scholar of the history of Christianity.  I first read him in a Christian history class in seminary.  Some day I will get back and read the rest of his series of five books on the history of the development of Christian doctrine.  Pelikan was a professor at Yale from 1962 until his retirement in 1997.  He was also a Lutheran pastor for most of his life until 1998 when he converted to the Orthodox Church.

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Takeaway: The final story is strangely satisfying.

The High King is the last of one of the best-known Young Adult fantasy series before Harry Potter.  It won the Newberry Award in 1969. This was about the same time the Lord of the Rings trilogy took off in the US (the last of the Lord of the Rings books was published in 1956).

The High King is the most like the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  It has the most action; it is the most focused on large-scale battles. It is the most exciting, and up until this reading, it was my favorite of the series. It is still an excellent book, but Taran Wander is more interesting as a character study. I like the action books, but they are what is driving my reading.  I first read the series first in the mid-1980s and was in its target audience.

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Takeaway: The common thread of Protestantism is diversity, focus on scripture and change.

I first heard of Protestantism: A Very Short Introduction on a podcast from Books and Culture magazine.  I am a regular reader and listener to their short weekly podcast and have first heard of a number of books that I have enjoyed from them.

I am also not familiar with the Oxford Short Introduction series.  But after having read this one, I will read more.  There are more than 200 books in this series over a very wide range of topics.  I cannot speak to the series as a whole, but I like the idea of a series that is oriented toward short books on a wide range of topics written by top scholars in the field and oriented toward an educated reader.

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Takeaway: At some point, growing up means finding meaning and joy in work and yourself.

Taran Wander is my favorite book of the series. In many ways, it is different from the rest of the series. Is it still a book focused on a quest, but instead of saving someone, defeating an enemy, or finding a magical device, it is about Taran finding his heritage.

As a young teen (probably really a tween), there are several points in the books where I actually learned something that I used later. Taran wanders through Prydain to seek out his parentage because he wants to propose to Eliowayn. But she is a princess, and he is an orphaned Assistant Pig-Keeper.

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