Writers on the Classics

Chris Smith, the editor of Englewood Review of Books, has challenged us all to read more classics this year. To give us suggestions, Smith has asked a number of writers to give suggestions of classics that are worth reading.  I posted about the first two of these lists, but more suggestions have been posted.  Here … Read more

Offsite: Read This, Not That

The Parchment Girl blog is back.  Parchment Girl (aka Kate) after a hiatus has started blogging again.  Today she posted, “Read This, Not That: Overrated Christian Bestsellers and Lesser Known Alternatives“. I think this is a great idea for book bloggers to highlight lesser known (and often better) books.  I am not an expert in … Read more

Offsite Review: Do We Worship the Same God edited by Miroslav Volf

Miroslav Volf wrote a fairly controversial book a couple years ago called Allah: A Christian Response (I have not read it).  From what I have read about the book he was trying to make concrete the ideas that he raised in Exclusion and Embrace and later in Free of Charge about reconciliation and and love in response to other … Read more

Offsite Review: Introduction to Christian Liturgy by Frank Senn

Introduction to Christian Liturgy by Frank C. SennBy background I am Baptist.  I grew up American Baptist, I worked for a while for a Southern Baptist Association of churches.  But I have moved a bit away from my Baptist roots.  I am more sacramental in my theology these days.  I am less concerned with the method and timing of baptism.  And I am much less interested in the autonomy of the local church.  So it may be odd that I attend a mega-church that never does the eucharist as part of their Sunday morning service, that does not participate in the church year or use the Lectionary for scripture.

Theologically I am more oriented toward a more liturgical church system. But culturally my worship background is low church and my theology of church is oriented toward outreach and evangelism.  So I participate in a church that is organized around having low barriers to entry for those that have left the church or have never been a part of the church.  I do not think everyone should be in churches like mine.  I am thankful that many people are not.

But I do think that many people are resistant to more liturgical churches out of ignorance instead of real theology.

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Offsite: Cost of Discipleship Online Discussion

I really like reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  I have reviewed two different biographies (Schligensiepen is better than Metaxas) and Life Together as well as an Eastern Orthodox version (A Life Together) and an exploration of Bonhoeffer’s Christ-Centered Spirituality, but I am by no means a Bonhoeffer expert. I have read Cost of Discipleship (although not recently), so I might … Read more