The Mystery of God: Theology for Knowing the Unknowable

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Takeaway: The Mystery of God is a real part of historical Christian Theology.  But it is not useful as a way to explain away all the difficult parts of the bible or theology.

As I have been reading about the Trinity over the past year or so, I have run across the idea of the mystery of God as an explanation of difficult parts of theology.  It often feels more like, “I don’t want to fully deal with this, so I will call it a mystery of God.”  At the same time I have been reading introductions to Catholic theology and a few books on the importance of beauty; in both areas there is a full embracing of the need for mystery, not just to explain difficult areas of theology, but to allow for the bigness, uniqueness and unpredictable ways of God.

So I accepted a review copy of the Mystery of God hoping it would touch on more of the later and less of the former.

Boyer and Hall exceeded my expectations.  The first part of the book is historical theology.  Hall and Boyer walk the reader through a variety of Christian theologians, Aquinas, Augustine, Calvin, Luther and others to illustrate that throughout Christian history the concept of God as unknowable has always been present.

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Simply Christian by N T Wright

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Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense

Takeaway: A modern classic of what it means to be a Christian

I am on an NT Wright kick.  I was given a copy of Jesus, Paul and the People of God for review (a book of papers from Wheaton College Theology Conference).  The whole conference was a conversation with and about NT Wright.  I started reading it and realized that while I have read some of the more popular of NT Wright’s books, I have not read some of his more important academic books.

So I read The Challenge of Jesus, Scripture and the Authority of God and I have Paul in New Perspective, which I will read next.

I have read Simply Christian before, but I read it quickly right after it came out and other than the main themes I really did not remember much about it.  So I decided to revisit the book.  I am violating my rule of reading a book in a different format because I am trying to save a bit of money right now (so I am re-reading on audio instead of re-reading in paper or Kindle format.)  The main complaint that I have seen is about Wright’s prose.  He can occasionally write the half page sentence or the slightly too obtuse argument.  But I tend to listen to Wright first, get the structure of the argument and then read him more carefully later in a print format.

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Night Film By Marisha Pessl

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Night FilmNight Film is Marisha Pessl‘s second novel about a New York investigator who gets in over his head when searching for the truth behind the mysterious “œsuicide” of a famous movie director’s daughter.  While looking for evidence and an angle on his story, the main character meets and then teams up with two other characters who help him uncover clues as the three go further and further down the rabbit hole toward the “œtruth”.  Along the way, the three uncover conspiracies, possible murder, black magic and even find their own lives in danger.

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New Paperwhite Review (2013)

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I have spent the weekend with the new Kindle Paperwhite and I am ready for the final review.

Visually, it is almost indistinguishable from the first Paperwhite.  It has the exact same dimensions (so keep your cases). The only external differences is a very slight difference in the font that says Kindle on the front and on the back it says ‘Amazon’ instead of ‘Kindle’.  That is it, buttons are the same, case is the same.  Weight is supposed to be slightly less, but honestly I can’t tell a difference.

Screen

the Light on a Paperwhite Screen KindThe light is the biggest feature of the Kindle Paperwhite and it is slightly better on the new version.  Dedicated eink Kindles are different from tablets (like the iPad or fire).  Tablets have color LCD screen that make light by shining it out at your face.  The Paperwhite has invisible threads of light running through the screen and shining it down at the text.  This means that there is much less light that comes out from the screen (although it is not zero) and that means much less wear on your eyes.  Personally, it makes a big difference.

close

The new lighted screen has a much less blue tint and is more white when the light is brighter and less gray when the light is low. There was a complaint about the first Paperwhite that you could never white turn off the light, but either you can now turn off the light or it is so low I can’t detect that it is on.  (Left is new Paperwhite, right is the original Paperwhite.)

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Books Coming Soon

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Prices are for Kindle Editions unless noted.

The Screwtape Letters: The Annotated Edition by CS Lewis

The Screwtape Letters: The Annotated Edition by CS Lewis – $10.99

272 pages, releases Oct 8

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of C. S. Lewis’s death, a special annotated edition of his Christian classic, The Screwtape Letters, with notes and excerpts from his other works that help illuminate this diabolical masterpiece.

A masterpiece of satire, this classic has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life from the vantage point of Screwtape, a senior tempter in the service of “Our Father Below.” At once wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original, C. S. Lewis gives us the correspondence of the worldly-wise old devil to his nephew Wormwood, a novice demon in charge of securing the damnation of an ordinary young man. The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging and humorous account of temptation””and triumph over it””ever written.

Now, for the first time, The Screwtape Letters is presented with its full text alongside helpful annotations provided by Lewis enthusiast and dramatist Paul McCusker. The notes include literary, theological, and biographical information to enhance Lewis’s core themes and demystify complex ideas. McCusker also guides readers to concepts and references from the beloved author’s other treasured volumes to deepen and enrich this timeless classic. The annotated edition is the ultimate guide for understanding the heavenly truths buried in these epistles from below.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Allegiant by Veronica Roth – $6.99

Bookwise Reviews: Divergent, Insurgent

544 pages,  Releases October 22

What if your whole world was a lie?
What if a single revelation””like a single choice””changed everything?
What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?
The explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth’s #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.

Paul and the Faithfulness of God: Two Book SetPaul and the Faithfulness of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God #4) by NT Wright – $63.56 in Hardcover, Kindle pre-order not available yet

1700 pages, releases Nov 1

This highly anticipated two-book fourth volume in N. T. Wright’s magisterial series, Christian Origins and the Question of God, is destined to become the standard reference point on the subject for all serious students of the Bible and theology. The mature summation of a lifetime’s study, this landmark book pays a rich tribute to the breadth and depth of the apostle’s vision, and offers an unparalleled wealth of detailed insights into his life, times, and enduring impact.

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God and Race in American Politics: A Short History by Mark Noll

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God and Race in American Politics: A Short History by Mark NollTakeaway: The story of American Politics, without God or Religion is an incomplete history.

I very much respect Mark Noll’s work as a historian.  So after re-reading The Civil War as Theological Crisis, I looked around to see if there were any audiobooks of Noll’s works.  I listen to a lot of audiobooks because a lot of my job is processing data.  As long as I don’t have to write, I can listen. (But I have to pause and audiobook to even write a 10 word email.)

The only book at Audible by Noll other than The Civil War as Theological Crisis was God and Race in American Politics.

Noll is primarily known as a historian of North American Evangelicalism.  But this is a natural followup to his Civil War as Theological Crisis.  Instead of looking at the theological response to issues of race and slavery (as he did in Civil War), Noll expands his view to take a quick survey at how Race and Religion interacted over the history of the US until the 2004 Presidential Election.

As you might expect a good historian to say, the reality is much more complicated than the traditional story that is told in your 4th grade US history class.  But Noll does a very good job surveying those complications in less than 200 pages.

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Oyster Book – An All You Can Read Ebook Plan – A Review

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Oyster is an all-you-can-read ebook subscription program.  Commonly described as Netflix-for-Books.  Officially it was opened up in September, but it is still in a private testing phase.  I signed up and have used it for the last three weeks. Pick Five Books

My overall impression is fairly positive.  When you sign up you are asked to choose five books from your computer browser.  These five books will be in your account to get started.  The main problem is that on the computer, there is not a search function.  So you have to look through book covers sorted into categories.  These are their most popular books, so you should not have too much problem finding books you are interested it.

Oyster Home Screen

Once you complete the registration process (pretty basic) and give your credit card information ($9.95 a month but with a free one month trial) you are emailed a link for the iPhone app (you can just find it in the app store as well). Once you sign into the app on your iPhone, you can search for books, load the books that you chose on your computer, and update your profile (connect to Facebook or Twitter, search for friends that are on Oyster, list your favorite books, add a picture and write a bio).

explore

Oyster has a good selection of books, they claim 100,000 books, but Smashwords has also said that their entire 250,000 book catalogue of independent authors will be added soon.  I was able to find CS Lewis, Ursula Le Guin, NT Wright, Margaret Atwood, Susan Howatch and a lot of other books that I actually want to read.

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Embracing Obscurity: Becoming Nothing in Light of God’s Everything

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I am reposting the review of this very good book because the Kindle version is on sale for $0.99 until Oct 7 Takeaway: Obscurity, humility, smallness.  All undervalued and difficult disciplines in a world of individualism, social media and mixed messages. I ran across the very interesting book Embracing Obscurity on Tim Challies’ blog.  His review gave … Read more

The Awakening of Hope: Why We Practice a Common Faith

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Summary: A modern narrative form of catechesis teaching.

I have read several of Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s books previously (God’s Economy and The Wisdom of Stability).  So I picked up The Awakening of Hope without looking into what it was about when I saw that it was a free audiobook on Noisetrade.com (it is no longer free.)  That was a couple of months ago, and I had forgotten about it when I ran across it looking for another audiobook.

The Awakening of Hope: Why We Practice A Common Faith is an attempt at basic catechesis (basic Christian instruction).  Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is part of an intentional Christian community and has worked with Shane Claiborne, Chris Haw, and some of the other “New Monastics.”

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