The end of another year. Time to consider those New Year's resolutions and whether we believe we will really take them seriously. For me, this is a time when I look back over some of my reading material for the past twelve months. If interested, you might want to check some of them out.
One of the more intriguing books was UNPROTECTED TEXTS: THE BIBLE'S SURPRISING CONTRADICTIONS ABOUT SEX AND DESIRE by Jennifer Wright Knust. Really calls into question what we may think we are saying when we talk about a biblical view of family and sex. It's all there, but putting it together right in front of us can be surprising.
SPEAKING CHRISTIAN by Marcus Borg is a good work on crystalizing basic thoughts about the God/Human relationship and how we speak of it. Borg takes old terms that have become familiar "church talk" and infuses them with fresh meaning.
Two disturbing books: C STREET: THE FUNDAMENTALIST THREAT TO DEMOCRACY by Jeff Sharlet and AMERICAN FASCISTS by Chris Hedges bring to mind what I sense is going on in our country but causes me to think that it is worse than anyone could imagine.
I discovered a new author this year. His name is Tony Jones and he is a leader in the emerging church movement. I have read his blog for a while and decided to purchase some of his books. The two I have worked with so far are THE NEW CHRISTIANS: DISPATCHES FROM THE EMERGENT FRONTIER and THE CHURCH IS FLAT: THE RELATIONAL ECCLESIOLOGY OF THE EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT. There are several others I plan to tackle in 2012. The emerging church movement is something to be reckoned with in our world today despite its receiving much resistance in some quarters. I'm impressed with a lot of what I see and in a few days will write about it and its connection (or lack thereof) with biblical higher criticism and historical studies related to Jesus and the early church.
Happy New Year and good reading.
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