In February I read some more books
surprise!
A Praying Church, Paul E. Miller.
Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Kobes Du Mez.
Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellection Formation, Collin Hansen.
As you may have detected, I do like Keller. This was not so much a biography, as a kind of half-biography with focus instead on the persons, places, and authors that influenced and shaped Keller. I found it a helpful and inspiring read, mostly because of seeing the both amazing and incredibly ordinary ways that God shaped Keller before he ever got to New York and became 'famous' almost unwittingly.
The stranger, Albert Camus, (Audio).
Camus is one of my favourite novelists, and I appreciated taking the time to go back and listen to this in a translation I wasn't familiar with. I'd forgotten how short the "action" is in this novel, and how much is given over in the second half to reflection.
Celebrities for Jesus, Katelyn Beaty
This is a book I wanted to exist, and so I was very glad that it did. It tackles exactly what it says - the way that (especially evangelical) Christianity has adopted and adapted and promoted celebrity culture, and all the problems that come with that. A fast read but a valuable one. I particularly liked the way the author distinguished fame from celebrity, and analysed the pathologies that come with celebrity-status (both for the celebrity, but also for the rest of us).
Life of Macrina, Gregory of Nyssa
Part of my "christian classics" reading for the year. Gregory (rightly) talks up just how amazing and godly his sister was, as a faithful Christian and a pioneering leader.
From Isolation to Community, Myles Werntz
Everything happens for a reason, Kate Bowler, (Audio).
Oh boy. I am not sure I was ready for this book. The author is a professor who specialises in the prosperity gospel, and this book is mostly a personal memoir of their struggles, personal and faith, with terminal cancer. It's a powerful meditation on suffering and God.
Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass (Audio).
Frederick Douglass was not only a slave who escaped, and wrote marvellously about his life in this autobiography, he went on after this to become an incredibly eloquent and learned man, theologian, and abolitionist. I listened to a version read by Forest Whitaker. The appendix is worth listening to just on its own, for its prophetic declamation and denouncement of slaveholder religion.
The Lewis Awakening: The Nature of a God Sent Revival, Duncan Campbell
An account by Campbell of the Hebridean revival in 1949-1953. Campbell writes about the events of the revival in this short book; it’s then followed by a sermon by Campbell, including some of his testimony. A remarkable and encouraging book.
Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman
Kind of an anti-self-help-book, in that Burkeman takes the idea of all those productivity and live your life to the full books, and shrivels them up in a fire of sharp essays on the finitude of life, your cosmic insignificance, and the futility of trying to master your time. Instead, he articulates a philosophy of embracing finitude.
I do read a lot of other things around the webs. Perhaps the most provocative, worthwhile, and lamentable read lately is this article on MAID, and euthanasia in Canada, now the 6th leading cause of death there. Other things: Pacificism and the Ukraine. Some reflections from Christians in the Ukraine, and Russia, one year on. And finally, from an acquaintance of mine who is always writing worthwhile reads, Deconversion and the Cross.
I really enjoyed 4000 Weeks. I described it as nihilistic self-help. Haha!