What are you reading?

[wavy]

In the middle of W. G. Dever, What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? What Archaeology Can Tell Us about the Reality of Ancient Israel, Eerdmans, 2001.

I need to slow down. Reading too many books at a time. :D

Finis,
Eric

 

[Aero_Hudson]

Just finished Richard J. Foster's Celebration of Disciplineand started Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home. Really digging his stuff at this point. Plan on starting the Left Behind series soon and also finishing up Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

 

[kimberlyb0112]

and men.. I dunno what I suggest for y'all.. the tv guide maybe?? That's all y'all seem to read anyway :D

Not all the time, lol. :D

Hey ya, Nick_29

I think I remember Kimberlyb0112 from an intro thread, soldier right?
My thought when I read this was, "Oohhh... what a sharp-tongued woman. I think I like her! :yes
I'm "taken" so that's not a flirt but just a thought. Also, am 'grampa age' for certain.

Hope she doesn't mind my talking about her like she wasn't here. *smile*
Prayers are offered in support of soldier everywhere, that and deep respect and thanks! Just-so's-ya-know.
Amen it, please brother?

~Sparrow

lol no it's fine..

yeah i do have a sharp tongue sometimes lol sorry in advance.. I mean well..!
I am the only female working around all these guys, its like having a whole bunch of older brothers.. I have learned to talk back and stick up for myself ..all in good fun of course.

Thanks for the prayers..much appreciated! 8 down, 4 more to go...i can notttttttttttt wait..
I am never taking anything for granted, ever again! lol

 

[wavy]

Undertook another one: Joseph Runzo: Global Philosophy of Religion: A Short Introduction, Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2001.

His style is solemn and yet soft; no polemic involved, and I like so far his comments on the relation of philosophy to religion. Many believers, mostly from the popular religious masses, including Christians, shun philosophy. I do not understand this, except to say I suppose believers are mostly inconversant with philosophy, and, if my experience is good for anything in the case of Christians, often misinterpret a Pauline passage (Colossians ii.8). This is ironical, because the greatest Christian thinkers throughout the past two millenia, beginning with the Church Fathers and moving forward to men like Anselm, Aquinas, on into contemporary thinkers like Plantinga and the famous Christian apologist William Lane Craig, were/are all men of philosophy.

Runzo puts it this way:

Insofar as theology or philosophical religion strives to present a rational case, rather than to be merely polemical or poetic, it will need to conform to the clarificatory demands of coherence, cognitive significance, intelligibility, and parsimony, and to the justificatory demands of plausibility, consistency, logic of proof, and provision of firm evidential support--and this is to engage in doing philosophy.
--op. cit., p. 26.


Finis,
Eric

 

[Sparkey]

You guys read so fast!
I'm still reading about Winnie the Pooh and the 100 acre wood.

Getting to the part about Eeyore! I think he's going to go out and check his mailbox maybe?
Hope it's still there. Poor Eeyore.

 

[JoJo]

:biglol

 

[Free]

^^ You would love my book collection. I should post a pic. Quite a bit of Christian spirituality/spiritual disciplines, theology and apologetics.

Currently reading "Surprised by Hope" by N.T. Wright.

Tom Wright is popular with many Christians, but I've never read anything of his, except for some excerpts from his co-authoring with J. D. Crossan on the Resurrection, though I surmise his arguments were somewhat attenuated forms of his more sophisticated, scholarly works. I'm looking forward to read the first 3 volumes of his 'Christians Origins and the Question of God' series, each circa 700 pages:

The New Testament and the People of God

Jesus and the Victory of God

The Resurrection of the Son of God

Especially the latter, because I plan to undertake a full-scale study of the Resurrection, and will doubtless have to reckon with Wright.

W. L. Craig, powerful in this enterprise, acknowledged it as the best defense of its historicity. Craig himself wrote a book on the Resurrection, valued at about $130, that I'm also alacritious to read.

But right now I'm studying Old Testament and Israelite religion, pre-/post-exilic and Hellenstic, and have so many books on my plate, currently totaling 28 in all, and there's still more to get. I want to master Hebrew bible. I don't read layman's books. I get down to the knitty-gritty, as you well know.


Thanks,
Eric

I know what you mean except that I keep buying books and not reading them. But the three by N.T. Wright you mentioned above look really good. I have a book about a debate on the resurrection between Craig and an atheist (can't remember who) and Craig destroys him. But it may be that it the atheist wasn't prepared or very familiar with resurrection arguments.

At any rate, I replied mainly so I could post this:

http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Blackwell_Companion_to_Natural_Theology

Another book for you. Except that on Amazon it $160, on sale. It would be well worth it although it would be way over my head technically. I like to buy books that are too hard in the hopes that someday I'll understand it.

 

[wavy]

I know what you mean except that I keep buying books and not reading them. But the three by N.T. Wright you mentioned above look really good. I have a book about a debate on the resurrection between Craig and an atheist (can't remember who) and Craig destroys him. But it may be that it the atheist wasn't prepared or very familiar with resurrection arguments.

Probably Gerd Ludemann, a German biblical scholar. I've read the book Ludemann wrote after that debate (more of a revised version of the views in the book they were debating over), The Resurrection of Christ: A Historical Inquiry, Prometheus, 2004. Craig often quotes a passage from Ludemann in his debates over theism and/or the Resurrection.

At any rate, I replied mainly so I could post this:

http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Blackwell_Companion_to_Natural_Theology

Another book for you. Except that on Amazon it $160, on sale. It would be well worth it although it would be way over my head technically. I like to buy books that are too hard in the hopes that someday I'll understand it.

Yes, I had known about it before it came out this year and received the newsletter Craig sent out about its release. He was really excited because one reviewer (an atheist) stated it was the best defense of theism ever assembled. I wish I had time to read it now, but I don't. I'll get to it eventually, probably.


Finis,
Eric

 

[ruby917]

Right now it's "The Case for the Real Jesus" by Lee Strobel. I've read "The Case for Christ" previously, and this is a good follow up. Anything to build up my knowledge on why we believe that Jesus is who He says He is. I have quite a few non believers in my life, so this is helpful in sharing.

 

[Lance_Iguana]

Alice in Wonderland. I want to indulge myself before the mania sets in when the movie remake hits. ;)

 

[mechanicdb]

Right now it's "The Case for the Real Jesus" by Lee Strobel. I've read "The Case for Christ" previously, and this is a good follow up. Anything to build up my knowledge on why we believe that Jesus is who He says He is. I have quite a few non believers in my life, so this is helpful in sharing.

You should check out "Why I Believe" by D. James Kennedy

short little book with some good stuff in it.

also, "I don't have enough faith to be an athiest" has some good points as well that you could toss around with your non-believing acquantances.

 

[ruby917]

Thanks for the suggestion. I know a couple people who have the "Jesus didn't really die on the cross" theory. No athiests really, just lots of kooky beliefs on who Jesus was. My co-worker saw "The DiVinci Code" and seems to think that movie is closer to the truth than the Bible.

Have you ever read "Tactics" by Greg Koukl? That's a really good book on defending the Christian faith. You could probably find it at http://www.str.org. Great apologetic website too.

 

[Aero_Hudson]

Picked up "The Unusual Suspect" by Stephen Baldwin over the weekend and only have 2 more chapters left. Boy, is this man converted. Great book overall with some powerful messages and challenges. Who knew that a Baldwin brother could be so compelling in how to embrace God and Christ?

 

[wavy]

Some recent reviews I've written on a few books.

Finis,
Eric

 

[HaveFaith7]

I am currently reading two books Secret Sexual Sins by Fred C. Rochester http://outskirtspress.com/webpage.php?I ... 1432741297. This book is really good.

and

The Shack. So far this book is very good. So many people were talking about it and I decided to read it. Not finished yet.

 

[Fembot]

I am reading "Let God Talk to You-When You Hear Him You will Never Be the Same" by Becky Tirabassi and just started "Daily Inspiration" from The One Year Mini series.

I like the daily inspiration book because it's easy to get a little reading done everyday.

 

[wavy]

Just ordered:

Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, by Egyptologist Donald B. Redford. Should be insightful coming from a specialist outside the preconceptions of biblical scholarship.

Ancient Israelite Religion: Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross, edited by Patrick D. Miller.

The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History, by Baruch Halpern.

Currently I'm reading Essays on Old Testament History and Religion, by the German scholar Albrecht Alt (translated by R. A. Wilson).

Finis,
Eric

 

[nopaniers]

I'm reading:

Haskell: The Craft of Functional Programming (yes, I'm a geek)
A History of Christianity in Asia by Moffett (yes, I'm a Christian geek)

Both fascinating.

 

[Kyle]

I just finished reading "Mariette in Ecstasy", a classic book from the 1990's about a girl who enters a convent in upstate New York during the early 1900's. The other sisters of the convent are surprised by Mariette's seemingly extreme piety towards Jesus. They eventually become split over how to react after wounds reminiscent of the wounds Jesus received during his crucifixion begin appearing on her body.

 

[wavy]

Currently reading Victor H. Matthews, Don C. Benjamin, Old Testament Parallels: Laws and Stories from the Ancient Near East, 2006.

Just finished Martin Noth, A History of Pentateuchal Traditions, 1972 (trans. Bernard W. Anderson; originally 1948)


Finis,
Eric