Pastor – Coach – Reader – Cook
Who Should Read This Book (These Books) - Readers interested in the history of Christian theology and spirituality who desire not just intellectual understanding but also to sit at the feet of a spiritual master. What’s the Big Takeway - My takeaway as I read these ancient saints is consistently the same: they have an…
Continue reading ➞ The Voice of the Eagle by John Scotus Eriugena (Review)
Who Should Read this book - People who want to learn what it means to be antiracist. What’s the Big Takeaway - All persons are capable of being racist and being antiracist at the same time so we must constantly ask ourselves, examine our lives and actions and beliefs, as to which one we are…
Continue reading ➞ How to be Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi (Review)
Who Should Read this Book: White folks - specifically Christians but really anyone - who want to honestly examine and wrestle with what it means to be white, how whiteness shapes us, and how we can become aware. What’s the Big Takeaway: Our culture shapes how we see everything and western culture, for centuries, has…
Continue reading ➞ White Awake: An Honest Look at What it Means to be White by Daniel Hill (Review)
Stephen King certainly knows how to tell a story which emphasizes the darkness and sin and evil in this world. In this book, an evil spirit (or something) is awakened under the ground of a small mining town in Nevada. This spirit/demon possesses human bodies and murders everyone in the town. It then captures a…
Continue reading ➞ Evil, Good and God in Stephen’ Kings Desperation (Review)
What does it mean to be a “saint”? Different church traditions may have slightly different definitions, but one common emphasis may be that saints are a sort of special or unique group of people. They are people set apart from the rest of us due to their holy or loving acts or perhaps, in a…
Continue reading ➞ Holy Troublemakers and Unconventional Saints by Daneen Akers (Book Review)
Beginning the countdown of my top ten books is some historical theology! A study of the wonderful Julian of Norwich is my #10 while a study of the illustrious Maximus the Confessor gets an honorable mention.
My July Newsletter has big news: I am now the Assistant Executive Director for CSFPA. This is a pretty cool and very humbling new job with plenty of new responsibilities, as well as carrying over a lot of the old responsibilities. In addition to working with the students at Penn State Berks (and Penn State…
Authentic Christianity by Peter Watts is a delightful, readable and thoughtful book about what it means to be a Christian. Of course, everyone has some impression of what it means to be a Christian. There are multitudes of books, podcasts, articles and such out there on this. Everyone has an opinion, and you can probably…
Continue reading ➞ Authentic Christianity by Peter Watts (Review)
“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up”…
I suppose reading is like exercise: the more you do, the better you get. It also helps to barely watch TV. All that to say, I feel like I've already read a lot of books this year. Here are a few, with links to my Goodreads reviews: Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman…
Continue reading ➞ Recent Reads: Natural Theology, Religion, The Modern World,and More
