tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76549192011-07-31T06:18:52.864+01:00It'd be a useful discipline for me to log and write about the books I read. A blog might help in that discipline and -who knows?- may be useful to ... you?Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.comBlogger431100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-4919760568583552272010-01-03T22:30:00.000Z2010-01-03T22:30:34.479Z

This book traces the theme of paradise in Christian teaching from earliest records to the present. The main thesis is that a partial realisation of paradise in the present experience of Christians was the normal understanding for the pre-Constantinian church. Such an understanding of Christian faith tends towards life-affirming and creation-friendly spirituality and mission. As such the book

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-81122794408006712332008-11-30T20:28:00.001Z2008-11-30T20:30:18.377Z

Just Cohabiting? The Church, Sex and Getting Married: Duncan James Dormor: Amazon.co.uk: BooksThis is a slim volume which does what the title suggests by looking at the matter from some historical perspectives, a little biblical theology and some contemporary cultural analysis. It is based in Britain and takes British figures and the Church of England's official reports as primary data. It

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-83593437447345103842008-08-20T09:46:00.003+01:002008-08-20T09:56:40.140+01:00

Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson. 2007Paperback: 240 pages, 0785289364McLaren starts by recognising that a number of potential readers could be put off because of a cultural skepticism about the kinds of themes he's dealing with. I wonder whether this is true; in my case, I want to read this book because those themes are being dealt with. Nevertheless, the skepticism is real and forms a backdrop for

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-8637593540550545222008-08-08T16:01:00.004+01:002008-08-08T16:29:08.125+01:00

2006 Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody MA, 1-56563-989-8 238pp.US$19.95Pierre Grelot is a French Roman Catholic of some considerable standing in exegesis and biblical theology and this is a nicely translated book. It reads as a sort of introduction to the way that symbolic language works and then uses biblical material to demonstrate as well as to show how the insights gleaned from considering how

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-10417576567080127352008-01-07T15:22:00.000Z2008-01-07T15:22:49.308Z

Amazon.co.uk: The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul: Books: Mario Beauregard,Denyse O'LearyI thought that this was a helpful introduction to the main issues. I was reading warily because at times I wasn't sure whether the emergentist view I tend towards was possibly in the cross hairs, but it wasn't, and I didn't feel that there was anything in it that really

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-63995837985224568242007-12-16T13:07:00.000Z2007-12-16T13:15:12.663Z

This is such an intriguing book for Christians. I would judge that the author has a good working knowledge of Catholicism and is able both to articulate theories of atonement and to make links between the main theme of this story and the thought of Teilhard De Chardin. Not to mention recycling a term from patristic discussions: 'hypostatic union'. In addition one of the strong and main characters

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-87212831105797111712007-12-16T12:46:00.000Z2007-12-16T13:13:29.813Z

Good to see someone taking up the possibilities of thinking opened up by choas theory. Useful, and good also to see the urban church being taken seriously. Kester writes well and at times not only are the ideas being expressed stimulating but his turn of phrase is engaging.My lasting impressions of this book are of a good use of the basic ideas about complexity from the sciences and of a nice way

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-50644742350269816012007-12-16T12:40:00.000Z2007-12-16T13:13:01.751Z

Good overview of the evolutionary perspectives on knowing. The importance of this book is the model developed strongly questions a model of perception and epistemology of representation. Well written with the interested amateur in mindI'm linking it with Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought in that it is about rooting knowing in embodied human

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-65931783162302834812007-12-10T08:14:00.000Z2007-12-10T08:21:29.990Z

Mainly a book concerned with historical roots to the modern-day phenomenon of Wicca. In so do we look more widely at particularly Victorian esorteric CHristianity and how some of it shaded into more magical and occultic pursuits via ritual. We emerge with a sense that part of the impetus to Wicca derives from certain concerns to do with empowerment, ritual, nature and especially a search for

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-13982122437541670332007-10-14T14:31:00.000+01:002007-10-14T14:31:50.326+01:00

A very interesting book of a London lad with a Muslim background. He journeys from the sufi Islam of his family to radical Islamist movements and back again. On the way, we gain insights into how and why Islamism has gained such a hold on young and not-so-young minds. We see some of the fractures within the Islamist world and what they are about, and we can begin to understand why it is that more

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-43637220673965520262007-07-26T10:01:00.000+01:002007-07-26T10:01:47.231+01:00

Drawn from the author’s low-key research, fascinating study of how people do and don’t identify with various characters in biblical stories and how cultural background seems to affect our reading and understanding. Then some work on how clergy and laity identify with characters and understand meanings of stories. Food for thought and a real help to think about how preaching and Christian

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-56200696325315706992007-05-31T14:13:00.000+01:002007-05-31T14:19:58.865+01:00

Smail, Tom. Like Fother like Son, the Trinity Imaged in our Humanity.Paternoster Press, 2005, 304pp. ISBN 1-84227-324-6This is a good successor to Tom's earlier books starting with 'The Forgotten Father'. The style and sizes are similar. Those knowing Tom's work already will not be surprised at the orthodoxy, biblical and careful building of arguments found in this book. Neither will you be

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-55197906051306863072007-05-31T14:06:00.000+01:002007-05-31T14:11:38.156+01:00

This book does what it says in the subtitle. It is global in that the contributors are Christians from various parts of the world: South America, Asia, Europe. The pieces are united in making affirmation of Christ's uniqueness in the face of a religiously plural world. The general tone is evangelical and much of the energy of most of the contributors seems to be found in 'preaching to the choir'.

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1156179024796109922006-08-21T17:22:00.000+01:002006-08-21T17:50:24.850+01:00

By Nick Spencer.Nick Spencer is clearly interested in the history of the English parish system and has researched it well. I certainly learned a lot, and like Nick, thought it very helpful as a way of thinking about our present church situation in terms of stewarding resources and also in terms of seeing common themes emerging time and time again in church history: the way that funding has

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1155827413304212652006-08-17T15:57:00.000+01:002006-08-19T03:22:57.256+01:00

What drew me to this book was the fact that it drew together a number of people from diverse academic disciplines to think a bit more deeply than is usual on the practice of speaking in tongues. We have, from New Testament Studies, Max Turner, Theology from Frank Macchia, some History from Neil Hudson, Philosophy from James Smith, Linguistic insights from David Hilborn, some sociological

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1150884982337755862006-06-21T11:14:00.000+01:002006-06-24T04:57:38.536+01:00

The subtitle is “A Multifaith Exploration” and the phrase works on two levels as a description of the book: it explores theological responses to the fact of a multifaith global context and it includes contributions from people of several different faith backgrounds. It will be no surprise that the broad aim of the book is to articulate a pluralist approach to interfaith relations. The title

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1147359814936952172006-05-11T16:01:00.000+01:002006-05-11T16:03:34.946+01:00

...Developing a Daily Rhythm for Spiritual Formation By Scot McKnight I obtained a copy of this by swapping it with the author for a copy of my Praying the Pattern. Scot McKnight blogs at Jesuscreed. I thought it would be interesting as a swap because both deal with regular patterned praying and encouraging it.Scot’s book is the kind of thing that I would give or commend to a no-longer new

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1146305454142998552006-04-29T11:10:00.000+01:002006-04-29T11:10:54.156+01:00

This follows up on his other 'liquid' books but is more focused on the effects of 'liquid modernity' on individuals. It reads more as a series of essays than a whole thesis and feels more like a completing of the thesis of Liquid Modernity by tying up various loose ends than adding anything substantially new. However, it can be useful to see the working out of the thesis to confirm the feel that

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1144267605791755612006-04-05T21:03:00.000+01:002006-04-05T21:19:13.836+01:00

Bruce Duncan Pray Your Way Your Personality and God l993 Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd London ISBN 0-232-52019-4. 134ppI thoroughly enjoyed this book. Mainly because not only does it do a really good job of relating the way that MBTI relates to our praying but it also gives a really accessible way into the theory that underlies it. This meant for me that I now grok the way that dominant,

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1144257935081514332006-04-05T18:25:00.000+01:002006-04-05T18:25:35.166+01:00

Tex Sample The spectacle of worship in a wired world : electronic culture and the gathered People of God . 1998 Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN. ISBN 0-687-08373-7141pp.I expected, because the title and cover graphics seemed to bespeak it, a book that was a bit out of touch and reactionary, a finger wag at the younger generation, technology and adapting church. What I got was actually quite

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1142352215931359012006-03-14T16:03:00.000Z2006-03-14T16:03:35.986Z

Amazon.co.uk: Learning for Ministry: Making the Most of Study and Training: BooksSteven Croft & Roger WaltonLearning for MinistryChurch House Publishing, 2005, viii + 210pp, ISBN 0 7151 4153 1I declare a personal interest in this book: my spouse has been a ministerial student at the training institution that the authors have in common and wrote most of this book from. The book is an introduction

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1127811120250568772005-09-27T09:52:00.000+01:002005-09-27T09:52:00.256+01:00

Tom Sine 1999 Mustard Seed Versus McWorld: Reinventing Christian Life and Mission for a New Millennium Monarch Books crowborough, ISBN 1 85424 435 3 Quotable quotes We will show both some of the promised benefits of globalisation as well as some of the potential drawbacks. But we will also argue that McWorld is about much more than creating a global economic system. The architects of McWorld we

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1118605334710568022005-06-12T20:40:00.000+01:002005-08-06T14:23:01.583+01:00

David Tacey The Spirituality Revolution: The emergence of contemporary spirituality:' 2004 by Banner-Routledge East Sussex BN3 2FA This revolution involves a democratisation of the spirit. It is about individuals taking authority into their own hands, and refusing to be told what to think or believe. It is about personal autonomy and experimentation, with the use of direct experience of the world

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1117633162473563622005-06-01T14:37:00.000+01:002005-08-06T12:51:32.996+01:00

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson Philosophy in the flesh : the embodied mind and it's challenge to western thought / Basic Book New York, 1999The core thesis of this book is that mind emerges from body and that body to some degree, therefore, determines the shape of thinking. This is, clearly, a challenge to philosophical systems that see mind and body as substantially different and distinct.In

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1114427507755832662005-05-03T10:25:00.000+01:002005-05-03T10:25:44.586+01:00

There are twenty-nine contributions all in some way exploring the relationships between media and religion. Both terms are understood broadly: media includes the traditional print media, broadcast media and also ICT's; religion includes Islam and traditional religions, some references to new religions such as Wicca and not so new such as Mormonism, as well as issues of secularity. It is also

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1101490191112812352004-11-26T17:27:00.000Z2004-11-26T17:29:51.113Z

This is a substantial book, written by someone who formerly professed Islam and now writing under a pseudonym [for reasons of safety, presumably -if you don't know why, then read the book and work it out for your self] having become disillusioned by the Rushdie affair. It takes its cue from Bertrand Russel's 'Why I am not a Christian'. I would say that this book needs to be on a reading list for

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1099909375361593602004-11-08T10:16:00.000Z2004-11-09T09:51:22.780Z

Eiser, J. Richard. 1994. Oxford, Blackwell. 0631191291 My main interest in this book was in seeing an account of mind as emergent which also related to the social dimension and took into account developments of thinking in relation to chaos and so on. This the book does. It is occasionally heavy-going for a non-specialist like myself but it is sufficiently interdisciplinary to enable me to grasp

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1099908518890582472004-11-08T10:01:00.000Z2004-11-10T11:27:19.430Z

What attracted me to this book was that it wrestles with an issue of why the church is so often inhumane, it promised to look at notions of original sin and to draw on some basic theological perspectives of Irenaeus of Lyons. The fact that is is also by my wife's pastoral tutor was also influential in that it brought the book's existence to my attention. So what about the arguments and all that

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1097230674806633462004-10-08T11:17:00.000+01:002004-10-08T11:21:34.060+01:00

I bought this book at Greenbelt and read most of it on the train home. I bought it because it looked to be like a series of essays of cultural analysis froma Christian viewpoint. And for the most part it is. There are twelve cultural artefacts looked at and thought about in the book. There are useful insights in many of the essays that comprise the book. PArt of the normal content in each is some

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1096905260480201352004-10-04T16:50:00.000+01:002004-10-04T16:56:34.733+01:00

HREF="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0631191313/nouslife-21"> Boykin, Kim. 2003.Zen for Christians, a Beginner's Guide. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. 07877963763. Hb, 183pp, £11.50 This was a book that I enjoyed reading, perhaps partly because it suited the way that my mind works: it does three main things and it does them well. However, I could imagine that some readers might find the

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1095362001699347452004-09-16T19:57:00.000+01:002004-09-16T20:13:21.700+01:00

Jamieson, Ian. 2004. Journeying in Faith; in and Beyond the Tough Places. London, SPCK. 0281055890. £11.99 This is a kind of follow-up further reflection on the author's previous book A Churchless Faith. it follows up people after five years and it follows up some of the concerns that the previous book identifies. What is most different is the more 'devotional', less sociological approach.

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1092684456627710682004-08-16T20:25:00.000+01:002004-08-17T18:00:04.376+01:00

There's a lot to like about this book. It is written in an accessible manner and I found the balance between descriptions of, for example, pagan rituals and contextualizing commentary to be just right to maintain reading momentum without feeling that I wanted to stop too often to investigate the indexed sources. The book is written too in a sympathetic way which perhaps implicitly affirms the

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1091811342977861042004-08-06T17:47:00.000+01:002004-08-17T18:01:20.306+01:00

Maggi Dawn recommends this to her students for the purpose of helping them to make their rwriting clearer, I imagine it helps qy=uite a bit. Not only does one learn a lot of stuff about punctuation but it is actually done in a light-hearted and well-written way that often illustrates the points rather well. I would also put it in the hands of those with orthographic issues. There is also

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1090093957686549912004-08-05T20:52:00.000+01:002004-08-17T18:05:49.630+01:00

This is basically a reflection on being in a portfolio career which I found very helpful. Particularly in putting it in the wider context of the way businesses are increasinglly outsourcing and of the personalisation of people's lives whereby we are more and more resistant to giving other people and particularly institutions the kind of control over our lives that the mid 20th century western

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1090870863067715532004-07-26T20:40:00.000+01:002004-07-29T17:58:42.933+01:00

This is a good introduction to issues of ritual and worship from a perspective informed by the concerns that alt.worship practitioners hold dear. Personally I wanted more at a fuller depth but what it does it does well in helping the reader who is perhaps from an evangelical /charismatic background and has just started to 'get' alt.worship. It should help such a person get some useful handles

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1090870807643150932004-07-26T20:39:00.000+01:002004-07-29T17:51:29.480+01:00

When I was an undergraduate, I spent an acadmic year abroad as part of my degree [linguistic science] and I went to El Pais Vasco and learnt Basque and wrote it up for my dissertation. So my interest in this book should be apparent. Indeed I found it helpful in making sense of events that were unfolding around me. There is a good but short history of ETA in here and a lot of Basque recipes.

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1090588885195393492004-07-23T14:14:00.000+01:002004-07-23T14:21:25.196+01:00

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1090438164636873262004-07-21T20:27:00.000+01:002004-07-23T19:07:55.073+01:00

I was surprised by how I got into this book I got and how easy it was to read. I found that I cared about the characters [including the possibility that one of the main ones may have been murdered -though we never find out]. What I liked was the way that we see through each charater's eyes and so we develop a multi-perspectival view of events and we are chalenged, implicitly, toremember that

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1090333236197017862004-07-20T15:09:00.000+01:002004-07-20T15:20:36.196+01:00

I got this book having been browsing shelves and thinking about the mimetic nature of human cultural and social life in relation to original sin; this book seemed to be exploring what I'd been thinking and indeed so it turned out to be: I didn't have to re-invent the wheel. More usefully yet, it also did so by a thorough examination of Rene Girard's mimetology which is also womething I'm wanting

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1090332497800164032004-07-20T14:56:00.000+01:002004-07-20T15:08:17.800+01:00

This is a must-read for anyone serious about seeing more environmentally sensitive and sustainable ways for human beings to live and yet still be decentralized and for it to be possible for people to make a living and consolidate the benefits of technology. This isn't cranksville central, this is workable ways forward. There are a lot of examples of what is happening already to show that it is

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1090164912564136352004-07-18T16:31:00.000+01:002004-07-18T16:35:12.566+01:00

Detweiler, Craig, Taylor, Barry. A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture (Engaging Culture) Paperback 351 pages (November 1, 2003) Publisher: Baker Academic ISBN: 080102417X The various chapters set out different areas of popular culture to be examined with a Christian concern running. However it is not a simplistic kind of concern which is about identifying popular culture as a realm

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1090164298597413002004-07-18T16:10:00.000+01:002004-07-18T16:24:58.596+01:00

Gray, John. 2002. Straw Dogs, Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals. London, Granta Publications. 1-86207-596-4 I loved the breadth of evidence gathered: acting, New Age gurus, western and eastern philosophy and religion, cognitive science, Darwinian and neo-Darwinian thinkers, medical history, classics, and so on. I thought too that one of the basic theses was probably sound and needed hearing.

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7654919.post-1090094824990574312004-07-17T20:59:00.000+01:002004-07-17T21:36:38.696+01:00

Bauman,Zygmunt. 2003, Liquid Modernity. Cambridge, Polity. Original 2001. 0-745624103 I read this because it was a key text suggesting the title and direction of Pete Ward's "liquid Church". It's a readable bit of sociological analysis of late consumerist capitalism shading into post-modernity. Very helpful in identifying the key effects in our societies of the radicalized presumptions of

Andiihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03545699854077420349noreply@blogger.com0