The Book of Common Prayer: Devotional Masterpiece

 A history of the Book of Common Prayer using my own collection of Prayerbooks for reference.

Gavin Ortlund on "That Hideous Strength"

Baptist pastor & scholar, Rev. Gavin Ortlund, produces great and edifying videos - many defending the historic continuity and catholicity of classical Protestantism over against charges that Protestant theology is something totally novel that emerged only in the 16th Century as a departure from the Great Tradition of the ancient church.  As someone who cares greatly about the catholicity of our faith - that my beliefs are shared by Christians across every age (and not only the last 500 years) I greatly appreciate his work in this area.

Another passion that Gavin and I share is a love of C.S. Lewis.  Here is Gavin's review/introduction to one of Lewis' most mature novels, That Hideous Strength.  I think that Gavin is right to put this novel alongside Till We have Faces as being some of Lewis' best fiction.

Having read a bit of Charles Williams, I can tell you that you definitely see Williams' influence on this novel by Lewis.  Much of the other things Gavin says in this video strike me as "right on."  Gavin is right to point out that when Lewis talks about "the masculine" and "the feminine" in this work, he is not really talking about what we think of as gender or sex, but rather about something far more "Jungian": archetypal characteristics that - in mythologies, symbols, and typologies across many cultures - have been associated with a "masculine" or a "feminine" spirit for a variety of reasons that I suspect we moderns/post-moderns can only barely begin to appreciate.  I suspect there are depths of wisdom and insight buried there that Lewis would have recognized more readily than most of us.

I like what Gavin has to say about conversion often (especially in a post-Christian culture) being a "multi-stage" process.  This rings true to my experience and that of others I've known, and is refreshing to hear from a significant Baptist thinker.

A final point he makes that I think is very important is the connection between beauty and evangelism.  Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Barron is constantly making this point in his own excellent YouTube ministry (following a thinker named Hans Urs Von Balthazar): beauty points us to God, to the Source and Ground of all beauty, just as discovering truth points us to God who is the Highest Truth. 

It is my hope that in years to come Christians of all denominations and churches will be known by our wholesome and beautiful ways of being and building in this world in a way that will draw people in, as in the early centuries of our faith.  Lewis' work certainly is a great example of exactly that.

Thomas Cranmer: Reformer, Saint, Martyr

 

Practices of the early Methodists

 

Parallel Commentary on the New Testament

 One of my favorite "classical commentaries" on the Bible is this Parallel Commentary on the New Testament.  John Wesley, Matthew Henry, and Charles Spurgeon are among the most influential thinkers on the Evangelical Protestant tradition, and of course Wesley's Notes are official doctrine of The United Methodist Church and some other Wesleyan bodies.

Book Review: Canticle for Leibowitz

 

Some thoughts on Building a Basic Theology Library

 

Swear to God by Scott Hahn

 I may have posted about this book years ago when I was in seminary, but it was a great help to me on Sacramental theology (even if I didn't accept all of the apologetic for the Church of Rome).

 

The Wesley Study Bible NRSV review

 Here is my review of the Wesley Study Bible.  It is a decent Study Bible that Wesleyans and Methodists will find useful, though it is a bit "light" and needs both more consistent editing and many more features if it wants to be a really good-to-great Study Bible.

Another good Study Bible (better in many respects) from a Wesleyan perspective if the Reflecting God Study Bible in the NIV translation (of 1984).

Important Books: The Great Divorce

 Here are my thoughts on this masterpiece from C.S. Lewis, one of my all-time favorite works on Christian spirituality.

Important Books: Upper Room Spiritual Classics

 

Important Book: The Imitation of Christ

 My thoughts (posted originally a few months back) on this beloved devotional classic.

NT Wright - The Challenge of Jesus and other good books

Here are my reflections on some of the first books I discovered from this guy called NT Wright.

 

Important Books: The Shallows - What the Internet is doing to our Brains by Carr

 I know I've blogged about this one before, but here it is again, well worth a revisit.  Along the book discussed in my last book review video, Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, I believe Carr also helps identify some of the reasons that our public discourse has become shallower and more foolish and less civil and wise in recent decades.  It's the way we are re-shaping our brains through the use of the internet.

 

Important Books: Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

 Here is another book recommendation video, looking at one of the most prophetic books of my lifetime: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.

My reflections on the Screwtape Letters

Here is another discussion and introduction to a book that I believe is important for Christians, and which has impacted me: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

My reflections on one of the Great Ones:

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

My reflections on Foster's spiritual classic.

Chronological Bibles (Feasting on the Word)

Let's face it, the Bible is not an easy book to read.  Not only are we separated from the original writers by language, culture, and thousands of years, but the standard Bible that you probably have on your shelf or nightstand is not presented in chronological order.  What if you could read the Bible as one large, unfolding story like a novel or Historical chronicle?  Well, you can.

Another great tool to help you understand the Bible as a whole is the Chronological Bible:

The CS Lewis Bible and The Ancient Modern Bible

Here are my thoughts about Devotional Bibles, and two in particular, the CS Lewis Bible (NRSV) and the Ancient-Modern Bible (NKJV)