I've always got four or five books going--and they tend to be all over the map in terms of subject and genre. But, I've just gone back for a reread of George MacDonald's novels "Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood" and "Seaboard Parish." They always inspire my calling to disciple and to care for the least and the last. I constantly need to be reminded of the covenantal nature of my work. "Slow down, slow down" I hear MacDonald whispering to me.
I've also really loved Kevin Vanhoozer's "Everyday Theology" and T.S. Eliot's "The Idea of a Christian Society." Both have been quite helpful for me in seeing the Kuyperian "Common Grace" connections between the ordinary and the extraordinary.
Right now, I am devouring (for the third or fourth time) Dorothy Sayers' translation of "The Song of Roland." And for fun, I am trying to work up a "voice performance" version of Winthrop Mackworth Praed's lyrical poem "The Vicar."
Over fall break I am planning some reading/research into the 19th century Scots Ragged Schools movement of Thomas Guthrie. And of course, I always have a Thomas Chalmers book I'm working through. Currently, I am slowly plodding along in his "Lectures on Romans."
How remarkable. Just yesterday I was thinking about The Song of Roland and found a translation on-line which I enjoyed, but then I saw that Dorothy Sayers had a translation and I thought I would really like that. I got interested in The Song about 50 years ago when I read a very abridged version in the old edition of The Book of Knowledge. What a great encyclopedia. Wish I had kept it.
ReplyDeleteJust finished Pink's Life of Elijah--second read. Moving on the his Elisha next. Am in a repeat read of Packer's Knowing God. Next, and in the fiction dept, Dickens's Copperfield. Happy reading.
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