For my friends who are following along, or to those who want some recommendations for reading, here is the May update on what I’m reading…
Christian/Theology
As you may have picked up from some of my other posts, I am very interested in health, fitness, and the stewardship of the body. To that end, I’ve picked up a few Christian theological works on the human body. Essentially, these books are asking the question, “How should Christians think about/understand the body?”
This month, I’m reading John Kleining’s book, Wonderfully Made, A Protestant Theology of the Body.
I’m also re-reading a book on New Testament Church Elders as I prepare to preach on the subject in an upcoming sermon series. Elders in the Life of the Church is a wonderful resource for pastors and church members alike, and is a thoroughly biblical treatment of the subject.
Biography
I so thoroughly enjoyed the one-volume biography on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones last month that I am embarking on the more thorough two-volume set by Banner of Truth. The one-volume had a profound impact on my thinking and preaching, even in the short time I spent with it. I am greatly looking forward to entering ML-J's story again, but in greater detail.
Counseling
In efforts to stay well-rounded and informed, I am currently reading on Dementia/Alzhemiers. This is a nasty disease that steals years, relationships, family joys, and more. Currently, I am reading Jim Henry’s What Now?
Culture
In 2019, Professors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt released an important book entitled, The Coddling of the American Mind, How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation to Fail. The book emerged as a joint project between the two collegiate professors as they noticed a distinct change in their students. They can trace the change to the 2013 academic year and the rise of identity politics. To quote the introduction, “What is new today is the premise that students are fragile.”
Highly recommended.
Nature/ The Natural World
-I have just recently acquired Rachel Carson’s classic, Under the Sea-Wind. “In this book Carson wrote of what life lived on or under the sea was like for three different creatures. It is a celebration of ecology and how life in the open sea is shared and how each creature contributes to the whole. It was inspired by Carson’s love of the mysterious and the wonder-full. Her personal favorite of all her books, it marked the debut of one of the finest nature writers in the twentieth century and a scientist whose ability to see and to imagine life "under the sea" ultimately changed how we view our relationship with the natural world.”
Happy reading...