Reading

I always find it hard to step back into blogging after taking a break. So to help me write again, I thought I'd give you a list of stuff I am reading or about to read right now.

• Evil and the Justice of God, by N T Wright. I'm about half-way through this right now. This is classic Wright: a concise, flowing post-modern aware prose, taking me through the story of the world, of Israel, and of Jesus. Its great how no matter what the topic, Wright always brings it back to the cross. One thing I find interesting is how he talks about Satan as "the Satan" (following the Hebrew) and refers to him as "it" -- refusing to ascribe God-gifted image-bearing gender to it. He reminds us that the feminists may be pushing to refer to God as "she", but strangely there is no debate to call Satan "she"! Quite right too, but as ever Wright cuts through the political mumbo-jumbo to deliver a fresh insight on otherwise familiar territory.


• The Nature of the Atonement (Four Views. Looking forward to this one. The four views are Christus Victor (Boyd), Penal Sub (Schreiner), Healing (Reichenbach), and Kaleidoscopic (Green). I expect I will agree with both Boyd and Scheiner, and I am very curious as to what Green has to say - sounds like he might take a multiperspectivalism approach, or at least a nod in that direction.


• Gettings Things Done by David Allen. The main thing about this "life-changing" book is that I need to actually read the darn thing. Perhaps it should come with a free pamphlet entitled "How to start and finishing reading this book".


• Freed to Lead by Colin Buckland. Looking forward to this one.


• Who Can Be Saved? by Terrance L Tiessen. I've read about half of this interesting book on accessibilism: the belief that the salvation that Jesus wrought on the cross extends beyond the church's proclamation of the gospel. Actually most people believe this, otherwise young children and babies who sadly die prematurely will spent eternity in a fiery hell, a picture not even the grumpiest meanest Calvinist can contemplate. However Tiessen believes that rather than having different methods of salvation for different groups, is is necessary to coherently figure out a doctrine of salvation which accounts for everyone who is saved. I've been thinking the same for many years, so its been very enjoyable to read this book. Take-away thoughts thus far are "All true Christians are saved, but salvation extends to beyond Christians" and the whole idea of the difference between guilt and culpability, again something I've noticed for a while in the gospels but have yet to see a good explanation of. I need to finish reading this one!


• Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky. From the minute I picked up this book I have found it hard to put it down. This guy is a genius. Within pages he exposes the level of corruption and control within the United States. After 44 pages, I am already convinced that the United States is currently the best candidate for an "Antichrist", if ever there was one (and I'm not sure that there is!). Lets face it, the US has an awful lot of power, a very biased and controlled media, and military forces stationed all over the world. Its responsible for the deaths of countless hundreds of thousands of civilians over the last 60 years. The only problem with this book is that at the moment it leaves me feeling quite down and depressed about global politics. A brilliant expose of the Powers that be in todays world. So much for Christian America.