So I’ve been out of pocket for a while. I was gone to Florida for Presbytery and the Trinity Presbyterian Church, Valparairso’s Family Advance for most of last week. I had a great time, and it was especially fun to fellowship with the folks from Providence Presbyterian Church in Pensacola, Holy Trinity Reformed Evangelical Church in Greenville, as well as an Anglican or two.
I’ve also been working through a few books.
I’m still going through Bruce Gordon’s Calvin. This is a very good book and not always so favorable towards Calvin and Geneva. It has really made me question the system of discipline there.
C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity is fantastic. Anna and I have been working through all of Lewis’ stuff for a sort of personal devotion routine. The striking thing about Lewis is that he is easily accessible while profound. This book could also be titled something like Meditations on Augustinianism. The content wouldn’t need to change.
Veselin Kesich’s Formation and Struggles in the St. Vlad’s The Church in History series is also proving to be a great read. I’m always happy to see the New Testament church included in discussion of “the early church.”
My school work also has me re-reading Geoffrey of Monmouth and Herodotus. Last time I posted a book list, someone said I needed to read more fiction. Well let me just say, both of these should count as fiction. They are good reads, but a little fanciful.
And if I ever get some more free time, I’ll return to the John of Damascus series.
Herodotus is fiction? Dem’s fightin’ words!
He’s much better than Geoffrey. That’s for sure.
Haven’t read Geoffrey. But on Herodotus, I realized not too long ago while listening to Book I on CD that, now having read a whole lot of Plato, most of H’s stories in Book I are all about the basic distinction between political reality and political appearances. This greatly increased my appreciation for H, whatever flaws he may in fact have.
I should note that the Kesich book has a very poor view of the Scriptural accuracy. It is always strange to see how “traditional” communions like RCC and EO are the most receptive of liberal views of the Bible.
Perhaps you didn’t see Herodotus vindicated (yet again).
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33791672/ns/technology_and_science-science/
“It is always strange to see how “traditional” communions like RCC and EO are the most receptive of liberal views of the Bible.”
That’s one of their favourite arguments against Protestants. Any stick is good to beat sola scriptura with
BTW, we don’t have presby’s in our name…just Providence Church.
A good book to check out regarding the History of the Kings of Britain is The Discovery of King Arthur by Geoffrey Ashe. In it, the author argues that much of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s history (at least concerning Arthur) is historically accurate. As far as the rest I tend to try to be credulous whenever possible. Same for Herodotus and his fabulous stories of faraway places. As Sebastian said in Brideshead Revisited “Oh yes. I believe that. It’s a lovely idea.”
That last line captures my fears precisely.