Scott suggested that we should share with each other what we're reading as a church.
Here's what's on my nightstand, in various states of completion:
Shane Hipps: The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture
God: The Bible
Overview: Hellooo... It's the BIBLE! I'm devouring John chapters 4&5 right now. Good stuff.
Here's what's on my nightstand, in various states of completion:
Shane Hipps: The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture
Overview: Shane is a recent Fuller grad who came and presented on this book in one of my classes while the book was being written. Wow. It was a whole new way of thinking. He focuses on Marshall McLuhen's philosophy (he's the guy who said "the medium is the message") and applies it directly to the church. Shane brings home the point that how we communicate a message is perhaps even more important than the message itself.
This is a must read.
Rob Bell: Sex. God.
Overview: Sitting on the nightstand. Ready to be opened...
Overview: Sitting on the nightstand. Ready to be opened...
God: The Bible
Overview: Hellooo... It's the BIBLE! I'm devouring John chapters 4&5 right now. Good stuff.
Alan Hirsch: The Forgotten Ways
Overview: I'll be reading this one for a LONG time... Alan goes back to the 1st century to examine the "missional DNA" of the church to find that mission is not something the church does - mission is the reason for the church to exist. Deep, good, practical stuff.
Feel free to respond with what you're reading...
God's peace, Rich
Read more at www.lifesongchristiancommuities.org
God's peace, Rich
Read more at www.lifesongchristiancommuities.org
1 comment:
So I guess that since I requested this topic, I ought to get around to posting to it eventually...
Here's my shortlist of books that have rocked my world recently...
On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
Audible: http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/products/ProductDetail.jsp?productID=BK_ADBL_000023&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-Jeff-Hawkins/dp/B000GQLCVE/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205807481&sr=1-1
This book is phenomenal. It presents a theory for how intelligence works in the human brain (mammalian actually), with the goal of inspiring a new generation of neuroscientists and computer scientists to study intelligence and produce true intelligent machines (beyond traditional AI). This theory makes sense to me, and has great implications for what we can do in the future (imagine weather predicting systems; intelligent cars which drive themselves). But it also leaves open a huge hole in the question of ethics, consciousness, and the soul. Hawkins theory nearly eliminates the conception of "hnau" (see C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet), and therefore the distinction between human, animal, and even plant intelligence. Does that mean all life is sacred (even the grass under our feet), or all life is banal (enter the will to power).
Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Pagan-Christianity-Exploring-Church-Practices/dp/141431485X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205809653&sr=1-1
Amazing historical look at how we do church in the modern age and how it differs very much from the Church Jesus left to us in the first century. The changes in the character of the Church were early on, and prior to the councils and creeds we cling to today as "tradition." What is heresy, and what is good practice? Can we meld the practices of the first century church with our culture today and remain true to the Word of God and the traditions of the Church. This book is a great starting point for that discussion, a discussion to be entered with great humility and care.
Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Planet-Space-Trilogy-Book/dp/0743234901/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205811149&sr=1-1
Audible: http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/products/ProductDetail.jsp?productID=BK_BLAK_000509&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes
Get this on audiobook! This is a staple for me, and the reading by Geoffrey Howard is perfect. I love this book because:
1) The language is amazing; no one speaks/writes like this anymore, and just the phrasing is art. Allow me to quote, "If [the Pedestrian] had chosen to look back, which he did not, he could have seen the spire of Much Natterby, and seeing it, might have uttered a malediction on the inhospitable little hotel which, though obviously empty, had refused him a bed. The place had changed hands since he last went for a walking tour in these parts. The kindly old landlord on whom he had reckoned, had been replaced by someone whom the barmaid referred to as 'the lady'. And the lady was
apparently a British innkeeper of that orthodox school who regard guests as a nuisance." Ahh, as poetic as Joseph Conrad...
2) The concept of "Hnau". In our world, only the human species possesses rational thought and speech. Imagine if other species, say a type of bear, and maybe kangaroos, could talk, teach, write poetry, solve differential equations. We begin to ask what is so "human" about human intelligence. And when we prize humanity, do we value our form, our rationality, or something that is beyond our species, something God-given? This is the idea of "hnau" which Lewis gives us in OOTSP. The book is an amazing look at what the world could have been without the Fall.
Post a Comment