Spring Reading

What a joy to choose my own reading over the past week and a half. Since class began yesterday I thought that I would update on the reading that I did over break. I read Sex God by Rob Bell over the break and enjoyed it. I especially appreciated his thoughts on human longing for connectedness. I have been observing this over the past week and have really "connected" with his thoughts on "connectedness". The book also made me want to be a better husband and I certainly appreciated that aspect of the read. I then read Brian Mclaren's new book called A Search for What is Real. The book is a remake of a previous title that he printed in 1999 and it showed. While I don't think that I was the targeted demographic for this book, I still feel as though this book may have been a bit forced as it didn't flow as typical Mclaren books flow. I also did do some class reading in finished The Openness of God. It was a great read that reminded us of the constructs that we have used to build our modern theological systems. Calvinists beware... This book makes a wonderful case for free will theism which is basically a balance of Calvinism and Process theology, covering the weaknesses of both in one wide stroke. While the book is not for the faint of heart, it did have a positive impact on my faith. The last book that I am still reading is by Jeffrey Sachs and is called The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. This book is the winner of the week! It is packed full of tangible information and ideas and I would HIGHLY recommend it to all. While I am sad that choosing my own reading is over for another ten weeks, I am excited about some of the new books that I bought yesterday at the book store for classes. Some of the titles include... Modern Art and the Death of a Culture by H.R. Rookmaaker, Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman, Image as Insight by Margaret Miles, Healing the Scars of Emotional Abuse by Gregory Jantz and Visual Faith by Willam Dyrness. These titles and many more all look captivating in their own sort of unique way.