What I've Been Reading and Other Updates

some thoughts on how it's going

Happy Saturday to you all! The kiddos are gone to grandparents’ for the weekend, so naturally I woke up at 5am. Thankfully I was able to go back to sleep for another hour or so. This time to myself made me want to sit down and write something to you. Here I am, and here we are.

As you know by this point, I’m about a month in to graduate school. I finished my required textbook reading early on so I could focus on supplementary reading and research for my term papers and other assignments. I’ve written one of those on Ananias and Sapphira, but I still have a little work to do in making edits before I mark it as complete.

I want to share some of these books from my required and supplementary reading with you so you have a chance to benefit even more from my education. At the end of this post, I’ll tell you about a few projects I have going on via YouTube.

I took some time for myself yesterday to go on a hike, test out a new knot I learned, and use my new underquilt for my hammock. It was cozy.

Books, Books, and More Books

Before I get into the booklist, I do have a Goodreads account you can follow to get updates on most everything I read.

The Best Church History Book I’ve Read

The Story of Christianity, Volume 1: The Early Church to the Reformation by Justo L. González

One reason I loved this book is its simplicity. Gonzalez tells the story of Christianity as a story. It is far more than a reporting of facts; it is an invitation to discover our Christian history through an easy-to-read, pleasant style that I found to be largely unbiased.

Erasmus of Rotterdam

I’ve read three books on Erasmus:

Erasmus on the New Testament by Robert D. Sider

Erasmus on Literature by Mark Vessey

Erasmus’s Life of Origen by Thomas O. Scheck

Erasmus was a scholar’s scholar in the sixteenth century. He put out a plethora of writings dealing with everything from hermeneutics to Christian living to translations of early church writings such as the New Testament and ancient commentators.

He wanted to get the Bible into the hands of the people, a view condemned by many. He also desired to see a transformation in scholasticism from a hyper-dependence on secular literature and collections of prooftext to a thorough study in the ancient writings and direct engagement with the biblical text.

If I were to purchase and read all of these books again, I would by the books On the New Testament and On Literature first and read them as follows: (1) read the introduction to On the New Testament up until he gives a shortened version of “Ratio, then (2) read the full text of “Ratio” in On Literature, then (3) read the remainder of On the New Testament, and, finally, (4) read the accompanying essays in On Literature.

There are a few translation differences in the two versions of “Ratio,” but that’s due to the many updates Erasmus made to it throughout the years. The same translator produced both versions.

Finally, read Life of Origen.

However, if you were to only read one of these books, I would read Erasmus on Literature since it best captures Ersasmus’s spirit and gives you access to more of his writings. I wouldn’t read Life of Origen without first reading these other two.

Made for Goodness

Made for Goodness: And Why This Make All the Difference by Desmond Tutu

This book was incredible. Desmond Tutu witnessed untold slaughter and pain in his life as a minister in South Africa, but he never lost sight of God’s love for creation. The book is relatively short, but its depths are endless. If you’ve ever had questions about the problem of evil as I have, then this book doesn’t answer them better than any other I’ve found.

That’s right—this book doesn’t answer those questions.

The Bible doesn’t give sufficient answers to these question either, of course. But out of all the books I’ve read on human suffering and the goodness of God, this one doesn’t answer those questions better than any other.

More Hermeneutics

On Christian Doctrine by Augustine

This book is short, so you can easily read the whole thing, but you may find the first two “books” dull. If you go and find a pdf of this online, I would skim the first two books, read the third with a highlighter, pencil, and notebook, and then read the last if you’re interested in teaching others Scripture.

And More Hermeneutics

A More Christlike Word: Reading Scripture the Emmaus Way by Brad Jersak

This book is challenging while still being easy-to-read, but it is was written as a textbook for “Advanced Hermeneutics,” so proceed with caution. Jersak approaches the more touchy topics with a firm but gentle hand, and his love for Jesus is evident on every page. If you grew up anything like me, much of what he says in this book will be foreign to you, but that can be a good thing.

Read with an open heart that is gracious, seeking, and willing to be wrong, but don’t check your brain at the door. Test the theories in the book and see what comes out on the other side.

The most memorable chapter was the one on Gandalf.

You can find more of what I’ve read on Goodreads. Happy reading!

Romans and Hell

I’ve been doing two YouTube things lately you might be interested in.

The first is a study of Romans I’m doing for my podcast. While you can listen to it, I think watching is the best way for this one. I sit in front of the camera with a few different versions of the Bible in front of me and mark up a new Bible as we study together. It’s a lot of fun!

You can watch that playlist here. Or go straight to the introduction here:

The second thing I’ve done on YouTube you might like is post my developing thoughts on “hell.” This video has already gotten some traction and people seem to be responding favorably to it. I will try to make another video in this style soon!

The audio is a little quiet on this one, so I’ll have to amend that in the future.

Thank you all for your continued love and support over the years. God bless.