Selected Reading, May 1, 2021

 

A couple things you should read this weekend.

Christian History

Robert Jermain Thomas
A fascinating story of a missionary well-known in Korea, but not known at all to me. Do you know this story?

Gregory of Nanziansus
The theological term for this week is a Cappadocian Father. 

Christology

Why Jesus’s Humanity Matters as Much as His Divinity
“[T]he apostle John makes Jesus’s humanity a test of orthodoxy: ‘By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God’ (1 John 4:2). And whoever rejects the reality that Jesus came “in the flesh” is called an ‘antichrist’ (1 John 4:3).”

So why it matters so much that Jesus is truly human? Michael Kruger explains.

Selected Reading, April 17, 2021

 

A few interesting things I found this week.

Christ

The Water-Providing, Stricken Rock
Why does Paul say that the rock Moses struck in Exodus 17:1-7 was Christ? How is the rock a type of Christ? Nicholas Batzig explains.

Northern

Dawson City By-Law Officer
He’s the animal control officer in Dawson City, Yukon, and he takes selfies with the dogs he picks up. The dogs, by the way, all seem to be enjoying themselves.

“Getting it on canvas”: Yukon artist paints to heal residential school memories 
Mary Caesar paints her childhood experiences in residential school: ““I get a lot of strong reactions, both from the native and white communities. Some residential school survivors, when they see my paintings, it brings up memories for them. It brings up feelings. And I understand because I know how they feel. Some non-native people just get shocked when they see my paintings. They get really emotional and I get emotional too.”

Fiction

So Brave, Young, and Handsome
This is so good.

It’s the third novel by Lief Enger that I’ve read, and probably the third one that I’ve recommended here. From the publisher’s blurb:

“… a rugged and nimble story about an aging train robber on a quest to reconcile the claims of love and judgment on his life, and the failed writer who goes with him.”

Do you need some good fiction to read? You might enjoy it as much as I am.

Selected Reading, April 10, 2021

 

You should read these this weekend. 

Christ

Jesus Is the God-Man, not the Flawed Man
Christianity Today solicited a piece of polite pushback to a misguided article about Jesus and doubt that is  published previously:

“In a recent article, A. J. Swodoba and Nijay K. Gupta argue that one (consistent) aspect of Jesus’s human experience was doubt … . 

We feel, however, that our brothers have come to the wrong conclusion(s) on these tough questions about Jesus’s humanity.” 

What Do You Mean When You Talk about Christ in the Old Testament?
Nancy Guthrie shares a list of ways that the Old Testament points to and prepares us for Christ. It’s intended to be “lay-person friendly,” and “for those for whom the idea of seeing Christ in the Old Testament is a new concept.”

Scripture

What’s the truth about John’s gospel?
Esther O’Reilly makes the case for reliability of John’s gospel—and you don’t have to be a scholar to understand: “Either [the gospel’s] writer unaccountably invented the modern realistic novel fifteen centuries early, or else we are dealing here not with fiction, but with history.”

Biography

Bo Giertz - True Pastor and Insightful Writer
If you’ve read Hammer of God and liked it (I did!), you might enjoy Simonetta Carr’s biographical sketch of its Swedish author Bo Giertz.