What are you reading?

[JohnL]

For several weeks I have been reading Ephesians over and over. One new thought: the armor of the last chapter is based on images found in Isaiah and the Psalms where God wears it. It's an invitation to enter battle with him.

I like this.

[MattY]

I just finished The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity by Robert Louis Wilken. It's an excellent book for anyone interested in the topic of church history - scholarly and academic, and not light reading, but readable for non-scholars.

It really is a global history - the author covers everything from the church in Ethiopia, to the Byzantine East, the Latin West, to its expansion into northern Europe, Ireland, India and China, to the Slavic regions of eastern Europe, the Church in the East, and the rapid rise of Islam and how it affected the church (120 years after Islam was founded, about half of the total Christian population was under Muslim rule, but the church in Muslim ruled areas gradually declined and in much of North Africa, died out completely).

The author doesn't come across as being overly biased toward any particular branch of Christianity or to letting a particular theological perspective color his interpretation of events, which is an approach I appreciate.

[ohio jones]

A Gentle Boldness, the autobiography of David W. Shenk (1937-2023).

Doing missionary work in Africa doesn’t require a degree.

It does not, but having a PhD allowed Shenk to witness for Jesus in Africa (as well as Europe and Asia) in settings where the doors would not have been open otherwise.

I particularly wanted to read this because of his association with my late aunt, whose PhD allowed her to teach teachers in Africa, as well as serving in other educational roles in Africa and Asia for several decades.

[Signtist]

Collected Poems of Robert Service

[JohnL]

I'm re- reading The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Habermas and Licona. It’s a self-study course on both Biblical and historic evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. It tells how to use this evidence to share the faith to skeptics. It has a really good section on people skills and how skeptics like to use avoidance. This is one of those books that’s good to read more than once because its packed with a lot of excellent info and discussion.

[Neto]

I just finished reading a small book I picked up at a Mennonite meeting house in Switzerland, a book by Paul Veraguth, "HEAL OUR LAND - Reconciliation with the Anabaptists, An Appeal to the Church". (Long title for a short book of 112 pages.)

The author is a pastor in the State church there, but his grandfather was a Mennonite preacher. But Paul was saved as a result of meeting Jesus People in the States. He writes this book for the State Church, urging reconciliation for the tragedies brought upon the anabaptists by their ancestral church leaders.

Has anyone here read it? (I had heard a bit about meetings between the persecuting Protestants and some Mennonites and even Amish, soI was interested to see what this author had to say.)

[eccentric_rambler]

I haven't read that, Neto. Sounds interesting.

Two books going currently - re-reading Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales, and trying to make progress on Gregory Weaver's A Great Nation: Rescuing Abraham from Dispensationalism.

[Heirbyadoption]

I'm currently wading back through Charles Boutflower's 1923 "In And Around the Book of Daniel". It brings up fascinating archaeological and historical information that brings so much more color and meaning to the book of Daniel (and subsequent eschatological passages as well).

For an online read: https://archive.org/details/inaroundboo ... 5/mode/2up

[R7ehr]

I am currently about 1/3 of the way through the Quran.

[Bootstrap]

I just finished Brave New World. Excellent book, and very relevant today.