Current Reading Nov 2011

Well, this may not be of much interest to you, but here's what I'm reading or have been reading recently. It's certainly been interesting for me!

I've really enjoyed getting through Grace Upon Grace: Spirituality For Today (Concordia, St. Louis: 2008) by Rev'd Dr. John Kleinig — it's a treatment of Luther's understanding of the means by which we are grown by God, i.e. prayer, meditation and temptation. God Himself is the prime actor in these three areas. Christian spirituality is essentially a receptive spirituality.

Along similar lines is Gene Veith's outline of Lutheran spirituality, The Spirituality Of The Cross: The Way Of The First Evangelicals (Concordia, St. Louis; 1999). Particularly helpful to me in this study was his treatment of the doctrine of vocation, and the Lutheran understanding of the two kingdoms. Vocation is the means God uses in order to mask Himself in His provisions for creation. Veith argues that Luther's thought could be summarised under two great doctrinal heads: the doctrine of justification and the doctrine of vocation. I was convinced.

I've also read Roland Allen's missiological classic, Missionary Principles—And Practice (Lutterworth, Cambridge; 1913, 2006). A great stimulus for a preaching project. Allen is exploring the role of the Holy Spirit in the mission of the church in four brief, pungent and thought-provoking chapters. The Spirit himself provides the impulse for mission (not the command to be on mission). The goal of the mission is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and this goal is realised more and more as the various nations express the truth of Christ in their settings. The means of the mission are in Christ: we are the means he uses. We don't need to find means to accomplish something for him; He is using us to accomplish what he will do. (Jens Christensen makes the same point in his classic book, Mission To Islam And Beyond, New Creation, Blackwood; 1977, 2001). In the last chapter he explores the reaction to all this in the church.

Currently I am reading The Ethics Of Evangelism by Elmer Theissen (Paternoster, Milton Keynes; 2011). This is a philosophical defence of ethical proselytising. I'm only through the introductory material, and have just started reading his analysis of various objections to proselytising as essentially unethical. It seems an important book to me.

And for my enjoyment and to wind down at night, I am taking little bits of Alexander McCall-Smith's Bertie Plays The Blues as my bed-time reading. I love his gentleness, his fondness for his characters, his amiable humanity. And I really want to know of Bertie ever gets to being seven! I know I could read the book in one day, but it is nice having little lolly-sized packages to read each evening, and to stretch out the pleasure that his writing gives.