Stuff What I am Reading


I cannot think of anything to write a post about so I thought I would list the books that I am reading at the moment. Why anyone else could give a fig about that I have no idea but anyway - here we go. Here's my list of current books on the go:

Novels:
1. Charles Dickens, Bleak House
2. Colin Dexter, an Inspector Morse novel (something about the secret of Annex 3)

Church History:
1. Meic Pearse, The Great Restoration (about radicals in 16th and 17th Cs)
2. Meic Pearse, The Age of Reason (16th-18th C global church history)
3. Just about to read What where the Crusades? by Jonathan Riley-Smith
4. Sisters of Sinai by Janet Soskice. Yes - I know that she's a philosophical theologian but this is a very well written history of the two women who discovered a NT ms of major importance at Mt Sinai.
5. Martyrdom from Exegesis in Hippolytus by . This is a study of the theme of martyrdom in the first extant orthodox Christian commentary (Hippolytus on Daniel).
5. Early Christian Worship by Paul Bradshaw. Small, clear and interesting.

Theology
1. Spirituality Without God by Harold Netland and Keith Yandell. A superb Christian introduction to and analysis of Buddhism.
2. A Trinitarian Theology of Law by David McIllroy. An exceptionally good analysis of the theology of law in Moltmann, O'Donnovan, Aquinas and then his own proposal.
3. Biology and Christian Ethics by Stephen R L Clark
4. Worship in the Best of Both Worlds by Philip Greenslade. A fabulous book on the theology and practise of worship. I'm rereading that one for fun.

Philosophy
1. Introduction to Religious Language by Dan Stiver (excellent though basic. His book on Ricoeur is wihtout peer)
2. Theology After NeoPragmatism by Adonis Vidu. Man this guy is brainey!
3. The Nature of God by Gerald Hughes. Kind of heavy but interesting. Good on 'existence'.
4. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language by Michael Morris. Masterful book but Phil of Lang is just flaming complicated!
5. Divine Nature and Human Language by William P Alston. It's a very good book (but not as good as his exceptional work on religious experience)
6. Philosophical Investigation by Wittgenstein
7. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations by Marie McGinn

Biblical Studies
1. The Suffering of God by Terence Fretheim
2. Christ and the Judgement of God by Stephen Travis
3. just about to reread Ernest Lucas' wonderful commentary on Daniel (plus Goldingay's which I have never read)

Other Stuff
1. Israel by Martin Gilbert. The classic history of modern Israel. I'm working through it - fascinating though long.
2. The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Dawoud El-Alami. The story told from two perspectives. A good idea. Informative.

What surprised me about this is that I normally major on biblical studies books but right now I have hardly any on the go. Interesting. Hmmmmmm.

Oh - and I just listened to the audio books of Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Adventure and Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer. Long car journeys for work do have plus points. I do LOVE Artemis Fowl - highly recommended stuff!

Comments

Terry Wright said…
I'm surprised you have so many books on the go. I can't cope with more than two or three!
Robin Parry said…
That's why it takes me so long to read stuff. A bit of this and a bit of that.

And none of it is on what I am supposed to be writing about at the moment (i.e., the book of Lamentations).
Anonymous said…
This post seems to be little more than a confession that either (i) you are not human or (ii) you have too many toilets (reading rooms for fathers in search of peace) from which to choose.
Robin Parry said…
Jason

... or that I have trouble maintaining interest in a single topic and take a long time to finish books.

Actually - my rule is to only read one novel at a time so this list is a rare deviation from that rule. But Bleak House is so long and so slow I just need to read another novel in between every 3 chapters of Bleak House. I do need some light relief!
Unknown said…
Robin, this confirms what I have long suspected: that you are some sort of extra-terrestrial intelligence. No human could read that much at once. But then, that is no problem for you, because you are clearly non-human. Strange, though, since, in almost every other respect, you are one of the most human people I know.
Robin Parry said…
Oliver

You are a kind man. But do not over-estimate my abilities - it takes me a long time to read things and I have a bad memory

Robin
Unknown said…
I should have said 'you are one of the most human persons I know'. Clearly you are no a people, even though you are an extra-terrestrial intelligence with a human side...
Unknown said…
'no a people' - aarrghh! I give up. I am keyboard-challenged, clearly. Apologies.

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