Bringing my oldest son home from the hospital was the beginning of a big lifestyle change for me. I went from teaching History to 10th and 11th graders as well as coaching volleyball to sitting around at home while my baby seemingly slept all the time. After a few weeks I felt like my brain was turning to mush. So, I got on the Internet and downloaded Harvard’s Top 100 Books list as well as the Modern Libraries list and a couple others. I dusted off my library card and got busy. And thus began some of the most depressing reading of my life. After suffering through some of those lists (I’m still working on them) I started thinking about what the best Christian books would be. Unfortunately it’s a little tougher to google a list for that.

An artificial-intelligence “expert” is predicting that by 2050, “we’ll be creating robots so lifelike, so imbued with human-seeming intelligence and emotions, as to be nearly indistinguishable from real people. And we’ll have sex with these robots. Some of us will even marry them. And it will all be good.”

Reclaiming The Mind’s Best of 2007 list. Some good references in this list.

Debbie got me an outstanding gift today for Christmas - the Ancient Christian Devotional with fifty-two weeks of readings following the weekly lectionary cycle A. You can read through them in order or by thematic interest. Each day you will also find a simple opening and closing prayer drawn from the prayers and hymns of the ancient church. It uses writings from the Ancient Christian Commentary with a simply structure of daily reading and prayer.

Wow. I intend to use it over the course of the coming year.

Back in June, Michael Patton penned a gem of a blog entitled Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain: What Does it Really Mean?. Very thought provoking. I’d be interested in everyone’s take on this.

If you’re not enamored with lengthy theological blogs, I’ve distilled it for you …

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Extract:

Michael Patton has written a terrific blog on All the Right Beliefs for All the Wrong Reasons. This is must-reading.

He starts out by reviewing four types of people with respect to knowledge:

1. The one who doesn’t know, and doesn’t know that he doesn’t know. He is a fool – shun him.

4. The one who knows and knows that he knows. He is a wise man – follow him.

He then adds a fifth:

5. The one who knows but does not know how he knows. He is naive — deconstruct him.

Here, in no particular order, are ten theological issues that I earnestly wrestled with before embracing them. In some cases, my struggle lasted decades. I offer this last as evidence that not all theology is “cut-and-dry” and as hope for those that are currently wrestling with some of these same issues.

1) the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (this was the principal catalyst for my conversion in 1974)
2) the absolute sovereignty of God (I struggled with this for more than 15 years)
3) Human Freedom amidst God’s sovereignty (the relationship between the two)
4) Original sin (Man is inherently corrupt. The Fall brought condemnation and guilt upon all men. As well, the disposition of the will is totally corrupted and inclined toward evil. Man has free will, but that will is governed by his sinful nature. Man sins, therefore, because he is a sinner.)