Over the last month or so I’ve had a few discussions with various people about William Young’s recent novel The Shack. I’ve posted a rather lengthy essay about the book on my blog, but anytime I try to review a book, the book review turns into a discussion of something else in a couple of paragraphs. Sure enough, that happens here.

In case you don’t want to plow through a 5,000 word essay, here’s a brief summary:

I have said many times that Wayne Grudem is like an adjunct prof at Sojourn Church. His book, Systematic Theology, is a must for those who want to learn more about theology. If you want a smaller version you can try his book, Bible Doctrine. If you want an introduction to theology then purchase “Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know.” The last book was co-written by his son, Elliott Grudem, who is an Acts 29 pastor in Raleigh, NC.

So here is the scoop. I received an email from Michael Patton at Reclaiming the Mind about free online theology instruction from Wayne Grudem. You can download the mp3’s and listen at your convenience.

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: