Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

Hearts & Minds Books

Summer reading: “Welcome to the [Wright] Revolution!”

(N.T. Wright sings “Genesis” at Hearts and Mind, https://vimeo.com/4214987)

how god became king.jpg
"How God Became King" cover

Last week Mike asked what’s on our various summer reading lists. I’m going to be reading some works by the story-telling minstrel Rt. Rev. N.T. (Tom) Wright, Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. As some of you know Rt. Rev. N.T. (Tom) Wright has recently blessed a number of groups with singing as part of his speaking tour. On Saturday, I had the privilege of hearing him share “Genesis”* and  Bob Dylan’s “When the Ship Comes In” at Hearts & Minds Books, Dallastown, PA. Thank-you to Byron for hosting the garden party and keeping me “on top of” N.T. Wright’s publications through posts such as this one! I’m starting my summer reading with Tom’s Targum and then will move to the controversy regarding How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels (HarperOne, 2012).**

What do you think of the “Wright’s revolution?” Will you be reading some of his work this summer? Any interest in an on-line book discussion? Feel free to start making comments here 🙂

(N.T. Wright sings Bob Dylan’s “When the Ship Comes In”, https://vimeo.com/42149870)
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Lent brings me back to reflections on loss, grief, suffering

2012 Lenten Reflection Series

The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus” by Owen Gingerich (Walker Publishing Co, 2004)

Last week I began the 2012 series with Entering Lent: “I Want” in Higher Education. As you may remember, Kent Annan’s  After Shock saturated my 2011 Lenten reflection. With Kent’s recent visit to South Central PA and the deep chord which “I Want” struck not only with me, but also a number of the students with whom I watched it, I wondered if my 2012 reflections would largely draw from his earlier book Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle (InterVarsity Press, 2009). Although this may still occur, on Friday I began reading a new book.

I picked up a copy of The Book Nobody Read: A Closer Look at the Book that Moved the World by Owen Gingerich, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, at Hearts & Minds Books when dropping off materials from Scot McKnight’s Christian Scholar Series presentation en route to have dinner with and then hear Owen present on the fascinating adventures related in The Book Nobody Read. But that’s not the book I’m referring to 😉

As occurs in gatherings of Christian scholars and students, I connected with a number of people.* At the conclusion of the lecture sponsored by the Central Pennsylvania Forum for Religion and Science and Messiah College’s Center for Public Humanities, my friend Ted Davis (who directs the Forum and is Professor of the History of Science at Messiah College) introduced me to Paul Nisly. Paul is a retired Professor of English at Messiah College with a specialty is Southern literature. He particularly appreciates digging into William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor. In addition to being an academic, Paul serves as a bishop in the Mennonite Church.

“Sweeping Up the Heart: A Father’s Lament for His Daughter” by Paul Nisly (Good Books. 1992)

When introducing my work with the Emerging Scholars Network in South Central PA and the Christian Medical Society (CMS)/CMDA at the Penn State College of Medicine, I related the various speakers which we have hosted over the past twelve months. Messiah College alumnus Janel Atlas was among those whom I mentioned. As some of you may know, Janel presented at both the Medical Center and the Elizabethtown Public Library on They Were Still Born: Personal Stories about Stillbirth (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010). Paul responded to Janel’s story and the work at PSU-Hershey by sharing some of his own loss. [Read more…] about Lent brings me back to reflections on loss, grief, suffering