About a year ago, we announced our call for nominations for the Best Christian Book of All Time, and you —our readers —responded with great enthusiasm. From a nomination pool of over 140 worthies, we first narrowed the bracket to 64 contenders, voted out lesser lights (such as Luther, Calvin, Chesterton, Aquinas —I hope they make something of themselves some day!), and crowned our winner: Augustine's Confessions, the Best Christian Book of All Time.[1] You may have heard of the runner-up, a short tract by C.S. Lewis … [Read more...] about The Best Christian Book of All Time: One Year Later
reading
Are There Any Books That You Revere?
In my continued reading of Alan Jacobs' A Theology of Reading, I've come to his chapter “Kenosis.” He addresses the question of whether someone can love a text in the same self-giving way that one can —even ought to —love another person. Kenosis is the Greek word used in Philippians 2:7 to describe the “self-emptying” movement of Christ in his Incarnation: [Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the … [Read more...] about Are There Any Books That You Revere?
Did You Make Any New Year’s Resolutions?
Last year, I resolved to keep track of every book I read in 2010, and I mostly did so. Here is my list of books I read in 2010, up to about November 15. That was when I came down with an awful case of bronchitis, which depleted my energy significantly for about 3 weeks. My books-per-week rate skyrocketed as I lay in bed, while my hours-updating-websites plummeted. I'll catch up with November and December soon. One of the first books I read in 2010 was Chip and Dan Heath's Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is … [Read more...] about Did You Make Any New Year’s Resolutions?
Captain Underpants and Faculty Role Models
Here on the ESN blog, we've often blogged about differing views of education, particularly the conflict between education as personal formation and education as professional training. I encountered these differing views in two articles recently. I expected to see competing visions of education to make an appearance in a column on faculty as role models for students, but it was a bit of surprise to find them in a light (so I thought) opinion piece on the "books for boys" genre. First, the expected: last week, Inside … [Read more...] about Captain Underpants and Faculty Role Models
Did you make any resolutions?
Did you make any New Year's Resolutions? I made a fairly modest one - to keep track what books I read this year. I attempted to make a list of everything I read in 2009, but it was much more difficult than I thought - last January is just a blur! So, this year, I plan to keep a running list, starting with James K. A. Smith's Desiring the Kingdom. But enough about me. Did you make any New Year's resolutions? … [Read more...] about Did you make any resolutions?