Books
George Macdonald: An Anthology
Edited by C.S.Lewis, Collins: Fount Paperbacks, 1947/1983 Here’s an enigma. C.S.Lewis may have been more influenced, at least in formative theological thinking, by George MacDonald, than by anyone else. His indebtedness to MacDonald’s three volumes of ‘Unspoken Sermons’ ‘is almost as great as one can owe to another.’ Yet, Lewis would not give Macdonald a […]
Books Trivia
1. This novel, according to a 1991 American Library of Congress survey, was the book which, after the Bible, had most influenced American lives. 2. Critic Martin Walser said of this author: ‘Reading [him] one can feel like an atrophied example of humanity. One has the sense that until now one has hardly made any […]
Desiderata
Copyright 1952 Max Ehrmann Go Placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story Avoid loud […]
Australian Religions
In a new edition of the book, ‘Religious Bodies in Australia’, authors Robert Humphreys and Rowland Ward supply data which shows that about 2 million of Australia’s 18 million people are in church on a typical Sunday. Nearly half of these are Catholics. Those who attend the 40 or so different Pentecostal groupings total about […]
Charles Ringma
Back in 1981, the eminent Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx wrote a landmark book, ‘Ministry: A Case for Change’ (London: SCM). His thesis: ‘There is no mention in the New Testament of an essential distinction between ‘laity’ and ‘ministers’… the ministry is not a status, but a function. For the New Testament, the essential apostolic structure […]
Prophets
(Some thoughts inspired by Richard Rohr’s essay ‘To Care And Not To Care’, in _Near Occasions of Grace_, Orbis, 1993). Occasionally at my seminars on ‘The Marks of a Healthy Church’ someone will say, ‘I believe our church is the most biblical!’ My usual retort: ‘Name the prophets you have commissioned’. We then have a […]
Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow
(Jottings from Marsha Sinetar, Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood, Dell Publishing, 666 Fifth Avenue, NY, 10103, 1987). Introductory notes: 1. I bought this from Denver’s largest bookshop, oddly called ‘The Tattered Cover Book Store’, November 1990, in the month I was deciding to resign from World Vision, and […]
Goddess
The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine, by Christine Downing (NY: Crossroad, 1992). Occasionally I encourage myself (or in this case am encouraged by a friend) to read something outside my interests or specialisms. This book and its subject/s belonged out there, but I have been enriched by it. It’s a book about myths and […]
Men
BOOK REVIEW/ESSAY/CHRISTIAN APPRAISAL: Steve Biddulph, ‘Manhood: An Action Plan for Changing Men’s Lives’, Sydney: Finch Publishing (PO Box 120, Lane Cove 2066), 2nd edition, 1995. For ten years the Men’s Movement has gathered momentum, like an unstoppable tidal wave, throughout the Western (industrialised) world. My library now has a whole row of bestsellers about men, […]
Books And Ideas On Mission
The same Jesus who commissioned us to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20) also had as his mandate preaching good news to the poor (Luke 4:18-19). People who begin with justice and mercy as integral to mission like the Luke 4 text. Those for whom mission = evangelism (with a bit of added compassion) major on the […]
Categories
Articles may be reproduced in any medium, without applying for permission
(provided they are unedited, and retain the original author/copyright information - and a reference to this website :-)!
26,754 articles online.
Protected by Akismet, Digital Ninjas and an Ion Cannon. Really.
Blog with WordPress