I finally put the gift card I got from my parents for Christmas to work and bought a few books. Unfortunately the next four months will probably be too busy to make much of a dent in either. The two I bought are very different from one another. Lilith by George MacDonald has been on my list of books to read for five or six years now since reading Phantastes by the same author. It was of Phantastes which C.S. Lewis wrote, "that the whole book had about it a sort of cool, morning innocence, and also, quite unmistakably, a certain quality of Death, good Death. What it actually did to me was to convert, even to baptise (that was where the Death came in) my imagination." I also found Phantastes to be captivating and was told that if I liked that book I would probably also like Lilith.For Lent my church read through the Pentateuch. I stayed pretty much on schedule up until Leviticus and then kind of fell off. But I was reminded once again about how little I understand the Old Testament. I was also reminded of a book which John Piper had recently said was one of the best he'd ever read, John Sailhamer's The Meaning of the Pentateuch. It will probably take me a decade to read this book but if I ever do I think it will be well worth it.
2 comments:
Hi Matt,
Once a bookseller, always a bookseller, eh?
I personally find Numbers to be the most difficult part of the Pentateuch. Leviticus' health regulations and purification laws are actually pretty interesting. Or maybe I'm just a geek...
I've been reading "Brunelleschi's Dome" by Ross King, which mentions that some Bishops in 15th Century Florence were protesting having so many bodies buried in the cathedrals, arguing that whenever the plague came through the homes nearest the church were hit first.
But Sailhamer's book does sound intriguing, who among us doesn't want some extra help with the OT?
Random question for Monday:
What is your Theology degree in?
S.P.
P.S.
I was working with a particularly sharp resident today, and thought of you. I hope your clinicals are going well.
Hey Scarlet,
Sounds like an interesting book. Also, thank you for the compliment. I just started on 3 months of internal medicine. Thankfully, the hospital I'm working at for the next month is right across the street from my apartment. The degree I was working on at Asbury Seminary was an M.A.T.S. - Master of Arts in Theological Studies. Unfortunately I was just a few classes short of finishing when I left for med school. During my first year of med school I actually took an online class through the seminary with the hopes of finishing my degree but I decided that it wasn't right for me to divert my energies away from my study of medicine. But maybe I'll finish it up someday. The M.A.T.S. is a smaller degree than an M.Div. and is geared toward students who want to go on and get a Ph.D. in theology which was originally what I thought I might want to do.
Have a great week!
Matt
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