Now that the babies are here I’m pretty much tied to the house helping out Liz. Katherine and Frances feed about every three hours and the process takes about one and a half hours. Reading and watching television during the in-between periods are our entertainment options (I’m still trying to figure out when to sleep during all this).
My summer reading project, therefore, is just rolling along. This week I finished up the Bill Clinton book. As mentioned in a previous post, earlier in the summer I read William Sloane Coffin, Jr.: A Holy Impatience and The Heart Is a Little to the Left: Essays on Public Morality. I’ve just about finished up The Social Gospel Today and have added two related books to my list: A Theology for the Social Gospel by Walter Rauschenbusch and The Social Gospel of Jesus by Bruce J. Malina.
What was left out of the Bible – on purpose or by accident – is always fascinating. Stephen J. Patterson is our New Testament professor at Eden Theological Seminary and he has written extensively on the historical Jesus and the Gospel of Thomas. So last week I read his book The Gospel of Jesus and Thomas. Now I’m hoping to add more to the story of Thomas with Elanine Pagels book Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas.
Reading fiction is not a hobby of mine. However, I picked up the paperback version of Richard Preston’s The Cobra Event. This book about a bio-terrorist attack on New York City prompted then-President Clinton to order additional resources and planning for fighting terrorism.
This week I also began reading The 9/11 Commission Report. The opening pages tell the stories of all four lost flights, the response by various government agencies, and expose a national defense system totally unprepared for such an event. I’ll be writing more about this report later in hopes of offering a theological viewpoint for fighting terrorism.
Anyone else reading anything good this summer?
