Well, it worked, I read much more faithfully, knowing that I was going to type this report : )
"The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime" by Phyllis Tickle
I finished the summertime book and have graduated to the wintertime collection! Along with enjoying the daily readings, what I find interesting is the orderly way the liturgical calendar moves through church history and characters. Recently, a day was taken to remember the life and work of Luke, the gospel writer. I had never actually stopped and thought deeply about who Luke was and how his personality was seen in scripture. Anyway, just something little that I've enjoyed.
"Concluding prayers of the church: Almighty God, who inspired your servant Luke the physician to set forth in the Gospel the love and healing power of you Son: Graciously continue in your Church this love and power to heal, to the praise and glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen."
"Knowing God" by J.I. Packer
Still slowly working my way through this book one chapter at a time. It's not the type of book to hustle through, so I'm ok with my slower pace.
"Without the Holy Spirit there would be no faith and no new birth -- in short, no Christians. ... It is not for us to imagine that we can prove the truth of Christianity by our own arguments; nobody can prove the truth of Christianity except the Holy Spirit, by his own almighty work of renewing the blinded heart. It is the sovereign prerogative of Christ's Spirit to convince men's consciences of the truth of Christ's gospel; and the Christ's human witnesses must learn to ground their hopes of success not on clever presentations of the truth by man but on powerful demonstrations of the truth by the Spirit."
"The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure" by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff
Only two chapters left to read! I really enjoyed the clear outline of this book and the continual review of previously stated assertions. There are so many good concepts to chew on, especially as a parent. I deeply appreciate the authors' call for increased resiliency in the upcoming generation. While many people decry the "snowflake" characteristics seen in the iGen (generation Z,) few seem to take the time to dig into the cause for this increased fragility and self-focus. I always like an author that gives me both the problem and a solution.
“A culture that allows the concept of “safety” to creep so far that it equates emotional discomfort with physical danger is a culture that encourages people to systematically protect one another from the very experiences embedded in daily life that they need in order to become strong and healthy.” AND “The media environment... has changed in ways that foster [social and cultural] division. Long gone is the time when everybody watched one of three national television networks. By the 1990s there was a cable news channel for most points on the political spectrum, and by the early 2000s there was a website or discussion group for every conceivable interest group and grievance. By the 2010s most Americans were using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, which make it easy to encase oneself within an echo-chamber. And then there's the "filter bubble," in which search engines and YouTube algorithms are designed to give you more of what you seem to be interested in, leading conservatives and progressives into disconnected moral matrices backed up by mutually contradictory informational worlds. Both the physical and the electronic isolation from people we disagree with allow the forces of confirmation bias, groupthink, and tribalism to push us still further apart.”
"Life in a Medieval Castle" by Frances Gies and Joseph Gies
I really REALLY enjoy learning about the medieval time period. So much so that I'll pick up a book about the very specific topic of what everyday life was life for those associated with a medieval castle complex. As I read I often take the time to look up particular places, people, or items referenced online. So it's a fun reading/researching excursion into this part of history. But, I also get that this might not be your thing : )
"Castle construction had a profound effect on the European political scene. Not only could a castle block invasion of a region, but it could also provide effective control over the local population. Both aspects of the castle were well understood in Continental Europe, where the owners of castles were soon unchallenged owners of power."
When searching for a history of the Tower of London, I stumbled across a really fun YouTube history channel, "Reading History" which has been rather a time suck over the last few days...so be forewarned (but only if you like history, I suppose : )
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