Reflections of the Kingdom

Introducing Old Testament Theology by W H Bellinger My rating: 5 of 5 stars Having just completed my own course in the Old Testament, there was a lot here that was very familiar … except this book was done much better than my class text. Written in an accessible style with an obvious scholastic foundation, Bellinger begins by telling the reader how he will construct his argument, before presenting his well thought out discussions and then following all of that with a summary conclusion. The basic approach taken avoided any debate on the details of the Old Testament to focus more on the overall purpose and intent of the early redactors within a paradigm of divine revelation and human response. What I found extremely interesting what his initial disclosure of his religious affiliation with the Baptist church and his recognition that his revealed background would inevitably impact his scholarship and interpretation. Coming from an entirely different con...

From Isolation to Community by Myles Werntz My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was an interesting book on several levels. My initial thought was that the author was referencing the isolation of the current pandemic and would talk about how to get folks to come back and attend in person … that is not what this book is about at all and that caught me by surprise. Instead, the basic idea was this: “It is isolation that better describes the complex way in which sin divided human beings from God and one another, distancing them from the goodness and benefit of the God who is our source and from others, through whom we receive these good gifts.” Being separated from God as a result of sin is not an entirely novel idea; however, adding separation from others into that same equation was new for me and it was a profoundly beautify way to view what we need out of community. Even more interesting was how isolation can be seen as either a misplaced emphasis on the ind...

The Trinity: An Introduction to Catholic Doctrine on the Triune God by Gilles Emery My rating: 3 of 5 stars Emery’s induction to The Trinity is an attempt to explain the Doctrine of The Trinity and examine the origins and development of the Trinitarian Christian confessions that advance this concept. The basic idea of the Trinity is that there are three distinct “persons,” known as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, within one unified nature or essence we call God. Almost immediately we encounter a problem with the limitations of human language used to describe this apparent contradiction in logic: Unfortunately, Emery only dances around the edges of this without giving any truly concrete definition from which to structure his discussion, making this book a bit of a struggle to fully comprehend. Here is the root of the problem: In the rational mind, which apportions time and space within our physical world, if the three (3) persons of the Trinity are ...

Historical Foundations of Worship by Melanie C. Ross My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is primarily a collection of 18 academic essays/chapters grouped into 5 parts and written by a different expert focusing on a specific element of christian worship (for most traditions, this means an examination of how the liturgy or worship service evolved) with a significant portion of the book (37%) given over to citations. This was an especially timely read for me as I had just finished my Liturgy and the Sacraments class and had just started my Canon Law class … so this fit right into what I was already learning about. The format of each chapter opened with a bit of context before digging into the subject at hand, then ending with a section on “Practical Implications for Worship” (sort of a where are we now review) and suggested Further Reading … which is great because the biggest complaint that I had was that I always wanted to explore the topic more after finishi...

Introduction to the Spiritual Life: Walking the Path of Prayer with Jesus by Brant Pitre My rating: 4 of 5 stars The book springs from the author’s “transformative” experience from discovering and reading the “spiritual classics”, weaving quotes from them into each chapter. He opens with describing the three (3) types of prayer and stages of spiritual growth along with the “universal call to holiness” or spirituality in the Introduction before going more in depth on Prayer in the first section. The rest of the book is organized to look at the three (3) major temptations and their remedies, three (3) spirit exercises, seven (7) mortal sins and opposing virtues, and then it provides some guidance to keep you on the path. Each chapter starts with a brief introduction of the topic with several illustrative quotes before looking at the Jewish roots of the topic, then how it was used/illustrated by Jesus before finishing with Christian tradition. As expect...