Blessed be the LORD! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.

at 01/18/10 7:06PM
Greetings, everyone.

Peace, mercy, and grace be with you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.


We're still trying to get back to some sense of routine and something some people call "normal," although I believe "crazy and frenetic" is really my "normal." But that's alright. :)

It's been a week full of financial situations with which to deal, work that needed done, and other such things. In general, nothing "exciting" to report. But I did promise a book review post...so here it is.


Mega book reading update.

In the last book reading post I noted that I was reading From Gravel to Glory by Gina Calvert and The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant. So we might as well begin there. :)

From Gravel to Glory represents Calvert's personal story told according to the image of Christian as Temple. The core message of the book-- learning to trust God and renounce self in an authentic and real way, having suffered all kinds of difficulties and coming to terms with one's own failings-- is sound.

I can't say a whole lot when it comes to the rest of the book. It seems rather evident that Calvert and her husband were members of the church who have theologically drifted into Evangelicalism. Evangelical doctrines of the Spirit and faith as God's gift are explicitly presented. There are also matters of personal discomfort. While I would not say that there is anything inherently wrong with expanding on Biblical metaphors and making whole allegories about them, it is quite easy to read those allegories back into the text when they do not belong there. And then there is the matter of quoting from a dizzying number of translations and paraphrases without a lot of explanation. I recognize that it has become the popular thing to do among Evangelicals, but in my estimation, it at best is confusing and at worst seems to be hiding some kind of agenda, as if there is an attempt to pull one over on the reader. I don't think that such is Calvert's intention, but I also don't see the value in quoting in a bunch of translations. Pick one and then explain whatever elements of the text you feel need explaining; own up to the explanations. If you think that a given point (that is legitimately in the original text) is made more clear in a different translation, quote it and explain why.

Anyway. In the end, no recommendation either way.

The Story of Philosophy was my foray into trying to get a little bit of a better picture of the history of philosophy after the Romans. Durant wrote it toward the beginning of the twentieth century, and it is full of post-Enlightenment triumphalism that was somehow not even depressed by WWI but was seriously questioned after WWII. Durant tells the story of philosophy by focusing on different philosophers themselves-- Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Spinoza, Voltaire, Kant, Spencer, Nietzsche, and a few European and American philosophers of his own age.

As an introduction to their philosophies Durant does quite well. I found his attitude towards Christianity and Judaism irritating, as if the influence of Judeo-Christian values did nothing to enhance the philosophy of the western world. One can also easily tell where Durant's sympathies lay. Regardless, it is an interesting book that is useful if you want to get a basic idea of where philosophy has gone and why it has done so.

In theory, the current study I am doing is on the church-- its history and books by authors in the church. To that end I finished three books by Robertson Whiteside: The Whiteside-Clark Discussion, Doctrinal Discourses, and The Kingdom of Promise and Prophecy.

The Whiteside-Clark Discussion was a printing of a discussion in the Gospel Advocate regarding the legitimacy of Bible classes. The discussion represented both sides quite well. Clark's arguments did not really hold water and his inconsistency was apparent. Whiteside's arguments, on the whole, were decent, but I wished that he would have made more of Acts 2:42 and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 in justifying having a period of time for a collective studying of Scripture.

Doctrinal Discourses represented a collection of Whiteside's articles and treatises put together posthumously by his daughter Inys. She included plenty of articles on the Spirit, faith, matters of speech, discussions of various passages, and the like. She found so much on the subject of premillennialism that she had those articles published as a separate book, The Kingdom of Promise and Prophecy. These books reflect Whiteside the Bible scholar, and on the whole, he handled Scripture very well, and made very good arguments. There will be some arguments with which the reader will disagree, and many times it would have been nice if Whiteside had been less dogmatic, but his insights and willingness to recognize the distinction between what Scripture actually says and that which we impose on it are valuable indeed. These resources are beneficial for all, especially since Truth Bookstore is selling all three for a dollar each (click on the links above)!

Now I am reading some early review books I've received through LibraryThing. The first is Onkelos on the Torah: Understanding the Bible Text: Numbers. About two years ago I had received the Leviticus edition of this work, and I was thankful to receive Numbers also. It would be great to also win Deuteronomy when it comes out later this year. :D

Numbers was quite similar to Leviticus: some discussions were different and there were a lot more explanatory expansions regarding many questions that come up in Numbers. If you're doing heavy research into one or more of the books of the Pentateuch, the various volumes in this series are worth considering. They do well at presenting not just the Targum Onkelos text and its various text critical issues but also the history of interpretation of the text in Jewish Rabbinic tradition.

Next I am reading The Forgiveness Solution: The Whole Body Rx for Finding True Happiness, Abundant Love, and Inner Peace by Philip Friedman, which is another early review book. I will be a good boy and reserve judgment until after I read the book. :D


May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.

ELDV
  • 71lespaulcustom
    While you are doing book reviews, have you ever read Instrumental Music in the Worship (1911) by M.C. Kurfees ?

    by 71lespaulcustom at 01/19/10 8:38AM