I was trying to read through the NRSV Bible using The Navigators' reading plan (it's free!). I might also read The New Testament as translated by David Bentley Hart, with the into to each book by Marcus Borg from The Evolution of the Word. I might read from A Guide To Prayer For Ministers & Other Servants by Upper Room Publishing (Mmm — pleather! Apparently I have Reuban P. Job and Norman Shawchuck to thank for the decades of use I've gotten from this book). Or I might pray from one of Phyllis Tickle's books (Job & Shawchuck recommended: "Pray — For the Church. For Others. For Yourself"). Either way I'd do the difficult work first and pray for my enemies. After that, making requests was easy-peasy, man! I would follow that up with two essays by G.K. Chesterton from The Art Of Lying In Bed (I figured I couldn't go wrong with an anthology edited by Alberto Manguel).
My current routine is nothing like that. I do listen to CBC Radio, however, and besides praying for my enemies I have learned to ask,"Please help me to be the person You created me to be." I don't recommend it. "No man builds a tower," etc. But if, like me, you find yourself "religious but not spiritual" (a term I first heard Nathan P. Gilmour use (and while you're there check out Victoria Reynolds Farmer interviewing Kristin Kobes Du Mez)) this "routine" should be just the thing. And, wow, do I miss it!
These days I read GKC on my Kindle program, but my reading is much slower — my right eye is especially jumpy. I guess things have changed.
Links: This reminiscence, really, occurred to me while hearing Mary Hines interview Casey Tygrett for Tapestry on CBC Radio. The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle on Amazon; the official site for A Guide To Prayer For Ministers & Other Servants; the wp elegy for Marcus Borg; Flame Wars! David Bentley Hart and N.T. Wright engage in a donnybrook while wp sits and watches; John Longhurst's elegy for Phyllis Tickle; a wp classic "Praying vs. Preying."
Something unpleasant I listened to, not all at once and not all the way through, by coincidence, in the past couple of weeks, in which Kobes Du Mez is among figures coming in for some disdainful treatment. I have heard the CH show with her before — possibly on your recommendation? — but am thinking I ought to give it another play here before too long, maybe.
ReplyDeleteOh, hooray. I'll give the YouTube video a quick look, but beyond that no promises
ReplyDeleteBoy, they really don't like Tim Keller. Hey, I don't like Tim Keller either, but at least the poor fellow kept his pants zipped and his pecker dry when he could have cut a fucking swath.
ReplyDeleteDid not mean to say that you should try to watch all of that! I haven’t gotten through it. Couple things to observe, though, thinking about what these humble mere Christian folks might up to: Vander Klay, at one point, with ‘I think we need BOTH [Moscow Idaho slavery apologist] Doug Wilson AND Tim Keller,’ and McGrew posing against Keller for our instruction and edification the example of Becket Cook, whom she describes as some guy with a YouTube channel, as if Cook’s story and message of freedom from the gay weren’t also published in multiple pieces on the site Keller co-founded and continues to co-direct.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, re. Jesus and John Wayne, A.) you did indeed bring Farmer’s CH episode with Du Mez to my attention, just over two years ago now, and B.) in dredging up conversation around that today, got to googling a bit and turned up this, from just a few weeks ago, which otherwise might have escaped my attention.
Boy, they really don't like Kristin Kobes Du Me. Hey, I don't like Du Mez either -- "Vive la Western" I say. But at least Du Mez exposed a toxic form of masculinity within Evangelicalism that nobody else wanted to touch (and who can blame them?).
ReplyDeleteI feel like this crew talk a good deal about the Western — about which, much of interest indeed to be said, pretty much no matter who you are! — and, for good measure, also a little bit about swashbuckling Old Testament heroes one of whom, you know, was an ancestor of Jesus, in order to not really talk about what Du Mez wrote about in her book.
ReplyDeleteI actually like the second link (although I like the image of the fellow stroking his beard). Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletePlough does good stuff! But not with Du Mez, here, for whatever reason. Knocking her down is its own project, I expect, and they’ve evidently accepted being attached to it on some level.
ReplyDeleteListen to Victoria Reynolds Farmer interview Kristin Kobes Du Mez. Or Listen To What The Flower Children Say. That is all.
ReplyDeleteSpinal Tap is among count-on-one-hand list of movies I’ve actually owned a copy of. Imparted DVD to a nephew (possibly via his dad, memory’s rough) while in Virginia last year. I should find out if he’s watched it. Kind of wishing I’d brought it back to Chicago now.
ReplyDeleteGidget is probably another.
ReplyDelete