My Favorite Books

The Walking Drum
Ender's Game
Dune
Jhereg
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Curse of Chalion
The Name of the Wind
Chronicles of the Black Company
The Faded Sun Trilogy
The Tar-Aiym Krang

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Review: Mesoamerican History & Mythology: Aztec, Inca, Maya, Toltec, Zapotec & Central American Myths, Legends, Mysteries & History Uncovered

Mesoamerican History & Mythology: Aztec, Inca, Maya, Toltec, Zapotec & Central American Myths, Legends, Mysteries & History Uncovered Mesoamerican History & Mythology: Aztec, Inca, Maya, Toltec, Zapotec & Central American Myths, Legends, Mysteries & History Uncovered by History Brought Alive
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ***

A Good Survey of MesoAmerican History

At just over 3 hours (for 120 pages), this a a very brief overview of the history of Mesoamerica; a history that has largely been ignored by most people outside academia and tourism. As a summary, this was quite good; my only real compliant that it was way to short to be very satisfying, but what was they seemed to be well researched and pretty solid … in fact, the addition of the Teotihuacan civilization was new to me (I had previously learned the city was created by the Toltecs). The narration was good as well, especially with the many names and terms that I presume he was not familiar with, but I hesitate to mark it much better that having Alexa read it to you (it is tough getting a high performance score for what is arguably a history lecture). Regardless, I enjoyed the topic and would recommend it to any who are curious but have not yet started to explore mesoamerican history.

Chapter 1 - Mesoamerica (12:43)
Chapter 2 - The Olmec Civilization (16:06)
Chapter 3 - The Zapotec Civilization (17:02)
Chapter 4 - The Teotihuacan Civilization (19:23)
Chapter 5 - The Maya (19:45)
Chapter 6 - The Aztec Civilization (10:51)
Chapter 7 - The Incas (14:12)
Chapter 8 - The Spanish Conquest (14:05)
Chapter 9 - Mesoamerican Religion (14:32)
Chapter 10 - Mesoamerican Mythology (12:03)
Chapter 11 - Mesoamerican Legacy (15:14)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Sunday, May 26, 2024

Review: More than a Sermon: The Purpose and Practice of Christian Preaching

More than a Sermon: The Purpose and Practice of Christian Preaching More than a Sermon: The Purpose and Practice of Christian Preaching by Douglas D. Webster
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Having just completed a homiletics course, I was very interested in another book on preaching; however, from the beginning, it was very clear that as a catholic clergy, I was not the target audience here. To begin with, catholic homilies are generally tied to the readings for the day, so I really don’t have much flexibility in picking the scripture text that I want to use … it is given to me. Additionally, the order of service (aka liturgical rubrics) and also fairly strict as well … so I was down to mostly looking for tips and ideas on how to preach better. For the most part, I didn’t get that much as most of what I did get was very generic or straight appeals to emotion/motivation … the you must have a solid relationship with God/Jesus and live a spiritual and moral life … which comes across more like a “just do it” speech … in other words, I didn’t find as much of the practical advice that I was looking for … it was still decent and I did pick up concepts and ideas from the examples in the second half that should help, but a lot of it didn’t really work for me.

The chapters and sections in this work are:
Prayers for Discernment
Scripture to Sermon: Ten Steps

Part I: The Purpose of Preaching
1. More than a Sermon
2. Harder & Easier that We Imagine
3. Compelling, Not Manipulative
4. The Whole Counsel of God
5. A Lifelong Commitment
6. Life-on-Life Discipleship

Part II: The Practice of Preaching
7. Preaching Advent & Christmas Sermons
8. Preaching Lenten Sermons
9. Easter Sermons
10. Memorial Meditations
11. Wedding Meditations
12. Preaching Crisis Sermons
13. Preaching with Social Impact

Seven Theses on Good Preaching

Some of the other points that really got my attention are:

What is true for teachers is true for preachers. The word of God ought to be heard, as authentic speech, voiced out of the integrity of the disciple, stripped of religious jargon and free of cliché. It is a message that issues from the preacher’s heart, mind, and soul.

Exegesis without exposition results in knowledge without wisdom, and exposition without Christ produces religion without faith. Alcántara advises pastors to “avoid the common tendency to preach a sermon that sounds like it is a running commentary on the text. People might learn a lot about the text in its context, they might acquire new information or new understanding, but they will not hear the proclamation of the good news. If you preach the text without preaching the gospel, then you have failed at both tasks.”

His sardonic quest to make life harder was directed to those who wanted to blend Christianity with the world and make it easy. The proponents of cultural Christianity sought to remove the offense of the gospel and the stigma of the cross. They wanted “to be Christians only up to a certain point.”

Either sermonic formula, whether the existential subtext sermon or the heavy-laden informational sermon, leads to the same familiar and pedantic conclusion. Come Monday morning or as early as Sunday afternoon, whatever hint of impact that was felt is conveniently forgotten as Christians go about their secular lives.

Repeated exposure to religious jargon renders the hearer impenitent and callous: “One hears and yet does not hear. One receives and yet is not helped. God’s forgiveness is not accepted but the person learns how to deal with himself gracefully. Forgiveness is taken into one’s own hands.”

Martin Luther likened the Old Testament to Christ’s swaddling clothes and the manger in which Christ was laid. […] All the work that went into Israel’s postexilic period was God’s way of building a cradle for his ultimate revelation.

Christian hope is anchored in four gospel realities: 1. the parousia—Jesus’s final coming; 2. the Paraclete—Jesus’s gift of the Holy Spirit; 3. the passion—Jesus’s death and resurrection; 4. the presence—Jesus’s abiding fellowship.

Our reluctance to weigh in on important social issues such as pandemics and racial reconciliation suggests that preaching is focused mainly on individualistic spiritual concerns. Apart from a few notably important issues such as abortion and gay marriage, pastors seem to practice self-censorship. Pastors are silent on many issues that affect their congregations, such as public health, economics, poverty, politics, creation care, climate change, and guns.

Many sincere Christians fear that they are losing their country, but I am afraid they will eventually realize that their power tactics and shrewd efforts have caused serious harm to the Christian witness.


I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#MoreThanASermon #NetGalley

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Thursday, May 23, 2024

Review: Brave Rider

Brave Rider Brave Rider by Harvey Goodman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ***

A Quick Feel Good Western

It is pretty much like you would expect from a clean western story. Just an average dude trying to be good in the Ole West despite desperadoes taking advantage of a general lawlessness as Americans begin to move into the new western territories. In this case, the MC manages to find work riding for the pony express, but before too long, end up convalescing with a tribe of native Americans … with the expected trope running true to form … which undermines any potential for edge of your seat drama … especially when there really isn’t a specific bad guy or major identifiable conflict. The research seems to be pretty good though, and this does help make the story more interesting to me.

The performance was okay as well. Character accents were good, but the range and timbre of the voices was pretty limited. Still better than having Alexa read it to you … although the default voice was a bit rushed and the enunciation was lazy enough that I missed heard a few words that confused me for a time.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Sunday, May 19, 2024

Review: The Nicene Creed: A Scriptural, Historical, and Theological Commentary

The Nicene Creed: A Scriptural, Historical, and Theological Commentary The Nicene Creed: A Scriptural, Historical, and Theological Commentary by Jared Ortiz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Most of Christianity is considered to be a creedal religion, that is, governed by a specific statement of faith that members of a particular church must assent to (from the Latin credo meaning ‘I believe’). While not emphasized much, the Protestant tradition in which I grew up held to the 7th century Apostle’s Creed. Once I was confirmed into the Catholic faith, I became more aware of the Nicene Creed as well (Catholics pretty much recent one creed or another at the drop of a hat) … and I learned a lot about how these creeds came to be (predominately in response to various heresies that the early Church was struggling with), so I was extremely interest in this book to see if it confirmed what I already knew and if it presented anything new [to learn]. I am happy to report it delivered in spades.

The book is organized into six (6) chapters, each taking part of the Nicene Creed to examine (in broad strokes or themes). Each chapter begins with a general introduction of the over all theme or topic before it is further divided into sections that go into details on a phrase or statement within the chapter theme (such as what it means to say ‘I believe’ or say ‘one God’ et al). Included with the section header are references to the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Catholic Catechism (so obviously this is a very Catholic centric book). In addition, we get this section of the creed in three (3) languages (English, Latin and Greek). Each section generally has four (4) parts: A Theological Exposition to talk about the theology behind this part of the creed, A Witness to the Tradition that references early Church thinking about an element of this theology with source citations (this can repeated for different elements and/or viewpoints), Contemporary Issues that talk about current thinking and/or struggles with this element of the creed, and finally a part called Living the Mystery which talks about how the faithful should live out this part of the creed. There are a generally number of callouts/sidebars under the headed of Lex Orandi that review how a particular element is reflected within the liturgy as well. Finally at the end we get a straight up side buy side comparison of the different creeds, including the latin and greek versions plus a glossary of terms that is simply fantastic on its own … making this book incredibly well researched and organized; I highly recommended it.

The chapters and sections in this work are

Introduction

1. Belief
2. God the Father
3. God the Son Divine
4. God the Son Incarnate
5. God the Holy Spirit
6. Life in the Trinity

Appendix 1: Three Creeds Compared
Appendix 2: The Nicene Creed in Latin and Greek
Glossary

Some of the other points that really got my attention are:

Faced with these considerable deviations in teaching, the Church needed to find a way to communicate and confess effectively the true faith received from the apostles. One response was the development of what we call “the †rule of faith” (or “the rule of truth”)

In the early Church, the primary form of the creed used in catechesis and especially in baptism was interrogatory—that is, it was delivered through question and answer: Do you believe in God, the Father almighty?

Creeds used in preaching, teaching, and worship were typically declaratory in form—that is, they confessed the faith through a declaration of the truth: I believe in God, the Father almighty, and so on.

The Creed serves as a fixed rule of faith, a measuring stick of what we as Christians believe. It helps us to interpret the Scriptures we just heard, to confirm the orthodoxy of the sermon just preached, and to unite our minds and hearts in confession of what we believe.

The important thing was “orthopraxy.” It did not matter that Polycarp was not truly devoted to the pagan gods; it did not matter that his heart was not really in his action; what mattered was the action. Roman religion was civic religion, and participating was required for everyone.

In the first category were groups such as pagan polytheists, †Marcionite dualists, and Gnostic emanationists. In the second category were modalists, like Noetus and Sabellius, and subordinationists, like the Arians who inspired the Council of Nicaea.

Paternal imagery was common when treating the ruler of the city and the divine ruler of the cosmos. In the ancient world, fatherly rule was the primary model for rightly ordered monarchy, so it was natural to think of the chief god as father over the world. Zeus was considered the father of the gods and humans.

In Christian theological terminology, to be “father” means “to pass on a nature” (this definition fits human as well as divine begetting). The Father is God; therefore, the Son is God (“God from God”). The Son is the same nature as the Father, which he receives not in time (that would make him a creation) but eternally.

This opening line, “for us men and for our salvation,” communicates three things: (1) the recipients of the Son’s work (those for whom he came); (2) the purpose of the Son’s work (why he came); and (3) the opening act of that work (how he came).

More generally, the Spirit leads the early Christians in mission (8:29; 11:28; 13:2; 16:6–7) and guides them as they seek to resolve difficult issues in the Christian community (15:28).

The Spirit not only distributes a multitude of gifts to the members of the Christian community (1 Cor. 12:3–13), but even reveals to us the mind of God (2:10–14). The Spirit is the one who dwells within us and sanctifies us in both body and soul (3:16).

Now it is a property of love to move and impel the will of the lover towards the object loved.”164 Because the Scriptures identify the Spirit particularly with the love of God (see Rom. 5:5), Aquinas concludes that it is fitting that we call this †procession of love by the name “Spirit.”

But in addition to this, if the Spirit is truly Lord, then we have an obligation to follow the Spirit and be utterly docile to him. Just as we follow and obey Jesus as Lord and follow him wherever he leads (Rev. 14:4), so too we should follow the Spirit, who is also our Lord.

The unique quality of the Spirit’s “speaking” is that the Spirit always makes use of a human being (and a human voice or pen) to speak. We never hear the Spirit’s words coming down the wind or out of the blue—the “Spirit speaks,” but he always speaks through the words of a human being.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TheNiceneCreed #NetGalley

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Thursday, May 16, 2024

Review: Battleborn Omnibus: Books 1-3: A Military SciFi Adventure!

Battleborn Omnibus: Books 1-3: A Military SciFi Adventure! Battleborn Omnibus: Books 1-3: A Military SciFi Adventure! by Andrew Beery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: *****

More Silly Fun in Space

In the Boneyard Dog trilogy, the original Ryker was sent off into the Black to ensure the survival of the human species … eventually establishing three (3) human colonies, each with their own unique struggle to survive. Each book is pretty much dedicated to one of the three colonies … with the prequels detailing the founding of the colony covered in that book and the main event dealing with some form of galactic level [alien] extinction threat that must be stopped here if anybody is to survive. This trilogy takes place several centuries after that when another Ryker seeks to reconnect and save those lost colonies … starting with his own - Azul … where powerful and corrupt corporations maneuver against a benevolent and enlightened monarchy to keep the bulk of humanity enslaved. In fact, Ryker is a Battleborn which are actually permanently indentured soldiers (because debt has and servitude is inheritable) … sort of like the Janissaries of the early Ottoman Empire … and he is not happy about it. Because he is the spitting image of his amazingly near perfect great grand pappy several generations back (complete with the same sense of humor), Ryker soon find himself in a position to do something about it … which of course leads to a ship and then a fleet (how else does a drunken reprobate get promoted to Admiral).

As I said … this is basically the same story as the previous trilogy with a few new interesting details … so the rating here reflects my thorough enjoyment of the previous adventure with only a minor mark down for redundant plot (it still works, so why change it I guess). The main characters are still pretty much Mary Sues, but they are generally easy to like and the snarky comments nearly always draw a smile (if not an out right chuckle). The tech is almost deus ex machina level … but the science was good enough that it didn’t feel ridiculous (which is always a risk when an author goes into this much detail about this stuff … but I am a geek at heart, so I found it interesting). The military tropes were descent… just a tad better than a typical Trek episode (which I am usually am with). The prose is pretty basic without much nuance … so a fair amount of time it was just mindless listening for the fun of it. Over all the series is Much Better

Prequel 1: Chp 0-4 (0:46)
Book 1: Battleborn (4:34)
Prequel 2: Chp 29-36 (1:23)
Book 2: Battleborn 2 - Paradise (4:46)
Prequel 3: Chp 61-68 (1:15)
Book 3: Battleborn 3 - (5:26)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Sunday, May 12, 2024

Review: Natural Theology: Five Views

Natural Theology: Five Views Natural Theology: Five Views by John McDowell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This books aims to capture five (5) current, and competing, viewpoints of natural theology, each championed by a different author. Almost immediately it becomes obvious that even defining what natural theology is always becomes part of the debate and it can seem like each proponent is spending at least some effort talking at cross purposes. In simple terms, it is basically the study of the creator by the study of the creations. The five views stake out positions that run from a maximal view that focuses on “proving” the existence of God and presuming an ultimate good through extension of man’s goodness to a complete rejection of any applicability for natural theology at all (quite a surprise actually). Each chapter begins with a basic premise statement describing the specific viewpoint, followed by a response by each of the other contributors critiquing that statements and ending with a final reply by the original author providing a follow up counterpoint to the critiques. 

Amazingly enough, the exchange was actually very constructive and respectful, without what I have come to expect between scholars on opposing sides of an issue … which I appreciated greatly. In fact, I found it exceptionally helpful in understanding the specific strengths and weakness of each position … having a lot more familiarity with the classical and contemporary positions than the deflationary and Barthian position, it should probably not come as a surprise that I still favor the catholic viewpoint where natural theology augmented by grace can be used to know God, but there were strong arguments from the deflationary viewpoint that emphasized revaluation and experience that connected with some of my charismatic roots … and while I can understand the more calvinist viewpoint from Barth, I found the apparent rejection of natural theology there problematic and overly concerned with an error of naturalism/idolatry with an over reliance on scriptural revelation that for me, borders on fideism. That is not to say that I gained nothing from each point of view, because all of them had some excellent points that highlight the tension and struggle that is perhaps necessary for a healthy faith.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

1. A Contemporary View
2. A Catholic View
3. A Classical View
4. A Deflationary View
5. A Barthian View

Some of the other points that really got my attention are:

For some, natural theology is an enterprise that provides wonderful apologetic resources for those defending the faith. But for others, natural theology is a failed experiment that is filled with theological compromise, weak philosophical arguments, and poor scientific data.

As Alister McGrath notes, it was Augustine’s view that “laid the foundation for the assertion that whatever was good, true or beautiful could be used in the service of the gospel. It was this approach which would prove dominant in the western church, providing a theological foundation for the critical appropriation by Christian writers of philosophical ideas and literary genres whose origins lay outside the church.”

Unlike revealed theology, which may presuppose the truth or reliability of the Christian Bible, natural theology develops a philosophy of God based on observations about the cosmos, pursuing questions about the nature of the cosmos, its origin, and its continuation.

An immediate issue concerns what kind of “goodness” figures in this claim about the explanatory power of theism. Goodness comes in different kinds, such as moral, prudential, and aesthetic goodness; inquirers will need to know which kinds are relevant to the alleged explanatory power of theism. Otherwise, they will be unclear about how, if at all, the alleged goodness of the cosmos fits with the goodness of God.

“The mood of apologetics is assertive, rather than interrogative. The apologist sets out to teach rather than to learn, to prove or refute rather than to enquire, to give rather than to receive. Academic theology, on the other hand, as I understand it, is—or should be—fundamentally interrogative in character. . . . The theologian’s . . . responsibilities are critical, interpretive or clarificatory rather than declaratory.”

God is beyond such categories—beyond, in fact, any and every category.69 Yet, under the broad theological modification that began to occur in the seventeenth century, “God” instead becomes the maximum of being: the apex of being in metaphysics functioning from univocal ontological assumptions and differing from everything only “in degree rather than in kind.”

In other words, Aquinas holds that some theological truths, including the existence and unicity of God, can be known through natural reason alone, but the truth of the existence of the Trinity, and by implication many other teachings of revelation, surpass unaided reason. After Aquinas, these two ways of theological reasoning came gradually to be described respectively as natural theology, and what is variously called theology, without qualification, or revealed theology, or supernatural theology.

Alasdair MacIntyre argues that writers of the Enlightenment believed it was possible to engage the natural world in an empirical, presuppositionless way, so that a natural theology could be constructed independently of “social and cultural particularities.” This project failed, partly because it adopted “an ideal of rational justification which it has proved impossible to attain.”

First, the “god” disclosed by such a natural theology was essentially a creator who had no necessary connection with the ongoing governance of the world (a theological idea traditionally expressed in terms of divine providence) or with the redemption of humanity.

As I noted previously, Newman here warns that the study of the sun, moon, stars, and laws of the universe, while showing the handiwork of God, cannot enable us to know the purposes or the will of God, let alone bridge the unthinkable gap between God and ourselves.

After production, the artifact comes to have a presence of its own, and the imprint is as much a sign of absence as presence. That is certainly not what an apophatic theology means by divine mystery: it is not the darkness of absence abated only by moments of enlightening presence but is instead an indication of the sheer excess of divine plenitude in the thoroughness of God’s presence that can be received only as a darkness of overwhelming light.

Therefore, he explains, “Because white theologians [in particular] are well fed and speak for a people who control the means of production, the problem of hunger is not a theological problem for them. That is why they spend more time debating the relation between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith than probing the depths of Jesus’ command to feed the poor.”

Many Christian philosophers cannot shake the idea that natural theology plays a role in increasing the probability of theism. They hold that the reality of apparent design in nature, of a first cause, or of human moral agency increases the probability of theism, even if it does not confirm the existence of a God worthy of worship.

When the Scriptures refer to the hiddenness of God, or God as hiding his face, the issue is not about the loss of belief in God’s existence but, rather, a breaking or suspension or apparent suspension of enjoyment of the covenant with God. In other words, one knows that God exists, but one’s relationship with God has been destroyed or suspended.

What argument does, at its best, is hold a claim up to public accountability—that is, to its responsibility to test that it is not the product of misdirecting desires. Moreover, it is a communicative act that does something other than simply assert, “It’s my experience, so trust it and me,” and therefore holds off, as well as it can, the potential for ideological false consciousness.

Yet, again, there is simply no common mind on how “experienced” Christians should deal with, and make judgments on, any moral matter—from the generation and distribution of capital, to whether war is ever justified and if so what kind of conflict is theo-ethically legitimate, to how immigrants should be treated, to how to live within a global environment requiring maintenance for future generations, to what role women should play in public society and ecclesial communities, to how to reason about and address issues of poverty, and so on.

I have not claimed that some “Christian texts” are “normative” in themselves. Instead, I hold that some texts earn their evidential value for some people by their unsurpassed explanatory worth relative to the overall experience of those people. Abduction (inference to best available explanation) plays a crucial role here, as it does in justification in general.

This love, in Paul’s thinking, is evidence of God’s reality and presence. It is the self-manifestation of God’s unique character of righteous love. That self-manifestation is not a belief or a theology, let alone an axiomatic belief or theology; it is, as understood by Paul, a feature of a religious experience, and it can serve as evidential support for theological commitment.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Thursday, May 9, 2024

Review: Boneyard Dog Omnibus

Boneyard Dog Omnibus Boneyard Dog Omnibus by Andrew Beery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: ****
Performance: ****

A Fun Space Opera

This is a basic space opera in the same vein as what you might expect from Star Trek … in fact the debt owed here is visible from the frequent references to ST lore (and other 20th century anachronisms design to support the author’s sardonic sense of humor). Over all, you get a fair amount of the typical sci-fi tropes and campy style to be entertaining without going too far. In fact, there are clear cut good guys and bad guys, so character development is pretty shallow, so if you don’t like the humor, this book is not for you. They world building is also not very extensive; however, the science is done well enough that the various detailed info dumps that regularly apparent are actually interesting as speculative fiction (author has done his homework here) and the military structure and interactions is “close enough” not to be totally irritating.

The primary character (Ryker … perhaps another nod to TNG) is an officer of an earth space force that is recruited to head up a battle between heretofore unknown alien races (and various AIs) after a battle crippled ship limps into the Sol system. There are several stereo typical supporting characters, including one Mr Murphy who seems to have a knack for showing up when over our team starts winning; however, the also provides an opportunity for the MC to spout various snarky witticisms and creativity as he works through each setback … in fact, that is really the major part of the fun in this story. There is a bit of a Christian flare to some of the MC interactions and internal monologging, bit it has a light enough touch that it should be fine … although if you are within that tradition, there are element of the story that you might pick up on that others will miss (such as what appears to be a celestial or heavenly civil war between two “ancestor races” (maybe angels) with the bad guys being known as the defilers … doesn’t really impact the story … but is fun to think about.

Book 1: War Dog (5:25)
Book 2: Mad Dog (5:30)
Book 3: Hunting Dog (5:21)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Sunday, May 5, 2024

Review: Engaging the New Testament: A Short Introduction for Students and Ministers

Engaging the New Testament: A Short Introduction for Students and Ministers Engaging the New Testament: A Short Introduction for Students and Ministers by Miguel G Echevarría
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As the tagline says … this is a “short” Introduction to the New Testament … although if there is anything new here for ministers, that would be a surprise. The first three (3) chapters provide some groundwork to how the books of the New Testament were selected (very briefly) and how the order of the books work in relation to each other to provide a better understanding of the whole … with the introduction focused on how this is a different type of commentary (it is not really much of a commentary at all in my mind) to chapter 2 (after the lengthy intro) providing the canonical context and connection to “essential elements from the Old Testament until chapter 3 opens a brief discussion on the interpretive approach that highlights the concept of the New Testament being the Old Testament fulled. It is a completely orthodox approach that even champions a very early Gospel date based strictly on the “prediction” of the temple destruction (despite the consensus being more weighted toward after). Regardless, it is still a pretty solid approach to the New Testament that few christians would oppose as not legitimate.

The bulk of the work begins in Chapter 4 with a look at the Gospels themselves … after a brief summary of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, it dives into each with a section of its own. Each section is organized into a quick analysis of the style and purported intent of the book, followed by a brief outline and overview (with commentary that is focused on the thematic cohorts found there in … making this the largest part of the section for a given book), canonical function (how it fits and the reason for the order within the canon), then authorship, dating and audience (very rudimentary treatment here) before closing out the chapter with suggested resources. All in all, it is well organized and good, if very basic information on the New Testament; although I am incline to disagree with some of the provided exegesis/commentary (my objection is not really that material to the over all message). So … Not only do you get a solid overview of the Gospels, but you also get a pretty good summary of the what and why of Paul’s letters and the rest of the New Testament (including the catholic/universal and John tradition letters) that is largely responsible for how christians actually live their faith … so in that regard, it is actually a good resource to non-christians as well if they are even remotely interest in understanding the scared text of that religion.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

1. Introduction
2. The Canonical Context for the New Testament
3. The Hermeneutics of the New Testament Authors
4. The Gospels and Acts
5. The Pauline Epistles
+ The Pastoral Epistles
6. The Catholic Epistles
+ The Johannine Epistles
7. Revelation

Appendix 1: The Relationship between the Gospels
Appendix 2: The Test of the New Testament
Scripture and Ancient Writings Index
Subject Index

Some of the other points that really got my attention are:

In whatever form it was inherited, Christians were sufficiently aware of its essential contents to discern writings that were in accordance with the normative teachings of the church.

According to Bruce Metzger, “These three criteria (orthodoxy, apostolicity, and consensus among the churches) for ascertaining which books should be regarded as authoritative for the Church came to be generally adopted during the course of the second century and were never modified thereafter.”

Regardless of its anonymous authorship, Hebrews has historically been situated in the Pauline corpus. In the present order, its placement as the last of the letters associated with Paul serves as a link between the Pauline epistles and the Catholic epistles, encouraging believers to persevere in following Jesus into the kingdom, which saints have long desired to inherit.

By the first century AD, there were various translations of the Hebrew Scriptures and recensions of prior Septuagint versions with which Christian communities would have been acquainted. Some were more formal (word-for-word), others more dynamic (thought-for-thought).

In sum, typology opens our eyes to how Old Testament shadows find eschatological fulfillment in the New Testament. We see these in terms of associations between Old Testament types and New Testament antitypes. Most types are realized in the person and work of Jesus.

Mark’s use of Latinisms—such as lepta (two Roman coins, Mark 12:42), praetorium (governor’s home, 15:16), legion (cohort of Roman soldiers, 5:9), and centurion (Roman soldier, 15:39)—points to a Roman audience familiar with such terminology.

Turning water into wine recalls Isaiah 25:6–7, where wine symbolizes the arrival of the messianic age, when God will restore his broken people.

As it stands, Acts provides a canonical bridge between the Gospels and the Epistles. First, Acts shows that the Spirit who empowers Jesus to proclaim the arrival of the kingdom in the Gospels also empowers the apostles to preach the kingdom in Acts.

The placement of Romans at the head of the Pauline corpus testifies to its primacy in the letter collection. In this position, it sets the literary and theological expectations for the remainder of Paul’s epistles. […] He adds, “Not only was it the longest letter, but also it exposited Paul’s theology with greatest detail, showed less historical particularity (except chapter 16), and seemed to provide the final and most profound formulation of Paul’s theology.”

A more contextualized reading of Romans sees works of the law as the boundary markers of Judaism that traditionally distinguished those inside the covenant from those on the outside, such as circumcision, Sabbath observance, and dietary laws. But according to Paul, all that distinguishes God’s people is faith in Jesus Christ.

The Romans are instructed to, among other things, welcome and assist deaconess Phoebe (16:1–2) and be watchful of those who cause divisions among believers (16:17).

The designation “Catholic” suggests that the letters of James, Peter, John, and Jude are intended for a universal audience, whereas Paul’s letters are intended for specific audiences. […] Whereas Paul’s epistles designate the addressees, the Catholic epistles designate the author of the respective letters.

John’s apocalypse is analogous to Jewish texts like 1 Enoch, 4 Ezra, and 2 Baruch, where God “reveals” eschatological events through a series of inspired visions.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#EngagingTheNewTestament #NetGalley

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Thursday, May 2, 2024

Review: Host: Systemic - Book 2

Host: Systemic - Book 2 Host: Systemic - Book 2 by Chris Lodwig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: ****
Performance: ****

A Solid Second Act to Systemic

This book is the sequel to Systemic, previously reviewed here; which, although Host can stand alone, you will get more out of it is you read Systemic first.

It picks up the story some 300 years after Systemic, when the Global AI that controlled humanity went silent … known within the story as the Great Calming. The process by which the AI had been governed in how it “guided” and protected humanity was preserved in enduring printouts documenting how decisions should be approached … and the “System” has been preserved by academics dedicated to that purpose and teaching it to the folks in the outlying villages (aka nodes). As time passes, the new wetware system has degraded, but questions (heretics) about the process as not tolerated (Bridgers). Strangely, for a world that seems to have its initial foundation in tech, it appears to be stuck in an almost Luddite stasis, unable to advance or otherwise change despite its evident on going decline. 

Into this world, we get our main PoV, a young neurodivergent and naive girl (Reyan) who questions everything. This allows a slow reveal/world-building as Reyan struggles to make sense of her world and what her place in it should be … and it helps that she is presented in such a way that it is very hard not to like her. Did I mention this was a slow start? Despite my own fascination with the apparent convergence of IT lingo/slang and structure (I am an IT profession, so that was an easy sale), it is still very slow going at first and relatively easy to put down and come back later until we get past the halfway mark. At that point the action picks up and pulls you through he rest of the story until the end (which I did NOT see coming).

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#Host #Systemc #FreeAudiobookCodes #KindleUnlimited

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My Ratings Explained ...

  • [ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
  • [ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
  • [ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
  • [ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
  • [ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.