October
2008
Theological Perspectives Day Two
The short books I mentioned are:
Bauckham, R (1993) The Theology of the Book of Revelation (Cambridge: CUP)
Laird, M (2006) Into the Silent Land: The Practice of Contemplation (London: DLT)
Wright, Tom (1992) Who Was Jesus? (London: SPCK)
The website on creationism (thanks Becca) is Answers in Genesis. It a well put together presentation of the creationist view.
The section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on purgatory can be seen here. A classic medieval outworking of the doctrine can be seen in Dante.
For Process Theology, have a look at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Dan – the images I used for the slides are from NASA.
May
2008
Notes from Day Two
The quote I mentioned from Eckhart is:
“they do him wrong who take God just in one particular way. They take the way rather than God”.
It is from Sermon 19. Eckhart is a Dominican who lived from around 1260 to 1328. His history is controversial, but his writings are profound.
The Orthodox podcast I recommended is Our Life in Christ. If you go to their archives page and look for Feb 2005 you’ll find a four part series on Prayers to the Saints. The rest of their output is well worth listening to.
Daily Prayers (services for Morning, Evening and Night Prayer) can be found at the Church of England website.
I was asked for some book recommendations on church history. There are very few one volume histories (2,000 years is a lot to fit into a few pages) but I would recommend:
- Mark Noll, Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity
- John McManners (ed), The Oxford History of Christianity
If you want to look in more detail at a particular period, there is an absolutely superb annotated Bibliography here.
For more online on Benedictine monasticism see the Order of Saint Benedict. For Franciscans in this country go here and look also at the Dominicans.
For plenty of historic texts go to the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. You’ll find St. Teresa of Avila here. A good discussion of her life and work is by Rowan Williams called, unsurprisingly, Teresa of Avila.
A good site for early texts is Early Christian Writings.
Finally, I have posted some book recommendations elsewhere for the third years which might also be of interest to you.
March
2008
Following up the Worth Retreat
I have been asked for some book recommendations on the themes I spoke about on the retreat at Worth Abbey. Ever obedient, here’s a list:
On contemplative prayer, I would recommend:
- Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land
- Thomas Merton, Ascent to Truth
On Orthodoxy:
- Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way
- Hilarion Alfayev, The Mystery of Faith: An Introduction to the Teaching and Spirituality of the Orthodox Church
- Dumitru Staniloae, Orthodox Spirituality: A Practical Guide for the Faithful and a Definitive Manual for the Scholar
- Kyriacos Markides, The Mountain of Silence: A Search for Orthodox Spirituality
On Monasticism:
- Michael Casey, Strangers to the City: Reflections on the Beliefs and Values of the Rule of Saint Benedict
- Joan Chittister, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St Benedict Today
- Rowan Williams, Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert
- Benedicta Ward: The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks (Penguin Classics)
On Mysticism:
- Frederick Bauerschmidt, Why the Mystics Matter Now
- Bernard McGinn & Patricia Ferris McGinn, Early Christian Mystics: The Divine Vision of the Spiritual Masters
Classic Texts:
- John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent (Classics of Western Spirituality)
- The Pilgrim’s Tale (Classics of Western Spirituality)
- The Rule of St Benedict
- E. Kadloubovsky & G.E.H. Palmer, Writings from the “Philokalia” on Prayer of the Heart