So I’m continuing my preparations for next spring’s trip to the Holy Land, by doing some additional reading related to biblical, and specifically, New Testament, traditions.
But before I get to those I want to send a shout out to my friend Kathy Escobar, who co-pastors our church, The Refuge. Kathy just had another book published, and it could prove to help a lot of folks. It’s called Faith Shift: Finding Your Way Forward When Everything You Believe is Coming Apart. I got to read an early draft of a few chapters, and can’t wait to read through the final version. Way to go, Kathy!
Anyway, this month, here’s what I read or researched:
- In the Time of the Nations by Emmanuel Levinas — I’m not a philosopher, but I admire a number of philosophers or philosophically minded writers. Levinas is one of them. This book is a great primer on the many and varied literary sources of Jewish tradition.
- Daily Life in Palestine at the Time of Christ by Henri Daniel-Rops — I had to dig into my archives to review this one, but it’s proving well worth the effort in helping me understand the context of the Gospels and the New Testament.
“No proud nation has ever suffered subjection patiently…” (p. 76)
- The Search for the Twelve Apostles by William Steuart McBirnie — Offers a summary of research on the extra-biblical lives of the twelve disciples-turned-apostles who followed Jesus in the first century. I like it when scholarship has to sifts legend from history, and when it acknowledges that it’s impossible to tell the two apart.
- The Iron Lance by Stephen Lawhead — A crackerjack of a novel about the first Crusade and a search for holy relics from the life of Christ.
