Answering Your Questions - Part Three

My father tells an old political joke whose punchline is an old lady saying, “Oh, I never vote. It only encourages them.”

This is pretty much the same reason you should never ask a blogger questions about herself.

But you did. You asked me a bunch of questions and now I have an excuse to tell you all about my opinions, bloviating until my vanity threatens to absorb the universe.

I think you should feel a little guilty.

Happy Geek asks: What do you see yourself doing in 15 years?

I try very hard not to think about this because I am terribly afraid that 1) I will still feel crushed under the weight of student loans and 2) I will still not have anything published. If I can ever get over my own paralyzed perfectionism, I would dearly love to make some small amount of money by writing.

Maybe even enough to pay off my student loans.

Rebecca asks: I want to read some good theological books this winter but everything I pick up is a) boring or b) dumb. Knock my socks off, oh smart one! Recommend some books for me!

Okay. I will assume you mean any book on the general subject area of God. Here are a few suggestions:

Tikva Frymer-Kensky In the Wake of the Goddesses Twenty years ago, a number of popular feminists were making use of ancient near eastern mythology, claiming its goddesses were more empowering for women than the dreadful, recriminating God of monotheism. Frymer-Kensky, a Jewish feminist biblical scholar with expertise in ancient near eastern history, ably demonstrated that such claims were nonsense. She showed that goddess mythology served to maintain the (lousy) ancient status quo for women, and that monotheism offered a much more profoundly freeing theological environment for women.

Her books might be a little bewildering or offensive for readers who have only ever read the Bible through evangelical eyes, but if you are looking for a perspective from mainstream scholarship that still finds reason to respect and value the Bible, this is a good place to start.

Dorothy L. Sayers Mind of the Maker This is Sayers’ exposition of the Trinity. Drawing loosely on Genesis 1, Sayers uses the human creative process as a metaphor to understand the nature of the Creator, in whose image we are, after all, created. This was the first thing I ever read that really brought home to me how I could be praying to one God in three persons. If you never engage in any creative work, the metaphors might not mean much to you, but even with my limited attempts at writing, I found it extraordinarily useful.

Charles Williams The Descent of the Dove Once as an undergraduate, I was browsing my college library’s fiction section and I picked up a book called All Hallows’ Eve. The preface was written by T.S. Eliot, and it was full of praise for this brilliant author, Charles Williams. I took the book back to my room and tried to read it. I read the same twenty pages over three times before I finally understood that the main character of the novel was dead.

That book started a lifetime of reading Charles Williams. His books are NOT easy reading. They always stretch my brain, sometimes uncomfortably. His Descent of the Dove is a church history, written with the unusual goal of showing how the Holy Spirit has used events and individuals in the history of the Church. It is full of assumptions about his readers’ education that almost no one can live up to nowadays. It is full of Williams’ oddities of language, requiring a reader to dissect every word to understand him. Reading this book is like intentionally giving yourself a spiritual headache. But I love it.

If you decide to try Descent of the Dove, you might want to keep Wikipedia handy. You will need to look up a lot of words. I did.

Karl Barth Evangelical Theology The twentieth century’s greatest theologian wrote one book in English. This is it. It is short. It is a distillation of his most profound beliefs. It is inspiring and difficult. When I was in college, evangelicals tended to look down on Barth as a heretic. I think that has changed, somewhat. Once I read this book, I never really understood how it got started in the first place.

Once Barth was asked to sum up the most important elements of his theology in a few words, and he famously responded, “Jesus loves me, this I know For the Bible tells me so.” So maybe you don’t need to read the book; you can just sing the song. But the book has had a great influence on me.
Anne LaMott Traveling Mercies LaMott is vulgar and smarmy and annoyingly political and occasionally condescending, but she is also funny and honest and clever and absolutely certain of this one thing: Jesus saved her. This is her spiritual autobiography, and even though parts of it make me sad, I am always impressed with the joy she expresses in her certainty that Jesus changed her life and transformed her soul. Her faith shines through this book.

I would skip this book if, say, you can’t handle watching R-rated movies. But if, on the other hand, you think Christians are weird and arrogant and you wonder why they can’t explain themselves using words like normal people, you might really dig Traveling Mercies.

Those books are all pretty standard recommendations from me, so Rebecca’s question has made me realize I need to catch up on some reading so I have newer books to suggest when people ask.

Wow. That was work. Okay. One more question.

JulieC asks: What are your favorite historical events/eras to read about? What kinds of music are your favorites? Any styles you really despise?

My degrees are in ancient near eastern history, but if I am reading history just for personal interest, I am most likely to read about Anglo-Saxon England, American slave narratives, polar exploration or 18th century science. I don’t know why those particular things engage me, but those are the books that catch my eye.

I don’t get to listen to much music because of the kids. I am a country and bluegrass fan. I love Alison Krauss. I also like classic vocal jazz, like Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington and Blossom Dearie. As for music I despise, I think I mentioned that once. Ah, yes, here it is.

Have you noticed that I’m saving some of the hardest questions for last? I’m looking at you, Bub and Pie. More answers tomorrow and the next day. We’ve got a ways to go.