Finished reading: Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation by Jonathan Lear 📚

A profound meditation on Plenty Coups, the Crow, and the moral psychology of radical hope when despair seems all but inevitable. Lear is to be commended for creatively and sympathetically approaching his subject, all the while drawing out the broader implications that Plenty Coups' experience might have for us all. I couldn’t resist considering the overlap between Lear’s conception of “radical hope” and the biblical understanding of hope.

Finished reading: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller 📚

This one had my name all over it from the start: post-apocalyptic science fiction that weaves in religious concepts—and written by an author with a firm grasp of theological language. (It has been described as “feudal futurism” for crying out loud!) This edition from The Folio Society contains some arresting illustrations:

Finished reading: Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer 📚

A spiritual classic. As with so much related to Bonhoeffer’s life and writing, Discipleship is more subtle and interesting than the oft-quoted lines might suggest. He’s not the first to explore this connection, but I found his treatment illuminating re: the connection between the first disciples following the incarnate Christ during his earthly ministry and our following of Christ now through baptism and incorporation into his body, the visible church-community. I’d like to compare what he says about the visible church-community in Discipleship with what he says in Life Together.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

In Christ’s incarnation all of humanity regains the dignity of bearing the image of God. Whoever from now on attacks the least of the people attacks Christ, who took on human form and who in himself has restored the image of God for all who bear a human countenance. In community with the incarnate one, we are once again given our true humanity. With it, we are delivered from the isolation caused by sin, and at the same time restored to the whole of humanity. Inasmuch as we participate in Christ, the incarnate one, we also have a part in all of humanity, which is borne by him. Since we know ourselves to be accepted and borne within the humanity of Jesus, our new humanity now also consists in bearing the troubles and the sins of all others. The incarnate one transforms his disciples into brothers and sisters of all human beings. The “philanthropy” (Titus 3:4) of God that became evident in the incarnation of Christ is the reason for Christians to love every human being on earth as a brother or sister. The form of the incarnate one transforms the church-community into the body of Christ upon which all of humanity’s sin and trouble fall, and by which alone these troubles and sins are borne.

Crossed the ten-mile threshold for the first time last night! (my knees are sore this morning)

Finished reading: 8 Hours or Less by Ryan Huguley 📚

I usually avoid this kind of book like the plague, but I actually found it really useful. I don’t think I’ll get my prep down to eight hours any time soon (or probably ever). Even so, Huguley’s book is mainly helpful in providing a weekly process for sermon writing.