[June 26 UPDATE:] Things I'm Working On

Sometime in the future, watch for posts on the following:

* Reading Johnson's Consider Jesus. Will be working on the appropriateness of labeling a Christology 'ascending,' and the proper place of feminist-theological thought and liberation-theological thought in Christianity. Almost done with this now.
* Reading an anthology of feminist essays called Yes Means Yes which a friend lent me. Judging from what I've read so far, I'll be thinking on the degree of conflict between the traditionally (and accurately) defined virtue of chastity, and feminist thought about sexuality. Definitely finished this and some posts have been made. Two to come, one on consent and one on sexuality and fatness.
* Finishing The Shack. It's not the best book ever written, but it is a book that's had an impact, particularly on my family, and so many people are decrying it as worse than it is. Finished it now. Two-sentence review: (1) If you're reading it naively and taking it theologically, you're reading it wrong. (2) Whether you're a foe or a fan, quit reading it wrong. Going to do an "NATT" on this.
* Reading Stuff Christians Like. Not sure if this one will get an "NATT" post, but either way I can say that I highly recommend this book. I actually don't know where my copy is or when it'll get done.
* Reading the documents of Vatican II. It seems clear to me that somewhere in wording, interpretation or implementation, something went wrong with this council. The question is "what, exactly?" I'm going to try and see if I can spot anything that may have gone wrong in that first part--in the way that the council documents were worded. I'm never going to be a Traditionalist, but the myriad objections of both Traditionalism and more mainstream Roman Catholic conservatism (especially with respect to implementation), as well as the way that persons on both sides of many political issues have taken upon themselves a right to dissent where the teaching strikes as much more essential than they want it to be...I'm smelling multiple rats, here.
* Finishing Deming's Paul on Marriage and Celibacy. It'll be interesting, mostly I think in terms of what the relationship of the idea of a celibate priesthood, especially in the early Church, might be to the Stoic-Cynic marriage debate.

Recommended Reading (Dan's Take)

Recently we at KBT (mostly me, but not without any input) have revamped the links. They're now categorized as recommended reading and fun links. Austin and I both read Buttersafe and play DF, so both of those are in fun links. Recommended reading is an amalgamation of our old links. I must confess I didn't feel comfortable as a Catholic linking to CARM or Monergism.com, which is why those were removed. I suppose I could also have linked to Catholic Answers, but that would have struck me as obnoxious on my part to do, perhaps more-so than the removal of the other two. However we did reach mutual agreement on linking to specific thinkers within sub-traditions rather than websites that more explicitly promote some sub-tradition or another. The new recommendations list is pretty balanced in terms of where exactly in Christendom the thinkers hail from, and after some conversation with Austin I've added John Piper's 'Desiring God' blog. I haven't actually bugged Mike yet to see if he's got stuff to add.

My linking to these sites doesn't constitute any necessary endorsement of the specific ideas contained or preached therein. It definitely doesn't mean that I endorse as Catholic everything said on any of these websites, even the ones labeled "Catholic." What it does constitute is my general endorsement of those who do the main writing on those sites, as thinkers, and my good faith that they all endeavor to seek the Truth.

If anyone who runs these sites happens to see this list, and I've got their tradition wrong, they should tell me so I can correct it.

So here's the list, as I've currently got it composed (Austin or Mike might add stuff later):

* A Minor Friar (Catholic) - Fransiscan Brother Charles reflects on lots of things.
* Alexander Pruss (Catholic) - Thomistic philosopher who writes about just about everything, it seems.
* Amateur Theological Musings (Catholic, really Theological Musings from an Amateur) - Interesting musings on theology and philosophy; this kid could be huge in the future.
* Catholic and Enjoying it (Catholic) - Mark Shea, an interesting fellow.
* Dangerous Idea (Arminian Evangelical) - Victor Reppert, who asks lots of interesting questions about everything and is a big proponent of Lewis's Argument from Reason.
* Desiring God (Reformed Evangelical) - Headed by John Piper, a bigger reformed blog. I must admit I didn't pay much attention to Piper, but having read a little of his blog and watched some videos, I'm pretty impressed.
* John Meunier (United Methodist) - If you read only one UMC small minister's blog a day, make it this one. John waxes awesome on everything from whether Wesleyans are Wesleyan, to the internal politics of the church, to Rob Bell.
* Mere Orthodoxy (??? Evangelical) - How can you not love a blog that takes its name from a combination of Lewis's Mere Christianity and Chesterton's Orthodoxy? Theologizing on everything over here.
* Mouw's Musings (Reformed Evangelical) - Richard Mouw of Fuller Theological Seminary doesn't update ultra-often, but I find he is almost always worth the read.
* Parableman (Reformed Evangelical) - Jeremy Pierce is a philosophical grad student who asks interesting questions about lots and lots of things, from how we read texts (including Biblical texts) to philosophy of race.
* Sola Nobilitas Virtus (Catholic) - Kev Johnston often posts videos of Milton Friedman or people falling hilariously, but when he gets thinking, he gets thinking. He and I certainly disagree as to whether he gets it right from a Catholic or Christian standpoint, but he gets a lot of it right.

One last thing. I do not make this promise for Austin or Mike, but everything in the recommended reading list also goes in my RSS Feed Reader, with the intent that I read all of it, pretty much post-for-post.