Book Confessions Meme

Book Confessions

1. To mark your page you: use a bookmark, bend the page corner, leave the book open face down?
Bookmark sometimes, upside down if it won't immediately break the spine. Sometimes I don't mark it all, but just sort of remember.

2. Do you lend your books?
Sometimes.

3. You find an interesting passage: you write in your book or NO WRITING IN BOOKS!
Writing in books? Of course! That's why the margins are, er, used to be so big.

4. Dust jackets - leave it on or take it off.
Dust covers make good bookmarks too, if you take the flap and hold the page with it. But often take it off.

5. Hard cover, paperback, skip it and get the audio book?
Hard covers are nice, but so durn expensive.

6. Do you shelve your books by subject, author, or size and color of the book spines?
Subject or genre first, size and color within the first.

7. Buy it or borrow it from the library later?
I prefer to buy, but that was before I had four kids.

8. Do you put your name on your books - scribble your name in the cover, fancy bookplate, or stamp?
Write my name on the inside cover or title page, the date--and for church books the liturgical date.

9. Most of the books you own are rare and out of print books or recent publications?
See the comment about four kids above.

10. Page edges - deckled or straight?
Straight, unless it's literary fiction, and then I kind of like deckled. Shrug.

11. How many books do you read at one time?
One book at a time, two at the most.

12. Be honest, ever tear a page from a book?
What??? Not on purpose!!

"No Time to Read Novels"

That is the nonsense I saw a pastor write somewhere. That's like saying "I have no time to eat a cookie. I have no time to have a good conversation with someone. I have no time to dream. I have no time to smell my wife's perfume. I have no time to take a long deep breath of autumn air."

I wonder if he somehow finds time to watch the Game. Or the Shows. Or read the Newspaper. Or blog...which is where I read the comment.

123 Book Meme

Christopher tagged me. Here's the instructions:

The rules state that I must pick up the book closest to me and:

1. turn to page 123
2. count the first five sentences
3. post the following three sentences

Here it is, fudging a little due to a fragment, a quote and the end of a chapter:

But he said no Sons, but the Son of the Living God. He recognised the oneness of the Person.

This Father therefore do we pray, that He prepare for us His wonted banquet, His precious and varied dishes, and that He place in the centre the bowl of His holy teaching; and that He may give us to drink of that strong drink which is the mother of sobriety. Let us then cry out to Him:Arise, O My Father, arise O my Glory, arise psaltery and the harp of the Holy Spirit, and the harp of glory and empire for ever. Amen.

(The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers:A Manual of Preaching, Spiritual Reading and Meditation. M.F. Tofal, ed. Vol. 1: From the First Sunday of Advent to Quinquagesima. Preservation Press:New Jersey, 1996)

I tag: Fr. Milovan; Dixie; Scott; Hollywood; and Mason.

Treasury of Daily Prayer Review

Having already taken a first look, I was excited to sit down with my copy Saturday evening, and it was a good experience.

It is a big book not designed for portability, but considering it contains the entire daily lectionary, it's not too bad. The smell is nice, but not remarkable. I do not know much about bindings, so I can't comment on that, though it does stay open well and does not appear to be prone to coming apart with use.

As for content, it is very similar to the two-volume Daily Prayer, edited by Robert Sauer (CPH, 1986), though the Treasury is clearly marketed to more than just pastors, unlike Sauer's volumes. Sauer's does have the advantage of size. However, one major difference with the Treasury is the inclusion of the Feasts and Commemorations in the "Propers for Daily Prayer" section. And this is its chief strength.

How does this work? Take December 4 for example. Under the date the commemoration for John of Damascus (note: no honorific before his name) is included in italics. Next is the Psalmody for the day, conveniently pointed for chanting and a suggestion for an additional psalm. Following this is the Old Testament reading (Isa. 10:12-27a, 33-34) printed in its entirety, then the New Testament reading, 2 Pet. 1:1-21 likewise printed. A writing follows that, and for December 4 it is from the Formula of Concord (XI 13-14), a hymn stanza, and a "Prayer of the Day" which joyously commemorates St. John of Damascus, saying, "O Lord through Your servant John of Damascus, You proclaimed with power the mysteries of the true faith. Confirm our faith so that we may confess Jesus to be true God and true man, singing the praises of the risen Lord, and so that by the power of the resurrection we may also attain the joys of eternal life..." Finally, a brief biography of St. John of Damascus follows and a suggested further reading from the Book of Concord.

When LSB was produced, I was excited to see a fuller list of feasts and commemorations, but until now, there were no rubrics nor resources to use in the actual commemoration of the saints. Now we have appropriate collects and martrologies to read so we can know whom we are thanking God for. It's too bad such materials were not included in the Altar Book, or even the lectionaries.

A resource like this has long been needed in Lutheranism. As others have noted, the book is flexible enough to be used in a number of ways. One who does not wish to flip pages, for instance, could refer only to the "Propers for Daily Prayer" and have a fuller devotional life. Or one could use the propers while using the form Daily Prayer:For Individuals and Families, or Matins and Vespers. If one is feeling maximal, he could even refer to the chart which gives the Psalms for the liturgy of the hours and pray seven times a day. Good stuff, and very flexible for Lutherans is various situations and vocations. It would bring a sea change in our synod if even one third of our laypeople began using this daily. Lex orandi, lex credendi.

Now for the criticism. The biggest problem I see is that in the "Time for Easter" the commemorations are not included in the Propers as they are in the second half of the book. The book begins with labeling the days "Ash Wednesday", "Monday-Lent 1" and so forth. Obviously, it's impossible to include a specific commemoration when that Monday could be in February or March. So the editors placed those commemorations and propers in an appendix. Well enough. But they did not include any collects! Only a reading and biography. Why were collects commemorating the saints included in the second half of the year, and not during the time of Lent and Easter? There is some precedent of course, in allowing days to be privileged, and commemorations to be unsaid. However, I didn't read that this was intentionally done in any of the forwards and introductions. And there is no hint of privileged days in the second half of the book. It appears that collects were forgotten to be included.

Furthermore, it would have been nice if the days of commemorations would have included a reading from the one being commemorated. In other words, why is there a reading from the Formula of Concord on and not John of Damascus on December 4? The editor noted in the introduction that a Lutheran bias was intentional, but there are many, many days where no one is commemorated that could have served for readings from Lutheran sources. Likewise, there are commemorations of saints who wrote nothing that has survived, such as Joseph of Arimathea on July 31. Those dates likewise could have included other writings of the editor's choosing.

Finally, the Orders of Matins, Vespers, Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and the shorter "Daily Prayer: for Individuals and Families" all require this order: Versicles/Invocation, Ordinaries or Psalm, then :psalm/hymn, readings, then collects. For example, say I'm using Matins. I pray the Opening Versicles, the Common antiphon, Seasonal Antiphon (which the editors also call the Invitatory), the Venite, and then the rubrics say, "Additional Psalms, Office Hymn, Readings." But I turn to November 9, and I see Psalmody, then Readings, then Hymnody. Why wasn't the hymn placed before the Readings, so that this section could have been read straight through? Again, every prayer service included follows the same pattern as Matins, yet the Propers are given in a different order. This makes it just a little harder to keep up with, especially for beginners.

These problems are not deal-killers by any means, but they are more than just peeves. Perhaps a second edition may make these corrections. However, for those Lutherans who do not have a devotional life, or one that is lacking, call CPH and get this book. If you go to church here, you'll be hearing about it soon. And when you get it, use it.

The Faith of Barack Obama: A Review

Thanks to Mr. Michael Hyatt, President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, I received a copy of The Faith of Barack Obamaby Stephen Mansfield on the promise to write a review.

It's a slim book--only 147 pages plus endnotes. It's divided into six chapters, the first is biographical, outlining Obama's childhood and discussing the "Is Obama really a Muslim" question. Mansfield makes a presuasive argument that the years Obama spent in Indonesia were not formative for his religious faith. On the contrary, Mansfield, relying on Obama's books, The Audacity of Hope and Dreams from My Father, makes a convincing case that Obama was raised respecting religion without actually having a faith of his own (p. 16). The following chapters deal with Obama's connection to Trinity in Chicago (Chapter 2); his expression of the black liberation theology in his books and speeches (Chapter 3); a slight chapter entitled "Altars of State" (the endnotes call this chapter "Our Civic Religion"), outlining how religion plays out in past and present presidential politics, a throw-away chapter about the faith of Hillary Clinton, John McCain and President Bush, and a concluding chapter which essentially repeats points made above.

All this is to say, while Mansfield's book is well-written and an easy read it is thin. The author does convincingly demonstrate that Obama is no "Muslim Manchurian Candidate." But what comes rapidly to the fore is that Obama's faith itself is slight, is thin, is little more than a tinge of liberal Protestantism seasoned with the black church experience. Obama doesn't seem to believe in doctrine. His prayer life is depicted more as interior dialogue with himself rather than seeking communion or conversation with God. Mansfield harps on Obama's insistence that doubt plays a large part in religious experience and punctuates with quotes from the candidate that equate all major religions. It's no wonder the book is short and thin on substantive analysis: there's little there to analyse.

Toward the end of the book, Mansfield seems to grasp this, casting the this election in larger terms. He writes of the immense role religion has played in public life and policy for the past few election cycles, and argues it is at its peak now. Thus the faith that Obama has of immense importance. Mansfield that the electorate has "before them an opportunity that may, if they choose, be embraced as the path to a new history. It is an opportunity to heal, to take the historic wounds and generational conflicts that political debates are shoving to the fore and respond them in the spirit of the great healers, in the manner of those who whish to fashion a future rather [sic] a short-term political victory.... Indeed, it may well prove that this is the longer-term importance of this thrashing time in our history, just as it may well prove that this is the more important meaning of Barack Obama's presence in our history at this moment." (p. 132, 133).

But removing the overblown conclusion, the inclusion of nearly an entire chapter on the history of Rev. Wright's church and content of his sermons, the entire chapter dedicated to the faith of the other presidential contenders (at the time it was written), and what you have is a lengthy magazine article. Maybe a two-parter, but an article nonetheless. Again, it's not the author's fault so much as it is the subject. The book was bound to be written and Mansfield's approach and prose is fine. What's lacking is the subject.

Fiction Reading This Month

My wife and I have been reading some Dean Koontz novels lately. I had never read his stuff before. I remember some mediocre made-for-tv movies entitled, "Dean Koontz' So-and-So" and was unimpressed. I believed him to be a less ambitious Steven King.

But then I read a profile of him in National Review. Turns out the Steven King connection wasn't just me, but that the press and critics tended to lump the two ueber-successful authors together. The profile piece suggested they were not that much alike. And Koontz converted to Catholicism and has a distinctly conservative voice in his novels.

I now know what NR was talking about. Of the novels I've read so far, none would be included in your Average Christian Bookstore. None would be reviewed as literature, either, though his writing demands more attention and vocabulary than your average mass market paperback. But his narrative voice gently condemns liberal idols and his characters exhibit virtue. There are other slight nods to Catholicism and religion scattered around, too.

Oh, and Koontz has a knack of packing in more conflict and tension in the first 100 pages than many bestsellers have in the climax. It makes a tense read.

The Orthodox Study Bible: First Impressions

Back in December I discussed the (then) forthcoming The Orthodox Study Bible. I ordered the leather-bound version and waited. For some reason it was available from other retailers back in February, but Amazon didn't ship mine until this week. I received it last night and spent a good amount of time with it so far.

Presentation
First things first, it smelled nice. (I'm an enthusiastic book-smeller) I'm also in favor of leather bindings, as they tend to wear better, and I side with the woman with the alabaster flask (Mar. 14:3) when it comes to Holy things. I was impressed with its thickness; it's not nearly as thick as some study Bibles are. But the pages seem very thin, and are a little more translucent than I prefer. I worried that it would be hard to read with the text bleeding-through, but after using it this morning I didn't notice it at all. I still am concerned that the pages may tear, especially if I am flipping pages while teaching. The Bible features some nice color plates of icons interspersed throughout the text. The icons vary a bit in style, being written by different hands and that variation is good.

Study Content
The study helps are excellent for the most part. The introduction provides a short explanation of the text used for the Old Testament and the philosophy behind what kinds of notes and study aids were provided. The purpose of the Study Bible is given too: "The prayer of the editors and contributors...is that is presents an understandable Bible text and commentary to (1) English-speaking Orthodox Christians the world over and to (2) non-Orthodox readers interested in learning more about the faith of the historic Orthodox Church." Following that is handy chart showing the listings of the books of the Bible in both this edition, Roman Catholic Bibles and Protestant Bibles.

An "Overview of Books of the Bible" follows--brief summaries of the books of the Bible. The author of this essay, Bishop BASIL of Wichita and the Mid-America, takes special care throughout to relate the summaries to Christ. "Introducing the Orthodox Church" follows this, a crash-course in Christian History that could be very helpful to many readers. One should be aware that this section is written in a persuasive style, attempting to convince the reader that the Orthodox Church alone has preserved the apostolic doctrine. Fair enough, given the purpose and prayer of the editors. I do think it goes too far at the conclusion, inviting readers of the Study Bible to attend Orthodox worship. At this point the essay feels more like a Gospel-tract, if you know what I mean.

Throughout the text the Bible includes mini-essays on doctrinal topics with generous quotations from Scripture and Church Fathers. In my limited reading so far, it doesn't seem to include as many quotes from the Fathers as I had hoped, but the notes provided seem quite good so far. One outstanding feature is that every Biblical text used in Orthodox liturgies throughout the church year are noted with a special symbol. The notes below the text tell the reader at what service they are read. The effect this has is to affirm just how much Scripture is used in the Eastern Rite liturgy. It's staggering. I wonder if the forthcoming Lutheran study Bible would benefit from doing this. I also wonder if Lutherans could boast of so much Scripture used!

After Revelation the Study Bible includes two essays, the first entitled "The Bible:God's Revelation to Man," written by Bishop JOSEPH, Bishop of Los Angeles and the West; the second, "How to Read the Bible," by Bishop KALLISTOS, Bishop of Diokleia. I've only read the latter so far and found it delightful. I don't recall any liturgical Christian who would object to this essay. Following that is a Lectionary, arranged roughly according to the Eastern Rite Orthodox liturgical year, an Eastern Rite order for Morning and Evening Prayer, a glossary, index, and the obligatory maps.

The Translation
As I discussed last year, one of the great benefits to this Study Bible is that the text of the Greek (Septuagint) Old Testament. So what is it like reading this? I'm not sure at this point, having only read a few short chapters. So far its hard to tell what differs due to translation and what differs due to a different original text. The language is easy to read, the print is good, the notes are helpful, but in some ways it's almost like seeing your house through a mirror; everything looks familiar, but things seem somehow different. After a few months I may be able to share more.


Who Should Have it?
1. Anyone interested in a readable English translation of the Greek OT, used by Christ and the Apostles and generations of Christians since (all the reasons I blogged about before).

2. Those who don't mind receiving some excellent insight and information about Orthodoxy (even at Concordia Seminary we learned vast amounts about Roman Catholicism and other Protestants; the Orthodox Church was virtually ignored!).

3. Those who are using a Protestant Study Bible (such as the Zonervan, Thompson, Life Application, MacArthur, etc) The Orthodox Study Bible is to be greatly preferred, as it shares a similar liturgical, sacramental, Christ-centered reading and understanding of Scripture as Lutherans.

Luther Ought to be Blamed Too?

Discuss:

Heather Whipps
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.comTue Dec 11, 8:55 AM ET

The translation of the Bible into English marked the birth of religious fundamentalism in medieval times, as well as the persecution that often comes with radical adherence in any era, according to a new book.

The 16th-century English Reformation, the historic period during which the Scriptures first became widely available in a common tongue, is often hailed by scholars as a moment of liberation for the general public, as it no longer needed to rely solely on the clergy to interpret the verses.

But being able to read the sometimes frightening set of moral codes spelled out in the Bible scared many literate Englishmen into following it to the letter, said James Simpson, a professor of English at Harvard University.

"Reading became a tightrope of terror across an abyss of predestination," said Simpson, author of "Burning to Read: English Fundamentalism and its Reformation Opponents" (Harvard University Press, 2007).

"It was destructive for [Protestants], because it did not invite freedom but rather fear of misinterpretation and damnation," Simpson said.

It was Protestant reformer William Tyndale who first translated the Bible into colloquial English in 1525, when the movement away from Catholicism began to sweep through England during the reign of Henry VIII. The first printings of Tyndale's Bible were considered heretical before England's official break from the Roman Church, yet still became very popular among commoners interested in the new Protestant faith, Simpson said.

"Very few people could actually read," said Simpson, who has seen estimates as low as 2 percent, "but the Bible of William Tyndale sold very well—as many as 30,000 copies before 1539 in the plausible estimate of a modern scholar; that's remarkable, since all were bought illegally."

When Catholicism slowly became the minority in the 1540s and 50s, many who hadn't yet accepted Protestantism were berated for not reading the Bible in the same way, Simpson said.

"Scholarly consensus over the last decade or so is that most people did not convert to [Protestantism]. They had it forced upon them," Simpson told LiveScience.

Persecution and paranoia became the norm, Simpson said, as the new Protestants feared damnation if they didn't interpret the book properly. Prologues in Tyndale's Bible warned readers what lay ahead if they did not follow the verses strictly.

"If you fail to read it properly, then you begin your just damnation. If you are unresponsive … God will scourge you, and everything will fail you until you are at utter defiance with your flesh," the passage reads.

Without the clergy guiding them, and with religion still a very important factor in the average person's life, their fate rested in their own hands, Simpson said.

The rise of fundamentalist interpretations during the English Reformation can be used to understand the global political situation today and the growth of Islamic extremism, Simpson said as an example.

"Very definitely, we see the same phenomenon: newly literate people claiming that the sacred text speaks for itself, and legitimates violence and repression," Simpson said, "and the same is also true of Christian fundamentalists."

Dumbledore: No Comment

I started to write a brief essay on J.K. Rowling's revelation on the sexual feelings of one of the characters in Harry Potter, from a Philosophy of Fiction angle (yes, there is one). But after several hundred words I realized, who cares? Probably not readers here.

So let us ignore the author's attempts to say more than she said. Let us ignore her mucking around these books that have been written. Let her and George Lucas re-write their great works and confuse what was once clear. Let her opine about the characters she created and drum up controversy. But do let the works stand as written. If she feels she didn't say all that needed to be said, she's either a poor writer or wanting more cash, because clearly the story is over.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Went to the library and picked up some fiction. I don’t read enough of it anymore. Anyway, I got a book of short stories by Philip K Dick, one of the most influential science fiction writers of all time. The book began with an essay given as an address at some University (name and date not given), entitled, ” “How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later.”

You must find this and read it. He wrote this at the time many consider he was mentally ill, and, frankly, it was kind of crazy in places. But he had an interesting theory about typology, the eternal return (the Hebrew version, not of the Baal legend).

Look for more on this later.

Brick and Mortar

I used to haunt bookstores. When my sisters would go to the mall, I’d ride with them. As we walked in, we’d agree to meet in an hour and they would go off to do who knows what, and I’d make the rounds to Walden and B Dalton. I spent hours browsing: fantasy, new fiction, entertainment, religion, history, new age, everything except romance and kids. In my college years I’d browse the textbooks at the bookstore, and spend entire afternoons in Barnes and Noble.

At seminary something changed. Instead of stores, I spent hours wandering the library. In those days you could stumble on a 17th century latin edition of Chemnitz with a pigskin cover and rope bindings…and check it out and keep it on the floor of your dorm room! A few years later I went looking for some of these titles and most had been moved to the archives, where they belonged, but they still had tens of thousands of titles, and I was interested in most of them.

During vicarage in Streator, the only library was public, and despite the Carnegie name on the front, the interior was not impressive. Nor did the town boast a bookstore. But Amazon was coming into vogue, and I had a dial-up connection (not too shabby in those days). However, the hours of browsing didn’t translate to web browsers. Amazon has a fantastic selection, and their recommendation system is excellent. But you can’t pick up books and smell them. You can’t read the introductions, look at the index. Despite this, I fell out of the habit of visiting the brick and mortar stores.

Yesterday I took the kids to Hastings–a small market version of Barnes & Noble, and realized what I had been missing. There’s something about all those titles sitting right next to each other, open, accessible, just begging to be picked up and flipped through. The smell of the place, that booksmell, is intoxicating. Yesterday I spent my time corralling children around, but my imagination was in the stacks and displays. Between saying “No, we are not buying that,” and “That one is too expensive”, I scanned the shelves to just get a glimpse of what was next to cookbooks. In a store, everything has equal value, there are no missing images, no bad reviews, no pages featuring out of stock or out of print titles. If you want rankings, bookstores have a few shelves of the bestselling titles, but the rest of the store is blissfully equal. Sure, popular titles are turned out, endcaps boast featured items, but Graham Greene is still right next to Jane Green, and you’d never know that by shopping online.