Friday, March 14, 2014

A list of things for me to read.

Don't feel like writing very much today. So, I'm going to list the things that I'm reading about or thinking about right now:

Ukrainian Crisis: Russia is becoming an increasingly Autocratic state, will it succeed in forcing former Soviet countries to bow to its will, will it get away with annexing Crimea?

Gay people with Bipolar Disorder: More information on people with Bipolar Disorder and how to manage relationships with Bipolar people. Emphasis on Gay Men and their struggle with the disease.

William Stringfellow: Currently working my way through a "biographical theology" of William Stringfellow titled An Alien In A Strange Land, by Anglican theologian Anthony Dancer. Interested in the possible tie ins between his concept of the "powers" with Christian Quaker theology.

Here are some books I'll be reading in the near Future:

Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas. Been avoiding this book since my split with my old Church. Now that the pain isn't as raw, I'm not as opposed to reading conventional evangelical fare, even if I don't agree with a few things.

Love Wins, by Rob Bell. Another book I haven't read in a while. This because it advocates Universal Salvation, a concept I'm theologically opposed to. But I''m a big Rob Bell fan. And who knows, his insightful understandings may convince me of such a theology, though I don't think it answers the question of free will and coercion very well.

Hammarskjold: A Life, by Roger Lipsey. A great new Biography of one of my personal heroes: UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold.

Motherland, by Lesley Chamberlain. A book about the philosophical history of Russia, I bought it when trying to understand the Russian mind in light of the Anti-gay laws, but never got around to it. The invasion of Crimea by Putin and the Rhetoric surrounding it as well as its popularity in Russia has pushed the book back on my  to read list.

Portrait in Gray: A Short History of the Quakers and Reasons for Hope, by John Punshon.
As a new Quaker, I'm still trying to find the version of it that fits my understanding of what it means to be a Follower of the Way of Jesus Christ.  John Punshon's perspective seems to me to have much to commend it. So I'm reading his history of and vision for the future of Evangelical Quakerism to see to what extent our theological perspectives gel.

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