well we just thought that there might be a few more of you out there in internet land who would also like to know what we have been reading, why and which ones have really inspired us over the last nine months, (and which ones we would suggest you avoid). we have also included some 'podcasts' which have also been helpful, along with a daily email devotion which we would recommend to everybody but more of that later.
before we start however can we add that we are no experts, our thoughts are based on things we have found helpful, or not, and given that both our schooling was undertaken at state secondary schools in the 1970's and 1980's (in Buckinghamshire which still had/has Grammar schools) our initial exposure to literature had been quite limited. that said since we've been married our love of reading has expanded and we both really really enjoy exploring new genre some of which will be seen in our choices of reading during this sabbatical time.
more ramblings before we go any further, just to put things into context. the initial six months of our sabbatical were very structured, we were really keen to make the best use of the time we had been given, not only were we keen to travel, but we were very keen to take time to reflect on the past six years, have some restoration time and also expand our thoughts and ideas, therefore our initial reading list reflected that.
you will see the list of books that we have been reading on the right hand side of this page, those that we read first are at the bottom of the list, with the newer books being towards the top of the list. we have taken the time to highlight which ones we have completed by marking them so.
it's really hard to know where to start and how we are going to do this but we suppose you've got to start somewhere so the first book that jumps out at us as we survey the list is a title by Brian McClaren called 'A new kind of Christian', we read this together in Grenada, the weather was perfect and our long summer was still ahead of us. we had known of Brians' work before we had moved to South Africa but had struggled to find it too endearing to us as we served right at the 'coal face'. Brian's style comes across as written by an upper to middle class middle aged American sipping coffee in the local cafe, therefore it was with some trepidation that we had taken the leap to read this book together. however we really loved the book, the way in which Brian connected some wider thoughts around 'church' and 'organised religion' and bought it together in a fictional story, the main dialogue and story line revolved around a pastor and a 'thinker' which was great. we took a lot out of the book and much of our further 'spiritual' reading was taken along the same lines.
what lines we hear you cry, well this is quite hard to put into words without people thinking that we've gone totally off the rails, but lines around a God who might just want to be known to all mankind, all mankind would include those we have often considered 'in' and those we often consider 'out'. further reading around this can be found in a daily email by Father Richard Rohr, a Franciscan monk who is very hot on the topic of 'dualistic thinking'. it would be wrong of us to try to capture what he has to say about this here and any how it would take another two or three blog post to do do that. just to say that we would recommend signing up for his daily email which looks into the way in which the church has somewhat taken Jesus' teachings and made the hoops of 'getting in' little smaller and the outworking of the 'gospel' less important than Jesus originally had showed us.
another author on the list is a guy called Robert Farrar Capon, who has written three fantastic books on the gospels found in the bible, Robert seeks to expand and explore what Jesus 'the Christ', really really meant when he shared his 'parables' with those around him two thousand years ago and whether you consider yourself as a person of faith or not we would challenge you to read these books which basically talk about God's grace towards all men (who he created) and which were written and published in the 1980's but have been somewhat lost (or never recommended to us!).
on a less spiritual but never the less totally fascinating read was the book that told the story of a young american athlete who took part in the 1938 Olympics in Germany, during the war was called up to the american air-force and after being shot down was shipwrecked and then captured by the Japaneses, the book, 'Unbroken' by Laura Hillenbrand, which has also been made into a film which isn't a patch on the book, with it's edge of your seat style following one man's life as he endured torture and almost starvation at the hands of his captors. the fact that it's a true story has meant that this is included in our must reads.
we have both been reading the Bible for over forty years but we'd never really looked at the history and origins of this incredible book. Alexander Shaia's Heart and Mind looks at why the gospels were written, who they were written to and how we can apply their teaching in our lives in the 21st century. this book as a must read for those of you who are living Christ centered lives and we would wholeheartedly recommend it to you.
in fact Tim has taken time to read the great Hindu classic the bhagavad gita which for those who haven't read it includes dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna (seen as a god in Hindu tradition) as he explains about the way we should live and love here on earth. the book captures the essence of 'selfless action' so brilliantly lived out by Gandi in more recent times and reflects lots of our Christian views from an 'eastern cultural understanding' of God as his love for man, whom he ultimately created, each in his own image.
we have both enjoyed reading some lighter books, not in the literal sense of the word!, Tim thoroughly enjoyed reading Micheal Palins 'Travelling to work', Alice in Wonderland was also something that we'd never fully read and what with Tims love of travel and history there have been books about the history of England, the invasion of Grenada and more recently the siege of Malta in the second world war.
Maz' individual lists all seem to be quite hardcore but she assures me that she has enjoyed her times and has fully explored the new world of Podcasts with regular times of encouragement and entertainment by listening to those.
so really that was short and sweet after all but with all we have said the bible has continued to be a place of solace and although our minds are being expanded by other reading it is still a source of encouragement as we step into the new season of our lives. you'll have seen that we're never gonna make itinerary critics but we hope that this short post might have given you some insight into what we have been enjoying during our reflective time out.
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