I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Mark Buchanan. His book Your God Is Too Safe is one of my favorites. I recently mentioned wanting to read soon his last book, The Rest of God. Just a couple of weeks ago, his most recent book, Hidden in Plain Sight, was released. A couple of days ago I came across this brief interview with Buchanan in Christianity Today. He describes the book, based on 2 Peter 1, not as a book about spiritual disciplines that “cultivate our spiritual life,” but rather about the “virtues that are the fruit of that life … the goal of spiritual exercises.” A couple of quotes:

One thing I have seriously tried to avoid in all my writings and my preaching is a sort of formulaic approach to spiritual formation, the paint by numbers way of doing life with God. But at the same time, the ancients have always understood that if you are not pursuing some things in terms of character formation, heart formation, that are rooted in some specific disciplines in terms of Scripture, prayer, and so on, you’re not going to get very far.

All the books I have ever read on spiritual discipline assumed I wanted more of God. And I’ve had to realize I have a Jonah heart. I want to run. I want less of God in many ways. I don’t want God intruding and supervising and breathing down my neck.

This sounds like something I will be able to relate to.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere…

Mark Elrod is posting on Walter Wink’s “myth of redemptive violence.” You can see Part I and Part II (and the discussion that follows) over at his place. Also, if you’ve ever seen Fred Thompson at a Church of Christ, you can weigh in here.

I’m not into teaching religion in public school. I disagree with those who want to see prayer (usually Christian prayer) in public school. However, I found this interesting. Bruce Feiler points out an article in Time magazine titled The Case for Teaching the Bible. It discusses “Bible-literacy classes” that are being offered at a few public schools around the country. According to the article, the number is small, but they are becoming more popular. Here’s a quote:

Stephen Prothero, chair of the Boston University religion department, whose new book, Religious Literacy (Harper San Francisco), presents a compelling argument for Bible-literacy courses: “In the late ’70s, [students] knew nothing about religion, and it didn’t matter. But then religion rushed into the public square. What purpose could it possibly serve for citizens to be ignorant of all that?” The “new consensus” for secular Bible study argues that knowledge of it is essential to being a full-fledged, well-rounded citizen.

I’m sure at some point other religions will request or demand equal time. However, part of the reasoning behind these Bible classes is that the Bible has been somewhat of a foundational text of Western culture, and I don’t believe other such texts can make that claim. At least not any time soon. I’ll be interested in seeing how this progresses.

Another interesting post by Feiler - When Germans were Muslim. He quotes a book, describing some of the injustices German-Americans faced during World War I, reminding him of how some Muslim Americans have been treated since September 11, 2001.

Keith Brenton posted a great piece on hell the other day. It seems that the view he takes here has become more common in recent years (or, at least more people are admitting it that it seems they did in the past.) I’ve had a lot of questions about hell and how it relates to a loving God over the years, and so such discussions interest me.

I suppose I’d heard of it before, but the first time I recall reading about the annihilation viewpoint and actually taking it seriously was through Edward Fudge’s GraceEmail, which I used to receive daily back in the mid-late 90’s. Perhaps the fact that he was an elder in my church tradition (Churches of Christ) caused me to look at it more closely without dismissing it. I’ve now had Fudge’s book, The Fire That Consumes, sitting on my shelf for years, but have never read it. I actually had pulled it out last week, prior to Keith’s post, to put it in my short stack of books I want to read soon.

For even more hell/eternal destination-related posts of late, you can also check out Matt Wisdom’s post from a couple of weeks ago, which is what prompted me to pull out Fudge’s book in the first place (although it is not the same theme as Keith’s.) Also, check out the beginning of what will be a multi-post series over as Scott’s place - Thoughts on Reconciliation: Introduction.

Finally, I came across this site a couple of days ago - Sweet Jesus I Hate Bill O’Reilly. I admit I found it a little humorous, O’Reilly being the clown he is, but I have to wonder about the creators of the site. When you’re devoting so much time to “hating” someone - even if it is a loudmouth, know-it-all windbag - you might just need to get a life.