Baggas' Blog

I always love it when someone puts a name to something I’ve been doing or thinking about for a long time. And now I have a name for one of my common reading habits : Chain reading.

This term comes from a book I’m currently reading, The New Monastic, by Paul Wallis. Paul defines chain reading simply as “that you let each book you read introduce you to the next.” (p24)

This is something I’ve done many times over the years – discovering a new book or a new author from a quote or reference in another book I’ve been reading. It’s a great sort of intellectual journey to go on, exploring the influences behind what you are reading (and I think my journeys have taken me to similar places to Wallis’ character in his book). It’s also an endeavour that is much easier now than it would have been in years gone by, thanks to Amazon.com – however the ease of chain-reading or book-surfing (my own phrase combining book buying and web-surfing – especially where one heeds the “you might also like” recommendations from Amazon) makes for a quite expensive habit that I’ve had to cut down on recently

While I’m on the topic of Wallis’ book, I’ll give a preliminary recommendation. I’m only part way through but finding it very interesting – it’s a “novel” about a pastor’s journey of discovery through different ministries and Christian traditions. Once again, although not a pastor myself I resonate with some of the character’s explorations (albeit on a fairly superficial level on my part). The book stands in the tradition of Brian McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christian” trilogy in that it’s probably best to not read it primarily as a narrative, but more that the fiction is simply the vehicle the author uses to get his point(s) across. And also like McLaren’s books, it makes you wonder how much of it is autobiographical.

Speaking of McLaren, I have his latest book sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, but I’m almost reticent to do so. After finding the New Kind of Christian trilogy and some of his other books from that period to be incredibly stimulating and inspiring I’ve become less and less satisfied with the directions he’s taken in the last few years. From the reviews I’ve seen on the net thus far, it worries me that  with this latest book he might have well and truly jumped the shark. I guess the only way to find out for sure is to bite the bullet and read it… unless of course Wallis’ book sends me surfing off in some other direction.

The book I’m currently reading is by one of my all time favourite authors N.T Wright. I have most of Tom’s books and love the probing, creative, intelligent and readable style. He’s not afraid to ask searching questions of the most fundamental Christian beliefs, yet almost inevitably comes out the other side of his discussions with an even more solid orthodoxy. He is generally quite readable without ‘dumbing down’ what he says, although can be a little dense at times.

His latest book is After Your Believe :Why Christian Character Matters. At least that’s the US title. In the UK and Australia it’s called ‘Virtue Reborn‘ which is such a comparatively lame title. I’m glad I got the US version. For some reason, even though he’s English, the UK artwork and often titles of Tom’s books are never quite as good as the American ones.

Anyway it’s an excellent thought provoking book which walks the fine line between faith and works, between legalism and permissiveness to answer the question in the subtitle – why does Christian character matter? What is the theological and philosophical foundation for Christian virtue?

I’ve found it a little slow going as I’ve just had so much else going on with my work (changing jobs next week), university (Masters assignment due this week and exams in two), family (recently we finished our intense adoption assessment – now just waiting on the verdict in the next couple of weeks), and church (busy leadership team trying to find a new Pastor and keep the church running; also co-ordinating the worship team) – hence I don’t feel I can personally give a coherent review of Tom’s book. I’ve really enjoyed it but it’s been far too stop-start.

Fortunately, another of my favourite authors and bloggers Scot McKnight, has written an excellent review of the book, so check it out here. Well worth reading, both the review, and the book, if you want to have your thinking stretched and your character grown.

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Just discovered a wonderful web site I want to share with you : booko.com.au .

Basically this is an Australian book search engine. It searches multiple online bookstores worldwide and converts their price and postage into Australian dollars, thus giving you an easy way to find the cheapest option. These stores include places like Amazon US, UK, Ca, BookDepository US and UK (which seems to be the usual winner), Borders, Dymocks, Angus & Robertson, Fishpond, TheNile, and many more…

Look below for a sample of a search I did for Be Thou My Breastplate. The cheapest option, at $12.72 (BookDepository.co.uk), was $10 cheaper than the cheapest Australian option at at Borders and just over a third of the cost of the most expensive option (don’t think I’ll be buying my books from Canada eh).

If you’re a book addict like me I’m sure you’ll want to bookmark this site for sure!

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“Don’t invest in things; invest in experiences”

This quote, or something similar, was mentioned by Mark in his message this morning. And what a great piece of advice! In fact I would say this principle is one of the key ideas in how I try and live my life and bring up my kids.

I’m currently reading a great book by Donald Miller, the author of Blue Like Jazz. That book is one of my all time favourites – a book that presents Christianity in a real, down-to-earth, imperfect, not knowing all the answers kind of way. Don has written a few other books since then, but non have come close to catching the vibe of Blue Like Jazz until his newest, called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. A major premise of this book is that we should lives our lives as a story, not just moving aimlessly from one day to the next, but being intentional about the plot of our life and our character development. The chapter I was just reading fits perfectly with the quote above – Great Stories Have Memorable Scenes. We better remember things that happen to us if there is an interesting backdrop, or an unusual experience to go along with it. Making our lives “interesting” in this way requires intentionality, thinking about how we can invest our time and resources to move out of the mundane and construct a meaningful story out of our lives.

I want to make sure that when I get to the end of each year I can look back and say that that year has advanced the story of my life in some way – decisions made, journeys or adventures embarked upon, lessons learned. Life is a gift, and it’s too short to waste it.

Anyway, I’ve hardly done it justice but check out that book – it’s fantastic. And also do yourself a favour and read Blue Like Jazz if you haven’t already done so. Some of the best Christian books this century!

The difficulty I have with Salman Rushdie is that he’s just too good. His magical shorelines, suspenseful narratives, and fascinating characters make me want to just keep turning page after page – but the richness of his prose, and the depth of language and meaning in every paragraph make me wish I could slow down and more fully appreciate this amazing writing. The Satanic Verses, Rushdie’s most famous novel, is no exception to this. He draws the reader deep into the minds of his two main protagonists, where the border between fantasy, reality, and psychosis becomes blurred. For most of the book it’s difficult to distinguish between hero and villain. As always there’s a colourful cast of supporting characters, a constant flow of cultural and literary allusions (most of which went right over my head), and a blend of natural and supernatural, intertwining tales of India and 1980′s London, and ancient Arabia.

I’d still say Midnight’s Children is my favourite Rushdie novel, but this is close. And I can appreciate why this generated much controversy in the Islamic world, with it’s very human and less than flattering portrait of Mohammed and his first followers. But although devout Muslims might feel rightfully insulted and angry with this book, surely that doesn’t justify officially sanctioned death threats against the author? There’s plenty of books written saying things about Jesus that Christians would find blasphemous, but we don’t go around threatening to kill the writers. The Pope never sent death squads after Dan Brown for writing the Da Vinci Code. Anyway I’m glad Rushdie survived to write more brilliant books. If you’ve enjoyed some of his other work then make sure you check this one out, but I probably wouldn’t advise starting with it.

Interesting piece on Slate here about ebooks and the Amazon kindle, a devide we are yet to see here in Australia but which has started to take the US reading market by storm. For the first time, after several unsuccussful forays by companies like Sony, ebooks are starting to get some mass traction.

I can see the advantages of eBooks, especially from the point of view of not having to carry books around, copying and pasting notes, purchasing books instantaneously etc. Especially for students the benefits are potentially huge.

However I’m still sold on the idea of “one-device-to-rule-them-all” – phone, book reader, media player, computer, camera, video recorder etc If only we had such a device so we don’t have to carry all these other things around… the iPhone is the closest we have (although it’s camera/video functions remain grossly inadequate) and there are some good ebook readers available for it. The best I have tried is Stanza, which links to a lot of free and commercial online catalogs to download books. You can also sync with your computer for books you’ve downloaded elsewhere. I’ve found it to be quite usable for novels – quite easy to read and navigate. At present I have the Stainless Steel Rat on there which I am slowly reading when I get a spare moment, plus I’ve downloaded a load of classic literature as well. The biggest downfall of the iPhone for book reading is that it’s small screen makes it unusable for textbooks…

Perhaps the rumoured upcoming Apple Tablet computer will be the ideal device for book reading – smaller and easier to carry around than a laptop, but with full computer functionality (in contrast to the Kindle and other ebook readers) and with a touch screen please! I digress but imagine if they make it so you can use your nifty iPhone apps on the Mac tablet as well, thus bringing the coolness, utility,  and diversity of the App store from the smartphone world to the computer world! Now that would be cool. And I’m only guessing but it probably wouldn’t be too tough on the programmers as the iPhone and OSX are built on the same basic core anyway (or so I’ve been led to believe…) If you haven’t already thought of that Steve Jobs and crew, you can thank me for the idea… (I’m sure Steve’s a big reader of this blog so he’s sure to take notice…)

[take a look at this concept picture.. how awesome does that look. I want that!]

Anyway back to eBooks… there’s still a big big reason why I’m not sold on the whole idea – I love books. And not just the content of books. I love the physical cardboard and paper things which sit in my library and cause me the constant challenge of shuffling them around to make room for new books. I love just sitting in that room surrounded by them looking at all the cool ones I’ve read and have yet to read. I love having a book on my lap, with a led pencil handy to underline useful or witty insights or quotes (still haven’t come up with an effective solution to remember my underlinings though…) I like collecting and hoarding books that I think one day I might find interesting, or fancy well bound ones from the Folio Society. I love big books with hard covers. I love all my leather bound bibles. If I had more time and money (mostly time) I’d be one of those people who likes looking in secondhand bookshops trying to finding classic antique books. If I had more money I’d be buying classic guitars, but that’s another story.

SO the gist – ebooks are a good idea; still need the right device to be released (c’mon Steve!); but will never replace the charm of actual, physical books for me..

I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about India lately, and reading Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance has been the culmination of that process. In fact this book is so vivid and real and gut wrenching that after reading I feel like I need a rest from my Indian phase (though not from the food, of course).

The book follows the stories of four central characters who find themselves living together in a large Indian city in the 1970s, an incredibly corrupt and dark time for India. We are taken deep into their psyche, their past and present, and their dreams for the future, and we are drawn into their pain when those dreams are shattered over and over again. An amazing achievement of this book is that not only do we have these four well fleshed out characters but there is a cast of numerous interesting supporting characters who we also get to know very well. Mistry is a master of characterisation, and even those who at first glance would be entirely despicable earn some measure of sympathy and even liking. The picture Mistry paints (or the quilt he sews..) is not at all black and white – it is a range of colours and emotions, good and evil all washed together, although ultimately it is the darker shades the are most dominant.

A Fine Balance is a brilliantly crafted book that will take you captive on a roller coaster ride of emotions. At the end I was left with a feeling of admiration/satisfaction with the novel, but mixed with a melancholic mood. Big tip : don’t read the end of this book if you’re already feeling a bit down and lonely to begin with… Or maybe I shouldn’t say that… it only makes it more poignant. Don’t let me disuade you at all though, this is and incredibly rewarding and powerful book to read.

Another great book from Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet challenges us to examine the way in which we read the Bible. Taking the obvious examples of the Mosaic law code, Scot forces the reader to acknowledge that no-one follows the Bible in a 100% literal fashion and we ALL pick and choose which parts we follow and which parts we ignore or sideline (these are the “Blue Parakeets” of the Bible that we cage up – if you read the book you’ll get the analogy). In particular Scot looks at some misguided methods of approaching the bible, like as a law book or manual for life, or as a puzzle to work out – these misguided methods too often result in fixed interpretations that become hardened traditions.

McKnight’s preferred method of reading the Bible is to read scripture as story and then discerning how to apply what we read to our lives in our days. In this we are ultimately guided by the Holy Spirit and also by history and tradition, although we should not be enslaved by these.

To demonstrate in a more practical way how the “reading the Bible as Story” approach works, McKnight tackles the issue of women in ministry where he effectively argues that the overall trajectory of the Biblical narrative, and the roles of women in the story, would strongly support female leadership and teaching roles. To this overall thrust we should then subordinate those few passages which seem contradictory and in favour of keeping women silent. While not ignoring these passages McKnight places them within the context of the Story and the cultural situations of the churches to which Paul was writing.

The Blue Parakeet challenges the way we read the Bible, forcing us to acknowledge that this reading is a matter of choosing and prioritising. The reading as Story approach and considering how each wiki fits into the overall narrative, is a good, although not necessarily simple, method of discerning how we are to apply the word.

The Savage Detectives is an original and challenging read. Roberto Bolano is supposedly one of the greatest writers to emerge from Latin America and if Latin America has a characteristic feel then I imagine this book captures it more than adequately – wild, chaotic, revolutionary… stands in stark contrast to the ordered philosophising of the Russian novel I read before it.

The novel loosely follows the story of the lives of two young poets, beginning in Mexico in the mid 70s and roaming far and wide. One of these poets is strongly based on the author himself so you find yourself wondering as you read just how much truth there might be mixed in with this fiction. It’s a challenging novel because  it doesn’t really give a clear idea of where it’s going and what plot there is is presented by a large number of different narrators with different perspectives and who between them manage to leave considerable gaps in the story. Although the 2 principal characters can be seen as representing the “savage detectives” in the end I felt that the term detective could be even more fittingly applied to us as the reader trying to piece together this story, or to the silent, questioning author who compiles all the disparate voices and views represented here.

Because I felt like I was hanging on for dear life trying to keep a grasp on the plot remembering who’s who, the more pervasive themes of the story weren’t  always clearly front and centre. Unlike the blatant philosophy of a Russian novel (although there is a little of that, although always from the characters’ perspective rather than any omniscient author) the deeper themes here are ones that are easier to view from the end of the story, taking a step back from the constant intimacy of the writing. And in this respect that’s a lot like real life too. But deeper themes are there, and The Savage Detectives touches upon friendship, the idealism and rebellion of youth and how they are tempered by age; love, relationships, art and literature. This is a book that I imagine would yield a lot from a second reading, when one is not so concerned with  wondering where on earth it is going to go next. But my time will not permit a re-read any time soon.

It’s quite a raw book – plenty of violence, coarse language, drugs, sex and gratuitous poetry – so not for kiddies or people who are sensitive to such things. But if you can get past all that and you’re willing to go on a literary adventure then this might be worth reading for you. I say might, and present my recommendation with a disclaimer, because I can easily imagine many people not enjoying or actually hating this book, so don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s not for everyone. For me though, it was a thoroughly worthwhile read, and I look forward to tackling Bolano’s magnum opus 2666 which is sitting on my shelf, later in the year, perhaps in my next Uni break.

Over the last week or so I’ve been reading something a little different – some christian fiction. Now there’s two words I usually don’t like to see put together “Christian” + “fiction” – too often that means some pretty trashy, low quality, often dodgy theology content that fills the shelves of our Christian bookshops. But “The Lazarus Effect” is different.

The Lazarus Effect is written by acclaimed New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III and his wife Ann. Ben is one of my three favourite NT scholars, the other two being N T Wright and Scot McKnight. All three write a combination of serious scholarly books and Christian books aimed at the rest of us. And like McKnight, Ben Witherington has his own blog, which is one of my top reads.

Briefly, the story is set in modern Israel, where an American archaeologist Dr Art West discovers the tombstone of the biblical character Lazarus, as well as manuscripts linking him to the authorship of the gospel of John (an interesting proposition that Witherington has discussed in other places as well). A range of characters of multiple religious and ethnic backgrounds get involved as a fast-paced thriller/detective/court-room drama ensues. Despite it’s Christian authorship, the novel is very generous and respectful to those of other faiths. Short chapters and a simple style make this a quick and enjoyable read. I found this novel good to read in short sharp burst of a couple of chapters at a time when I was busy, but also good to sit down with for longer periods as well.

So for a novel written by a couple of Professors in non-literary fields, The Lazarus Effect is pretty good. It does have a feel of a first time effort and realistically is not going to win any serious literature awards, but I found it very enjoyable and a little bit thought provoking. I’d been exposed to Witherington’s ideas about Lazarus before so that didn’t strike me as being too surprising but for someone who hadn’t heard these ideas previously this could be a little controversial and very stimulating. Certainly the authorship of John and the identity of the “beloved disciple” is one of those biblical mysteries that it would be fascinating to discover an answer to. In this novel Witherington provides his answer, and in a most entertaining fashion. Well worth reading.

ob1 has posted a great checklist of symptoms of that serious malady – Bookaholism. If you fear you might be a fellow sufferer, make sure you compare yourself to the list.

There’s no doubt I have a pretty bad case of it (as you can see from my library) but I’m afraid there’s no obvious cure. Anyone know of any B.A. meetings around town for me to attend? …only on the condition that I can bring a book, of course  

Over the past couple of years I’ve been regularly entertained by LaHaye and Jenkin’s “Christian” fiction novel Left Behind. Well actually not by the novel itself, but by the excellent commentary provided by Fred on his slacktivist blog. Over the last few days Fred finally reached the end of the book – a momentous occasion. His post on the final pages gives his usual humorous analysis of the events (or non-events) contained therein, but more importantly he goes back and looks at some of the larger issues surrounding the book and gives his reasoning why this should be considered as the “Worst Book of All Time.”

Somehow it seems a little sad. Although slacktivist is still high on my list of must-read blogs due to his great political, religious and journalistic commentary, it just won’t be the same without “Left Behind Fridays” Hope Fred doesn’t take too much of a break before he delves into the next book Tribulation Force – could this book be any worse than the “Worst Book of All Time”? I guess we’ll have to wait and see…

Just been reading Brian McLaren’s newest book, Finding Our Way Again, which is the introductory book in a series on ancient Christian practices. Upcoming volumes include books on prayer, tithing, litrugy, and one on fasting from Scot McKnight. The focus of this book, and I imagine the whole series, is for Christians today to mine the riches of 2000 years of Christian tradition, and how this can assist their spiritual development and engagement with the world.

McLaren comments that “Christianity is beginning to go open-source” with increasing numbers of Jesus followers willing to fuse beliefs and practises from a range of different Christian traditions both recent and ancient, and often using quite technologically innovative and cutting edge methodology in the process. All of this is quite cool, and is the reason I’m reading this sort of book in the first place.

The problem for McLaren is that he is possibly casting his “open source” net a little too wide, or at least giving the appearance of doing so in this book. For a long time in his books McLaren has liked to push the envelope a little, often winding up in hot water with the conservative establishment, who question his commitment to Christian orthodoxy. In general these crticisms are often a little extreme and unfounded, if you are willing to read his books with the degree of nuance with which they are written. Nothing wrong with pushing the boundaries if it gets you thinking and ultimately results in a more generous Biblical faith. Yet in this book McLaren seems to be going out of his way to trumpet the similarities between the three great “Abrahamic faiths” of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Once again, nothing wrong with a healthy respect for other religious faiths, but in a book ostensibly aimed at a Christian audience McLaren’s bending over backwards to be inclusive to alternate faiths is bound to cause trouble. In one section he seems to imply that the Muslim deen and Jewish Torah are somehow valid paths to peace wisdom and joy, along with the gospel. It makes me want to yell at the guy “Brian, why? Why potentially get yourself in trouble with your core audience making such statements when in reality very few (if any) Jews and Muslims are going to be reading this book?” I still respect McLaren and think he has a lot of valuable insights, but it’s frustrating when he makes vaguely dubious and totally unnecessary statements like this which risk any mainstream Christian cred that he has left. Brian may reply that that’s exactly the point – he shouldn’t be pandering or “preaching to the choir” – but the fact is he would be taken more seriously and possibly reach a wider audience if he was a little more careful about making statements that could be seen as being overly provocative, open to misinterpretation, or verging on the heretical.

These frustrations aside (and they are very frustrating for me, as I still rate McLaren pretty highly in terms of what he has to offer) the bulk of this book is good stuff. McLaren examines church history and the current landscape and warns us to guard against overly formulaic approaches to religion that all to commonly creep in. He reviews the cycle of renewal, domestication, and stagnation that has all too commonly been the story of most groups within the church.

Rather than getting too specific on particular spiritual disciplines or practices McLaren looks more generally at pursuing a humbler, more holistic approach to spirituality, integrating not only specific spiritual disciplines and practices of today and yesteryear, but also ultimately a sanctification of the things we do from day to day. This approach he refers to as “faithing our practices” instead of simply “practicing our faith.” And as a broad roadmap to keep in mind, McLaren examines the ancient idea of the threefold path of purgation, illumination and unity with God (or Katharsis, Fotosis, and Theosis in the Eastern church).

Overall this is one of McLaren’s better books in recent years, and despite my few frustrations overall I found it very stimulating. Even though I have only just finished it I’m very tempted to turn back to the beginning and start again. McLaren remains one of the most original, easy to read, and challenging Christian writers today. I just wish he would be a little more careful to avoid unnecessary controversy and thus allow his valuable insights to be taken more seriously by a larger audience.

Nice start to the working week today – nothing too taxing, keeping on time with all the patients. Hopefully this week should be a little less hectic than last week – not expecting as many babies.

I’m going to start making a few brief notes on here about some of the books I’m reading. I never seem to have the time to do a full review but I’ll try and make some quick, one paragraph comments. Of course, as I realised talking to Jen the other day my reading habit may have to be curtailed once I start Uni in a month or so. Trying to fit in 12 hours or more of study a week will be a challenge, and reducing the amount of time I spend reading other books will have to be one of the first changes I make… So in the next month or so I’ll try and churn through as many books as I can while I have the chance

Two books I want to mention today :

1. The River of Lost Footsteps : A Personal History of Burma by Thant Myint-U. Reading books like this makes you realise what a big world we live in and how there are vast swathes of human history that I haven’t even thought of. Well written narrative history with lots of little stories to keep it interesting. Looks at Burma’s history from ancient times to the current regime. Ordered this when it looked like I might be going over there. I’m doubtful that will happen now but it’s still a fascinating read. Hope to get the chance to visit there one day.
2. Arminian Theology : Myths & Realities by Roger Olson. I’ve been thinking a bit lately on Arminianism and Calvinism and this is not a bad book on the subject. Olson does a good job at articulating some of the core Arminian beliefs and debunking some commonly held myths about Arminianism. Along the way he also takes a few good-natured swipes at Calvinism. It’s a worthwhile book to read but I have a couple of criticisms. Firstly it tends to be repetitive as he examines the theology of a range of historical Arminians from Arminius and Wesley down to the present day. Secondly, although he makes it clear what classical Arminians do and do not believe, I didn’t feel he interacted enough with scripture. This may not have been his main aim but for me it would have been nice to have more written on the Biblical basis for Arminian concepts (like that of prevenient grace, for example) and also a more thorough critique of Calvinist exegesis of key passages. Overall though it’s a well written, fairly easy to read, irenic, and generally convincing treatment on the subject. Worth reading for both Arminians and Calvinists and also those who aren’t sure.

Along similar lines to my last entry about wild west cowboys to be blamed for legalism in 20th century evangelical/fundamentalist churches, one of my favourite bloggers Fred the slacktivist weighs in with his take on C.S. Lewis’ book Prince Caspian :

I haven’t seen Prince Caspian yet, but since it was the “No. 1 Movie” this weekend, let’s revisit what that wonderful little book was about:

Prince Caspian is about beer.

He then goes on to quote Lewis from Mere Christianity discussing this very issue of legalism, especially relating to alcohol. And Lewis, as you may or may not know, enjoyed his beer. Fred’s interpretation of Prince Caspian is that the bad guys (Telmarines) represent excessively legalistic “anti-beer Christians” and the mission of the Pevensie children is to help Caspian and Aslan restore joy and wildness to the land.

It’s a long long time since I’ve read the book, and I’m also yet to see the movie (not sure when it comes out here in Australia) but it’s an interesting take on a classic children’s book. I’ll have to try and revisit it sometime soon.

You can read Fred’s post here.

You know the old taboos that used to abound in Christian circles (and still do in some ultra-conservative or fundamentalist groups) – like no playing cards, no dancing, no alcohol at all, no going to movies etc? Well according to the following quote from a book I’m currently reading, this sort of thing might be directly attributable to the excesses of the American Wild West! Who would have thought that all that stuff we know so well from old cowboy movies could have such a big impact on the 20th century church?

The origins of the dos and don’ts in American evangelicalism go back to the revivals in the frontier days of the nineteenth century. All of us have seen the western movies and the depiction of life in the western spread of the American frontier. The center of town is a bar with it’s heavy drinking, gambling, card playing, and lewd women. As Christianity spread west in the revival tradition, it was imperative for Christians to distinguish themselves from the crude, boisterous, drinking, smoking, dancing, card playing, gambling, and lascivious crowd. Christians, therefore, swung the pendulum to the other side and insisted on a cleaned-up life as a demonstration of a converted life and a spiritual walk with God. In time these outward expressions of a cleaned-up life turned from sin became the external marks of the spiritual life.  While abstinence from wordly practices was a genuine choice of an original generation of Christians, the dos and don’ts became for the second and especially the third generation of Christians an imposed structure of spirituality. The inner convictions that generated the original choice to refrain from wordly practices was lost. In it’s place now stood a legalistic ethos, that is, restraint from wordly practice became the sum and the substance of the spiritual life.

Unfortunately these dos and don’ts oten get in the way of seeing the real ethics of Christian spirituality such as the growth of character, the concern for justice, and the care of the poor and needy.

~ Robert E. Webber – “The Divine Embrace” p81

Ever become aware of a stupid habit you have when someone mentions it in themselves? This happened to me this morning in church where Mark mentioned the habit he has of packing far too many books whenever he goes travelling, even if it’s just for the weekend. I too am seriously guilty of this – I pack 4 or 5 books in my suitcase if I’m going away, only to get maybe one or two of them read.

But what’s worse, no matter where I am, I’m always drawn to look in bookshops and wind up bringing back several more books in addition to the ones I took with me. The last 3 times I visited Uganda I brought back at least 4 or 5 books each time (with the justification that ‘you just can’t buy these books back home’) – one of which was a massive 3kg textbook that I ended up having to pack in my luggage the other 3/4 of the way around the world through another 3 countries! Crazy. I can see one attraction of Cambodia (where ob1 was) perhaps being that there is less likely to be a big English language press there and hence less books to tempt me.

The other stupid thing I do is that I am too ambitious in my choice of reading material for travelling. Rather than picking something quick and light, I have a tendency towards choosing books of serious literary or theological cred, only to find that airplanes, airports and even hotels (especially when the kids are around) are not the best settings to try and tackle these sort of tomes.

So, my take home lessons for travelling readers (or reading travellers) are :

1. Choose fairly easy to read, (relatively) lightweight books.
2. Only take 1 or 2 books maximum. If you run out, you can always buy more along the way.
3. If you’re like me, factor in the fact that you almost certainly will acquire more books in your travels, and accordingly allow room in your luggage for that eventuality.
4. Guidebooks can be useful but I’ve found photocopying the relevant sections to be worthwhile. If you know you are only going to be in a couple of cities in a country, then copy those pages and leave the other 90% of the book at home. That way when you move on from that country you can simply leave your photocopied pages in the rubbish.
5. Taking novels set in the country you are visiting is a good way to prepare yourself for your visit, and might also lead you to reading some books you might otherwise have not considered (for example I’ve read a few excellent novels set in Uganda that I probably would never have read otherwise)
6. Consider books in digital format…. I haven’t done this travelling but a few years back I went through a phase of reading PDF books on my Palm Pilot whilst doing long quiet ICU shifts. I read the entire Dune and Wheel of Time series in that way.  Great for saving luggage space but for me this idea has one huge drawback – it violates my whole “books as furniture” principle – just like I prefer a physical copy of my music rather than a purely digital one, I like having books to hold and put on a shelf. There’s just something about holding a book in your hands and turning those pages that a digital reader can’t replicate. This is perhaps why, although I have 19 different bible versions on my PDA phone, I still do virtually all of my Bible reading in physical Bibles (preferably leather ones that sit nicely on my lap but I’m getting way off topic now…)

Anyway if anyone have any other tips they want to add to the list I’d love to hear them. All this talk, and following ob1′s blog of his travels over the last week has got me a bit “travel sick” (I doubt that’s the correct term but I’m using it in the sense of the opposite of “homesickness” wherein I’m actually seriously missing being in airports and on planes and in strange countries – Jen would say I’m crazy). I’ve got no plans to go back to Uganda this year, since we have a newborn baby and wouldn’t want to leave Jen and 3 kids for 3 weeks or so – plus I haven’t heard at all from them if they are actually doing a Watoto medical team this year.. but if another opportunity was to present itself for I’d be seriously tempted to jump at it…

Well in it’s own way the book I’ve just read attempts to answer this classic question. War is a force that gives us meaning is written by Chris Hedges, a long serving war correspondent for the New York Times. He draws on his own experiences in multiple conflicts including Iraq, Palestine and the Balkans as well as a range of literature through Homer and Shakespeare through to the present day to discuss the devestating allure of war and it’s addictive qualities for both individuals and societies. Hedges peels back the layers of myth and misinformation surrounding war, and exposes the complicity of journalists in perpetuating these myths, and that of the public in going along with it. War has little to do with heroism and it truth the vast majority of people would act in quite unheroic, selfish and often savage ways if thrust into that sort of environment. No-one escapes an experience of war unscathed – all bear the psychological scars of the victim or perpetrator (or often both). Hedges ultimately concludes that the only antidote to war is that of love, but the overall balance of this book is a pessimistic one, and love comes across as a weak flower standing in the onslaught of the hurricane of war.

This is a brilliant book – full of anecdotes and thus a flowing, easy read – and yet at the same time a harrowing, difficult read in view of the confronting nature of it’s topic. The sort of book it would do good for all of us to digest. It will be hard to look at the glamorous news stories or even those old war docos in the same light again. I’m not a journo but I would imagine this should be required reading for them – to examine their motives and their potential to succumb to the addictive naroctic nature of war. Hedges mentions the fate and admissions of several of his colleagues who almost seem driven towards death -  an idea struck home to me last night when I heard a Reuter’s cameraman had been killed in Palestine yesterday.

Once in a while a book comes along that really makes you sit up and take notice and might even change the way you think – this is one of those sort of books. Read it.

[Hat tip to Fred aka the Slacktivist for suggesting this book on his blog, which is one of my favourites - check it out]