More new titles of interest in the library:

Michael D. Bush, This Incomplete One: Words Occasioned by the Death of a Young Person (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006). A moving compilation of funeral and grave-side messages given on the occasion of the untimely death of a younger person, this short work includes contributions by sixteen different authors ranging from Karl Barth (upon the death of his own son) to Jonathan Edwards. Nicholas Wolterstorff’s foreword commends the editors choices in saying,

Michael Bush, the editor, could have found many sermons preached by Christian pastors at the funeral of a child that are not authentically Christian — sub-Christian sermons, pseudo-Christian, barely Christian. He has done a great service by culling out these authentically Christian, grief-laden hope-affirming sermons. [p. x.]

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Paul Johnson, Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney (New York: HarperCollins, 2006). If you have a taste for art, music, or literature, then you may find this book of interest. It describes the creative genius in the life and work of people such as Albrecht Durer, J. S. Bach, and Jane Austen, and concludes by saying, “All creators agree that [creating] is a painful and often a terrifying experience, to be endured rather than relished, and preferable only to not being a creator at all.” [p. 286] While not a Christian work, this book provokes reflection on the imago Dei in the human’s ability to create, whether by visual art or written expression. Plus, I just plain like Durer. The art in this blog’s header is by Durer.

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William E. Mann, ed., The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Religion (Malden, MA / Oxford, UK: 2005). All the topics you would expect to discuss in a typical philosophy of religion class at a typical university are addressed here. From Part I: The Concept of God, which covers omniscience, time, freedom, eternality and immutability, among others), through Part II: The Existence of God, which covers the ontological, cosmological, and design arguments as well as in introduction to theodicy, Part III: Religious Belief, and Part IV: Religion and Life, this book is clear and a relatively easy-to-read representation of the contemporary discussions of these issues. Just ask Wolterstorff. He loves it (see blurb on back cover).

Popularity: 28% [?]

At the behest of Russ (who himself has a blog, but, alas, I know not where), our resident computer genius, and in response to his passing chastisement concerning the recent inactivity here at CommonPlaces, I  give you these new and interesting book acquisitions in the library:

Nancy Kalikow Maxwell, Sacred Stacks: The Higher Purpose of Libraries and Librarianship (Chicago: American Library Association, 2006). Much of this book is pure drivel. It is, after all, a product of the ALA. The second chapter, however, was really quite interesting: Librarians Perform Sacred Functions. I came to be a librarian after several years of pastoral ministry, and so I found this chapter’s comparisons of librarians and clergy to be rather interesting (dare I say “insightful?”). That most clergy and librarians are INFJ in personality type is understandable. As is the comparison of librarians with ministers, especially in my context at a theological seminary. I was intrigued by her discussion of “Librarians as Respected Priests,” “Librarians and Receivers of Confessions,” “Librarians as Seers and Gurus,” and “Librarians as Magicians.” She obviously attributes way too much secular religiousity to the vocation of librarianship. Her points about libraries promoting community and transmitting culture to future generations, however, are extremely valid points. But perhaps the author goes a bit far in comparing librarians with “Ascetic, Self-Sacrificing Monks.” Oh, and it wouldn’t be an ALA product without “Librarians as Prophets for Social Justice.”

Charlotte Kroeker, ed., Music in Christian Worship: At the Service of the Liturgy (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2005). I mention this book only in order to recommend the first chapter, “Thinking About Church Music,” by the recently retired Nicholas Wolterstorff from Yale University. Wolterstorff’s philosophical argumentation usually goes way over my head, but I found this chapter to be particularly clear. His discussion of “fittingness” in musical style is especially helpful. Though I may not agree with all that he has to say here (I am, however, still chewing on much of it), it is refreshing to read something substantive and objective on the issue. And not by a Southern Baptist with a church to grow.

Ryan K. Smith, Gothic Arches, Latin Crosses: Anti-Catholicism and American Church Designs in the Nineteenth Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006). Just plain interesting.

Roger Homan, The Art of the Sublime: Principles of Christian Art and Architecture (Ashgate, 2006). For when you are feeling like you need more culture in your life.

The Classical Good CD & DVD Guide, 2006 is a 1400+ page book of over 3000 reviews of Classical music CDs currently available. Really quite good.

Popularity: 25% [?]

New and forthcoming books of interest:

I. Philosophy

• Taking Ourselves Seriously and Getting It Right. Stanford Univ Press, Nov. 2006. Based on the 2004 lectures at Stanford, this book seeks to reflect on humans’ ability to genuinely reflect on themselves and their actions by contrasting the ideals of rationality and love. I include it because it might make for an interesting and probably highly contrasted comparison with John Calvin’s Institutes which also begins with knowledge of the self.

II. Religion

• Holyland U.S.A.: A Catholic Ride Through America’s Evangelical Landscape. The observations of a self-proclaimed Roman Catholic who becomes an editor for the United Bible Society, thus immersing him in Evangelical (loosely defined ??) culture.
• Christianity and the Transformation of the Book: Origen, Eusebius, and the Library of Caesarea. Belknap: Harvard Univ, Nov. 2006. An in-depth and “thoroughly researched” treatise about the impact early Christian scholars had on the formation of books as we know them today.

III. Culture

• The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness. More than just a book for tech geeks, this analysis of the development of the iPod discusses everything from the iPod’s edgy design to the culture of detachment that results from listening to the iPod in public places. The chapters are “shuffled” so that the order of chapters in your copy may differ from that in my copy.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Commonplaces were a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They were essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: medical recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas. Commonplaces were used by readers, writers, students, and humanists as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts they had learned. Each commonplace book was unique to its creator’s particular interests. See the wikipedia article.

So it’s about time I begin commonplacing.

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Music:

• This post over at the Colossians Three Sixteen blog proffers some of the musical highlights thus far in 2006.
• Remonstrans has great things to say about the Kyiv Seminary Choir, especially track 21: “O Ye Apostles from All Parts.”  You can listen here.

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Literature: I wait with eager anticipation the arrival of the next issue (20:3) of the Oxford University Press journal Literature and Theology, in which Simon Marsden authored an article entitled “‘Vain are the thousand creeds’: Wuthering Heights, the Bible and Liberal Protestantism.” He abstracts the article:

This essay reconsiders Emily Brontë’s place within the theological history of the early nineteenth century. I argue that there is a complex system of biblical hermeneutics embedded within the narrative of Wuthering Heights. In the first part of the essay, I locate Brontë within the key theological and denominational contexts of her family life. In the second part, I offer a comparative reading of Wuthering Heights and Friedrich Schleiermacher’s The Christian Faith and argue that Brontë’s use of the Bible is founded upon a liberal hermeneutic that privileges personal, intuitive experience of the divine over traditional canonical authority.

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Art: September 30 is “Museum Day”, when museums across the United States will open their doors to the public, free of charge. To find free museums in your area, go to the Smithsonian Magazine page here.

Popularity: 6% [?]