Just got back from a restful week's vacation.  One of the most restful things to me is reading, uninterrupted by phone calls, meetings, etc.  Just my family, a couple of close friends, the sun, waves, wind, AND BOOKS.  I don't think I'll rehearse my whole vacation here.  That would undermine the restful and restorative nature of privacy.  But I certainly don't mind sharing with you some of the stuff I read. 

First and foremost was I & II John again and again.  Very edifying.

Now on to the non-canonical (and therefore less usual) list:

Easily the most interesting thing was Michael Lawrence's manuscript for his new book on Biblical Theology and Ministry.  Superb!  Unusual.  Should be very useful for the Bible student, and espcially for the pastor and seminarian!  Thank you, Michael, for serving us as you have in this book!

Other things I got read:

Harvie Conn's wonderful study of The American City and the Evangelical Church (1994 Baker).  Good summary of cities in American history and of evangelicals responses to them.  I'm a city pastor, so I thought this would be good to read. Great intro to the field.

Stephanie Faul's amusing little Xenophobe's guide to the Americans (1994 Oval books).  Oh to see ourselves as others see us!  And to read this in another country was all the more fun.

On a more serious note, Eugene Genovese's The Southern Tradition:  The Acheivement and Limitations of an American Conservatism (Harvard 1994).  Geneovese deploys Marxist and Agrarian concerns about capital, urbanism and individualism to explore American history and society, especially the South. Fascinating.

Christopher Hitchens' The Missionary Position:  Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice (Verso 1995).  Quick read.  He has great style.  His worldview is quite different from mine.  Facts about Mother Theresa I didn't know.  Again, oh, to see ourselves as others see us!

Thomas Sowell, Race, Culture and Equality (Hoover Institution, 1998).  This was a re-read.  One lecture.  A booklet which summarizes Sowell's research in the 1990's.  Fascinating counterpoint to the agrarianism of Genovese.  Cultures prosper that interact with and learn from others.

Callum Brown's The Death of Christian Britain (Routledge 2001).  OK, I had started this one before, and had put it down (which I almost never do).  Picking it up again reminded me of why I put it down in the first place.  His studies of the shift in narratives from the 19th century to the late 20th century was interesting.  Too much detail for my mind untrained in such analysis.  Still, interesting.

Roy Blount, Jr.'s Robert E. Lee (Viking 2003).  Interesting, non-comprehensive , short editorializing on Lee's life and views.  Blount's a good writer.  Lee's life is a study in both uncompromisingness and yet deep compromise.

Ian Buruma & Avishai Margalit, Occidentalism:  The West in the Eyes of its Enemies (Penguin 2004).  This was one of the most interesting reads.  B&M look at the German, Japanese, Russian, Arab critiques of the West.  Similar to some of the Agrarian's concerns.  Interesting to see how ideas spread.  Worth reading.

Bob Schieffer, Face the Nation (CBS 2004).  Just a fun read about a great news show.

Wendy Murray Zoba, Evangelical Christianity (Three Leaves 2005).  Quick intro.

Julie Rugg & Lynda Murphy, A Book Addict's Treasury (Frances Lincoln 2006).  Fun quotations.  Al gave it to me a couple of years ago.  Just got around to it now!

Hemant Mehta, I Sold My Soul on eBay (Waterbrook 2007).  Fun read.  Oh, I want to talk to this friendly athiest!!  Again, the Oh to see ourselves as others see us theme.  He talked about what it was like to visit various churches as an atheist.  I resonated with much of what he said.

Marc Sageman, Leaderless Jihad, (Univ of Penn 2008).  An intelligence analyst in my church suggested I read this to understand the current state of terrorism.  Centrally controlled stuff is being effectively countered.  Homegrown stuff is a threat.  Decentralized stuff is the internet's gift to our future.

And, lastly, and most edifyingly!  Tim Keller's The Prodigal God (Dutton 2008).  What a wonderful job Tim has done in applying this parable accurately to our hearts.  Read and profit, friends.  The point was clearly the elder brother, and Tim applies this to our situation today well.