Goodbye, Summer
Well, now that school is getting back into full swing, my already marginal summer posting will probably become more marginal (or, if frequent, most likely short). I usually idealize my summers, frequently imagining them to be a time when an encyclopedic amount of reading gets accomplished; and this hope for looking back once summer is over and seeing it as a halcyon utopia of theological reading is often translated more into a picture of me sitting on the couch watching tv the day before school, suddenly realizing that three months have been utterly wasted playing Xbox 360 and Wii Sports (and, on top of that, all I can think about is, not getting back to work, but how much longer I have to be patient until Halo 3 comes out). BUT, luckily, this summer I actually did quite well for myself in the arena of reading:
Jurgen Moltmann Theology of Hope
John Zizioulas Being as Communion
James K. A. Smith The Fall of Interpretation
Wolfhart Pannenberg Human Nature, Election, and History (of course I have to throw Pannenberg in there, and thanks to Halden's good find I am now also reading the brilliant--and short!--"What is Man?")
Neil MacDonald Metaphysics and the God of Israel
Colin Gunton The Promise of Trinitarian Theology (I started reading this two years ago, and finally decided to finish it).
And two books that I haven't finished but were part of my original "to read" list for summer, which I hope to complete by the end of the month:
Christiaan Mostert God and the Future (for anyone interested in learning about Pannenberg without actually reading him, this is a great place to go. The other two that I would recommend are Grenz' book Reasons for Hope, and Shult's book on Pannenberg's methodology--a must read if your interested in Pannenberg at all--The Postfoundationalist Task of Theology)
Hans Boersma Violence, Hospitality and the Cross
With school starting, of course, I'll actualy have to pay attention to my studies (and taking 3rd and 4th year Greek--Syntax and Hellenistic Greek Literature respectively--is already manifesting itself as a time-sink) my independent readings will unfortunately slow. Also, right now I have the pleasure of being in a reading group who is going over Zizek's "The Parallax View" which, at least in the few beginning sections, suffers from fairly obscure language suddenly translating itself into a hyper concrete (and at times, it seems, arbitrarily chosen) example of some inane pop culture reference, or a sudden analysis of high literature, or even a hilarious analysis of the hegelian double negation as applied to sex. As such, my ever growing "to read" list will be processed somewhat slower than I like. If only I had a photographic memory.
Jurgen Moltmann Theology of Hope
John Zizioulas Being as Communion
James K. A. Smith The Fall of Interpretation
Wolfhart Pannenberg Human Nature, Election, and History (of course I have to throw Pannenberg in there, and thanks to Halden's good find I am now also reading the brilliant--and short!--"What is Man?")
Neil MacDonald Metaphysics and the God of Israel
Colin Gunton The Promise of Trinitarian Theology (I started reading this two years ago, and finally decided to finish it).
And two books that I haven't finished but were part of my original "to read" list for summer, which I hope to complete by the end of the month:
Christiaan Mostert God and the Future (for anyone interested in learning about Pannenberg without actually reading him, this is a great place to go. The other two that I would recommend are Grenz' book Reasons for Hope, and Shult's book on Pannenberg's methodology--a must read if your interested in Pannenberg at all--The Postfoundationalist Task of Theology)
Hans Boersma Violence, Hospitality and the Cross
With school starting, of course, I'll actualy have to pay attention to my studies (and taking 3rd and 4th year Greek--Syntax and Hellenistic Greek Literature respectively--is already manifesting itself as a time-sink) my independent readings will unfortunately slow. Also, right now I have the pleasure of being in a reading group who is going over Zizek's "The Parallax View" which, at least in the few beginning sections, suffers from fairly obscure language suddenly translating itself into a hyper concrete (and at times, it seems, arbitrarily chosen) example of some inane pop culture reference, or a sudden analysis of high literature, or even a hilarious analysis of the hegelian double negation as applied to sex. As such, my ever growing "to read" list will be processed somewhat slower than I like. If only I had a photographic memory.
Comments
Back in 2002 my undergraduate dissertation was on Pannenberg and the other book I found exceptionally helpful was Cornelius Buller's "The Unity of Nature and History in Pannenberg's History". None the less, the best introduction and ironically given Pannenberg can be difficult to read also the most accessible is in my opinion Pannenberg's "An Introduction to Systematic Theology".
Its always nice to have another Pannenberg fan around the blog!
The Greek does consume a large portion of time. I can associate with your musings in regards to not having time to read "unassigned" material. Keep pressing forward forward, brother, you are doing great!
Thanks for the encouraging words! I'll see you in class tomorrow (first day back since ive been sick for two days...now I get to try and catch back up ;)
We should get the entire Greek class together (4th yr.), and fellowship over a dinner and a movie. There must be a caveat, however. That is, the movie must be in Greek. I know of only one movie in Greek, namely, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Although, I am sure we can find some other choices. What do you think?
You did well for yourself this summer in terms of reading. Congrats!
@David
Thanks! Trying to keep up (catch up) with you, Halden, and Adam is good motivation ;)