Every Friday I’m posting links to things I’ve read this week that I think you might find interesting too –

Last week may have seemed a little heavy and theological, but I was amidst a kids camp so I think my rest and retreat from the joyous chaos that surrounded me was the heavy stuff.

• Its winter here in South Africa, but going online makes you realise how much editorial voice comes from the north and therefore shouts with one voice – “it’s summer”, well it’s not here but it has certainly been the most tepid winter of the last 5 years so thats something be grateful for and Flickr have put together some beautiful summer pictures that if I get close enough to the fire, can make me remember how summer feels.

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• My favourite author, Marilynne Robinson, was interviewed in the Paris Review here, but Scot McKnight captured this response via Jesus Creed

INTERVIEWER
Do you feel like there’s something you’ve missed out on in life?
ROBINSON
There’s always something that I feel I’ve missed. I should travel more, for instance. I went to Paris last fall, which was a great departure for me. I flew Air India, which in itself was quite remarkable. I had a lovely time in France and I thought, I should do this more often. But then I come home and I think, I have all of this work to do. Look at all of these books I haven’t read. Frankly, you get to a certain point in your life where you can do unusual things with your mind. So then, I think, do them.

I’ve only been able to make a single convert to Robinson’s writings, Issac (which is maybe why I had him write here!). If you have read her books, the whole interview here is well worth your time.

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• I’ve never been a particularly committed protector of the societal sanctity of Sundays, I agree with sabbath as a gift to be celebrated by Christians, but Giles Fraser in the Guardian makes some good points for why the stories that are forming us and calling us to leave Sundays as special on the side of the road.

For nothing, absolutely nothing, must get in the way of shopping and our ever increasing productivity. Instead of all those tedious family gatherings, we should be out there buying more things we don’t need with money we don’t have. A day of rest? God, no! We must be turning those wheels of finance, building those pyramids, getting into more debt.

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• Three things conservatives can learn from Rudolf Bultmann, from theologues was an interesting read this week. I’m more and more convinced that our minds are renewed through reading people we disagree (or think we will disagree with) than reading more articulate people confirm our own bias’.

1. The Bible is a lot stranger than we would like
2. Theology is essentially eschatology
3. All theology is essentially translation

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• Brett Jordan always features and editorialises news I would otherwise miss – ‘Danish windfarms power the entire country and pass the surplas to Norway and Germany’;

On an unusually windy day this July, Denmark found itself producing 116% of its national electricity needs from wind turbines yesterday evening. By 3am on Friday, when electricity demand dropped, that figure had risen to 140%.

Interconnectors allowed 80% of the power surplus to be shared equally between Germany and Norway, which can store it in hydropower systems for use later. Sweden took the remaining fifth of excess power.

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• Malcolm Guite wrote a sonnet for the feast of St. Benedict (the one who wrote the Rule), which is still one of the best practical works on humility I’ve ever read.

On July the 11th the Church celebrates the feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, the gentle founder of the Benedictine order and by extension the father of Monasticism. A moderate and modest man he would have been astonished to learn that his ‘simple school for prayer’, his ‘modest rule for beginners’ led to the foundation of communities which kept the Christian flame alight through dark ages, preserved not only Christian faith, scripture, and culture,but also the best of Classical Pagan learning and culture, fed the poor, transformed societies, promoted learning and scholarship, and today provides solace, grounding, perspective and retreat not only to monks and nuns but to millions of lay people around the world.

Read more here

My favourite couple of lines;

A little rule, a small obedience
That sets aside, and tills the chosen ground,
Fruitful humility, chosen innocence,
A binding by which freedom might be found

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• If you never leave your home culture and try a communicate this gospel you may not have spent much time thinking about contextualising the gospel. You may in fact, struggle with the idea that you have to do anything to help the gospel be heard, Jackson Wu at Jesus Creed talks about Why contextualising is important.

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