Every week I’m (trying to) post links to things I’ve read this week that I think you might find interesting too, this time I missed a week, so this will be the biggest list yet!

On the flipside it was a busy couple of weeks so while I read, I didn’t have the time to write much. But the coming two weeks I have a couple posts in the works and a few guest posts from friends too!

…If you read something you think should be featured here submit it here, starting your message LINK LIST SUGGESTION.

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What I’ve posted

Over the busyness of the last two weeks, helping run a staff conference we also got to celebrate our honourary niece here in South Africa who completed her first year of school by seeing Mi Casa play in the beautiful kirstenbosch gardens in Cape Town.

At #MiCasaKirstenbosch celebrating our honorary niece @monelisa_mqhathane’s amazing hard work in her first year at high school | @micasamusic @kirstenboschnbg

A photo posted by Liam Byrnes (@byrnesyliam) on Jan 24, 2016 at 8:34am PST

We also managed to pack in seeing Mumford and Sons plus the Soil! Lots of music in one week!

#MumfordandSons live in #CapeTown tonight

A photo posted by Liam Byrnes (@byrnesyliam) on Jan 30, 2016 at 12:19pm PST

#MumfordandSons live yesterday in #CapeTown | lots of fun to see great music in #SouthAfrica with @mrsrachelbyrnes @thejohnnycakes @camiamiambria @bacinorose

A photo posted by Liam Byrnes (@byrnesyliam) on Jan 31, 2016 at 4:08am PST

A weekend of concerts! Booked these tickets last year and didn’t process that they were one after the other | @thesoilmusic @kirstenboschnbg with @mrsrachelbyrnes

A photo posted by Liam Byrnes (@byrnesyliam) on Jan 31, 2016 at 7:10am PST

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Theology and Christianity

• Our friend Calvin Hanson shares some stories of interacting with muslims which seeks to humanise the broad-stroke generalisations that often exist in conversation on the topic in the west.

• Richard Beck writes on ‘A bruised reed he will not break’, a call to moving gently through our world in relating to others.

• Passion is broadly considered a positive thing, especially in modern church circles. But this hasn’t alway been the case, the early church fathers often encouraged a sort of detatchment or apatheia which Steve Wright explores here at Faith and Theology.

• Jason Gorancy posts an interesting quote from William Cavanaugh here, talking about the eucharist and peace making.

True sacrifice is nothing other than the unity of people with one another through the participation in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Christ’s sacrifice reverses the idea that one must achieve domination over the enemy to achieve unity. Christ instead takes on the role of victim, absorbs the violence of the world instead of deals it out, and thereby offers a world in which reconciliation rather than violence can hold sway.

This is why the Eucharist is the antidote to war for Augustine. In the Eucharist, the whole economy of scarcity and competition that leads to war is done away with. Augustine makes clear that God does not need to be appeased as the Roman gods do. God is abundance, not lack, so participation in God’s life in the body of Christ does away with competition over scarce goods among people. True sacrifice is unity, and true unity is the participation of the human community in God’s life …

A few more paragraphs to this that are worth reading here.

• In an age where a trendy reminder is that ‘worship is not just singing’, this is a good post about the particular theological significance of speech and singing (and its short!) – Read more here

• Kevin Davis gives a short tour of catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, who, other than having a pretty cool name has been pegged as a catholic Barthian. Kevin unpicks why that is not quite right and connects with what Balthasar has to say about protestantism.

• Interested in Karl Barth? You should be. He will be remembered as the greatest theological thinker of the 20th Century and Adam Johnson’s guide to starting to read Barth is right here.

• Leadership tests: no one likes them and we all go through them from Floyd McClung

• Are you an actual follower of Jesus? Or are you a Jesus hobbyist?

• Andrew Wilson tries to make David Bentley Hart accesible in this post on ‘The beauty of the infinite’, my favourite quote was;

…as Doug Wilson puts it, “David Bentley Hart is, by my rough estimate, about three times smarter than I am. The difficulty is that he writes as though he is five times smarter, and I find this off-putting.”

• It’s rare to find someone writing warmly about their childhood experiences serving in the church. This is an engaging and enjoyable read about being an altar boy called The Wizards Boy

• Whether you are an anglican or not, in the UK, Africa and the US, anglicanism is one of the most visible and accesibles corners of christianity. That is why taking notice of how this body is decision making and what they saying through their primate discussions has meaning. Anglicans do not exist overall as denominations with top down hierarchies they are mutual fellowships so find consensus across such a broad group is fascinating both sociologically and from a church leadership perspective. Here is a very readable and encouraging summary of the recent meetings from Andrew Wilson.

• In keeping with the previous posts focus on ecumenical awareness, this article from First Things gives a much longer and in-depth assesment of the state of the Pan-Orthodox council. It is a fascinating peek into an area of the church that is mostly invisible to the western and protestant traditions.

• Why Prince Caspian may be a prophetic vision of what’s happening in the current run up to the US elections.

• Although my reading on the book of revelation has dropped away recently, I thought this post by Peter Leithart was illuminating.

• Fascinating interview on the religious context and impact of WWI. Not the usual narrative. Read more here.

Martin Luther King Day and Race Relations

• Given the increase in attention race relations in the US has been getting, the recent Martin Luther King Jr day created an oppurtunity for many insightful posts, not least this one from Rachel Held Evans. Although South Africa and the US’s histories have significant differences, these words from MLK particularly resonated for the modern context of SA;

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not . . . the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direction action.’ . . . Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. . . . We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

• Scot McKnight posted MLK’s famous speech here

• Skye Jethani posts a short sermon clip to highlight an often overlooked aspect of King’s life here.

• Finally Flickr put together a collection of images celebrating civil disobedience as a form of protest here.

Miscellany

• The rich get richer, Vinoth Ramachandra notes here. This particularly hit home after watch the film the Big short which details the banking and and financial collapse.

The UK-based international charity Oxfam reported this week that the world’s richest 62 people now own as much wealth as half the world’s population. Super-rich individuals saw an increase of 44 percent since 2010, taking their cumulative wealth to $1.76 trillion – equivalent to the total owned by 3.5 billion of the world’s poorest people. The report also stated that tax havens were helping corporations and individuals to stash away about $7.6 trillion, depriving governments of $190bn in tax revenue every year.

• Our friend Brandon Jones (who’s wife just had a baby girl – congrats!) is starting a series on strengths finder combinations which should be interesting. He started with Belief and Communication, read more here and contact Brandon if you want to be coached in strength finders.

• Also from Brandon this week, some insight into the adventure of kenyan bureaucracy as he stories his attempts to receive a birth certificate.

• Richard Beck posts a poem from Gerard Manley Hopkins here and this delightful postscript;

Praise God for things that are counter, original, spare and strange.

Like maybe me. Like maybe you.

• My Syrian refugee lodger / Me and My British Landlady via Tools and Toys

• Very grateful to have been included in Jonathan Morgan’s Inspiration top 10 list of 2015, the other 9 are pretty great too.

• Who knew the US dropped 4 nuclear bombs (by accident) in Spain? Not me..read here

Productivity and Habits

• This post about margin and breathing room from Shawn Blanc resonated with me this week, as I felt like the week had neither of those characteristics!

• Fernandos Gros writes on 365 projects (doing something every day for a year) and the art and goal of habit forming.

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