Walther in *Proper Distinction* stresses that it is not reading many things, but reading much of several good things that is truly beneficial. I think he's right on about that. Here's my list of things to reread for this coming year:
Sasse's *Here We Stand*
Krauth's *The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology*
Elert's *Eucharist and Church Fellowship in the First Four Centuries*
Piepkorn's *The Church* and *The Sacred Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions*
Chemnitz' *Examination*
Luther's *Great Galatians*
St. Ephrem's *A Spiritual Psalter*
St. Nicholas Cabasilas' *The Life in Christ*
Von Schenk's *The Presence*
Gerhard's *Sacred Meditations*
Walther's *Proper Distinction*
St. Augustine's *Enchiridion*
Hamann's *On Being a Christian*
25 comments:
Enough with the pressure! ;) Not everybody has as much time to read as you do. AND we don't all have enough money to buy all those. :รพ ppptttthh
I got Concordia today. There's photo-proof in my blog.
Thanks for the list!!!
Some I have, others I should get, and then there's more not on the list, not to mention whatever the sem says I need to buy, including an LSB Altar Book according to Dr. Grime!
I would have thought that something by Schmemann would have made your list.
I should have some Schmemann on there too - and I debated listing *Great Lent*, but I did just reread that one not too long ago, and likewise for *Eucharist* and *Life of the World* so I left them off for me personally. Some on the list are ones I've only read once myself, and I think they deserve a going over in detail a second time. But I was just sharing my list and wondered if others might have books they'd be rereading this year. Will you be redoing some Schmemann then?
Actually, I'm going to start reading the Eucharist. I've read "Great Lent" (a personal favorite) and "For the Life of the World" but I'd really like to read his books particularly on the mysteries (i.e. sacraments). I'll let you know what I found out. My reading list this year will include a lot more of the holy fathers, so I'm going to read my volumes of the Philokalia, cover to cover. I'll let you know if I find good stuff for you.
Ah, Fr. Schmemann. Reminders of more stuff to buy and read. I don't have Great Lent and a few others yet, but I have read Introductions to Liturgical Theology, The Eucharist, For the Life of the World, and Liturgy and Tradition. It may be awhile before I get any more of his books. I still have plenty to read in my boxes/on my shelves, and I'll be buying other stuff really soon. Now if only I didn't have internet access. . . .
Brian,
People sometimes ask me how I have time to post what I do on the net and to read so much. I honestly believe the secret is simple: I don't do TV. If I want the weather or the news, I read it on the net. If I want to relax, I read. Every once in a while I'll go down stairs to where the TV is and watch a movie or a show, but it's honestly less than once a month. I think I've gone several months without ever turning the darned thing on. It's amazing how it frees up time, and now I find it so boring to watch that the kids have to really twist my arm to make me watch a movie with them. We did watch a movie on Christmas Day, and I think the last one before that was watching Lord of the Rings DVD with my daughter back in the early fall. I don't regret the loss of TV one little bit - and I love the freedom!
Oh, I forgot, I did watch some Poirots and Mrs. Bradley episodes while I was on vacation. A friend had loaned them to me for that occasion.
I did a lot of reading the first two weeks of vacation when my mom's computer was down and I had no internet therefore. Now it seems her computer had a wireless network added to it without her knowing. Fortunately I got most of my reading for vacation done, and I have a couple more days to do more.
You know, that TV thing probably won't happen completely, but since there's pretty much no new programming right now, it just might work! . . .
After reading von Schenk's autobiography all I can say is that you're really scaring me now.
Oh, he was a liberal on some points, and just plain kooky on others, but he also has brilliant insights along the way, and a true pastor's heart. Here's a great truth: we don't have to agree with a person 100% in order to learn much from them, just as don't have to agree with a person at all to love them.
What? No sermons? :)
If I may, how about the sermons of St Bede the Venerable (since, I take it, you've recently read some or all of the sermons of St Peter Chrysologus.)
Fr. Fenton, you've just mentioned something I have, thanks to last year's Cistercian Publications sale, that I need to read, namely Beda Venerabilis. I guess the only Chrysologus I see is from you and the Breviary. Are there any books of his sermons out there?
Fr. John,
Do you have the volume name for Bede's sermons and the publisher info. I would dearly love to read some of those. You put me to Peter Chrysologus and that's been a huge blessing, so I appreciate the recommendation of Bede (I've only seen snippets of his sermons in FATS and I've read his History).
You think TV is bad for reading? Don't ever get into woodworking! As the sign in my shop says: "A man's home may be his castle, but his garage is his sanctuary."
"The wisdom of the scribe depends on the opportunity of leisure; and he who has little business may become wise." (Sirach 38:24)
May I suggest "Sam Maloof - Woodworker." It's almost devotional reading.
I made a pig once. In shop, in the 8th grade. My sister still keeps it in her kitchen - supposed to be chopping block, but turned out too darned pretty to scar up. And I've not done one bit of wood working since - that that one turned out at all is a miracle indeed.
Bede the Venerable
Homilies on the Gospels
Book One
Advent to Lent
Translated by Martin & Hurst OSB
Cistercian Publications
Kalamazoo, Michigan
1991
Too bad you weren't a deaconess. Perhaps your congregation would have bought you a copy as a gift! : )
Sandy,
LOL. I guess that means I can pick it up at Photini's!!! Getting old is a terrible, terrible thing.
Below is s a link to Cistercian Publications (which is now kinda sorta part of The Liturgical Press), where you'll see all their books by Beda. I have some of them; I still need to get more of St. Bernard, namely his sermons. Now if only I had time to read them! Pieper, etc., seem more important at the moment, especially church history books.
http://www.cistercianpublications.org/Search.aspx?q=Bede
Examine anything coming from The Liturgical Press for spiritual anthrax.
Cistercian Publications is technically not part of The Liturgical Press, but they started selling through them very recently. However, I agree with your comment. I've probably gotten rid of a quarter or so of the books I've purchased from them.
I went to school there. Well, not there literally, but the university associated with them, the abbey and ecumenical centre.
I've had to get rid of a lot more than books I got from that bunch!
I will admit to keeping what was personally given to me by the one and only, the magnificent Fr Godfrey. His brother, Fr Conrad, however, was the prof for one of the greatest experiences of my life, World Lit I, even if at 0800 hours in Minnesota Winters!
BTW, in case we're all done with the Epiphany thread, you were right, I misstated the Baptism for the Name in one of my posts there.
Yeah, I kinda figured, but then again, with all the changes Rome did in the last century, I thought maybe I missed one and they moved the Baptism up! Why not, after all, Holy Innocents comes before Epiphany, and the Gospel for the Vigil is the return of the Holy Family from Egypt!
I have a friend, just out of the Fort, who's doing his first year of STM in liturgics at St. John's Collegeville.
Well, I hope he comes home OK!
When I was there (1968-1972) they watched the whole Seminex thing like hawks, waiting for Missouri to get with it and leave its patriarchial, mediaeval, etc old self behind.
It was, however, my first inkling that if I were ever a Protestant (as I understood the term then) it would be LCMS, as they seemed to be the only major church body not falling in line behind Rome's latest re-invention of itself.
Once in a while (yearly, maybe) I check out their sites. The mindset appears not to have changed much, just gone in the same direction. I should tell you the story of the disbanding of the schola cantorum (of which I was a part until the pogrom ended all that).
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