outside is better

An Annotated Advent Bibliography

This week I have started to do some planning for our Advent services at Asbury Seminary for next month.  A quick trip to the library for some resources both excited and disappointed me. While Advent has been getting press over the last few years (mainly through the great Advent Conspiracy movement), I was surprised to not see more short theological works on the holiday.  I found some interesting devotionals, and great additions in books that dealt with the Christian Year, but nothing "full-length" really jumped out.  Below are a few books that I did pull of the shelves and took a cursory look at.  If you have any additions, please leave them in the comments.

I don't want to discourage anyone from looking more into advent, my liturgical geekery just got the best of me today. 

Annotated Bibliography For Advent:

In no particular order

Bock, Emil. The Rhythm of the Christian Year : Renewing the Religious Cycle of Festivals. Floris Books, 2000.  

Bock offers a wide (but quick and accesible glance) toward the topic of the Christian Year.   His strengths are in explaining the devotional attitude for the seasons, as well as an interesting look at the development of the festivals, as well as some of the transitions from pagan to Christian Holiday.  A sense of consecration as well as deep sacredness to many things are the books strength.  It’s weakness lies in the fact that it really doesn’t say that much.  Written in the late 40’s (I couldn’t find an exact date, this is the 5th edition) it seems to be in step with the unique theological situation of Protestantism coming out of Continental Liberalism.  A good book, but for a practical and theological view of advent, it didn’t hit the mark.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, John Donne, Meister Eckhart, T.S. Eliot, Gerard Manley Hopkins, C. S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Archbishop Romero, Henri J.M. Nouwen, and Philip Yancey. Watch For The Light: Readings For Advent And Christmas. Orbis Books, 2004.  

A devotional book (dated from Nov 24th to Jan 7th) it is filled with daily readings from numerous authors.  The meditations can be used in private worship, but also would serve as a great source for thoughts surrounding the holiday for teaching and preaching.


Meeks, Blair Gilmer. Expecting the Unexpected: An Advent Devotional Guide. 1st ed. Upper Room, 2006.  

Another devotional book.  Instead of offering meditations, this book prompts the reader with scripture readings (daily and weekly), directed prayer and short meditations.  A good feature of this book is the integration of the advent hymns of Charles Wesley.  This seems to be an involved devotional, but good for someone wanting to spend time this advent season in private worship and reflection.


Wright, Wendy M. The Vigil: Keeping Watch in the Season of Christ's Coming. Upper Room, 1998.  

The Vigil takes the reader through Advent and Christmas.  It deals heavily with the Old Testament witness.  I find that this resource really helps ground the prophetic theme that rests inside of advent, as well as the eschatological idea of waiting and promise.  This is a theological resource, while still remaining accessible.


Marshall, William. O Come Emmanuel: Scripture Verses for Advent Worship. Morehouse Pub., 1993.  

Dealing with the liturgical idea of Antiphon, this book draws through the “Great O’s”, some of the great advent hymns from the high church tradition.  These hymns are part of the prophetic tradition and they deal with Mary’s Magnificat.  Good resource for designing services for advent.


Webber, Robert E. Rediscovering the Christian Feasts: A Study in the Services of the Christian Year. Hendrickson Publishers, 1998.  

This contribution comes from Protestant worship giant Robert E. Webber.  This is a short book that gives glancing worksheets on the Christian Year.  It’s advent contribution is minimal, but still loaded.  The book also gives a good introduction to Christian time.  This would be a great read for anyone interested (or skeptical) about the Christian year and it’s importance.

Webber, Robert. Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year. Baker Books, 2004.  

While longer in form (and not a workbook), another Webber resource offers broader strokes regarding the Christian Year.  This is a deeper theological resource, and like everything of Webber’s I have seen, it looks great.

Like I said, this is just the fruits of my labor this afternoon, I wouldn't call this list anywhere close to exhaustive.  From previous experience, I would also welcomes Wesley's Hymns on the Nativity

Helps for online reviewers

molie and G2
Originally uploaded by chadbrooks

In the past, citing any form of compensation for reviewing has had some gray area involved.  I have reviewed books and Bibles that I paid for, as well as received review copies of materials.  The new CMP.ly makes citing these sort of things easier.  This post (from mashable) outlines how this service can help bloggers comply with the new FTC rules regarding being forthright about disclosing material gain that bloggers recieve from a company.

Coming Home and the NLT Study Bible

Meredith and I fly back to Kentucky early tomorrow afternoon.  We have had a relaxing vacation and I have had some interesting conversations with people regarding ministry and worship.  I hope to finish a post in our travels tomorrow answering some of the questions that I posed earlier this week.  Thanks for putting up with a light week.

I did want to throw my readers that come here for Bible Content towards what is shaping up to be a great resource.  The New Living Translation Study Bible has been a hot topic around the web over the last few weeks.  They have posted the Introduction to Genesis (found here), and I am excited about getting to maybe read it on the plane on the way home.  Since the ESV folk have been giving people teasers, I wanted to put this link up as well.  It looks like I may be needing to convince Meredith to let me buy both of these volumes.

6 reasons Pastors should blog

I was refered to this post by a friend.  It is from the Desiring God blog by Abraham Piper (son of John Piper).  I think there are some very good points made, so go check out the post.

6 reasons Pastors should blog.

More Greek resources

Before I have posted about Greekstudybible.org.  I found a new site this weekend that doesn't have the ability to save work, but does fix the one complaint that I have with Greekstudybible.org, the fact that it seems archaic at times .  The Resurgence Greek Project is found at zhubert.com.  I am not sure if it uses the NA 27th edition text or the Tischendorf manuscript, but it seems to read easier AND it used the ESV for an english text.

So go check it out.

Links for this week

I do a link post occasionally and I felt it was the right thing to do today.  These are the sites that have been on my radar lately.

1.  GoingtoSeminary.com:  I have said alot about this site lately, but it really is a great resource and idea.
2.  lifehacker.com:  I check this site 2-3 times a day.  It never fails to have great information
3.  AsburyReader.com: This is our (asbury theological seminary) lent reader.  Come read with us.
4.  Songerize.com: Tell them the artist and song name and the site plays it for you.  Handy when you want      to listen to that one Eagles song.
5.  SoundSpin.net:  A friend of mine runs this site.  It is a great place for the independent musician to get          some help.

Have a good day.

Fall

This fall is shaping up to be real busy.  I am only taking 9 hours, but they are enough to keep my busy. 

One of the more exciting things so far has been a visit to Asbury from Pete Greig.  He wrote a little book called "Red Moon Rising" and is part of a movement of prayer that is going across the world called 24-7 prayer.  He spoke in chapel on Thursday and in several more places over the next two days.  If you are curious, there should be audio of just about everything on the Asbury website.  Then we you can't find it, let me know and I will send you direct links.

We are also entering in the season of KingdomTide. If you want to read through our community texts with us, you can find all that at AsburyReader.Com. 

Right now, I am busy writing a paper about confessional and creedal statements in the New Testament, so I really need to quit blogging and return to researching.

Keeping the head screwed on straight.

I keep a pretty busy schedule.  I also really don't use my laptop as much as some people think.  One of the ways that I am able to keep everything together is a real careful but chaotic paper system.  It is pretty non-linear, but it is a system that really works for me.  I have gone into this before, so you can check out these posts (labeled notebook).  This also ties into my love of all things Moleskine.

Since school is getting close to starting and I am even busier now that I am on staff at NBC, I really need to sit down and get my system cleaned out and re-started.  I found a great post today via Lifehacker, reposted from D.I.Y. Planner.  For anyone that is wanted to get started with a paper based system this is the best post I have ever seen on it.  Check it out here.

Listening: Loose Fur-Born again in the USA

Good Summer reading

In the previous post I mentioned that I wanted to read more.  I do have a stack of stuff for non-casual reading but I do enjoy smaller things.

The Other Journal is a great place to get this.  The articles there are great quick reads that make you think for a non-quick time.  Everyone should really check it out.  There are WAY to many blog posts that I could make about the content. 

Links for this week

You can preview the new Wilco record here.  If you don't know who Wilco is this is a great introduction.  The new record Sky Blue Sky comes out on May 15th.

A new way to kill time on the Internet if you are a Bible Geek...www.biblemap.org/.  Imagine matching the Bible with Google Maps.  Plus, an even geekier think, they use the ESV as the primary translation.  This little engine allows you to find locations in the scriptures using a google map interface. Sweet.

HT to Andrew Jones