1 to 2 May

Internet: I read a whole lot of stuff! On Boing Boing I read about how people can go insane being in solitary confinement because we need people to give us feedback. To adjust our behaviour and to have a sense of who we are.


Orphans of the Sky: I finished the Heinlein. Interesting thought that if we did not have daily and seasonal changes (such as a controlled environment) we might not think to measure time. There might be just then and now.

God is Closer Than You Think: Read about how we have a yearning to know what is beyond death and beyond our knowledge of life. Found a quote that drilled itself into my Masters, it being so exactly what I needed, and I abandoned reading for the time being.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: I very seldom watch TV. But I bought this dvd and watched 50 minutes - and then the dvd drive on my pc gave in (as it usually does).

James 4: James seems to be writing into a different context to the other NT writers. I realised recently that the Jews were businesspeople of note, even in NT times. There were communities scattered throughout Asia Minor - and they were rich. In fact, much of the persecution of Jews was in the form of taxes - not because of religious issues, but because they were rich. So I wonder if James doesn't write into the context of communities like that. But he was based in Jerusalem. I don't know.

30 April to 1 May

Orphans of the Sky - Robert Heinlein. I read a few pages of this - I'm about halfway through the book. Old fashioned science fiction. From a time when people were easily shocked by things that were different (mutants, loose morals, whatever). I enjoy Heinlein (not his brain tumour era, though). This book wonders how people would be if they had grown up on a world-size spaceship, with little historical memory of how they came to be there.
Proclaiming our Faith Workbook - TEE College I have to read this for my phase one studies. Very lightweight - but there is a legitimate place for that. I read carefully those bits that pertain to culture (which could be useful for my Masters dissertation) and about funerals.
God is Closer Than You Think - John Ortberg I'm rereading this - for maybe the fourth or fifth time. It still reminds me that 'it's all about Jesus'. I read about Job and 'winter in the Christian life'.
James ch 2 & 3. I'm doing a programme that takes you through the Bible in three years put together by Tim Chester. I'd put in a link, but last time I looked the document was not there. James pulls no punches in his writing. He tells it like he sees it. That is refreshing. Paul writes in a contorted way sometimes. James 2 says that faith without deeds is dead.