Theology for beginners (6)
At the request of a couple of blog readers, I've already posted previously about some introductory reading to get started on theology. It's hard work learning theology by yourself, not on a course with someone to answer your questions. I did it for a couple of years before I went to University – taught myself Greek and read a whole lot of stuff that my vicar suggested. I read Karl Barth with very little idea what I was getting into. A degree or diploma course is a wonderful thing, simply because it gives you the opportunity to ask other people what they thought, and someone will give you a few clues about how each thing you read fits in the context of everything else. Not until I got to University did I begin to connect up all the things I'd read, and see how one influenced or subverted the other.
At Cambridge, we are very keen on reading primary texts – that is to say, if you want to know about Augustine, don't read someone who wrote about Augustine but read the original text. That's commendable, for sure, but if you are staring at a mountain of books to read, where do you start? If you are trying to get a grip on theology without the luxury of a course, I suggest this very comprehensive reader is a good next step. It gives you a little dose of lots of Christian writers right down the centuries, from Irenaeus to Sarah Coakley, so you are reading the original writers but swiftly beginning to see how they all fit together. Then when you go back and read more of each, at your leisure, you'll have some sense of the big picture.
No Responses to “Theology for beginners (6)”
Comments
Reply
-
author musician theologian
Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
-
Search
-
-
Wonderful! That’s as good as set of potted guidelines to the Prayer as I’ve read… Thanks, Maggi!