Feasting on the written word

Having spent more than 30 hours on planes in the last 10 days, I've had a lot of time stuck in a cramped seat with nothing better to do than catch up on a few books. And catch up I did. I finished Reynolds' Revelation Space, Gemmel's Waylander, Kimball's Emerging Church, and I'm mostly finished with Hauerwas' Resident Aliens.

All of these books are worth several posts each, so I'll try to get to that in the next few days.

One thing I noticed though: by reading several books at once, and several in quick succession, you get an odd conversation between them that happens in your mind. It was as if Gemmel, Reynolds, Kimball, and Hauerwas were in a room, trying to find something in common to talk about while waiting for dinner to be served.

Reynolds would talk about the vastness of space and what horrors might inhabit it, just waiting for mankind to advance far enough to encounter their wrath. Gemmel would then raise the question of what role violence might play in resisting such an alien race, and what it might mean for faithful God-fearing folk to partake in that bloodshed. Kimball would help broaden Gemmel's view of what a God-fearing person might look like and broaden the possibilities of a faithful response, and Hauerwas would challenge them all to see the whole thing in light of what Jesus did on the cross.

I wonder what a conversation between these four men would actually be like? It makes me glad to see conversations happening between unlikely people in the midst of our new church. Already provocative conversations have taken place that have enriched our young faith community. I can't wait to see and hear what happens next!