I haven't adlibbed here for awhile, it's therapeutic to just let out some words at times, other times it's best to be quiet, wisdom is knowing when.
My days are suffused with things to enjoy, there is just so much, that I end up enjoying just a fraction of what a calm cool and collected personality would.
There is forgetting, and misappropriation also due to the enormity of choices.
The reading focus I insist to myself is Reformed Theology, but I cannot have all of them in the mix at a time, I must choose the perfect blend, which has the top stuff.
The Bible of course is a key text, and the KJV is my preferred translation due to it's rich historicalvalue, and in Literary terms is on par with Shakespeare. And the edition i'm using is so nice to hold in my hands, a calfskin leather one!! It has also the key creeds, confessions and catechisms too,plus Sinclair Ferguson wrote a 20 centuries of the church with one page per century.
In Reformed Theology there are 2 strands as I see it
1) Systematic Theology -- orderly methodologies aplenty, the best of the classics is Calvin's Institutes, and Mastricht's Theoretical-Practical Theology, and the best of the new is Beeke, Beeke is the main living figurehead of the exciting Reformed world nowadays.
2) Puritans -- these were fellas who were like doctors of souls, the upper echelons included Owen, Goodwin, Watson, Flavel, Charnock and later Puritans like Edwards and Spurgeon.
there is a 3rd which is cultural criticism,folk-like J Gresham Machen kicked it off with his Christianity and Liberalism, then Cornelius Van Til with his revolutionary apologetic approach which inspired Francis Schaeffer, and the best living example nowadays is Carl Trueman.
The top Reformed scholar's name is Richard A. Muller, his 4 volume work is to die for!! Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics it's called, get your copy today!!
The reason for lists is to serve as a guide for the one who composed the list in the midst of such confusing Plenty. In the book of Daniel there's a verse about an information explosion, I remember clearly tv preachers saying that's talking about the internet, and I can see that,my mind is a hungry hippo,but following through can be a taxing thing.
Believing for real what my theology resources are purporting is too big of a leap for me,but for reasons I wish to explore when i've mastered the art of being confused less, I shall reveal the secret that will release many from the shackles of ineffectual efforts of any kind.
Now my dear friends, I shall be getting back to it all,slowly realizing things in plain sight are making goofy faces and turning into a million different leopards and kangaroos in miniature revolving circularly around Saturn shaped dust motes.
-- to read Calvin's commentaries on select chapters -- right now reading his comments on Genesis 34 where Dinah is defiled, he (Calvin) censures her for leaving her home, women ought to stay home is his point of view, just like my dad who places the blame on rape victims for how they dress ugh.
