So, What Are You Reading These Days?

It has been a few weeks now since returning from the honeymoon to Italia, and only now do I feel like I am finally settling into a daily routine. The new job at the high school, while great, has also taken some time getting use to as well. But at some point during the past few days I began to feel comfortable, somewhat normal again.

One of the reasons for this is that I have once again started making time each day to sit back and just read. It has been a few months since I finished a book, but I am very excited to be working on a number of them currently. Of course, it's not like I haven't done any reading over the past few months. But with marriage preparation, lesson plans, a honeymoon, and pair of senior retreats, there just seemed not to be much free time. However, that has now changed...I think.

And I am very glad it has, because I have been able to start reading through two newly ordered books, which I have greatly enjoyed reading so far. The first book, which I am almost finished with, is Michael J. Gorman's Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul's Narrative Soteriology. Anyone who has read some of Gorman's other works will be familiar with the themes in this book. In particular, his analysis of kenosis in the Christ-hymn of Philippians 2, and its broader connections to the identity of the Triune God has made for some very interesting reading.

Along with Gorman's book, I have also been skimming through Scott Hahn's Covenant and Communion: The Biblical Theology of Pope Benedict XVI. Hahn points out that many of the books written about Pope Benedict fail to capture his deep reliance on Scripture which is at the heart of his writings and teachings before and after his election to the See of Rome. The first part of Hahn's book spends considerable time discussing Pope Benedict's view of the historical-critical method. As Hahn points out, Pope Benedict sees the historical-critical method as being "an indispensable" tool for Biblical scholars. It is indispensable precisely because the Christian faith is based in history. Yet, while we must continue to use the historical-critical method in our exegesis of Biblical passages, we cannot separate it from the faith of the Church. Without faith, the text remains only a historical relic, which cannot be brought to the present. Ultimately, the Church is the guardian of the written Word. There is, of course, a lot more to this, but I have found this book to be a wonderful summary of Pope Benedict's Biblical theology.

One last book that I have picked up, but have yet to start, is Scott Hahn's reworked doctoral thesis Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God's Saving Promises. This is one of those books that is over 600 pages long, with half of it being end notes. Fun stuff! No....I really mean it! I hope to start this in the next week or so.

So what are you reading these days? Any new releases that I should check out?