Reading

Source: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman Where in your life or your work are you currently pursuing comfort, when what’s called for is a little discomfort? Are you holding yourself to, and judging yourself by, standards of productivity or performance that are impossible to meet? In what ways have you yet to accept the fact that you are who you are, not the person you think you ought to be? In which areas of life are you still holding back until you feel like you know what you’re doing? How would you spend your days differently if you didn’t care so much about seeing your actions reach fruition? Want more self-elicitation questions like these? Check out “Questions Worth Asking.” ...

Source: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman Adopt a “fixed volume” approach to productivity Keep two todo lists, one unbounded and one limited to a certain number of items (max 10); you can’t add a task to the second list until you’ve completed a task Might also need an “On Hold” or “Waiting For” todo list Set predetermined boundaries for your daily work Focus on only one big project at a time Decide in advance what to “fail” at (“strategic underachievement”) Focus on what you’ve already completed, not just on what’s left to complete Consolidate your caring (pick your battles!) Embrace boring, single-purpose technology (like the Kindle) Seek out novelty in the mundane Be a “researcher” in relationships (be curious, on purpose) Cultivate instantaneous generosity (act on the impulse to be generous right away) Practice doing nothing

After realizing just how easy it was to lose access to the physical books that I own (now sequestered in my library carrel at Wheaton), on a bit of a whim I created a fundraiser to help my upgrade my Logos Bible Software library to either the Anglican Gold ($216) or Anglican Platinum ($582) libraries. Upgrading would help me in my preaching, teaching, and writing roles (as a pastor-theologian and as the Managing Editor of AnglicanCompass.com). I’ve already benefited immensely from the Anglican Silver package I bought when I got into the Logos Bible Software ecosystem a couple years ago (mainly to gain easy digital access to Barth and Bonhoeffer’s writings for my dissertation). I plan to stick with Logos—especially for biblical commentaries, systematic theologies, and reference works—because it allows me to quickly research, prepare for sermons, answer questions from readers, etc. ...

This code of conduct very much relates to Rapoport’s Rules, Adler’s advice, and Alan Jacobs’s “The Thinking Person’s Checklist.” SOURCE: T. Edward Damer, Attacking Faulty Reasoning: A Practical Guide to Fallacy-Free Arguments, 6th ed (Australia ; Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2009), 7–8. 1. The Fallibility Principle Each participant in a discussion of a disputed issue should be willing to accept the fact that he or she is fallible, which means that one must acknowledge that one’s own initial view may not be the most defensible position on the question. ...

The following checklist, found on pages 155–56 of Alan Jacobs’s excellent book, How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds (affiliate link), is a worthy addition to “Rapoport’s Rules” and “Adler’s Advice” (mentioned in my previous post, “Help me come up with ‘rules for conversation’!”). Emphasis added in **bold**. When faced with provocation to respond to what someone has said, give it five minutes. Take a walk, or weed the garden, or chop some vegetables. Get your body involved: your body knows the rhythms to live by, and if your mind falls into your body’s rhythm, you’ll have a better chance of thinking. Value learning over debating. Don’t “talk for victory.” As best you can, online and off, avoid the people who fan flames. Remember that you don’t have to respond to what everyone else is responding to in order to signal your virtue and right-mindedness. If you do have to respond to what everyone else is responding to in order to signal your virtue and right-mindedness, or else lose your status in your community, then you should realize that it’s not a community but rather an Inner Ring. Gravitate as best you can, in every way you can, toward people who seem to value genuine community and can handle disagreement with equanimity. Seek out the best and fairest-minded of people whose views you disagree with. Listen to them for a time without responding. Whatever they say, think it over. Patiently, and as honestly as you can, assess your repugnances. Sometimes the “ick factor” is telling; sometimes it’s a distraction from what matters. Beware of metaphors and myths that do too much heavy cognitive lifting; notice what your “terministic screens“ [See pages 90–91] are directing your attention to-and what they’re directing your attention away from; look closely for hidden metaphors and beware the power of myth. Try to describe others’ positions in the language that they use, without indulging in in-other-wordsing. [See pg. 106: “We see it every day. Someone points at an argument—a blog post, say, or an op-ed column—and someone else replies, ‘In other words, you’re saying … ‘ And inevitably the argument, when put in other words, is revealed to be vacuous or wicked.] Be brave.

In my role as Managing Editor for AnglicanPastor.com, I’m realizing the need to develop some “rules for conversation.” We describe the tone that we’re after as “clarity and charity,” which is an excellent summary. However, to guide our blogposts and comments, I think we need something more detailed and concrete. With that in mind, “Rapoport’s Rules” and “Adler’s Advice” seem like excellent starting points. But, if you have any further suggestions, please let me know in the comments! ...

I’m trying to puzzle out the meaning of the following paragraph from Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship (DBWE 4). Fundamentally eliminating simple obedience introduces a principle of scripture foreign to the Gospel.[19] According to it, in order to understand scripture, one first must have a key to interpreting it. But that key would not be the living Christ himself in judgment and grace, and using the key would not be according to the will of the living Holy Spirit alone. Rather, the key to scripture would be a general doctrine of grace, and we ourselves would decide its use. The problem of following Christ shows itself here to be a hermeneutical problem. ...

I’m reading Walter Sinnott-Armstrong’s excellent book, Think Again: How to Reason and Argue. In it (on pages 25–26), I came across “Rapoport’s Rules.” First formulated by mathematical psychologist Anatol Rapoport and discussed by Daniel Dennett (Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, 31–35), here they are: 1: You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.” ...

Right now, I’m using the RSS readers Inoreader and Reeder to subscribe to the following blogs: Snakes and Ladders – by Alan Jacobs Farnam Street — A Collection of Signal in a World Full of Noise. Seth’s Blog Study Hacks – Decoding Patterns of Success – Cal Newport James Clear Barking Up The Wrong Tree – How to be awesome at life. The Appademic » Technology, productivity and workflows for academics, students and other nerds McSweeney’s Internet Tendency Lifehacker – Do everything better What are you reading? ...

This upcoming semester, I’ll be taking a seminar on the Doctrine of Creation from my supervisor Marc Cortez. I’ll also be doing my “pedagogical experience” in a Christian Theology course—also with Marc Cortez. Anyways, in case you’re interested, I thought I’d share what I’ll be reading for each course. Have you read any of these works? If so, what did you think? What will you be reading this semester? Doctrine of Creation Colin Gunton, The Triune Creator: A Historical and Systematic Study. Elizabeth A. Johnson, Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love. Catherine Keller, The Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming. Ian A. McFarland, From Nothing: A Theology of Creation. Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation. Arthur Peacocke, All That Is: A Naturalistic Faith for the Twenty-First Century. Norman Wirzba, From Nature to Creation: A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World. Christian Theology Beth Felker Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically. Tom McCall, Forsaken: The Trinity, the Cross, and Why It Matters. Timothy C. Tennent (ed.), Theology in the Context of World Christianity: How the Global Church Is Influencing the Way We Think about and Discuss Theology. Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin. Note: some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that, if you click on the link and make a purchase, then, at no extra cost to you, I receive a small commission. I only ever recommend resources that I know will benefit my readers! If you’re interested in these resources, buying them through the affiliate links is a way that you can support my work! ...

While reading Beth Felker Jones’ Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically, I came across the following list of extremely helpful questions to ask while reading theology (on page 29). What are the key Christian teachings being articulated? What is the author’s driving concern or main theme? What counts for the author as authoritative (Scripture, tradition, reason, experience…)? Is the author’s theological method implicit or explicit? How does the author deal with the witness of Scripture? a. Implicitly? Explicitly? b. Does the witness of the Old Testament matter? The New? c. What biblical themes are privileged? d. What interpretive principles are at work? How do these claims relate to other doctrines? How does context (including gender, race, class, culture, and time) shape the theological voice? Is the theologian conscious of this? How does your context shape your evaluation of the piece? Practice reading charitably. What is the best possible interpretation of how the piece reflects an attempt to be faithful to Jesus Christ? How do these theological claims relate to the life of faith? Doe you bring other questions from your experience? If this theological proposal were taken seriously, how would it shape Christian practice? Would it affect our participation in spiritual disciplines? Our understanding of faithful living? Our practice of evangelism? Our life as the church? Add this to my 1 simple trick to read faster, 4 questions to ask while reading a book, and 3 questions to ask while reading the Bible. ...

Reading is the closest thing that human beings have to a superpower. We can learn, from other minds, from other times, just by looking at symbols on a screen or a page. But, I mean, come on. Who has enough time to read? I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a stack of books a mile high that I’d like to work my way through. Now, there’s a bunch of good advice out there about finding more time to read (see this post from Farnam Street and this post from The Art of Manliness). In fact, finding more time to read is one of the main reasons why you should learn the basics of personal productivity and time management (see my posts about productivity and time management). ...