les Davey de France

 We belong to a book group 'for busy people', which means we meet only three or four times a year. Next week we should have read Wuthering Heights. I haven't. It's a thoroughly nasty book. I found some Spark notes and a family tree, and I've read selected lowlights, and that's quite enough for me.

In France you "do your boxes". We asked our splendid neighbours if anyone had boxes to pass on to us, and someone did. Then on a visit to the new flat we bumped into our new neighbour with armful of boxes ready to be passed on. We had already agreed to buy some small boxes suitable for books. So we might conceivably be OK for boxes. I have four oak bookshelves that belonged to my uncle Cyril that have travelled around with me over the years. The time has come to pass them on, so they're going to Froim and Catrin, along with the American swivel and rock armchair which everyone loves but me, and in which I regularly sit, to my great discomfort. (You can't lock the rock) So this evening they are going to Talence in a big seven-seat Berlingo which I have reserved for the occasion.  Meanwhile the most important contents of the bookshelves have been packed into boxes. We accumulate books at alarming speed. When we move we try to pass them on, but with great difficulty. When...

I sounded off a while ago about our tendency to have a somewhat one or at best two-dimensional approach to Biblical Theology, seeing one theme as key to unlocking the whole development and direction of the Bible's message - perhaps Covenant, or Kingdom. But the Bible gives us various diverse themes that run through the Scripture from beginning to end. One of these themes is the City. We can have a somewhat ambivalent approach to the city. On the one hand some of our cities are so polluted that you cannot breathe safely, your lifespan is shortened by the smog. Sometimes our cities are characterised by injustice and inequality, with extremely wealthy penthouses and terrible slums and housing schemes. Cities can be dangerous places with areas where it is unwise to go unless you are known and know how to behave. We dream of the countryside, of escaping to the hills, to the beach, to the mountain, to the forest. Of silence and solitude. Of clean air and crystalline water. Even typin...

Well the OMFrance7 left on Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Monday morning. They left a gaping hole but fatigue was waiting to fill it up! So Monday was basically a quiet day. We needed shopping. Pat's back is playing up. Pat said we could get through to Tuesday. I rejoiced. I caught up on whatever emails didn't require any thought to process. You get the picture. Now then... We've had a project for a while of starting an Independent Free International Reading Group in some café or other of Bordeaux. I'd sounded out some folk. I'd talked to a café or two. A splendid place called Horace said they'd be happy to have us. I tentatively talked about the first Tuesday of October. But then came mission week. I did nothing to prepare. Nothing at all. Neither could I. We'll knock it into touch until November, thought I. But unbeknown to me emails were circulating and a little group were intending to come. So we met and had an interesting time talking abou...

Devotional books are great, aren't they. Nobody would suggest that we need anything to supplement reading the straight Bible text, but sometimes some brief comments, some questions, some observations made by someone who doesn't think exactly like we do just help the Bible's text and message to hit exactly the right spot in order to help us. 90 days in John 14 - 17, Romans, James, is an excellent example of a helpful devotional book. Written by two leading figures in the evangelical scene, covering a good range of Bible books and giving you undated devotions for three months, what more could you possibly want? You get the John passages and James dealt with by Sam Allberry and Romans by Tim Keller. These four chapters of John are very rich and sometimes you really need to stop, think and digest what you've read. So it's great that Allberry has dealt with the passages slowly - sometimes just a handful of verses per day - using helpful questions to bring out the mea...

Devotional books are great, aren't they. Nobody would suggest that we need anything to supplement reading the straight Bible text, but sometimes some brief comments, some questions, some observations made by someone who doesn't think exactly like we do just help the Bible's text and message to hit exactly the right spot in order to help us. "Bible Studies on Mark" is a good example. Too brief to be a commentary, this book aims to open up the text of Mark in 21 brief chapters, around 8 pages a "lesson", commenting, explaining and applying. It's a book where you read the Bible text and then read Boekestein's comments. At the end of each chapter there are questions for reflection and application, then the end-notes. Boekestein's approach is very practical and helpful, but you'll be doing quite a lot of reading. The book is conservative, straightforward and reverent. The "long ending" of Mark is regarded as authenticated by cent...

I recently saw that this book was being proposed for review. Now some time ago I read and reviewed Simonetta Carr's little biography of Renée de France - see here - and really liked the book. So I was keen to give her treatment of Luther the once-over. However: 1) it's a book for younger readers (no problem - I was younger in the past) 2) it was being sent out in print to reviewers in the USA. But hey, if ya don' ask ya don' git, and so it was that I received by email the first pages of the book in pdf format - just enough to get to see the writing style, a good look at the type of illustration and the approach that the author adopts. And it's charming. It didn't feel like an infantile read, so I'd suggest younger teens would be a perfect target readership, as well as a suitable coffee-table book to leave around for folk to pick up and leaf through quickly. The sample I got went as far as Luther's studies in law and the thunderstorm experience, ...

It's a real treasure, and if it only had a small cafeteria then it would quickly become my favourite place in the centre of Bordeaux. Watch a special programme about its 120th anniversary, in French, here .

A whole book about anger! That is at one and the same time so necessary and such a narrow focus that in a way this sums up my reaction to this very good book. Pawlinson's concern is to help us to understand anger, and to help us to address and solve our problems with anger. For this reason he progresses slowly through the book, building step by step, section by section, gradually putting in place his argument. Please don't misunderstand me. Pawlinson's writing is not at all stodgy or ponderous. In fact this book contains one of the shortest and best written chapters I have ever read. Excellent work! But from time to time I found myself shouting at the book. "Yes, but...". "Well maybe, but what about..." and "Aren't you going to talk about...". Then, often in the next chapter, he would. Now it's a sad fact of life that we have difficulty admitting to ourselves that we have a problem with anger. (That's what makes the short ch...

Subtitled, "Seven Keys to a Lifelong Ministry of Sustainable Sacrifice". I can hear my pastor's voice as he said it to me. "You'll take nine months off. Six is too little. A year is too long." It didn't even occur to me to question it. I knew things couldn't carry on as they had been, and so I complied. "If you come back to this church you will come back with a clearly defined list of responsibilities." was the remark from another Christian leader. It had happened. Shallow and easy-going, level-headed, not given to displays of emotion, all of a sudden I was burnt-out and depressed. I'd shouted at the church council and had started having panic attacks, among other symptoms too painful to mention. It was time to stop and recover. In "Zeal without Burnout", Christopher Ash has given us a wonderful book. It is timely, sane, wise, sensible, gentle, clear, straightforward, caring and gracious. If I could give it six stars I w...

subtitled: "And other questions about why you need it and it needs you" I remember when it was hard to find an introductory book about the church to give to new Christians or to people who were perhaps a little jaded or ... shall we say undisciplined. Then Peter Jeffrey's little book "How to behave in church" came out. I loved that book! There is also "Life in the Father's House" by Wayne Mack, and also "What is a reformed church?" by Malcolm Watts, or by Stephen Smallman., as well as "Welcome to a Reformed Church" by Daniel Hyde. In short, the gap has been plugged. There's books for presbyterians and for reformed baptists. That's without thinking of Nine Marks and the excellent fullness of their thoughtful provision. So why bother with "Why bother with the Church?" and will anyone bother with it? Well I think they will, and I'll tell you why. This book has the strength of being exactly what you...

Boy am I late with this review! When that happens sometimes it means that I've been ill, or extra-busy, or traveling. Sometimes it means I didn't like the book and I don't want to say so. But sometimes it means I really liked the book. And this is one of those times. Have you ever wondered what Paul would make of our understanding of some of the things he wrote? For me the classic one is "speaking the truth in love". I think if Paul could see what we often make of that verse he would be appalled. Instead of a community united in love to share the truth of Jesus we turn it into a reason to divide the community by telling each other what we think of them, convinced that our opinion is just the truth, in love of course... Another is the little phrase in Romans 15 where Paul expresses his confidence that the Roman Christians are competent to counsel one another. This turned into a polemic against dependence on psychology and psychiatry and a motor for pastors to t...

Am I stupid or what? I just don't know what anyone could do to help me. No, seriously, I really don't. You see, I saw "Wittenberg vs. Geneva" and I thought it would be really cool to read some historical theology on Luther and Calvin and the areas of agreement and dispute between the great streams of the reformation, the Lutherans and the Reformed. Then I saw that it wasn't that, but I thought that still it would be cool to read a book from someone who had belonged to today's Reformed stream and had by conviction switched to Lutheran convictions and so would be able to explain his path. How come I didn't spot the rather giveaway title 'Bout in Seven Rounds'. This isn't an irenical testimony or an exercise in tracing historical discussion. This book is modelled on a boxing match. Well, OK, there's historical precedent for robust speech in theological discussion -  Calvin didn't always pull his punches though I think Luther could ...

I wasn't sure that I'd like this book. I don't know why. Well, I sort of do. Firstly it came in pdf format, which is always awkward. I can read pdf format on my Kindle, but it's not great. I can convert pdf files to Kindle format, but that's not great either. So the poor book was off to a bad start. Secondly the conservative evangelical scene has become quite diverse over the past few years. I subscribe to a couple of websites' rss feeds, including the Gospel Coalition and Reformation 21, Desiring God, etc.., and while there is so much to rejoice in - a real growth of interest in Bible Christianity and in the best of our forefathers - there can also be that which is awkward, embarrassing, agressive or snide. As a friend put it, "There's a tone that sets in". Quite. So I've become a bit wary, I suppose. It's so easy to imbibe a spirit of snideness. The "tone" is hiding just our of sight, waiting its chance, waiting to set in....

This morning was spent happily stocktaking at Maison de la Bible, counting an scanning books and cards. Then lunch at a café before Patricia and Catherine dusted the shelves and rearranged everything and I came home to various day-off tasks and chores.

I was on duty in the Christian bookshop yesterday and this nice couple came in asking for Alain Juppé's new book, "Pour un État fort" (For a strong State). I said, for that you'll need to go to Mollat, it's not far, it's a general bookshop. This is the Maison de la Bible, so we sell Bibles and Christian books. We don't sell Juppé's book. Well, not yet.

I guess I must read about two or three books a month, on average. I read books to review them on the blog here, and you can find these by clicking on the label "Books". This year I've usually reviewed a book each month, sometimes two, fewer towards the end of the year with the house move looming. These were all from Christian authors and publishers, and usually books about some aspect of christian thinking, living or history. Then we used to attend a reading group and so we would read one book a month for that. These were usually novels. Then there'd be other books I read for specific reasons or just for interest. It's no longer the heady days of single life in Cardiff when I would put Sibelius on the record player (remember those?) and sprawl on the sofa with a good book all evening, but it's still not a bad score for someone like me. I like the idea of having a target of 60 or more books in a year, but something about it also repels me. I'm not...

Sat on top of a box of sundry odd articles: 1) My pocket NIV Bible in One Year. Oh, I have HUNTED for that book. It's JUST the right size and I am very glad to be reunited with it! 2) A CD of Franz Bruggen et al playing Telemann Methodical Sonatas on baroque instruments. Again, I have SEARCHED on Spotify and elsewhere for this recording to no avail. Now I am listening to it as I type.

I received a kindle format review copy of "The Secret Life of a Pastor (and other intimate letters on ministry)" by Michael A Milton published by Christian Focus. Reading this book reminded me that the Atlantic Ocean is very deep and wide. It is written in the guise of letters from an experienced pastor to seminarians and adresses a wide range of questions in pastoral ministry. Things like training, the biblical languages, priorities in ministry, family life, preaching, infant baptism, rest, dryness and burnout are discussed. The advice is always good and given graciously. Some of the chapters will do European pastors a whole lot of good! Some things surprise, however. I had never thought of infant baptism as a major way of fulfilling the Great Commission, and even now I struggle with the removal of half of the "Go. Teach. Baptise. Teach". Sometimes it is not so easy to see how the book applies in a European context. We're in the world of "boards",...

This is probably the hardest book review I've ever done. Not because there aren't things I could say. There are, about the book's structure, style, content. But somehow the story line of the book makes all that seem somehow nitpicking, secondary and frankly pointless. The book tells the true story of how three men were murdered in the Turkish town of Malatya on the 18th of April, 2007. These men were targeted because two of them worked for a publishing house and the third shared an office with the others. The publishing house was targeted because it publishes books about Christianity. The five murderers were caught red-handed - very literally - having trussed up their victims before torturing them with knives, then slitting their throats. Two of the victims died at the scene of the attack. The third died later in hospital. The trial of the assailants has taken years, despite their being caught at the scene of the crime, four in the offices and the fifth unconscious on t...