Give me the frigging blue pill Morpheus

During my undergraduate theological studies one of my seminar leaders and lecturers, a brilliant and provocative thinker by the name of Tim Gorringe casually mentioned that he had not really begun to understand theology until after he had finished his undergraduate degree! Now, seven years later, I am starting to understand! I guess I was never your most agreeable student, Tim, sorry about that.

My summer, though quiet on the blog front, has been a scurried frenzy of reading in vain attempts to resolve the emergence of one theological question after another. Tiring, disturbing, deeply enriching, exciting and even exhilarating – and all at the same time. Indeed, I've read some very exciting material, and I'm looking forward to reviewing some of it here and discussing it. Oh yes, in between I visited family and friends and spent 'quality time' with my wife.

Among other things I've been reading:

· Bedell, Geraldine. Make Poverty History. London: Penguin, 2005.
· Carson, D. A. Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.
· Chalke, Steve, and Alan Mann. The Lost Message of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003.
· Greene, Colin. Christology in Cultural Perspective. Carlisle: Paternoster, 2003.
· McKnight, Scot. The Jesus Creed. UK: CPI Bath Press, 2004.
· McLaren, Brain D. The Last Word and the Word After That. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
· ------. A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.
· ------. A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/conservative, Mystical/poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-Yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished Christian. Grand Rapids: Youth Specialties, 2004.
· Tomkins, Stephen. A Short History of Christianity. Oxford: Lion, 2005.
· Wright, N.T. Scripture and the Authority of God. London: SPCK, 2005.
· ------. Jesus and the Victory of God. London: SPCK, 1996.
· ------. Paul for Everyone. Romans. Part 1: Chapters 1–8. London: SPCK, 2004.
. Blog after blog after blog ...

… all of which have been powerfully speaking to me even though I find myself sometimes in provisional disagreement.

On top of that, I've been listening to a number of provocative and disturbing audio messages and debates involving Walter Brueggemann and his take on aspects of OT theology, hermeneutics, epistemology, psychology and personal faith.

You know the scene in the Matrix where Neo has just realised that he can download entire fields of knowledge from a computer. He sits there in his jack-seat stunned and say, 'I know Jujitsu!' 'You want more', he is asked: 'Damn yes!' Well, I'm sitting in my jack-seat saying 'I now definitely know less than I thought I did and I'm deeply humbled'. Do you want more: 'Damn yes!' OK, maybe I don't want that blue pill.

Well, that's what my summer has been like. How was yours?