StephenBarkley.com

Today is the first Weekend Wisdom of Advent. As we anticipate the birth of Jesus, the retail outlets are anticipating a season of high sales and good cheer. Instead of regurgitating the same old cud about the commercialization of Christmas, listen to this perspective from Rice’s Spiritual Memoirs, Called Out of Darkness: When people rail [...]

George MacDonald is one of my all-time favourite authors.  I became hooked on him when I realized the esteem C. S. Lewis held for him.  I read Lilith and Phantastes a number of times, not quite comprehending the depths of them yet feeling strangely moved. Next, I read a biography and plowed through his three [...]

Great Emergence, The: How Christianity Is Changing and Why (emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith) © 2008 Baker Books 172 pages History will decide whether Tickle is a prophet or not. Here’s her idea: Every 500 years the church undergoes major change. During that period of change, a new form of Christianity is [...]

High latitudes: A northern journey © 2002 Key Porter Books 300 pages I’ve got a soft spot for Mowat. He’s the Don Cherry of environmentalism. He’s the cranky opinionated guy that I too often find myself agreeing with! In High Latitudes, Mowat recounts his 1966 trip through the Canadian arctic. This book is more than [...]

Here’s another one from that brilliant scientist (in The Pleasure of Finding Things Out): I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy—and when he talks about a nonscientific matter, he will sound as naive as anyone untrained in the matter. When I read that last night [...]

I couldn’t resist pointing this out. Here are two of my musical heroes playing together. You can listen to the whole album here.  I’d start with “Careless Love”. It’s great to hear these two legends interacting with each other while at the top of their game.

Assaulted by Joy: The Redemption of a Cynic © 2008 Zondervan 240 pages This book’s a nice light autobiographical read, with some very funny moments. Simpson uses this book to go through his childhood and analyze the events that turned him into a cynic. More than that, he shares how God broke through his cynicism [...]

One theme that McGrath refers to frequently on his blog is the responsibility believers have to follow evidence and use their mind. He says it well in his newest book, The Burial of Jesus: Faith may go beyond the available evidence, but if it contradicts it, it is at best wishful thinking and at worst [...]

Few things are more fun for a teenage boy than sneaking into the girl’s cabins at camp. I remember indulging in a little covert operation once with a friend of mine. We had dodged security and made our way in to the so-called holy of holies. After hanging out for a while, we heard the [...]

Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession © 2008 Alfred A. Knopf 245 pages What does it take for an atheist who authored the famous Vampire novels to return to the faith of her childhood—and to live out that faith in her publishing commitments? Nothing but the love of Jesus. This book will move you. [...]