Selected Reading, January 29, 2022

 

A few covid and politics free reading suggestions for you.

Bible Interpretation

Context Matters: Moses’ Shining Face
Why did Moses veil his face after he came down from the mountain with a shining face? What was going on? What can we learn from a careful reading of the text? I’d never heard this explanation, but it makes a lot of sense of the story as told to us in scripture. What do you think? (This isn’t a new piece, but I just recently found it.)

Christian History

Medieval Christian Brides
From Simonetta Carr, a look at the lives of three medieval Christian wives married off to unbelievers.

The biblical rule of not marrying unbelievers wasn’t always binding in the first centuries of Christianity, especially when it came to the nobility. Priority was given to political concerns and family alliances. And, at a time when rulers determined the religion of their people, church leaders encouraged the Christian wives who found themselves in high places to work toward the conversion of their husbands.

Marriage to an unbelieving husband was frequently viewed as a mission—missionary marriage, I guess.

Classic Fiction

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
I read a novel from each of the three Bronte sister authors in 2021. I’ve already linked to the first two—Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I finished the Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Emily Bronte in December. I’d say it’s way better than Wuthering Heights, which was much too weird for me, and almost as good as Jane Eyre, which I highly recommended. It has some interesting themes—heavy drinking and domestic abuse, to name two. It also seems to promote universal salvation, which might annoy some of you, I suppose. I mostly ignored those parts.