So We Speak

We're reflecting on a summer of reading and recommending our favorite reads! Books mentioned in this episode:  Pastoral Mentoring for the Care of Souls — Jared Wilson The Ministry of Small Things — Ruben Bredenhof My Story: A Spiritual and Intellectual Biography — John Lennox Foundation — Isaac Asimov Dune — Frank Herbert The Wizard of Earthsea / Earthsea series — Ursula K. Le Guin The Farseer Trilogy — Robin Hobb The Desecration of Man — Carl R. Trueman The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self — Carl R. Trueman The Making of the American Mind — Matthew Spalding John Adams — David McCullough Truman — David McCullough History Matters — David McCullough Scalia: The Supreme Court Years — James Rosen Master of the Senate — Robert A. Caro Means of Ascent — Robert A. Caro The Passage of Power — Robert A. Caro The Power Broker — Robert A. Caro London Falling — Patrick Radden Keefe Rogues — Patrick Radden Keefe Empire of Pain — Patrick Radden Keefe The Lives of the Caesars / The Twelve Caesars — Suetonius; translated by Tom Holland Dominion — Tom Holland

For most of church history, Song of Songs was among the most popular books to teach, preach, and study. Now it's typically viewed as a book about marriage. Is there more to it? Cole and Terry discuss this poetic masterpiece and explain the ways it teaches us about Christ. 

Ecclesiastes is unlike any other book in the Bible. The wise King Solomon shares his experiences about life under the sun, struggle, vanity, and the purpose of life. Even here, we can see pointers to Jesus Christ. 

Sometimes it's the hardest times that teach us what is most important. In the second half of this episode on The Tower and the Ruin, Dr. Michael Drout opens up about the sorrow behind the book and how Tolkien's stories helped him through. 

J.R.R. Tolkien's work is more than just a great story. Michael Drout's book is part memoir and part scholarship, tracing Tolkien's masterpiece as a work or literature and a work of life. You'll never read Lord of the Rings the same way again.