Three by Gordon Fee

Three items related to Gordon Fee for today. First, I'm working my way through God's Empowering Presence and have, as I expected, been awed by his scholarship and exegesis, but even more, have been entranced by Paul as he comes through in Fee's writing. This book has received wide praise, and it was about time I finally got to it. I haven't got to the synthesis chapters yet at the end, but the exegesis is well done, especially his overviews of the books and their arguments.

Item two is that Fee has a new commentary out in the NICNT series which he edits for Eerdmans on 1 and 2 Thessalonians, which I hope to pick up soon. His Philippians volume in that series is a volume I deeply appreciated, both for it's learning but even more for its pastoral sensativity and it's helpful words of application.

Third, I just picked up, again long overdue, Fee's Listening to the Spirit in the Text. Reading Fee always makes me want to read more of him, and this collection of essays has some great stuff on Paul, so it fits right in with my current Pauline emphasis.

Getting back from a busy summer

Well, Cindy and I took advantage of a summer where neither of us was tied down to a full-time job. With her getting summers off from teaching and me staying home / working from home, we had quite an opportunity for flexibility. This meant time to make it up to Canada fishing with my Dad, Grandpa, and Cousin for our annual trip, a great week out in California to visit friends, a week spent with Cindy's family in Montana, with a great hike up in the mountains, and a few weeks back in beloved Peru. It was both great to see friends and places we loved and also a joy to be able to serve, doing earthquake relief in the town of Chincha. The devastation is pretty amazing, rivaled only by the slow pace of recovery.

I've also been blessedly busy with freelance work since returning from Peru, with some copyediting on my desk right now and a few typesetting projects on the way—I do love book production. What a great job.

Now another school year is upon us, and a chance to get back in to our routines. The boys have been keeping me busy, as they are now on the verge of 2, with all that entails. But they are so much fun and are certainly always entertaining. I've got some book reviews to catch up on, especially Michael Gorman's great new book, Inhabiting the Cruciform God. I'm also looking forward to doing some continued thinking about the nature of church, both as a spearhead the development of a new small-group ministry at our church and an opportunity to take part in a study on church leadership. So "church" is likely to be a topic for thought, along side my continuing reading in all topics surrounding Paul (that could last a lifetime, I have no doubt).