Links for the Weekend

If all goes well, you probably won't hear much from me until early next week. Now that my two-week Pastoral Theology intensive ended this morning, I've got a couple papers to write, the larger of which is a ten-pager on "whatever aspect of your understanding, personality or character you consider might be most problematic for a diligent and faithful ministry." Folks around here just call it "the sin paper." Only ten pages? At least I don't lack for material.

In addition to the paper writing, I'll also be finalizing the syllabus for the high school Bible class I'm teaching this fall at Wildwood Christian School. I will (hopefully) post the class assignments here next week, just in case anyone wants to follow along in their own studies through the fall (I'm teaching on the history of the nation of Israel through the Old Testament, so again, no lack for material).

I wanted to share a couple of really great links that, if you're at all like me in liking things well-done, you'll appreciate. The first is the Access Foundation's list of The Great Books, a mind-blowing bibliography "from the ancient classics to the masterpieces of the 20th century...that are all the introduction you’ll ever need to the ideas, stories, and discoveries that have shaped modern civilization." Some of the links aren't as up-to-date as others, but the list of books is impressive. Also check out Mortimer Adler's Center for the Study of the Great Ideas.

In case you're preparing to teach any kind of biblical history this fall (in Sunday School, to a class, to your kids - whatever), be sure to check out the Bible Atlas Online, which has over 170 quality full-screen maps of biblical geography available for free download. These are some of the more attractive maps I've come across (especially for the price). I downloaded them all.

If you're a Mac user who also happens to be in school, check out 18-year-old Logan Collins' site and his free Schoolhouse software. Set up with an iTunes-like interface, Schoolhouse is my new assignment organizer of choice and blows away my pseudo-hack of iCal to achieve a similar (but lacking) set-up. If you download it, leave the guy a donation as he's just starting school (albeit at KU - "rock chawk chicken hawk") and he could probably use the money.

By the way, hat tip to Ed for most of these previous links. He's a surf junkie.

Finally (and following up on some ideas in my previous post), here's a well-written and insightful article on life management by World Magazine's Andree Seu called "Invisible Monkeys: They’re on Our Backs, and Getting Them Off Will Unleash Creativity". I liked this piece because it presents life management from more of a Christian worldview than most books and gurus do, connecting some dots from the how to the why. (Note: If you're a magazine subscriber, you can read it for free; if not, you'll only get the first fourth or so.)

Have a good weekend, everybody. And pages to go before I post...