Recently I committed to review several books for TheOoze.com. I intended to get about four books over the course of a year. I received Pete Gall’s My Beautiful Idol and wrote a couple of posts. Not long after I received about five books. I will get to them slowly. Not only do I have my usual reading for sermon preparation and study – not to mention those the new reads from the always recommending David Phillips. I am reading a friend’s DMin project as his “reader.” I will be reading quite a bit over the next few months helping him get to the end of that journey. As if that was not enough …

Today begins an online adventure, could be construed by some as a nightmare. I became familiar with David Fitch on the recommendation of his book The Great Giveaway. My brother Paul wrote a series of posts reviewing Fitch’s book. (You will need to scroll through these posts as they are not linked in one post – shame on Paul.) And, since some think Paul and I are joined at the hip, if not the brain, you would find much of my own response to the book there as we talked a great deal about the book during his read. (Email him about the “wonder twins” association from some years ago.) One of the many blog feeds in my Bloglines account noted an online course David would run this summer with Geoff Holsclaw titled, “Readings In Postmodern Theology.”

I queried David about the course as we had exchanged emails over ETREK and possibilities at Northern Seminary. He sent along the early version of the syllabus and I was hooked. I ordered the books and began reading. When Paul, a philosophy minor in college, referred to the reading as dense, I knew I had bit off a bit.

The reading will be challenging but lines up with my reading of a few authors who attempt to appropriate some of the benefits of postmodern philosophy for theology like James K.A. Smith, Pete Rollins andJack Caputo.

As I have time, I will try to post some of my reflections on the reading. What have you read that might be helpful? What are your thoughts on the idea of reading postmodern theology?