Playing along with the Interview Game

I volunteered to be interviewed by Rebecca of Rebecca Writes.   If you want to participate, the instructions follow my answers to the questions Rebecca asks of me. 

1. How long have you liked the Puritans?
When I was working on a Ph.D. on the trinitarian basis of spirituality, I started finding a lot of great Puritan writings through people like Charles Hambrick-Stowe, who wrote a fine article, "Reformed Spirituality: Dimensions of Puritan Devotional Practice," (Journal of Presbyterian History 58:1, Spring 1980) that I mined for all it’s worth. I spent a quarter doing research at the Huntington Library in Pasadena and wrote a paper called, “The Spirituality of the Householder”.  It was sheer delight and I ended up “minoring” in historical theology on the Puritans.

2. Who is your favorite Puritan?
Ah. Good question.  Kind of depends on my mood.  Anne Bradstreet’s poetry is so tender and poignant, Cotton Mather’s preaching is both ornery and passionate, Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor is one of the classics, and Jonathan Edwards, is, well, Jonathan Edwards (if you consider him a Puritan, not everyone does.)  Oh, by the way, great article about Puritans here.

3. What's the best thing about being a pastor?
Every day I do something really significant even if nobody ever notices (and they mostly don’t). In the words of Eugene Peterson,  I deal with the “mystery of God and the mess of humans.”  And both are a privilege.

4. What's the best book you've read in the last 12 months?
Funniest, most irreverant, (but amazingly not heretical) was Lamb: The Gospel according to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.  I liked Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield,  re-read Shogun by James Clavell, and found Jon Krakauer’s book on Mormon fundamentalism called Under the Banner of Heaven both disturbing and hard to put down.   On the more edifying side, I think everyone should read NT Wright’s books, The Challenge of Jesus and What Saint Paul Really Said. And more people should read Mark Roberts' book Dare to be True and then live it out.

5. If you had to live outside the U.S. for a year, where would you choose to live?
Slam dunk: New Zealand. But I’d fly there by way of Italy and the Alps.

Here's how you can play the interview game:

1. Leave me a comment saying “interview me.” The first five commentators will be the participants.
2. I will respond by asking you five questions.
3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)

It's kind of interesting... so give it a whirl.

Comments

[Christine Dattilo]

Interview me - I'm a new blogger - longtime reader of your blog. Always take away good things to help lead a thoughtful and rich Christian life.

[Bowden McElroy]

I'd like to be interviewed. Always enjoy reading your blog.

[Mike]

OK, I'm game: sign me up!

[Pete]

I'm up for it.

[Dennis]

Darn one spot left : ) This will be fun.