When one offers up the “slippery slope” argument, it is likely that they’ve failed to comprehend that it’s possible the truth lies at the bottom of the hill, not the top.

I’m not sure if The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, is truly well written (although, it is definitely clever). I’ve heard opinions (from people I respect) on both sides of the spectrum. But I do know that the words of the story relentlessly hit on my heart like the heavy, pounding raindrops of a summer storm on a tin roof.

This story of a missionary family’s tragic mis-adventure in the Belgian Congo of 1959 is told from the point of view of the five women in the family. I can relate to all of the roles: wife, mother, daughter, sister. Perhaps this made the book all the more bitter and sweet. But, even my husband (who is not a wife, mother, daughter or sister!), was affected by the story (see his review here).

I read TPB several months after reading Fieldwork (by Mischa Berlinski). Fieldwork unravels the story of an anthropologist, a multi-generation missionary family, a journalist, and a murder.

I read Fieldwork almost non-stop. I could not put it down. It tore through my soul. I read The Poisonwood Bible in daily fits and spurts. But its story haunted me through the hours in between turning the pages.
   

I think these two books should be required reading for people preparing to work overseas (particularly as missionaries or NGO workers). They are not instruction manuals or glowing tales of missionary faith. Neither are they outright condemnations. But both books reveal the heart of darkness that is sometimes carried into a place by the very people seeking to bring light. And that is what both of these books capture so well: the knife-edge between darkness and light, life and death, hate and love, understanding and ignorance, arrogance and humility.

The characters and situations–in both books–are vehicles for the larger issues the authors illuminate. Do not be distracted by the (sometimes) strong caricatures and miss the emotional workout that the authors ask the reader to commit to.

Reviews by friends of mine:
Fieldwork (Mindy Withrow)
The Poisonwood Bible (Mark Traphagen)

Good review by Joseph Kelly of Mark Smith‘s recent book, The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1, by Mark Smith.

I’ve been reading this, but have not yet had the time to write about it here. Hopefully Joseph’s review will convince you the book is worth your time. It has been worth my time (which these days comes at a premium).

For you iPhone users, be sure to check out #10, which points you to an iPhone app called Open Culture that connects you to many of the free resources!

HT: Randall Short (@shortNtweet), via Twitter (he also has a blog)

Read the post here.

And, the Top 50 Biblioblog list is out for the month of November. The monthly Top 50 Biblioblog list is now a six-month listing, the current list is here.

This week he is discussing the cognate literature (such as Enuma Elish, Atrahasis, and Gilgamesh) of the Hebrew Bible. Why is this helpful?

Placing Israel in its broader cultural and religious context has been referred to as the “comparative approach.” This is a sometimes-maligned term, as it is unfortunately understood by some to imply that Israel was simply copying or “borrowing” what was around them. This is not the case. Rather, the literature of Israel and that of her predecessors and neighbors reflect a common way of looking at the world. The value of these ancient texts is not in telling us from where Israel got her ideas. Instead, they help us understand what kind of a text Genesis is. I like to refer to this as “genre calibration.”

Read the entire post here.

• Degrees of Presence: Using Various Technologies to Provide Distant Students which a Degree of “Presence” (PDF summary)
• http://www.bigbible.org/blog/2009/11/degrees-of-presence-ii-backstory.htm
• http://www.bigbible.org/blog/2009/11/degrees-of-presence-iii-research.htm