by Kenton C. AndersonThis is really just a self-serving apologetic. Hopefully my wife will read it and become convinced that I haven't been needlessly spending our children's future college tuition on books for my library. Oh well....dare to dream. Enjoy, Dale
This week, the student lounge at my seminary was crowded with tables full of "free books" donated by a deceased former pastor. I'm sure the pastor meant well when he was making his arrangements—but make no mistake, books are never free. Books need to be read, filed, stored, and when you come to move to a new home or office, you will have to transport them. Books are heavy, and movers charge by the pound.
I would like to believe that preachers fill their bookshelves like a master mechanic fills his toolbox. I know that a well-stocked library has always been one of the ways that pastors have impressed and sometimes intimidated people, yet I would like to think that most of us add to our libraries because of the value of the insights and information that these resources offer. Still, if we are going to profit from these books, we are going to have to think carefully about how we manage them.
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2 comments:
The M.Div program here at Asbury deliberately and systematically teaches how to develop a pastor's library. Purchasing the best reference works are among the assignments, and what I have so far is quite useful.
I'm taking an exegesis class on Romans right now, and Dr. Anderson teaches that it's important to not buy commentaries not by weight or by 'scholarliness', but by utility. He classes commentaries into three kinds, and had provided a list of the two best in every category for every book of the NT. He also provided a list of the best commentaries for Romans, and we are required to purchase one before the end of the semester.
You might be interested in this related discussion thread.
John,
That was very helpful. Because I went to Candler I had to develop my own "library skills" by running down every footnote and every book listed in the bibliography of whatever I read. Candler's rule of thumb seemed to be that the book had to be written by a German who could only say the Apostles' Creed with his fingers crossed behind his back...and then sometimes...not even that much commitment.
I would have loved to have had the same kind of guidance you are getting back when I was starting out. It would have been wonderfully helpful.
Still, God has been good to guide me through my "on the job training" when it comes to developing my personal library.
Thanks for the link to the thread. I'll check it out.
Dale
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