Q Conversations 4: Jazz Singer and Photographer Ruth Naomi Floyd

While I was in the States at the end of last month, I had an afternoon to kill in Philadelphia. So the completely obvious thing to do was record another Q conversation. This time I sat down to chat with Ruth Naomi Floyd, whom I’d met at the European Leadership Conference in Hungary a few years ago. It’s available on iTunes podcasts, or if you prefer a direct feed, here on Jellycast.

Wisdom from the Palaver Tree: Kofi Annan’s impossible job cajoling the world

I have just finished Kofi Annan’s fascinating memoir Interventions. Annan is clearly a man of great stature and influence, who strained every sinew to bring about peace and dialogue during his 10 years as UN Secretary-General but tragically often failed. For all kinds of reasons. But as one might expect (and indeed hope), he has great wisdom to share, even if he cannot claim a string of personal triumphs.

But before a few gems, here’s my brief Amazon review (which you may want to find ‘helpful’?!):

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 56 (May 2013)

A brief plug before this outing. Someone asked how I keep track of various internet things. My secret is the wonder that is Pocket. People send me stuff or I see stuff on my RSS reader (NetNewsWire if you’re interested), and then I click pocket in the browser – and can then check them out off-line on my phone on trains and tubes etc. Simple really – so there you are.

Sacred Treasure

• This is a wakeup call – a global rich list tied to an appeal to donate to the world’s poorest. Very simple, very effective.
• A more interesting conversation now that “Richard Dawkins has lost…”
• A brief but pastorally important response to suicide amongst believers.

Giving voice to the whistleblower: Le Carré on cracking form in A Delicate Truth

There’s a key moment when the oleaginous Foreign Office chameleon, Giles Oakley, goads his protegé and A Delicate Truth‘s protagonist, Toby Bell, about what he should do with his qualms about government policy in the run up to Iraq War.

You’re exactly what the Guardian needs: another lost voice bleating in the wilderness. If you don’t agree with government policy, don’t hang around trying to change it. Jump ship. Write the great novel you’re always dreaming about. (p51)

Forging a future out of a pandemic of tragedy: Rhidian Brook’s The Aftermath

The months immediately after the close of the Second World War were confusing. One minute the Allies had been dropping bombs on Germany (as Col Lewis Morgan, the protagonist in Rhidian Brook‘s The Aftermath, points out, more bombs fell on Hamburg in one weekend than fell on the London in the entire war), the next they were dropping lifeline supplies in the Berlin Airlift of ’48-’49. The disorientation this must have brought for ordinary Germans is articulated by some so-called ferals (kids living in the ruins of the city):

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 55 (April 2013)

Oooooops – this is seriously late!! Many apologies. Been rather a busy week and completely forgot to post this!

Sacred Treasure

• Shhh!! Chris Green on introvert preachers and introvert lightbulb changers
• Eddie Arthur quotes the wonderful Oscar Muriu on the traps of western (though here, particularly American) missionaries in E. Africa.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 54 (March 2013)

Sacred Treasure

• Is there a new US-style religious Right in the UK – Theos argues no
• Research shows that if you ‘survive’ first 10 years of marriage, you’re more likely to last the course as divorce rates for that stage haven’t shifted much
• This is a bit of a surprise for this particular blog: 10 reasons why Creationism should be taught in schools

The British Empire was never quite what you thought: John Darwin’s Unfinished Empire

Nearly 10 years ago, a dear friend of mine was addressing a gathering of Ugandan MPs in the Parliament building in Kampala (around the 40th anniversary of independence). It included those from all shades on the political spectrum, including not a few post-colonial firebrands. My friend is certainly no great apologist for imperialism, but he posed two simple questions.

• “Which Ugandan regions (of those that the British failed to develop) have we since developed?”
• “What aspects of public life, government and rule of law have we improved on or done better in than the colonial regime?”

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 53 (February 2013)

Sacred Treasure

• Great stuff from Keller: Preaching in a Secular Culture
• This is good: 8 ways preachers harm the depressed
• Fantastic news: Proc Trust makes its audio archive available for free download.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 52 (January 2013)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here’s to a great 2013!

Sacred Treasure

• Law and Grace in Les Miserables
• Important booklet on Prosperity Gospel made available by the Theology Network
• Why CSLewis’ Mere Christianity should have bombed… and the lessons we can learn
• It’s done the rounds – but no less fun for that: Higgs vs Dawkins on Atheist fundamentalism

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 51 (December 2012)

Sacred Treasure

• Eddie Arthur has provided some important updated stats on Bible Translation.
• An interesting response to voting in a presidential election
• Barnabas Piper on 7 things a kind wants from his pastor dad – really helpful stuff here

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 50 (November 2012)

Wow – how about that!? The 50th map of monthly treasure!

Enjoy…

Sacred Treasure

• Rowan Williams’ recent interesting Theos lecture on The Person and the Individual
• Tim Keller has been involved with creating a new catechesis – looks very interesting indeed
• In case you missed it, here are the links to the recent, interesting series at All Souls: Great Lies of our Time
  

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 49 (October 2012)

Sacred Treasure

• A heart-rending 16thC letter of grief from a pregnant widow to her now buried husband.
• Very interesting interview in Third Way with Tanni Grey-Thompson (Britain’s greatest paralympian)
• Covenant Seminar in St Louis have put some great free courses online in their Worldwide Classroom
  

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 48 (September 2012)

Sacred Treasure

• Bart Ehrman is a  widely respected atheist NT scholar – this is an important site that engages with many of his controversial (though not particularly original) assertions
• The complexities of translation: you never realised John 3:16 could be so complicated – a great little video from Wycliffe
• Phillip “Red Tory” Blond has a very interesting piece on Western Political Bankruptcy and what ‘is coming sooner than you think.’

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 47 (August 2012)

Sacred Treasure

• Nick Spencer writes the new Cambridge Paper on The Bible and Politics
• Catherine Weston has an interesting blog here reflecting on her experiences working across cultures.
• Threads is a pretty cool initiative by some media folk at EA – definitely worth following 

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 46 (July 2012)

Sacred Treasure

• Religious people are psychotic apparently… Interesting article by Jules Evans from Wired – a classic sign of the prevailing culture that values pragmatism over truth.
• A very interesting critique of the US Christian right from a member of the US Christian right (HT Carl Trueman)

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 45 (June 2012)

Sacred Treasure

• For fans, this will be a huge treat. Abraham Kuyper’s legacy is online c/o Princeton. For others, definitely worth a browse…
• Amazing story: The Passion Play in ‘Angola’
• This sums up SO much of where our culture has come to – with Bertrand Russell’s new Liberal Decalogue, his personal 10 Commandments from way back in December 1951. Fascinating. There is a lot of practical wisdom here too.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 44 (May 2012)

Sacred Treasure

• A really impressive and helpful Holy Week Timeline
• An American anthropologist spent 4 years fully embedded in 2 Vineyard churches in the US. This is a review of revealing result.
• A great project to make the vast catalogue of Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ sermons available online.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 43 (April 2012)

Sacred Treasure

• The importance of being forgivers in ministry… helpful, brief piece by Paul Tripp
• Keeping Pastor Yousef on the agenda – remember his extraordinary letter from January 2011
• Nice brief summary of Craig Keener’s helpful rebuttal of Hume’s objection to the miraculous: Hoist with his own petard

When the Good do Bad: David Brooks’ Reflections on Human nature

It’s not every day that you find a newspaper column quoting Calvin, C S Lewis and G K Chesterton without odium or censure. But that is exactly what happened in a New York Times Op. Ed. on Monday. It’s even more surprising when you realise that its writer is a Jewish American social commentator, David Brooks. He is a thoughtful writer who seems genuinely concerned to understand what makes people tick, without prejudice or name-calling. Some will only know him for the fact that he was the one who wrote the piece on John Stott back in 2004 (which was arguably the principle catalyst for him becoming one of the 2005 Time 100).