Reading:

• The Vivisector by Patrick White
• Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom by Peter J. Leithart
• The Architecture of the Scottish Medieval Church, 1100–1560 by Richard Fawcett
• Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon
• The Protestant Era by Paul Tillich
• Argula von Grumbach: A Woman’s Voice in the Reformation by Peter Matheson
• The Rhetoric of the Reformation by Peter Matheson
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders
• The Snow Child: A Novel by Eowyn Ivey
• Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Conscience and Obedience: The Politics of Romans 13 and Revelation 13 in Light of the Second Coming by William Stringfellow
• Ransom: A Novel by David Malouf [This just might be the best book Malouf has written since Fly Away Peter. Actually, I think it’s even better.]
• God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’ by Sarah Coakley
• Apocalyptic and the Future of Theology: With and Beyond J. Louis Martyn edited by Joshua B. Davis and Douglas Harink
• The Two Cities of God: The Church’s Responsibility for the Earthly City edited by Carl E. Braaten & Robert W. Jenson
• The Church Faces Death: Ecclesiology in a Post-Modern Context by Michael Jinkins
• Burial Rites: A Novel by Hannah Kent [This is an extraordinary story, and had Hannah Kent (b. 1985) been a more mature – I’m tempted to say a more Murdochian – writer it could have been a great book. Instead, we are given here more cliché than one should be expected to swallow in a single volume, and introduced to characters whose depths remain largely, and disappointingly, thin. Frustrating.]
• The Church of God by Donald MacKinnon
• Church for Every Context: An Introduction to Theology and Practice by Michael Moynagh
• A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
• Approaching the End: Eschatological Reflections on Church, Politics, and Life by Stanley Hauerwas
• The Kenotic Trajectory of the Church in Donald MacKinnon’s Theology: From Galilee to Jerusalem to Galilee by Timothy G. Connor [This is, without doubt, one of the most learned and accessible assessments of MacKinnon’s work currently available. Anyone wanting an introduction to some of MacKinnon’s key ideas, and their sources, will want to read this very fine book.]
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
• Stoner by John Williams
• A Word In My Mouth: Selected Spiritual Poems by Robert Cording
• The Kitchen Diaries II: A Year of Simple Suppers by Nigel Slater

Listening

• Dream River by Bill Callahan
• Fanfare by Jonathan Wilson
• Once I Was An Eagle by Laura Marling
• American Kid by Patty Griffin
• Metamorphosis: The Hours by Lavinia Meijer and Philip Glass
• Duke Ellington & John Coltrane by Duke Ellington and John Coltrane
• Crescent by John Coltrane
• Dakar by John Coltrane
• Honeycomb Tombs from Karla Adolphe
• The Columbia Years: ’62–’68 by Thelonious Monk
• The Complete Black Lion and Vogue Recordings of Thelonious Monk by Thelonious Monk
• Warp & Weft by Laura Veirs
• Absolution by Josh White
• Departure & Farewell by Hem
• Funnel Cloud by Hem
• Morten Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna by Paul Salamunovich and the Los Angeles Master Chorale

Leunig love

And finally, to end the year and all – a gift especially for those likely to be sucked in to making New Year’s resolutions – some advice from Thelonious Monk:

… and some great sounds to see the new year in with: