Believe it or not, I'm still alive and kicking. Just recovering from a nightmarishly busy week or two. The day job does entail a good bit of political work, so all the kicking I took from that and other clients has kept me busier than normal.

At some point, coming up, I'll start putting down a few thoughts on Phil Cooke's "Branding Faith," which covers marketing and ministry. Let's see ... as an a) Christian, with b) a Marketing degree, that's gotta be speaking to me loud and clear. Short version: Yep, it does.

On the way to my mailbox is "Jesus for President" by Shane Claiborne. Shane is rarely boring, even if you disagree with him. And it's the last book I intend to read on genre of faith & politics for a while. Afterwards? I'm not entirely sure yet. John Eldredge has a new book out, but I have to confess to diminishing returns reading his work. Truth be told, I'm a bit in the mood for some church history and Bible history books. Unfortunately, I don't start off on that route with a good list of preferred authors. This and this look like tempting dips of the toe into the genre. I may finally land on a book by NT Wright while on this kick. Of course, I may just as easily pick up something that delves heavily in the Constantinian moment of church history and find myself right smack dab in the middle of some more faith & politics rants.

If anyone else has some other recommendations, I'm all ears.