Reading, Christmas Presents, and Money

I've been enjoying a time of fairly decent reading. I was able to digest a large chunk of Augustine's City of God, enough to know that I desire peace, the beatific vision, and to dwell in the right city, I am knee deep in David Bentley Hart's "Beauty of the Infinite," and I have gotten to do some useful reading for sermon preparation as well. I was able to read through Barth's volume on prayer, Boersma on the atonement, the minor prophets, Brueggemann's "Prophetic Imagination", and parts of his Old Testament Theology. I reread part of McKnight's "Community Called Atonement", I tried reading some fiction and failed at it, but I did manage to reread the last few chapters in Willard's Conspiracy. The only fiction I have managed to read is Planet Hulk and the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, yes, it is true I read comics. I also read about half of Gilead and lost interest. The problem is that my schedule is so erratic that anything that doesn't tend towards sermon or lesson prep has to be really short, unless it is thick theology I make time for that, hence comics. I also read Jesus Creed by McKnight and I've been enjoying some commentaries on 1Thessalonians for my evening services, Wanamaker in the NIGTC, I. Howard Marshall, and Witherington's Social Rhetorical. For some old insights I use Henry. I also resort to Pauline Theologies by Wright, Schreiner, Dunn, Longenecker, and Dunn.

For Christmas I received the Bourne Trilogy, the movies, not the books, I will read Ludlum sometime in a summer when I get some time off from the book store. I also got enough money from family to buy the Church Dogmatics by Barth. I should be receiving it in the mail sometime next week. As a provisional grad student/undergrad who couldn't pass Hebrew with a marginally full schedule I am probably asking for trouble, wasted trees and wasted money by buying this, but here goes.

I wonder if spending that much on books is irresponsible when I need to show healthy spending habits by example to the church at which I preach. I hope not.

This is hard.

Who is sufficient for these things? (2Cor2:16)

Good question.