“Reading with … ” is a new feature for TGCA where we ask Australia Christians about their favourite books and reading habits.
Michael Jensen is the Rector of St Mark’s Anglican Church, Darling Point, in Sydney. He previously taught theology and church history at Moore College for 10 years, and completed his doctorate at Oxford University, which was published as Martyrdom and Identity: The Self on Trial. He has published a number of other books, including Sydney Anglicanism: An Apology, and My God, My God – Is it possible to believe anymore? He is currently working on projects on the doctrine of humanity and on Reformation Anglicanism. He maintains his interest in literary fiction, Eastern European history and culture, and J.S. Bach. Michael is married to Catherine and they have four children.
TGCA: What books are currently on your bedside table?
George Herbert’s Complete Poems.
Schnarch, Passionate Marriage
Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem
TGCA: What was the last book you left unfinished?
The Qu’ran
TGCA: What’s a book you feel guilty for not reading?
War and Peace, by Tolstoy
TGCA: Fiction or Non-fiction?
Fiction and Non-fiction.
TGCA: Do you read commentaries straight-through or dip-in?
Dip-in if at all. Most commentaries—and I mean 95%—are a waste of money.
TGCA: What’s a book that someone needs to write?
The Mere Christianity for the 21st Century.
TGCA: What books did you read to your children?
Great Expectations, by Dickens. Narnia (C. S. Lewis) Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak). Hairy McClary (Lynley Dodd)
TGCA: What was the last book you gave as a present?
Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
TGCA: What book made a big impact on you during adolescence?
Moby Dick. wow.
TGCA: Should Christians write fiction?
D’uh, of course.
TGCA: Do you re-read books?
Very very rarely.
TGCA: Best biography you’ve read?
Vaclev Havel, A Life in Six Acts
Also, John Eliot Gardner on Bach, Music in the Castle of Heaven
TGCA: What 10 books would you take to a desert island?
Bible
Iliad (Homer)
Aeneid (Virgil)
Plato’s Symposium
The Divine Comedy (Dante)
Complete Works of William S. (is that cheating?)
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
Calvin’s Institutes
TS Eliot Complete Poems
How to Escape from a Desert Island
TGCA: What was the last book that made you angry?
Montefiore, Jerusalem
TGCA: Is there a book that you wish you’d written?
Hundreds!
TGCA: Most overrated book?
The Little Prince. Twee pseudo-meaningful rot. In my opinion.
TGCA: What’s a book that we would be surprised to find that you enjoyed?
The Life and Death of Peter Roebuck
Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault
TGCA What’s your favourite time and place to read?
At Bondi Beach, at a café, on a Friday morning
TGCA: What non-fiction topics do you read outside your area expertise?
Self-help and management. Marriage.
TGCA: What was the last book you read?
Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore
But I just finished How Pleasure Works by Bloom and Justice by Michael Sandel
TGCA: What is your favourite novel?
Moby Dick (Meville)
TGCA: What is your favourite poem?
The Four Quartets (Eliot) and The Book of Common Prayer
TGCA: What is a book in the area of theology you’d encourage us to read to better understand the theological task?
Sonderegger’s The Doctrine of God
but also
Augustine’s Confessions, maybe. Or – Karl Barth, Evangelical Theology.
TGCA: What is one book, apart from the Bible, you’d encourage every Christian to read?
Freedom of a Christian by Martin Luther—best half hour investment you can make.
TGCA: Which book, apart from the Bible, has most shaped your approach to ministry?
I’d like to say Life Together by Bonhoeffer, but it wouldn’t be true.
At the moment: Centre Church by Tim Keller. wow.
TGCA: Thank you!
