Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

children's literature

More Bible Memory Resources

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Two weeks ago I recommended Bible memory resources for young children, especially texts set to music.

I’ve updated that post in three ways:

  1. I added Songs for Saplings: 123 under heading 3. That CD just came out this month.
  2. I added heading 5: “Hide the Word (Mark Altrogge, Forever Grateful Music).” Altrogge, senior pastor of a Sovereign Grace Church in Pennsylvania, has set 182 Scripture passages to 9.1 hours of music. The genre is similar to Sovereign Grace Music, which has published several of Altrogge’s songs.
  3. I added heading 6: “Hidden in My Heart: A Lullaby Journey through Scripture (Jay and Trina Stocker, BreakAway Music).” Mellow.

I now have 20.8 hours of Scripture set to music. Grace.

Bible Memory for Young Children

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Jenni and I are frequently amazed at how easily our two-year-old daughter, Kara Marie, memorizes things. It’s amazing. So we’re trying to harness some of her brainpower by memorizing the Bible.

Jenni has taught Kara dozens of verses, and we’re using some additional resources to help these verses stick long-term. Texts in song are remembered long, so memorizing Scripture with music is especially helpful (though some of the songs mentioned below may be more “bumpy” than some prefer).

By the way, children are not the only ones who benefit from Scripture put to song. Dads and moms do, too! We frequently find ourselves meditating on verses like “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” or “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God.’”

1. Foundation and Fighter Verses (Children Desiring God)

  • “Foundation Versesare strategically chosen Bible verses for children preschool through age five.”
    • The verses are available on little flashcards with a picture on one side and the verse and verse reference on the other.
    • Eleven of the 68 verses are put to music, and those MP3s are available for free.

[Read more…] about Bible Memory for Young Children

Two New Children’s Books by Matthias Media

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Here are two new children’s books by Matthias Media that you can view online for free:

They’re not our favorites, but they’re not bad.

More info:

You can view them online for free in two ways:

  1. Read them online by clicking “Sample Pages” at the top of the screen (here and here).
  2. Watch them being read online via YouTube at the bottom of the screen (here and here). The resolution of the pictures is not very good, but the narrator has an Aussie accent. (Stories are more interesting with British, Scottish, Irish, or Aussie accents!)

Six Books for Children on the Bible’s Storyline

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In 2008, Jenni and I profited from reading two “documentary novels” by Paul Maier:

  1. Pontius Pilate
  2. The Flames of Rome

We recently received six of his books for children, and they’re outstanding.

1. The Real Story of Creation

2. The Real Story of the Flood

3. The Real Story of the Exodus

4. The Very First Christmas

Jenni warmly recalls reading this many times as a child.

5. The Very First Easter

6. The Very First Christians

The picture of Agrippa (p. 27) reminds me of someone I know!

Related: About a year ago, Jenni and I reviewed several hundred children’s books and highlighted our favorites: “Theology for Kids.”

Harry Potter

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HP

Jenni and I just finished listening to the best-selling book series of all time: Harry Potter.

Jim Dale masterfully reads the seven-volume unabridged audiobook. We’ve listened to a lot of audiobooks, and Jim Dale is by far the most gifted reader we’ve ever heard. Incredibly gifted.

The audiobook is 4.8 days long (about 115 hours). We thoroughly enjoyed listening to it on date nights and road trips. We’re sad it’s over.

The series is not without objectionable elements (e.g., the protagonist and his friends tell lies without negative consequences, and some of the language is not appropriate for children’s books), but overall J. K. Rowling’s story is brilliant, creative, intriguing, and entertaining. Its literary quality is not as exquisite as J. R. R. Tolkien or C. S. Lewis, but it isn’t junk food either (cf. Kevin Bauder’s series “The Christian and Fantasy Literature”). (Some of the movies, on the other hand, may qualify as junk food. Don’t judge a book by its movie.)

By the way, this may explain one of my Facebook status updates a couple of months ago:

If I become a professor at a college or seminary, I may suggest a different title than the typical “Professor of New Testament” or “Professor of Systematic Theology.” How about “Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts”?

That’s actually not a bad title. (Cf. my review of Focus on the Family Radio Theatre’s The Screwtape Letters.)

Update:

  1. Follow-up post: “Rebuked about Harry Potter“
  2. Successful Rereading: Maintaining the Magic
  3. Harry Potter Is Filled with Implicit and Explicit Christian Themes
  4. Emotional Intelligence
  5. Exulting in Harry Potter
  6. Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts

Theology for Kids

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The latest issue of Themelios includes the following review article that my wife and I coauthored:

Andrew David Naselli and Jennifer J. Naselli. “Theology for Kids: Recommending Some Recent Books for Younger Children.” [Also available in HTML.] Themelios 33:3 (2008): 120–25.

Excerpt:

Without pretending to be experts on theological children’s literature, we have sorted through recent theology books for younger children and compiled a short list of outstanding books. Other books are undoubtedly worthy of mention, but these are our favorites. What follows organizes them in three categories and ranks the books in order, beginning with our top recommendations.

Bible Story Books

Other Story Books

Systematic Theology Books

Radio Theatre: The Chronicles of Narnia

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Over the last several weeks, Jenni and I listened to The Chronicles of Narnia, another first-class presentation by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. Since purchasing the Narnia CDs about one year ago, this was our second time listening to this excellent twenty-two hour production (157 tracks on 19 CDs). (No, we’re not bored. We took some road trips and had some downtime with some illnesses.) It definitely beats TV.

Related:

1. Unabridged Narnia audiobooks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

2. My previous posts on The Life of Jesus: Dramatic Eyewitness Accounts from the Luke Reports and Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom.

3. Kevin Bauder’s series “The Christian and Fantasy Literature” (2005), which I have compiled into a single PDF:

  1. Definitions and Questions
  2. Evaluating Fantastic Writing
  3. Magic in Fantasy
  4. Pilgrim’s Progress
  5. The Lord of the Rings
  6. The Chronicles of Narnia
  7. The Harry Potter Books