Fantastic novelist Marilynne Robinson, in one of her essays, claims that Wesley is 鈥渢he only major theologian鈥� whose commitments are Arminian, and in Fantastic novelist Marilynne Robinson, in one of her essays, claims that Wesley is 鈥渢he only major theologian鈥� whose commitments are Arminian, and in reading this I can agree that he isn鈥檛 just some 鈥榚nthusiast鈥� but has a consistent theology, that is, he merits the term 鈥榤ajor theologian鈥欌€攊t just seems that he reads some relevant passages wrong and not touch others at all in his explanation of 'Christian Perfection' which he claims we should be able to attain in this life. (For instance his explanation of 1 John 1:10 [If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us] seems to muddle the plain sense of the passage and there was no mention of Romans 7 in the whole of the pamphlet). All that said, I am very impressed by Wesley; I think his seek-the-Lord-always-and-get-things-done-while-doing-it stance is a corrective that many of us could use. ...more
Really good sympathetic imaginative look at the beginning of the fourteenth century and how people, though they might be radically different from whatReally good sympathetic imaginative look at the beginning of the fourteenth century and how people, though they might be radically different from what we understand now, are still recognizably people, with all their quirks and nastinesses and capacity for startling goodness. Very strong humanistic exploration of the basics of Christian theology and ethics given the fulcrum of one of the worst times imaginable. Also has a lot of quite good and very needed comic relief passages. On the downside, I do think the bulk of the book is not quite necessary-- this is nearly six hundred pages long and could afford to slash a hundred pages' worth without much loss. One historical note which is very enjoyable is that this book was published in 1990 and (the sci fi setting of the book rather than its medieval setting) is in 2050 or something and, while Willis has made the leap to assume that everyone could look at each other when they call one another, she hasn't been able to foresee cell phones, so a huge part of this book is the fun anachronism of people capable of time travel being unable to text message one another or even leave voicemails. To Willis's credit, I can barely imagine cell phones and I am functionally attached to one at all times. ...more
A good strong biography and examination of the implied theology-- 'implied' because Moody didn't write anything systematic and we can only chart the oA good strong biography and examination of the implied theology-- 'implied' because Moody didn't write anything systematic and we can only chart the outline of his beliefs from the evidence of his extant sermons-'- of the most prominent American evangelist of the nineteenth century. The picture that one gets is of a guy who thought theology and church learning was important, but who wasn't willing to fight about it. His ideas are a forerunner of Lewis's Mere Christianity-- do try to figure things out and have a strong system of belief, but also be willing to work with others who come to different conclusions than you do, because the important thing is pressing outward with the evangelistic love of Christ. I like this guy. Let's get ourselves transformed by the gospel, he says, and then go and be transformational in the world around us: "If the world cannot tell the difference between us and other men, it is a pretty good sign that we have not been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ." ...more
Good strong theology book that makes thoughtful, biblical, historical sense of a lot of the doctrines that many Reformed-church attenders have perhapsGood strong theology book that makes thoughtful, biblical, historical sense of a lot of the doctrines that many Reformed-church attenders have perhaps half-heard or half-understood. It is focused on Anthropology-- what people, properly speaking, are-- and goes from that to many different things. It gets dry at various points (in the 'history of the doctrine' chapter, why do we need three different twentieth century guys when they all seem to be variations on a theme?) but is overall readable, helpful, and even practical. Worth your time. ...more
Well, I guess I'll be sad forever now. This book is all about man's inhumanity to man, but it won't stop there and make some people good innocent victWell, I guess I'll be sad forever now. This book is all about man's inhumanity to man, but it won't stop there and make some people good innocent victims and other people bad unjust oppressors; everything is always more complicated than that and the bad guys are people too. We're all in this together, and it's heartbreaking and beautiful. Prosaically, this is historical fiction based on a group of mixed-race people who lived on an island off the coast of Maine and who Maine decided were an offense to civilized society and kicked off the island, going so far to express its polite refinement as to dig up their dead and shipping them off too. It's also theologically daring and thoughtful. This is a book that's filling, impossible to read quickly, and really hard to pin down on any definite point. You should read it....more
Yeah, that'll do. It's an account of a lot of history, and it intentionally tries to get context to help to explain the church and its actions and staYeah, that'll do. It's an account of a lot of history, and it intentionally tries to get context to help to explain the church and its actions and stances in various eras, so it's trying to do a lot. You can learn a lot from this text. However, the writing is uneven and the whole seems redundant and blocky. Some of the editorial choices are baffling (for instance, there is a longish section on "Post Vatican II Theological Trajectories" twenty pages before the section introducing Vatican II), sometimes seemingly needed information is just left for the interested party to ascertain (Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr are actually different people and not a typo? Good to know!) and the "For Further Reading" section often seems kind of uninspiring. (And then the scholarly matter at the end lists "Recommended Reading for Enthusiasts"? How enthused do I need to be to want to be educated?) Anyway-- it's a useful book. (Even if Hugh Latimer is referred to by his unofficial nickname "Huge Latimer" on one occasion.)...more
Okay, it's really important to see yourself as loved prior to any of your self improvement and noncontingent on it. Heard. The question then is: what Okay, it's really important to see yourself as loved prior to any of your self improvement and noncontingent on it. Heard. The question then is: what does a life of being supported by the experience of love-- like floating in the gentle river, yea verily-- supposed to actually look like? I mean, the experienced presence of love can keep us coming to God even in our sins, yes and amen, but our sins keep us uncomfortable in God's presence, yes? Don't we want to progress in Christlikeness, and therefore desire self improvement? Isn't that what we call sanctification, with some jostling of nuance? I'm convinced that this book and others like it (The Ragamuffin Gospel, Life of the Beloved) are drastically important, but I don't get how to make them personally 'stick.' To his credit, Benner recognizes that this is a legitimate response: this is a "process-- a lifelong journey of formation, deformation, and re-formation. It is the ongoing journey of being born and reborn and reborn again-- over and over. But rather than being bad news, suggesting a job that is never ending, this is actually good news, revealing a life that is never ending!" So. Keep going strong, I guess...more
This autobiography reads like Marquez's novels, which is to say slowly, obscurely, brilliantly, in a world tinged with sadness, unintelligible magic, This autobiography reads like Marquez's novels, which is to say slowly, obscurely, brilliantly, in a world tinged with sadness, unintelligible magic, and incompatible moralities. I gave up halfway through, and not without cause. He says "we should read only those books that force us to reread them," which seemed distant from the experience I was having in this book, which reads like exquisitely manicured oatmeal. ...more
This is a brilliant little book. It doesn't get more stars because I have to read something for an hour or two at least before it can be properly memoThis is a brilliant little book. It doesn't get more stars because I have to read something for an hour or two at least before it can be properly memorable, and this is more like a pamphlet, it reads often literally like a collection of poems. However, there are some wonderful bits in here about churchly scripture reading, churchly song, and communion, and then again also about how Christ meets us in so much of the created world always. Here's a quote to put up somewhere and think about (and look at how the phrases make it a little poem by itself)
this opening passage of John's gospel offers us the encouraging and utterly transformative idea that we ourselves are a poem that there is a poet behind the world who not only speaks that world into being but speaks us into it so that we might behold its glory and respond ourselves with poems spoken back to the maker
(although Guite will have none of this modernist stuff thank you very much; if it wants to be a poem in his world it will rhyme and declare itself)...more
A 'thriller' rather than a mystery proper, but a fun one with an engaging heroine. Christie has some very strange views as regards what makes for sexuA 'thriller' rather than a mystery proper, but a fun one with an engaging heroine. Christie has some very strange views as regards what makes for sexual attraction-- like, to the extent that I would have recommended she seek some kind of counseling probably-- but if you can ignore that, this is a lively adventure. ...more
If Dabney was correct in the most important thing-- ie the redemption of sinners by the gratuitous act of God-- he has long since learned his error asIf Dabney was correct in the most important thing-- ie the redemption of sinners by the gratuitous act of God-- he has long since learned his error as regards more or less the rest of his public career. But of course this line of thinking is uncomfortable. This is a biography of a guy who was on the wrong side of the Civil War and was a leading theological voice in the Lost Cause mythology; he held to the end that black people were created by God as inferior. During Reconstruction, "In one essay, Dabney defended Southern intransigence by holding that 'the times demand "good haters."'"-- which is uncomfortably close to much of what we've been hearing recently politically and ecclesiastically. He was apparently a kindly guy in his personal relations, and pretty obviously brilliant, yet his geography appears to have so twisted his hermeneutics that he had to get close to merely lying about what the Bible says in order to defend American slavery. And he is one of the guys whose memory, until pretty recently, was lionized in my denomination. These things should teach us humility, I guess.
On another note, my nine year old daughter stared at this book's title for a while and said, "Robert Lewis Dab-nay? Daddy, the man's name is Stevenson." And this is perhaps the correct response. ...more
Obviously powerful, cringy, intense: how do we have different gradations of society so different they might as well be in different universes, except Obviously powerful, cringy, intense: how do we have different gradations of society so different they might as well be in different universes, except that the cultural norms of one grouping seems to form the horizons of another grouping. Or, how do people come to hate their own physicality? This is a haunting first novel that shows the traits of someone who will eventually be capable of writing Beloved. Read it with fear and trembling, I guess.
Personal note: I believe my copy of this book was stolen. At least, it was with my stuff in the parking lot at the grocery store (I put it on top of my beer because I thought, ironically, I don't want anyone to think they might want to steal my beer), and then later it wasn't anymore. If someone did in fact steal this book-- I wish that person well and I hope the reading experience was a good one. Come talk to me about it. ...more
Scholarly and punchy and informative and gossipy and quick. And kind of a historical whodunit, which is fun. Will give you some good info, not just onScholarly and punchy and informative and gossipy and quick. And kind of a historical whodunit, which is fun. Will give you some good info, not just on the great Library at Alexandria, but also background on Shelley's poem "Ozymandias," the writing of the Septuagint, the Caesar/ Cleopatra/ Marc Antony soap opera, and early Imperial/ Ecclesiastical power and politics. And about information storage technology and the dangers of religious bigotry. Very odd interesting little book. ...more
Christianity as the first populism? Bishops behaving like mob bosses and monks like the thug arm of the church? This is kind of uncomfortable. A thougChristianity as the first populism? Bishops behaving like mob bosses and monks like the thug arm of the church? This is kind of uncomfortable. A thought provoking read about how the ancient and sort of ceremonial role of the philosopher in his political role as the one who is allowed to speak truths to power got taken over by the 'lovers of the poor,' which in turn makes 'the poor' a political interest group that can enforce their displeasure by rioting. The bishop then takes an almost explicitly Althussarian role as Ideological State Apparatuses, ie, guys who get to retain their power because they keep the poor quiet without bloodshed. ...more
This is a book of short stories set in a surprisingly murder-prone suburb of Chicago, featuring a Catholic priest who uses his intuition and knowledgeThis is a book of short stories set in a surprisingly murder-prone suburb of Chicago, featuring a Catholic priest who uses his intuition and knowledge of human sin to solve a great many of these unexpected murders. It is, in fact, an American and better-executed version of the good idea which was Chesterton's Father Brown stories. McInerny is apparently utterly forgotten now, fifteen years after his death, but he perhaps shouldn't be; it seems that he was a pretty competent academic philosopher and theologian in addition to being a tireless mystery writer. His prose is lively and his ideas are clear. I'm going to go back for more, I think. ...more
Big powerful book about a big powerful engineering project, full of the poetry of very large numbers. If the locks of the Panama Canal were turned on Big powerful book about a big powerful engineering project, full of the poetry of very large numbers. If the locks of the Panama Canal were turned on their sides, they'd be some of the tallest structures on the New York skyline, for instance. Gives a ton of memorable detail on the various colorful characters involved in the project, keeps its eye on broader world politics, and remembers the 'little guy' throughout. One of the great points McCullough makes is simply that we now, a century and more after the project was completed, could not do it any more quickly or efficiently (I grumpily think it would be totally impossible at this point because people wouldn't want to go and be bothered). A worthwhile read on a heroic and still startling project. ...more
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