I’ve seen Marilynne Robinson’s novels in bookstores before, but the covers never stood out to me (unfair? yes.) But I came across an excerpt from one of her essays — having no idea she wrote such things — and was impressed enough to put The Death of Adam on hold at the library. I haven’t [...]
Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief sounds pretty straightforward, and, by Rowan Williams’ standards, it is. He basically explains the meanings of the Nicene and Apostle’s creeds. This gives the book a tight overall structure, which balances the conversational, often digressive writing (the book is based on a series of talks.)
There were two [...]
I’ve been sucked in by Richard Holmes’ The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. The stories in this book are intoxicating. It’s similar in effect to Romantic poetry, especially Keats. Herschel’s cosmological speculations are the highlight in this regard.
But the Romantic Age was not all discovery and [...]
I’ve recently finished reading Shusaku Endo’s novel The Samurai. I feel like writing about it, but I’ll certainly need more than one post. It’s an almost painful book to read, and it unsettled me profoundly. But after the ordeal it offers a kind of solace. I’ll need a few posts to work it out.
Let me begin with the book’s eponymous essay.
The strangest thing about reading this is the image it gives of hippies. Growing up in California, I’ve met plenty of people one might call hippies. In my experience a typical hippie is old, poorly dressed, and not very interesting to talk to. It’s hard to imagine these [...]
Just finished Norman F. Cantor’s Inventing the Middle Ages, about the great medievalists of the 20th century. It’s uneven, but considering the range of figures he deals with it’s understandable. He can’t be an expert on the life and work of every medievalist of the 20th century. But the weak passages are outweighed by the [...]
But in history, as in traveling, men usually see only what they already had in thier own minds; and few learn much from history, who do not bring much with them to it’s study.
John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women
I’m taking History 11 (American History 1) right now, and have been discovering the truth of [...]
I just got The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus for my birthday (thanks Mom). Gomes reminds me a lot of C.S. Lewis in that he addresses a popular audience from a scholarly background, and does so eloquently and with literary skill. He is also apt to scatter his writing with rather quotable constructs.
Inner strength [...]
An old Disney animation about “magic highways.”
It’s about time.
It’s cool so far.
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