What is a book? When is a book not really a book? Before now, I thought I knew; that doesn’t seem like a terribly complicated question after all. War and Peace is a book. So is Thus Spake Zarathustra. So is Go, Dog. Go! But what about a lengthy instruction manual for a Television? It’s bound like a book, and is longer than many things which are obviously books. Is it a book or is the category “Instruction Manual” not contained in the set of things called … [Read more...] about So, You Want to Pray Like a Jesuit?
Christianity
Tintin vs The Joker
File this in the improbable Good Friday pairing department: Tintin vs The Joker. Consider, for example, a pair of Tintin stories: Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon. Tintin books are the kind of thing you settle in to read after a long day at work. The Evil guys are dastardly and mean. Tintin is heroic and young. Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus and Snowy and the Detectives are all there for comic effect. Tintin gets excited when he gets to drive … [Read more...] about Tintin vs The Joker
Tempting the Church
What would an update of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters look like? The Wormwood Archive, by T. G. Brown Who should read it? Anyone curious or worried about the state of the Church in America. Seriously—anyone who fits into that category would benefit from reading this book. It’s short (143 pages) and a quick read. It is deeply insightful about the nature of the modern evangelical church. C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters is one of the pop classics of … [Read more...] about Tempting the Church
A Real Horrorshow Book
In the category of violent books: Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. O my brothers, Your Humble Narrator would like to tell you it is a real horrorshow book, the kind thou ought to recommend to all thy droogs. But, it’s not really all that amazing. It’s good, to be sure. It is fun to read. But it is not nearly as deserving as the praise it receives would suggest. As for the movie—just stay away. Part of the problem this book has is that it spawned a … [Read more...] about A Real Horrorshow Book
After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness?
Jean Hatzfeld has an amazing pair of books about the Rwandan genocide. If you haven't read Machete Season and Life Laid Bare, you should. The first explores the genocide through a series of conversations with the murderers; the second looks at the same events through interviews with the survivors. Jean Hatzfeld has an amazing pair of books about the Rwandan genocide. If you haven't read Machete Season and Life Laid Bare, you … [Read more...] about After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness?
God of Small Things
“For who hath despised the day of small things?” God says that. (Zechariah 4:10) Arundhati Roy entitled a novel: The God of Small Things. Is this a coincidence? Hard to believe that it is, but Roy’s novel of India and Zechariah’s prophecies in Ancient Israel don’t seem to have any obvious similarities. Indeed, consider the context of that line for Zechariah: Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this … [Read more...] about God of Small Things