Great New Book by Must-Read Christian Writer: Alan Jacobs’ How to Think
I read pretty much anything Alan Jacobs publishes. How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds was yet another great read. This book is Alan Jacobs not half-baked but maybe 90% baked, and it’s still a fantastic read. It felt to me like one long essay, very much in the Jacobs style, which means a lot of trenchant intellectual commentary, delivered smoothly, on interesting stories. But whereas Original Sin, which was very much in the same vein, felt to me like it drove me to a point and...
Tentative Thoughts on VidAngel
I am so far from telling other Christians what they should do with VidAngel. So far. I don't want to be a member of the Fraternal Order of Discernment Police. I'm just wary of my own flesh. I hate the feeling of spoiled pleasures; I love the feeling of pure ones. I'm putting this out there for your thoughts: am I overreacting?
A Bracing Conversion Story
A lesbian at Yale starts exploring Christianity (a must read): At the time, I knew two girls who were seriously dating each other. One was training to be a Lutheran minister. I wanted to know how they could reconcile their lives with Jesus and his teachings. They assured me that any appearance of conflict rested on historic misinterpretations of Scripture. They thrust a packet into my hands, and I ran back to my room to discover what the Bible really says about sexuality. The packet had a neat...
Former Fundie on Genesis 1
"Former Fundie" Ben Corey notes that extraterrestrial life may be discovered on what Trekkies would call a likely "Class M" planet—a planet that has the conditions for supporting life. Does this shoot the literal reading of Genesis 1? Corey summarizes two responses to the text: Fundamentalist: This is what the text says. If it did not happen exactly the way it is recorded, it is not true. Therefore, it must be true. Atheist: This is what the text says. If it did not happen exactly the way it...
Review: Brand New CSB Reader’s Bible
I now own seven separate reader’s Bibles (not counting the many I can make digitally in Logos and other apps), and I wish for the world to know that I got on the reader’s Bible bandwagon before there was one, back in 2006 (?) when it was more like a soloist cart. And the sad/funny thing was that until I received the CSB Reader’s Bible this very morning, the first reader’s Bible I ever got was the best. It was my TNIV Books of the Bible—despite its odd paperback covers and its odd typeface that...