Review: Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing
Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing by Andy Crouch My rating: 4 of 5 stars I loved Crouch's two major previous books, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling and Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power. I felt this one was also very profitable, though not quite as deep as his other two. All the same, I'm planning a second read-through. I want to get this. I think he's on to something big, something abidingly useful and true. What really made me think...
Review: Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology
Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology by Andrew David Naselli My rating: 4 of 5 stars Vintage Andy. Straightforward, rigorous, logic not maybe on fire but fueled by it at some deeper level. Exhaustive footnotes. Multiple helpful and clear charts. I think he did an admirable job of staying "objective" with regard to a topic he clearly cares deeply about; his autobiographical preface explains that Keswick theology was harmful for him personally in much the same way it was...
Joy Davidman Gresham Lewis on Materialism
Joy Davidman was an accomplished poet, a sharp thinker, a successful student. She was also an ardent materialist. A young poet like me could be seized and shaken by spiritual powers a dozen times a day and still take for granted that there was no such thing as spirit. That was what beautiful things did to you. (118) She guessed that her sensations were just nerves or glands. But her materialism didn't work for her, deep down: The very young carry a kind of insurance against atheist despair....
Review: Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C. S. Lewis
Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C. S. Lewis by Abigail Santamaria My rating: 5 of 5 stars Don't groan, because I mean it: I was surprised by Joy. What a tragic and amazing life! It is truly a travesty that this story has not been told in this depth and detail before. The writing was perfect. The narrative was paced just right, the prose was smooth and even beautiful, and the perspective was neither hagiographical nor dismissive of its subject. Joy Davidman Gresham Lewis was a...
Roger Scruton on Pop Music on BBC 4
I liked this so much that I just don't wanna apply critical thinking to it. It felt right, so it's right. Don't ask me any questions about it. Just listen to it. It's only a few minutes long. Okay?