11th century Christian from England disguises himself as a Jew so he can train as a physician in a Persian hospital. Historical fiction at its best! It captures an era that I wish we engaged with more.
Book review: "The Physician" by Noah Gordon
Book review: “Becoming Wise” by Krista Tippett
A beautiful example of the fact that if you sit down and talk with someone from a different background, a different faith tradition, a different culture, you will come to love them and find wisdom there.
Book review: Isaiah Berlin’s “The Power of Ideas”
Perhaps the statement "ideas have power" sounds super-obvious. But if that's the case, we had gosh darn take a moment to examine what ideas are driving us. A timely book considering the strong ideologies present in politics today.
Book review: “A Secular Age” by Charles Taylor
Most accounts of secularization are pretty flat: the march of clear and virtuous reason against the suffocating faith of the Middle Ages. Charles Taylor gives much more detailed account than these over-simplifications-- and regardless of your background, Taylor's work is an engaging read.
Book review: “C. S. Lewis’s Dangerous Idea: In Defense of the Argument from Reason”
Materialism (the idea that there are no supernatural causes) is such a fundamental assumption of modern science, rarely will anyone take the time to state it. But here, C. S. Lewis takes the existence of reason itself as a refutation of materialism. A great analysis by Reppert.
Book review: Justin Martyr’s Apologies
When I'm not an engineer, I want to be a theologian-philosopher-writer. I delved into my collection of ante-Nicene Church fathers this week.
Book review: “The Best of Lowell L. Bennion” edited by Eugene England
Lowell Bennion is my hero. "Nothing matters ultimately in any setting—in marriage, the family, school, the church, the community, the world—except what happens to persons."
The Politics of Cultural Despair
I forget exactly where this book popped up initially-- but I assume it was a Goodreads recommendation based on some of the politically oriented books or German history books I've been into as of late. Here's the Goodreads blurb: This is a study in the pathology of cultural criticism. By analyzing the thought and influence... Continue Reading →
Rationalizing your video game addiction: A mixed bag in “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter”
I added this book to my shelf for the two oxymorons built into the existence of this book. The first is the juxtaposition of genres: a book...about video games?! (Pardon my rant here) I suppose the Venn diagram of bookworms and video game addicts could have some sort of intersection, and the presence of the... Continue Reading →
