I thought it worthwhile to include this link to T.S. Eliot’s introduction to an edition of Blaise Pascal’s Pensees. As the name of this blogsite indicates, I am a great fan of Pascal’s — and T.S. Eliot is, well, T.S. Eliot. I learned about the introduction from a recent Wall Street Journal review by Joseph … [Read more…]
This is a great big book: 889 pages, plus another 96 pages of bibliography and indices. Amusingly, the interlibrary loan slip accompanying the book had handwritten on it, “* Caution: heavy*.” The length and scope of this book require that I begin this blogpost by spending some time simply describing just what the book … [Read more…]
This 1975 book is essentially a beautiful 191-page essay by Malcolm Muggeridge, giving us his take on the Gospels. Now, when you think about it, those four mini-biographies of Jesus are together the most important 80,000 written words (the length of a quite short novel) we humans have, and of course Muggeridge is one of … [Read more…]
This excellent 1976 book by Malcolm Muggeridge is a little over 200 pages long (no index or footnotes) and lavishly illustrated, with all of the color illustrations being works by William Blake. There was a television series by the same name, produced in association with Time-Life Films and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation among others, and … [Read more…]
Genesis 3 is the chapter about Adam, Eve, and the apple. It’s an essentially self-contained narrative (although the last verse of chapter 2 foreshadows it and the first verse of chapter 4 rather logically follows it — and, for that matter, the murder recounted in chapter 4 sadly and inevitably comes next). Its 24 verses … [Read more…]
This post, presented as a dialogue, addresses what I think are some basic issues raised by Christians’ recognition and use of Scripture. What do you mean by Scripture? Most dictionary definitions say simply it is writing that a particular religion holds to be “sacred” or “holy.” So it is writing that is God-related, but of … [Read more…]
I read this book because it was cited in another of Peter Kreeft’s books, namely his Handbook of Christian Apologetics (coauthored with Ronald K. Tacelli and discussed here on this blogsite). It was described there (250) as a book-length treatment of the Sehnsucht (longing) argument for the existence of God. I recommend Heaven. Its thesis … [Read more…]
The Old Testament Books — in Fifteen Couplets Creation of all, and Jews starting: That’s Genesis. In Exodus, Moses is Pharaoh’s arch nemesis. Leviticus is “legal”; for Numbers, think “census.” Deuteronomy doubles what we have for lenses. — The twelve books that follow are all Jewish hist’ry. They show that God’s frequent dismay is no … [Read more…]
This book, published by InterVarsity Press, was written in 1994 by two Catholic philosophy professors at Boston College. I hasten to add that the arguments made here should be welcomed by all Christians, not just Catholics, and indeed the first chapter says explicitly that the book embraces “mere Christianity” (12, 24-25). It is is a … [Read more…]
This is not the most profound or polished book of all time, but I very much enjoyed it. The book is essentially a series of reminisces by a variety of people about their personal encounters with C.S. Lewis. As you’d expect, the recollections are nearly all positive (the editor’s only negative page is 131). There … [Read more…]