A couple days ago, I mentioned that Books & Culture had named Leepike Ridge their book of the week. That was a fun business, and now there’s some more news to add. The book is selling quite briskly, and has gotten to a sales ranking at Amazon that is higher than some comparable titles that …
Optimistic Cultural Realism
When Rome, the Eternal City, was sacked in 410 AD, St. Augustine was brought to write his monumental work, the City of God. Part of the reason he felt the book had to be written was because many Christians had had their faith rattled by the event. Over the course of the previous centuries, Christianity …
To Deny Their Own
“Multiculturalism was conceived by the Western elites not to celebrate all cultures but to deny their own: it is, thus, the real suicide bomb” (Mark Steyn, America Alone, p. 194).
Medium as Message
“In this sense, all culture is a conversation or, more precisely, a corporation of conversations, conducted in a variety of symbolic modes. Our attention here is on how forms of public discourse regulate and even dictate what kind of content can issue from such forms” (Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, p. 6).
You First
“Now when one proud man thinks it a dishonor for him to put up with wrong from another who, it may be, is as proud as himself, and he too thinks it a dishonor for him to put up with wrongs, what peace can there be? Some wrongs must be put up with, but proud …
Sauron, Saruman, and Samwise
I have been occupied with atheism and federal vision stuff, and have not been able to work through Rod Dreher’s book Crunchy Cons as quickly as I would have liked. Ah, well. His next chapter is on the environment, and I think that it is the chapter that most clearly reveals what I consider to …
Now That’s Cool
What’s needed around here is a good definition of the word cool. We all know what is intended whenever we encounter it in a sentence, but a clear understanding nevertheless remains elusive. One individual is successfully cool. Another makes the attempt, with tragic results, and even a lowly junior high student knows to roll his …
Well, That’s Fun
Nate’s Leepike Ridge has been out for almost a week. As I have noted here before, it got some very good pre-release reviews, but Books & Culture has now named it their book of the week. You can find their review of it here. Go, fight, win.
Fifth Installment of the Hitchens/Wilson Debate
Christianity Today has now posted the fifth exchange between Christopher Hitchens and me. This is the penultimate round, with the final round going up next week. You can find it here.
The Hebraic Mind
Careful students of church history see far more in it than names and dates, battles and councils, popes and reformers. The history of the church is very much a history of ideas. But in order to talk about the course and influence of these ideas, we have to talk about the various schools of philosophy …