Introduction: As I consider the next chapter of Eric Mason’s book, and look around at the dumpster fire news that is floating away on the crest of yet another flood, and with this happening on a day-to-day basis, it is hard to escape the conclusion that God is just messing with us. All of the …
Woke, Not Woke
The third chapter of Woke Church is really quite good, and therein lies a tale. I want to commend Eric Mason in this, and for two things. First, in my interaction a few years ago with Thabiti, I pressed the point that Scripture really does contain more than a few angular texts when it comes …
Book of the Month/May 2019
Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter are (I think) men of the left, and they write from within the Canadian cultural milieu, which can be its own kind of crazy, but they are both quite sensible and have written a fascinating analysis of the ethos of countercultural consumption. Their book is called Nation of Rebels, and …
The Systemic Shuffle
I wanted to make just a few bullet points about Eric Mason’s second chapter. I already addressed one of the difficulties from this chapter in my first post on all this, but there are a few other things that need to be mentioned. First, he says a number of true, just, and orthodox things. Much …
The Sin of Being “White.” Or “Black” for that Matter.
Introduction: Eric Mason has recently released a book entitled Woke Church, and he has done this at a time when a season of uncommon racial silliness has descended upon us all. And as a sage once observed, if there are twelve clowns in a circus ring cavorting about, you can jump down there and start …
Book of the Month/April 2019
I just loved this book, The Virtue of Nationalism, and one of the reasons I loved it is that Yoram Hazony, the author, is a structural thinker. When books appeal to data or statistics, you always have to factor in the possibility that the data has been scrubbed for you, or somehow cooked, or marinated …
Book of the Month/March 2019
My selection this month for my book of the month is Seeing Green by Tilly Dillehay. The book is about envy, not the environment, as the subtitle indicates—“Don’t Let Envy Color Your Joy.” And this is quite a timely book. The book is competently done, well-written, and it is aimed at a river sin that …
Book of the Month/February 2019
The Abolition of Man: Okay, I should probably acknowledge something right at the front end of this short review. And that is that I have read The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis at least nine times, and I have quoted from it times without number. It is one of my “go to” books, and …
Book of the Month/January 2019
Kurt Schlichter is an abrasive, profane, and very funny writer, and in this book he gives us a play-by-play breakdown of what (the hell) happened in the 2016 presidential election. If you want to understand how all the monkeys got out of all their respective cages, then this book, Militant Normals, will be a tremendous …
Book of the Month/December 2018
My choice for this month’s book is Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. It is, in a number of ways, a powerful and moving book. I listened to it through Audible, and as it is read by the author himself, I got an additional sense of closed rhetorical distance—like he was riding around in my truck …