C. S. Lewis's classic Space Trilogy available for a limited time, you can get all three e-books for just $1.99 each and The Screwtape Letters for $3.99!
http://harperonebooks.com/2012/12/12/from-now-until-1113-you-can-get-the-enhanced-e-book-edition-of-c-s-lewiss-the-screwtape-letters-for-3-99/#
18 December 2012
C.S. Lewis: Xmas and Christmas
I recently read a lovely bit of satire by C.S. Lewis published in his book God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics and titled Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus. It is about the holiday traditions of the people on the island of Niatirb (Britain spelled backwards).
I also found posted online here. (I'm unfamiliar with the linked to blog and so can't endorse what is said there and I'm pretty sure they violated the copyrights by posting it there, but at least now you can read it too :)
I also found posted online here. (I'm unfamiliar with the linked to blog and so can't endorse what is said there and I'm pretty sure they violated the copyrights by posting it there, but at least now you can read it too :)
15 December 2012
03 December 2012
12 November 2012
Quote of the Week: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954), The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings, Boston: Houghton Mifflin (published 1987), "Strider", ISBN 0-395-08254-4
All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost;The old that is strong does not wither,Deep roots are not reached by the frost.From the ashes a fire shall be woken,A light from the shadows shall spring;Renewed shall be blade that was broken,The crownless again shall be king.
04 November 2012
Kenneth Samples' Books, Lectures
Over the last few years I have benefited greatly from reading and listening to some of the work of Ken Samples.
Samples is the author of several books including Without A Doubt: Answering The Twenty Toughest Faith Questions, A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test and his latest, 7 Truths That Changed the World.
29 September 2012
Quote of the week: C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays in Theology and Ethics
Whether it's politics or apologetics, I try to immitate Lewis and the Socratics who are concerned about following an argument where it leads, not about judging our opponents, or persuading them. Which is why I rarely listen to political speeches and edit out of my FB news feed those folks who incessantly post memes--the worst form of argumentation--and especially so during an election year.
-C.S. Lewis, commenting on the Oxford Socratic Club in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics
“In any fairly large and talkative community such as a university, there is always the danger that those who think alike should gravitate together into coteries where they will henceforth encounter opposition only in the emasculated form of rumor that the outsiders say thus and thus. The absent are easily refuted, complacent dogmatism thrives, and differences of opinion are embittered by group hostility. Each group hears not the best, but the worst, that the other groups can say. In the Socratic all this was changed. Here a man could get the case for Christianity without all the paraphernalia of pietism and the case against it without the irrelevant sansculottisme of our common anti-God weeklies. At the very least we helped to civilize one another; sometimes we ventured to hope that if our Athenian patron were allowed to be present, unseen, at our meetings he might not have found the atmosphere wholly alien.”
-C.S. Lewis, commenting on the Oxford Socratic Club in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics
21 September 2012
17 September 2012
12 September 2012
Jesus Christ and Isaac Newton: Evidence that the English Physicist Never Existed
Apparently on FB recently there's been a meme making the rounds that attempts to discredit the historical Christian account of Jesus Christ by drawing parallels to the story of Mithra. In response, Rob Bowman made this historically accurate parody to demonstrate the faulty reasoning behind the meme:
08 September 2012
Quote of the week: C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics
“For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.”
- C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics
06 September 2012
29 August 2012
I'm reading Nnewts!
Check out the new web comic Nnewts by Doug TenNapel
And be sure to check out the commentary by the author at the bottom of each page.
27 August 2012
Quote of the week: C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism
“In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad of eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, as in love, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.”~C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism
Annotating Texts: Some Suggestions (with Pictures!)
Helpful tips for intelligent reading:
http://forsclavigera.blogspot.com/2012/08/annotating-texts-some-suggestions-with.html
17 August 2012
14 August 2012
Form$Function
I'm trying to find room for all my books, which have been boxed up since my last move, but don't want a lot of clutter or to spend much money. Last week I checked online and went to a few furniture stores to check prices. I could find nothing made of solid wood for a reasonable price or quality appearance. Furniture store pieces were all made of laminate and nothing the proper size for less than $170. Too much. I ended up buying three pieces of 1x10x8 rough-cut pine--which is nice because rough-cut is full size and won't sag--from the local lumberyard for less than $5 per board. The hardware and finish materials were left overs collecting dust in my dad's garage. I was able to keep my business local and build a better, longer lasting and more ecologically friendly product in only a few hours (spaced over three days) for less than $15 dollars. Here is the end result; you might recognize the horse motif from a banner hanging in King Theoden's hall in the LOTR movies. Besides adding a little character the horse heads saved some waste material and function as permanent book ends for loading up the top of the case making six full shelves at a total height of 80" and width 34" OD. I thought of adding a celtic braid down the sides as well but didn't have the time and prefer to keep things simple as possible.
The Literary Response to Radical Atheism
"Fiction, at its best, not only suggests but insists upon the possibility of some order in the world, even if we create or impose that order. Likewise, it insists that human experience has meaning, and that in that meaning lies a form of solace. Rosenberg’s response to all this, I’m sure, would be: more power to you. At the same time, he would urge me not to make the mistake of believing that the solace I find in art is any more real or meaningful than the solace others find from shopping or from altering the chemicals in their brains. To which I want to say, why not?"
http://harpers.org/archive/2012/07/hbc-90008707
07 August 2012
Quote of the Week: C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
‘I don’t know about all, Sir,’ said I. ‘Am I right in thinking the Lizard really turned into the Horse?’
‘Aye. But it was killed first. Ye’ll not forget that part of the story?’
‘I’ll try not to, Sir. But does it mean that everything—everything—that is in us can go on to the Mountains?’
‘Nothing, not even the best and noblest, can go on as it now is. Nothing, not even what is lowest and most bestial, will not be raised again if it submits to death. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. Flesh and blood cannot come to the Mountains. Not because they are too rank, but because they are too weak. What is a lizard compared with a stallion? Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed.’
Lewis, C. S. (2009-05-28). The Great Divorce (Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis) (p. 114). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
11 July 2012
06 July 2012
Beyond Atheism: Postmodernity and the Future of God
violent http://vimeo.com/17928669
This video came up in my FB feed yesterday and I really enjoyed listening to what James K.A. Smith had to say. I attempted to share this same idea with some of my university classmates who believed themselves to be postmodernists but were really closet modernists. Interestingly, our professor for that class, while not a friend of the incarnation, was in agreement.
This video came up in my FB feed yesterday and I really enjoyed listening to what James K.A. Smith had to say. I attempted to share this same idea with some of my university classmates who believed themselves to be postmodernists but were really closet modernists. Interestingly, our professor for that class, while not a friend of the incarnation, was in agreement.
02 July 2012
24 June 2012
Quote of the Week: Makoto Fujimura
Deeply engaged reading leads to perceptual awakening, stimulation of the core of the intuitive and experiential...What reading and writing can teach us is a deeper empathy that leads us to desire the best for others who are entirely different from us, and to long to communicate with them.
-Makoto Fujimura, Refractions #26: The Epistle of Van Gogh
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