How shall we then work

After Genesis 1:27 - 2:15 

Created perfectly, to be done

perfectly, work joined

the rest of creation with

the fall, cursed life the rest

of creation was cursed. It

became what we know as 

work – hard, difficult,

exhausting, often deceptive,

confusing, harsh, humiliating –

all the things that happened

when man fell.

 

To redeem work, as to redeem

life, a sacrifice was needed,

required, mandated. And

the sacrifice was made,

redeeming us and pointing

to the way work is to be done.

Still fallen, as we are still

fallen, the light illuminates

the path for our work. 

We are to work as the redeemer’s

servants.

 

Photograph by Jesse Orrico via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

In Case I Die Unexpectedly – poem by Rachel Welcher at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

The Future of New Calvinism – Tim Challies.

 

Fear – Bill Grandi at Living in the Shadow.

Saturday Good Reads - March 22, 2025

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser is 100 years old this year. D.J. Taylor at The Spectator observes the anniversary, noting that the novel is as much a historical artifact as it is a work of fiction. 

It’s a long article, but the story it tells is so riveting that you forget how long it is. And it explains something I’ve wondered about for years: what causes bright, intelligent, educated people, many in their 50s and 60s, become as hysterical as 13-year-old teeny boppers on Tik Tok? And how did this craziness get so wild so fast? For Tablet Magazine, David Samuels tells the story. As it turns out, it was crazy, but it wasn’t fast; in fact, it was a deliberate strategy. Read “Rapid Onset Political Enlightenment.”

 

Years ago, I wrote a post for The High Calling about the power of second chances. It’s the story of how I became a Christian in college. The High Calling disbanded in 2015, and its archive was transferred to the Theology of Work Project. This past week, I received an email on the power of second chances, and the teaser sounded familiar, and, yes, sure enough, there’s my article all over again. It’s minus my byline, but it’s what I wrote for The High Calling.

 

More Good Reads

 

Life and Culture

 

Surviving Disney, Squatty Potty, and Building “The Chosen” – Mike Rowe interviews the Harmon Brothers. 

 

What Happened to Silicon Valley’s Most Infamous Thought Criminal? – Johanna Berkman at The Free Press.

 

News Media

 

Why is the NYT Admitting the Covid Lab-Leak Theory Now? – William Briggs at Science Is Not the Answer. 

News Media

 

An Obit for Journalism – Andrey Mir at City Journal.

 

American Stuff

 

The Angst of the Well-Endowed – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

Dusty Bookshelf: Judah P. Benjamin, the Jewish Confederate – Max Longley at Emerging Civil War.

 

Timeline: The Road to Taking Down the Department of Education – Greg Collard and James Rushmore at Racket News.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Sherlock Holmes vs. the French – Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads.

 

Evelyn Waugh’s Decadent Redemption – Henry Oliver at Liberties.

 

It Is Not Good to Read (Only) Alone – Nadya Williams at Front Porch Republic.

 

The Joke’s on Woke: Shakespeare & the Pride Problem – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

Faith

 

Reaching the West with Wonder – James Wood at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Art

 

The ten most expensive Vincent Van Gogh paintings – Martin Bailey at The Art Newspaper.

 

British Stuff

 

Cruikshank’s London Almanack 1835 – Spitalfields Life.

 

Poetry

 

Loaves and Fishes – David Whyte.

 

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” poem by Robert Frost – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

For the Fallen, Poem by Laurence Binyon – Performed by Laurence Fox.

Painting: The Reader, oil on canvas (1911) by Lovis Corinth (1858-1925).

It began with work

After Genesis 1:27 – 2:15 

From that first movement

of the beginning, it was

work. Creation was

work, a weaving

of created things. Into

man life was breathed,

a garden planted, land

fertilized to produce and

sustain life. Everywhere

you look in creation,

you find work, infused

into life from the start.

And it was good.

 

With the fall, work fell

as well. What began as

a blessing became

a curse. The day will

come when work, too,

will be restored. That day

is at hand.

 

Photograph by Maxime Agnellia vis Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

The Lord Will Come and Not Be Slow – poem by John Milton at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

The Theology of Work and the Stay-at-Home Mom: Embracing the Value of Our Calling – Shiphrah Lakka at IndiAanya.

 

Cuddy, a sonnet for St. Cuthbert – Malcolm Guite.

 

Speak Life – poem by Jesse Baker at Rabbit Room Poetry.

Poets and Poems: Donna Hilbert and "Gravity"

One aspect of collected and selected poem editions is that the insight they offer into how a poet grows and develops. I have a 1980 edition (20^th printing, no less) of the Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, which is something of a personal treasure. On the bookshelf, it sits very close to The Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot (Annotated; 2015), which I hauled back from England in my carryon bag and developed new arm muscles in the process. Both works helped me see how the two poets developed over a lifetime of writing poetry.

Collections aren’t only for famous dead poets. Donna Hilbert has been publishing poetry collections for 35 years. A consistent theme in her work has been an exploration of home and family and navigating life within that context. In 2018, she published Gravity: New & Selected Poems, a selection of selected poems from past collections as well as a number of new poems. This winter, her publisher has issued a second edition of Gravity. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

 

The Translations of New Verse Review 2.1 – Steve Knepper at New Berse Review.

 

“Disobedience,” poem by A.A. Milne – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Attic – Poem by Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.

 

Title poem from The Mother of All Words – Kelly Belmonte at Kelly’s Scribbles.

Some Wednesday Readings

How to get started reading English literature: An Introductory syllabus – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader. 

A life shaped by my father’s bedtime stories – Kate Weinberg at The Spectator.

 

Clouds – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Booknotes: Hundreds of Little Wars, edited by G. David Schieffler and Matthew M. Stith – Civil War Books and Authors.

 

Tolkien, Philosopher of War – Graham McAleer at Front Porch Republic.

 

In Old Bow – Spitalfields Life.

 

Death, Grief, and Frodo’s Incurable Wound – Zak Mellgren at The Subzak.

 

Do Your Own Research: How to File Freedom of Information Requests – Greg Collard at Racket News.

 

“Futility,” poem by Wilfred Owen – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Photograph: Wilfred Owen in World War I.

Poets and Poems: Emily Patterson and "So Much Tending Remains"

I’ve been a father for 45 years, and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that you never stop being a parent. How you a parent changes, of course, from a child’s total dependence upon you to increasing independence and ultimately becoming their own person. But, as a parent, you’re always navigating parenthood. 

Emily Patterson began learning this lesson early with the birth of her daughter during the pandemic lockdown year of 2020. She reflects on the first two years of her child’s life in So Much Tending Remains, a collection of 22 poems covering the period from birth to toddlershood. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Oxford University researcher uncovers hidden copy of Shakespeare sonnet – University of Oxford News.

 

Beyond All Words – a love poem by James Tweedie at Society of Classical Poets.

 

“Patrick the Paul of the Gael,” poem by Robert Farren – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

“The Song of Wandering Aengus,” poem by William Butler Yeats – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Anniversary Poem – Latie Kalisz at Every Day Poems. 

"Murder on the Train" by Faith Martin

DI Hillary Greene, now a civilian consultant to the Thames Valley police, is taking some vacation (she would call it a holiday), heading to Hay-on-Rye in Wales, the town famous for its bookstores. It’s something of a working vacation – she’s published a crime novel, and she’s planning to visit the bookstores to promote the book.  

Staying a small inn, she’s charmed by both the inn and the other guests, a fairly broad array of people from England, Ireland, Scotland, and the Unted States. When it’s proposed that they all take the steam railway up a nearby mountain, Hillary goes along, although the small rail cars mean she must ride in another car. Which turns out to be a good thing, because one of the guests is murdered, and no one saw it happen.

 

If anyone knows the drill, it’s Hillary. She tells the others what to do, arranges for the police to come, convinces the constable to call in homicide detectives – and she inevitably finds herself co-opted into the investigation (“seconded” is the official term). To complicate matters even further, a local hoodlum decides to target Hillary and find a convenient way to kill her. 

 

Faith Martin

Murder on the Train is the 21^st and so far final novel in the DI Hillary Greene series by British author Faith Martin. Published in 2024, it’s as good as any of its predecessors; Martin has maintained a high level of quality throughout the series. There’s no word as yet when or if there will be a 22^nd story; Martin has been developing another series, and the Hillary Greene series has been considerably deemphasized on her web site. 

 

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

I’ve read all 21 books in the DI Hillary Greene series and enjoyed every one of them. Here’s hoping that she’ll make another appearance.

 

Related:

Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.

Murder at the University by Faith Martin. 

 Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin.

 Murder in the Village by Faith Martin.

 Murder in the Family by Faith Martin.

 Murder at Home by Faith Martin.

 Murder in the Meadow by Faith Martin.

 Murder in the Mansion by Faith Martin.

 Murder by Fire by Faith Martin.

 Murder at Work by Faith Martin.

 Murder Never Retires by Faith Martin.

 Murder of a Lover by Faith Martin.

 Murder Never Misses by Faith Martin.

 Murder by Candlelight by Faith Martin.

 Murder in Mind by Faith Martin.

 Hillary’s Final Case by Faith Martin. 

 Hillary’s Back! by Faith Martin.

 Murder Now and Then by Faith Martin.

Murder in the Parish by Faith Martin.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Haunted by the Ghost of Evangeline – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Anatomy of a British screen classic – Jeffrey Meyers at The Critic Magazine.

 

Places That Remember Themselves: The Erosion of Memory in an Unmoored World – Holly Stockley at Front Porch Republic.

 

Splendor of Fire, Speed of Light: A Meander around St. Patrick – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

Patrick: self-consciousness and sainthood – Padraig O Tuama at Poetry Unbound.