Saturday Good Reads

A tumultuous week in politics: to paraphrase Winston Churchill, not the end, or the beginning or the end, but the end of the beginning. Tucker Carlson write an insightful piece on Donald Trump back in January, and it’s worth reading in light of his effective capture of the GOP nomination. So is Matthew Sitman, writing from Altoona, Pennsylvania.

More worrisome than Trump (yes, there are things more worrisome than Trump) is what Carl Trueman describes in “The Rise of the Anti-Culture.”

But there is still good poetry; a wonderful story on Annie Dillard; photographs of the old (and abandoned) Falstaff plant near downtown St. Louis, a place I biked past many times when I was regularly biking in the city (a practice that changed when crime started going off the rails about two years ago); a wonderful story and two sonnets on English saints and martyrs; and some photographs showing what it’s like to climb the steps at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London – all the way to the top.

And if Carl Trueman is right, and we are indeed experiencing the rise of the anti-culture, what better instruction manual than learning how to make a medieval illuminated manuscript?

Life and Culture

Everyone Deserves Meaningful Work - Justin Peters at Plough.  

How to be Selective in a Jam-Packed World – Jon Mertz at Thin Difference.

Reading David Brooks in Altoona – Matthew Sitman at Commonweal.

I Am More than a Computer – Seth Haines.

The Rise of the Anti-Culture – Carl Trueman at First Things.

Donald Trump is shocking, vulgar, and right – Tucker Carlson at Politico.

Democracies end when they are too democratic - Andrew Sullivan at New York Magazine.

Writing

Annie Spans the Gap – Gregory Wolfe at Image Journal.

Dostoevsky vs. Superman – Louis Markos at The Gospel Coalition.

Art and Photography

'Micro-dramas' captured by Ipswich bus photographer – BBC.

Shooting Stars – Tim Good at Pics, Poems, and Ponderings.

Falstaff Plant No. 10, Revisited Yet Again – Chris Naffziger at St. Louis Patina.

Poetry

Sunday Psalm – Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.

William Baer – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

There All Along – Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

Buttermilk Clouds – Nancy Marie Davis at A Little Somethin’.

Accumulata by Aaron Belz – video by Vivala.

Faith

Puritans on the Potomac – Timothy George at First Things.

English Saints and Martyrs of the Reformation Era (plus two sonnets) – Malcolm Guite.

Jay Cookingham Testimony for Jesus – interview at Conrad Rocks.

British Stuff

Climbing the Dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral – Ian Visits.

How to make a medieval illuminated manuscript – Getty Museum.
(The video is not showing on some browsers - click here for YouTube.)

Painting: Woman reading a book next to a piano, oil on canvas by Vilhelm Hammerchoi (1864-1916).