Saturday Good Reads

I’ve started reading Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option, which is already generating significant controversy and mostly along political lines. There have already been several reviews by people who haven’t read it, and reviews by people who have. One of the best reviews I’ve seen is by Karen Swallow Prior, and it’s linked below. And related is Peter Breinart's article at The Atlantic, "Breaking Faith." And another related story: Patrick Deneen on how a generation lost its common culture.

“The Shack” is now a movie, and I’m sure the producers are hoping for lots of controversy – controversy sells. I haven’t seen it, but I did read the book several years ago. I’ve already seen people on Facebook criticizing it and defending it, and again sentiment tends to divide along political lines. (Is everything now political?) I didn’t like the book. It was well written and engaging, and it is fiction, but it is also a mishmash of all kinds of religions.

Jack Baumgartner makes a walnut mantelpiece. A flower pot at Blenheim Palace turns out to be a Roman coffin. Winston Churchill wrote a poem as an adult – the only one known to exist. Nancy Parker Brummett rediscovers church basements (aka Fellowship Halls). And if you ever wondered what being at the edge of a solar storm looked like, someone has now filmed it.

Faith

What Does “The Shack” Really Teach? “Lies We Believe About God Tells Us” – Tim Challies. And Unshackled: The God of WM. Paul Young – David Steele at Veritas et Lux.

The Place – Eileen Knowles at The Scenic Route.

Polite Persecution – Daniel Philpott at First Things Magazine.

The Story Behind The Lost Sermons of C. H. Spurgeon – Christian George via Tim Challies.

5 Reasons Why Christians Should Study (Church) History – Chris Gehrz at The Anxious Bench.

Our Middlebury Moment – Samuel James at Mere Orthodoxy.

Revisiting Church Basements – Nancy Parker Brummett.

Art and Photography

“I Don’t Want That Crap in My Gallery” – Daniel Grant at Commonweal.

September Sky – Tim Good at Fine Art America.

Walnut Timber Mantelpiece – Jack Baumgartner at the School for the Transfer of Energy.

British Stuff

Blenheim Palace flower pot turns out to be Roman coffin – BBC.

In 1703, Britain was struck by possibly its worst ever storm – Lucy Jones at BBC (Hat Tip: J of India).

Working behind the scenes at Westminster Abbey – in pictures – Gareth Cattermole at The Guardian.

Life and Culture

The Benedict Option: What It Is and Isn’t – Karen Swallow Prior at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Related: Christians in the Hands of Donald Trump - Ross Douthat at The New York Times.

How Academe Helped Elect Trump – J.M. Anderson at The James Martin Center for Academic Renewal.

How a Generation Lost Its Common Culture – Patrick Deneen at Minding the Campus.

How Faith and Free Markets Can Save Education – John Zmirak at The Stream.

Breaking Faith - Peter Breinart at The Atlantic.

Writing

Appreciating Cervantes’s Innovations, 400 Years after His Death – Richard Brookhiser at National Review.

Fake News and the Christian Author – Dan Balow at The Steve Laube Agency.

Poetry

Our goodbyes – Nancy Marie Davis at A little somethin.

Jacob Polley: “I’m a fool as a writer – you have to take risks” – Aida Edemairam at The Guardiahn.

Revealed: the only known poem by an adult Winston Churchill – The Telegraph.

At the Edge of the Solar Storm – AD Photography

Painting: Reading to a Young Man, oil on canvas by Josef Nassy, New Gallery Shots, Haarlem, Netherlands).