Saturday Good Reads

A blast from the past, that sounds like the present: conservative Russell Kirk writes about the costs of public education. In 1959. On to 2018: a professor at Portland State University in Oregon published an article defending colonialism. The professor’s job is now at stake; the London editor that published the article received death threats.

There’s a longtime legend about the ravens at the Tower of London – if they ever leave, the kingdom will fall. Spitalfields Life has a feature on the Tower’s master raven keeper. And the publication has a feature on John Stow, a tailor turned writer who between 1560 and 1598 undertook a survey of London, describing the city in great detail.

Andy Crouch puts his finger on a problem that most Christians are aware of but generally don’t discuss – the problem of celebrity. And we’re just as prone to it as the culture we think we’re different from.

The Easter season inspires poetry, and this week we have several poems. Hugh Whelchel discusses Jordan Peterson, Tim Challies asks what counts as a “gospel issue,” Samuel James argues that blogging still matters, and more.

Writing and Literature

Why Blogging Still Matters – Samuel James at Letters & Liturgy.

Time to call ‘In Cold Blood’ fiction? – Richard Gilbert.

What Can Crime Writers Learn from Screenwriters? – Michelle Francis at CrimeReads.

British Stuff

John Stow’s Spittle Fields – Spitalfields Life.

Chris Skaife, Master Raven Keeper & Merlin the Raven – Spitalfields Life.

Poetry

Being the Song – Jeff Gundy at Image Journal.

Ashes – Loren Paulsson at World Narratives.

Christina Rossetti – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

3 Poems for Holy Week – Mary Harwell Sayler.

Did you see me? I see you – Louise Gallagher.

Forsaken – Tim Good.

Faith

Loving the Church – Jonathan Leeman at Tabletalk Magazine.

It’s Time to Reckon with Celebrity Power – Andy Crouch at The Gospel Coalition.

Sin-Drenched Nations – Mark Tooley at Juicy Ecumenism.

What’s in the Jordan Peterson Message for the Church? – Hugh Whelchel at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

What Counts as a “Gospel Issue?” – Tim Challies.

Art and Photography

Ruins of Leisure Time – Tim Good at Photography by Tiwago.

Of Paintings and Place – Byron Baise at Letters & Liturgy.

Life and Culture

The Internet is Making Us Angry, Thoughtless, and Less Truthful – Stephen Altrogge at The Blazing Center.

Education Spending and the Nation’s Culture – Russell Kirk at The Imaginative Conservative.

Last Fall This Scholar Defended Colonialism. Now He’s Defending Himself – Vimal Patel at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

A Wonder Voyage – Jeff Johnson & Brian Dunning

Painting: Woman Reading a Newspaper, oil on canvas by Istvan Nagy (1918).