Faith, Fiction, Friends: Saturday Good Reads

Many Americans, particularly but not exclusively younger ones, seem mesmerized by socialism. Many were born or grew up after the fall the of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and don’t have any personal knowledge or experience with the Soviet version of socialism. And even though I would fall way outside the proposed limits, I see proposals like Bernie Sanders’ “wealth registry” for asset taxation purposes and think this will not end with the wealthy; there simply aren’t enough rich people to pay for all that free stuff. Perhaps we should all take a deep breath and read some Russian literature; Gary Saul Morson did, and he wrote about it for The New Criterion.

And speaking of the Soviet system, in October 1984, Jerzy Popiełuszko, the vicar of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Warsaw, was murdered by the Polish communist secret police. At The Imaginative Conservative, a former parishioner remembers and tells what happened.

Further extending the discussion, Scribner’s has published a new edition of Darkness at Noon at Arthur Koestler, first published in 1941. Adam Kirsch at The New Yorker calls the book the most important political work of the 20^th century, and it put the lie to what too many Americans wanted to believe about Stalinist Russia at the time.

More Good Reads

Writing and Literature

Books Won’t Die – Leah Price at The Paris Review.

Faith

Routed by Liberalism: How usury killed Christendom – A.N. Wilson at Standpoint.

The Worship Song I Can’t Bring Myself to Sing – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.

The Moral Law, Comfort, & Wishful Thinking – Alan Snyder at Pondering Principles (Hat Tip: James Doyle Moore).

You Can’t Argue Anyone into the Kingdom – Zak Schmoll at Entering the Public Square.

Standing on Our Knees – Sophia Lee at International Mission Board / SBC.

American Stuff

Who Was the American in 1775? – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

Culture