Faith, Fiction, Friends: Saturday Good Reads

Faith

In the 19^th century, the “German critics” took aim at the reliability and historicity of the Bible. It was the “higher criticism,” and it sought to demonstrate that the Bible wasn’t what everyone thought it was. Virtually all of the significant criticisms have been addressed in the intervening years. Michael Kruger, president and professor of New Testament and early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary, explains how we got the Bible (and why it’s reliable and trustworthy).

The Birth of the ‘Born-Again’ Christian – Kenneth Ortiz at Desiring God.

Samuel James at Digital Liturgies reviews a (yet another) memoir by an “exvangelical,” which seems to have become something of a minor genre in liberal-leaning religious circles. James explains what these memoirs get wrong.

My Unbelieving Dad Helped Me See Jesus – Sean Nolan at The Gospel Coalition.

After College: The coming collapse of American higher education – Peter Wood at Quillette.

Life and Culture

“Propelled by delusions and united by hatred, growing numbers of Americans (20 percent according to a University of California, Davis poll conducted in 2022) believe that political violence is justified, necessary, and even at times desirable. Predictions to the contrary notwithstanding, this advocacy of violence seems unlikely to end in another civil war. A more probable scenario is a multifaceted war of all against all that will result in the gradual but steady descent toward anarchy.” Mark Malvasi: The Imaginative Conservative, Politics, Violence, & the Future of America.

Conservatism as a Solution to Homelessness – Pepijn Leonard Demortier at Front Porch Republic.

“Now, because we no longer have a culture, we have a culture war. But I don’t believe in this ‘war’…the Faultline – race, gender, ‘identity’ – that we’re told to align ourselves along. I think they are a trap: more evidence of how lost we are. If any ‘war’ is in evidence today, it is a spiritual war.” Paul Kingsnorth, The Abbey of Misrule: The Raindance: Counterculture for Reactionary Radicals.

News Media

How will the decline of cable news affect politics? – The Spectator.

Writing and Literature

Advisor Warning: The Absence of Moral Limits in Lady Macbeth – Mark Botts at Front Porch Republic.

Jeffrey Hart, a professor emeritus of English at Dartmouth, considers the dilemma of students today who want to learn literature and Western culture, and are instead handed courses aimed at deconstructing (destroying) those very things. The great works of Western culture have far more to teach us than we realize, he says.

Poetry

To Marilyn in Primavera affascinante – David O’Nan at Fevers of the Mind (H/T: Paul Brookes).

Touch – Sonja Benskin Mesher.

One Moment of One Love – Yehonatan Geffen a Alphabet Soup, read by Etgar Keret.

Making Space – Joy Lenton at Poetry Joy.

The poplars wait for the orioles to return – Jane Dougherty at The Four Swans.

American Stuff

On the 160^th Anniversary of West Virginia’s Statehood – Chris Mackowski at Emerging Civil War.

History

Rome to open ancient square where Julius Caesar was killed – Reuters.

Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery – The Gray Havens