My first novel, Dancing Priest, begins at the University of Edinburgh with a conversation between a theology student, Michael Kent, and his roommate and best friend, Tommy McFarland. Michael will earn his theology degree and move to San Francisco. More adventures await in the next four books in the series. But if I was writing that novel today, I’d have to do something different – the University of Edinburgh, after 440 years, is dropping its divinity program.
If you wander around Poet’s Corner in London’s Westminster Abbey, you’ll find an amazing array of tombs and memorial stones – Charles dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, the World War I poets, Samuel Johnson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, W.H. Auden, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, and so many more. And now joining them with a memorial plaque will be J.R.R. Tolkien.
It was a big week for people reading and writing about classic novels. Richard Rensch at City Journal considered Walker Percy and his novels’ prophetic vision. Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft read Don Quixote. Henry Oliver at The Common Read delved into Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. And Fiona Macdonald at the BBC found a program in which J.R. R. Tolkien talked about the most tragic moment in The Lord of the Rings.
More Good Reads
Television
The making of a masterpiece – John MacLeod at The Critic Magazine.
America 250
The Battles of Saratoga – Chris Farmer at Old Dominion Post.
What the Revolution Can Teach Us About Liberty: Conversation Starters with…Wilfred M. McClay – Anthony Sacramone at Acton Institute.
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.
Life and Culture
We know what kind of society we are. We’re just haggling over the price – Stephen McAlpine.
Narnia Among the Deathworks – Tim Challies.
The Illiterati – Mark Malvasi at Th Imaginative Conservative.
10 Reasons Why Marxism is Bad for Humanity – Patricia Engler at Answers in Genesis.
What Nikole Hannah-Jones Wouldn’t Let Herself See – Jennifer Weber at City Journal.
The Homes That Stick With Us – Gracy Olmstead at Granola.
Writing and Literature
Books Will Never Die – if Publishers Remember What Books do and How They Do It – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.
Literary Landscapes: Justin Hamm – Tom Darin Liskey t the New Territory.
J.R.R. Tolkien on ‘the most tragic moment in The Lord of the Rings’ – Fiona Macdonald at BBC.
Faith
The Repeating of Christian History – Shannon Holzer at The Imaginative Conservative.
The Coming Tsunami – Scot McKnight.
The Lost Art of Manners and Why Children Still Need Them – Brenden Bott at The Gospel Coalition / Canada.
News Media
The New York Times Sued by Shareholders Over Biased Israel Coverage – Maya Sulkin at The Fre Press (story unlocked).
Poetry
“Spring and Fall,” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Our Grieving and Our Staying – David Bannon at Front Porch Republic on Wendell Berry’s poetry.
“Recessional,” poem by Rudyard Kiplung – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient & Modern.
Abide with Me – King Harald of Norway Funeral
Painting: A Girl Reading, oil on canvas (1932) by Vanessa Bell (1879-1961).
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