Saturday Good Reads

During my childhood, high school, and college days, when I heard the word “story” I knew exactly what it meant – a tale, a narrative, something you heard around a campfire, something your grandmother waned you never to tell her (“Now, don’t tell me a story, just the truth”). Even today, it’s how I think of the word. But it began to change in the early 1980s. Somewhere along the line, it got tangled up in post-modernism and deconstructionism. The articles typically used in front of the word, like “a” or “the,” were dropped, and it became “story.” I took a course in the mid-1980s entitled “The Nature of Story.” Something had definitely changed. Zak Schmoll begins to take a look at this at Entering the Public Square.

Mainline churches are dying in America, and it’s not a cause for smugness or “I told you so” or “serves them right.” Rod Dreher at The American Conservative has the story of a Lutheran church in Minnesota: “Lake Wobegon’s Ghost Churches.” Something significant is being lost; perhaps something significant has already been lost.

Peggy Rosenthal reviews “Won’t You Be My Neighbor.” The Guardian’s poem of the week is a medieval Welsh poem, that reads surprisingly well. Thomas Brewer considers the “instagrammable” Christian life. A story about Joe and Marge and living with dementia. Beautiful summer photos from Tim Good. Thomas Kidd corrects a myth about who printed the first American Bible. 

And more.

Poetry

Donald Hall and the Unsettling of American Letters – James Matthew Wilson at Front Porch Republic.

“Every Day I Wake Up in a Strange Land:” Remembering the Russian Poet Naum Korzhavin – Masha Gessen at The New Yorker.

Poem of the week: from The Gododdin by Aneirin – Carol Rumens at The Guardian.

Dateline: Syria – Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

Art and Photography

Checking in on Midtown – Chris Naffziger at St. Louis Patina.

Golden Light of a Summer Morn and Summer Garden– Tim Good at Photography by Tiwago.

Faith

The Way Home– Lori Heyd.

The Top Ten Books on Faith and Work—An Updated List for 2018 – Hugh Whelchel at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

Lake Wobegon’s Ghost Churches – Rod Dreher at The American Conservative.

The Instagrammable Christian Life – Thomas Brewer at Tabletalk.

Niggle and Me: Imagine if Your Work Really Mattered – Jerry Dienes at the Center for Faith & Work.

Another Look: Joe and Marge – Michael Mercer at Internet Monk.

American Stuff

Did Congress Print the First American Bible? – Thomas Kidd at The Gospel Coalition.

Life and Culture

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? – Peggy Rosenthal at Image Journal.

Reaching for Stories While Holding on to the Facts – Zak Schmoll at Entering the Public Square.

Searching for the ‘angel’ who held me on Westminster Bridge – Claire Bates at BBC.

History

A mound with a story – Dr. John McGinnis and Charis Goodyear at University of Cambridge.

Imposters and the Cult of Romanov Survival – C.W. Gortner at CrimeReads.

Writing and Literature

Little Books of the Prairie – Ramona Tausz at First Things Magazine.

Glen Campbell’s Children Sing “Gentle on My Mind”

Painting: Man with a pipe, reading, oil on canvas by Franz von Defregger (1883).