Saturday, October 16, 2021

Saturday Good Reads - Oct. 16, 2021


I was a subscriber to Christianity Today for more than 25 years. Over time, I grew increasingly uncomfortable with its slow drift away from Christian-centered principles and its tendency to imbibe increasingly from the world’s secular cup. A year ago, I’d had enough, and, sadly, I canceled my subscription. Mark Galli, a former CT editor, wrote something on his Substack site closely related to my concern: The State of Evangelical Leadership.  

In a related vein at First Things Magazine, Carl Trueman, echoed that and went further, The Failure of Evangelical Elites. Thomas Kidd weighs in on the Trueman article at The Gospel Coalition. All three make sobering reading; what’s happening in the secular world of America is being duplicated among evangelicals. And the only way to say this is that our elites are failing us. Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative adds his concern and asks, is the American Republic dead?

 

Mark Twain is known as America’s humorist. But he was a deeply troubled man, one who dealt with numerous family tragedies and business setbacks. Jon Tracey at Emerging Civil War discusses Twain’s own internal civil war

 

Facebook is the social media platform everyone loves to hate, and the tech giant does often seem to go out its way to offend people and do really dumb things (like temporarily banning the satire site The Babylon Bee because it thought it was fake news). Luca D’Urbino at The Ecconomist wrotes that Facebook is nearing the reputational point of no return, with consequences for all of us.

 

More Good Reads

 

Faith

 

Nobody’s Perfect (Yet): Introduction to The Home Team – Clint Archer at The Cripplegate. 

 

The Genius of Jesus’s Teachings – Andrew Wilson at Think Theology.

 

That Are Not of This Fold – A.W. Workman at Entrusted to the Dirt.

 

Fisk Jubilee Singers continue to sing spirituals 150 years later – Adele Banks at Urban Faith.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Dante is the Elephant in the Room – Angela Alaimo O’Donnell at Church Life Journal.

 

Children’s books: take them seriously – Editorial at The Guardian.

 

Tony Hillerman and the Invention of Jim Chee – James McGrath Morris at CrimeReads.

 

Art

 

Eighty years after his death, weapons experts now say Kirchner’s suicide may have been murder – Catherine Hickley at The Art Newspaper.

 

Stunning $30m Van Gogh watercolour resurfaces at Christie’s New York following complex behind-the-scenes deal – Martin Bailey at The Art Newspaper.

 

Poetry

 

Epiphany, 1937 – George Seferis, translated by David Mason, at The Hudson Review.

 

Poem with a Refrain from LeRoy Chatfield – Frank Bidart at Literary Hub.

 

Dusk and My house is one fire – Sonja Benskin Mesher (and artwork with each poem).

 

How to Read Seamus Heaney (Part 1) – Andrew Roycroft at The Rabbit Room.

 

Life and Culture

 

An Education That Turns on Affection – Alex Sosler at Front Porch Republic.

 

British Stuff

 

What are universities coming to? A specter is haunting British student politics: the specter of the pro-life movement – Sebastian Milbank at The Critic Magazine.

 

Gabriel’s Oboe – Andre Rieu



Painting: The New Novel, oil on canvas (1877) by Winslow Homer (1821-1896).