Saturday Good Reads - May 6, 2023

There are times when my wife and I look at one another and say, “We have walked into the Twilight Zone.” While it’s comforting to a degree to hear others our age and younger say the same thing, the fact is that we’ve been going through a cataclysm of cultural change. Roger Kimball at The Spectator says our greatest threat isn’t Russia or China, but our own elites. Nathan Pinkoski at First Things Magazine considers a French novel published in 1973 that seems, in retrospect, eerily predictive, and says the West is welcoming its own destruction.  

David Livingstone died on May 1, 1873. He had originally intended to go to China as a missionary, but the Opium Wars put a hold on assignments. Instead, he was convinced to go to Africa. Confex Makhalira at The Gospel Coalition pays tribute to the man who “brought the gospel to my country.” 

 

It’s both a long and short love story. On May 2, 1862, Col. Robert Gould Shaw married his fiancée Annie Hagerty. They both knew he would be posted at some point to the war front. He eventually took command of the 54^thMassachusetts, the first African American regiment raised after the Emancipation Proclamation. Sarah Key Bierle at Emerging Civil War tells how Robert and Annie met, became engaged, and married, and how Annie became a widow.

 

More Good Reads

 

Poetry

 

Dogs, Cats, Nursery Rhymes & Mother Goose: Three Poems – James A. Tweedie at Society of Classical Poets. 

 

“1961 at George Sands’ House” and “The Story” – Mark Jarman at The Hudson Review.

 

Garden at Odds – William Logan at New Criterion. 

 

Life and Culture

 

Hire the Farm Girl – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian.

 

Anti-Natal Engineering: What happened in South Korea – Scott Yenor at First Things Magazine.

 

There is No Turning Back on AI – Tyler Cowen at The Free Press.

 

Ukraine

 

Ukraine’s vitality is its greatest strength – Joe Lindsley at The Spectator.

 

Faith

 

God is Light – Robb Brunansky at The Cripplegate.

 

Midlife and the Striver’s Curse – Ryan Kucera at Gospel-Centered Discipleship. 

 

There is No Christian Argument for Defending Pornography – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

The Long Road to Confronting China’s War on Religion: Part I – Carl Cannon & Susan Crabtree at Real Clear Politics.

 

Writing and Literature

 

The novel truth: On the Russian literary tradition – Daniel J. Mahoney at New Criterion.

 

Even Tolkien Felt Like a Failure – Scott Sauls at For the Church.

 

Prince of Peace – Celtic Worship

 Painting: Portrait of Pierre Olin Reading, oil on canvas (18870, Theo van Rysselberghe (1862-1926).