READS

 God Is Not Great ( 2007 ) / Christopher Hitchens I used to like Christopher Hitchens when he was a columnist for The Nation . His column came right after Alexander Cockburn ("The Last Marxist"). However, he did take a turn to the hard right during the Iraq War. And I left him then. However, I have always admired his intellect and eloquence. So I dared to pick this book after quite some time, and . . . . Let me just say that God Is Not Great  . . . is, well, not  great! There are two things in reading him it is impossible not  to learn -- simply by virtue of his repeating it over and over again: (1) His literary idol is George Orwell and (2) Salman Rushdie is his close personal friend. That's the good part. While I agree with him in the broad strokes. I'm an atheist, too. I find his rhetoric to be very much repugnant. He mainly indulges in ad hominem  attacks against those religious folk who disagree with him. His tone is smug and arrogant. And for the life of m...

Here I Stand ( 1940 ) / Roland H. Banton My dad was a Lutheran pastor. He passed away last year on Valentine's Day. For as long as I can remember, he had this book face out at the end of his bookshelf. While I knew a little about Luther's life, I didn't know a lot. This is a book that I always meant to read, but never had. To my knowledge, this is a classic biography of him and was studied and enjoyed by a lot of the clergy in the LCMS. The style of its scholarship feels somewhat dated, but I was surprised by how well the content seemed to still stand up today, in my opinion. It covers his life from his conversion experience, through his monastic vocation, his break from Rome, through to the end of life. What is striking about Luther is how much of a paradox he was. He was enlightened, but also very medieval in his thinking in many ways. He could be very intemperate in his rhetoric, but also moderating and rather conciliatory to his opposition at times. He was absolute in h...

  READS is my blog where I share reviews of what I'm reading and any reading projects I'm working through at the time. Most times, it will seem pretty random. That is, unless I'm working through a specific reading project. A lot of my reading is motivated by my other hobbies and interests. You will learn more about these as my blog grows and you read through it. The graphic is the cover from a late volume of Dave Sims' Cerebus  comic series. (And yes, I know that it can be problematic. A lot of things I read and like will be potentially problematic. And I hope I'm able to acknowledge the problematic and don't shy away from engaging them critically.) To my future readers: I sincerely hope you enjoy!