Tag: Books

Maggi Dawn points us to a piece in the Guardian Review in which British author and philosopher John N. Gray examines the popularity of the “New Atheists” —same as the old atheists, he adds, examining the motivations of “secular fundamentalists.” He scrutinizes the positions of authors such as Dawkins and Hitchens, Daniel Dennett and Martin Amis, Michel Onfray, Philip Pullman and other authors, and provides some historical perspective on what exactly tends to happen when religion is actively suppressed.

Once the federal government declined to establish a church and the states moved to disestablish (Massachusetts was the last, in 1833), religious belief grew. “No doubt exists that there is much more of religion among us now than there ever was before the change,” John Madison wrote. “This proves rather more … that the law is not necessary to the support of religion.

There is perhaps no more important religious literature in the English language than Paradise Lost, but its author remains a deep mystery. Anna Beer has just written a new biography, Milton: Poet, Pamphleteer, and Patriot .

This week, Manga Bible author Siku was featured in a 13-minute long segment of the NPR program Faith Matters in which he discusses why he chose the stories he did, the challenges of interpreting narrative style within graphic novels, how his family reacted to his “calling,” the Archbishop of Canterbury’s feedback, the difference between manga and comics (manga is “cinematic,” among other things) and much more.

This week in The New Yorker magazine, is an excerpt from Honor Moore’s book “The Bishop’s Daughter,” Moore writes about her father, the Episcopal bishop Paul Moore, his faith, and his secret, about her father’s public service and private life

Booktrust, the British reading charity, conducted a survey of 4000 in Great Britain, to determine the best children’s books of all time. Leading the list is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Princeby J.K. Rowling, placed sixth.

Washington Post blog contributor Alan Cooperman lists his five favorite “retellings” of Biblical stories, and is very effusive over the Jenkins/LaHaye books. But before listing his top five, he invites readers to share their favorites as well—or perhaps to just abuse him with their favorites; hard to say.

A new partnership between traditional churches and emerging churches. Episcopal and Anglican leaders are building bridges from older liturgical forms of church worship to emergent forms.

Joel Osteen is the pastor of Houston’s Lakewood Church, which may well be the largest congregation in the country. Even beyond his own congregation, he is well known for his postive message of the Gospel — a message that many call the Prosperity Gospel. Chris Lehmann review Osteen’s latest book, Become a Better You, and is not at all impressed.

Dante’s Paradiso is the least read and least admired part of his Divine Comedy. The Inferno’s nine circles of extravagant tortures have long captured the popular imagination, while Purgatorio is often the connoisseur’s choice. But as Robert Hollander writes in his new edition of the Paradiso, “One finds few who will claim (or admit) that it is their favorite cantica.” (A cantica, or canticle, is one of the three titled parts of the poem.) The time is ripe to reconsider Paradiso’s neglect, however, since three major new translations of the poem we know as the Divine Comedy are coming to completion.