Bishop John Spong has published another book. This one is entitled “Jesus for the Non-Religious” Ben Myers has a review of the book, pointing out the good intentions and the admirable desire of the book to bring modern biblical scholarship to the common reader, but also pointing out the numerous ways in which Bishop Spong relies on out-dated scholarship when he does so. Myers however finds the key problem with this book – and with […]
Cool post over on the “Duck of Minerva” about the similarities between the Potter “universe” and the Star Wars “universe” “Harry Potter […] inherits two things from Star Wars: a set of cultural commonplaces on which it draws for much of its evocative power, and the mantle of serving as a root experience for massive numbers of people — especially for younger people, into whose cultural lifeworld notions like ‘muggle’ and the Ministry of Magic […]
Will not be posted in the body of this post, but in the comments so as to not give away any spoilers. (These shouldn’t really be spoilers, but just in case, you’ve been warned…)
An amazing read. JK Rowling has given us a great gift. Bless her.
Okay, I just finished re-reading the Half-blood Prince yesterday in preparation for my daughter and my midnight trip to the bookstore to buy “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.“ I am now going to issue my one and only guess about Prof. Snape. (/drumroll) I think Snape is loyal to Dumbledore in the end. I believe that Dumbledore pleaded with Snape to kill him because if Dumbledore did not die, Draco Malfoy and his family […]
There’s a great post of a letter by the author of the Baby Blue Cafe written to a member of a the church she attends explaining why she believes it’s possible to be both Christian and a fan of the Harry Potter books. Here’s just a bit: “I read the books and realized that the ‘magic’ in them was in line with the magic in Tolkien and CS Lewis and Shakespeare (i.e., The Tempest, Hamlet, […]
I SO want one of these… “Asked to design a fitting repository for a client’s valuable collection of J.R.R. Tolkien manuscripts and artifacts, architect Peter Archer went to the source—the fantasy novels that describe the abodes of the diminutive Hobbits. ‘I came back my client and said, ‘I’m not going to make this look like Hollywood,’’ Archer recalled, choosing to focus instead on a finely-crafted structure embodying a sense of history and tradition.” Read the […]
This news is making the rounds on blogsphere this morning: Link: News” href=”http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/news/article2390834.ece”>Tolkien Jr completes Lord of Rings – Independent Online Edition > News. The first new Tolkien novel for 30 years is to be published next month. In a move eagerly anticipated by millions of fans across the world, The Children of Húrin will be released worldwide on 17 April, 89 years after the author started the work and four years after the final […]
Just saw this news about a new book that’s apparently quite the rage… “A clandestine sect with evil plans to end the world. An ancient code. Secret saints. And the Kabbalah. These are the key elements of The Book of Names, a new spiritual thriller that has been flying off the shelves since its release last month. The book, co-written by Chicago native Jill Gregory and her best friend/writing partner Karen Tintori, was released Jan. […]
It’s getting to be time to start planning how I shall observe Lent. Usually I try to pick up an extra spiritual habit rather than put something aside – though I’ve made exceptions over the years. This year I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to focus on two books for the six weeks of Lent and make my way through them in a very careful and thoughtful way. The first is St. Paul’s Epistle […]
