John on August 9, 2010
They say you can’t judge a book by it’s cover and that’s usually true. But in this case, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that this is a book length screed based on this post from January of 2006: On homosexuality, on militarism, on women’s rights, on religion in school, on capital punishment, on free speech, on curtailment of civil liberties, and on a million different [...]
John on May 11, 2010
His work is instantly recognizable. I don’t think there is a boy alive who hasn’t found images like this enchanting at some point in life: In fact if you’ve ever seen his work, you can’t forget it: And this one: His wife Ellie, whom he’d married in 1956 and who sometimes was his model, died last year. The best blog coverage I’ve found is here. An artist looks at Frazetta’s [...]
John on February 5, 2010
If you’re a Kindle/Nook person you might be interested in downloading a free copy of Rob Bell’s first book, Velvet Elvis. He announced the giveaway a few days ago and I’ve been meaning to mention it. I’ve read it twice myself and have given away several copies to friends. I’ll be seeing Rob in about two weeks when his latest speaking tour makes a stop in Los Angeles at the [...]
John on May 4, 2009
I had to choose a book on scriptural reliability to read for one of my classes. The only guideline was that it should be relatively recent and that it must take a view of the Bible that is hostile to (or at least dubious of) Christian orthodoxy. I chose to read Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus. I chose the book for two reasons. First, I already had a copy which my [...]
Scott on November 5, 2008
Michael Crichton died on Tuesday after what CBS News called “a courageous and private battle against cancer.” Crichton’s work was certainly not highbrow literature. His books were kin to the pulp fictions of earlier generations. However, his writing had a depth of intelligence and knowledge to it that when reading it one couldn’t help but be challenged by the themes embedded in the stories. Some of my favorites of Crichton [...]
John on December 17, 2007
Every once in a while you read something by someone and it’s almost as if they’ve looked into your head and stolen your own thoughts. That’s the feeling I get from this interview with John Haught. Here’s a sample: You’re saying older atheists like Nietzsche and Camus had a more sophisticated critique of religion? Yes. They wanted us to think out completely and thoroughly, and with unrelenting logic, what the [...]
John on December 3, 2007
Last Summer we were asked to contribute a chapter to a creative new book project called Voices of the Virtual World. It’s an anthology by 40 authors around the theme of the church and technology. We ended up contributing two chapters. One by Scott and me and one by Scott solo. It was a fun project, especially doing the audio. There’s something really nice about hearing one of your essays [...]
John on October 23, 2007
Two articles up today on the topic of web anonymity. This one is by radio host Dennis Prager: The Internet practice of giving everyone the ability to express himself anonymously for millions to read has debased public discourse. Cursing, ad hominem attacks and/or the utter absence of logic characterize a large percentage of many websites’ “comments” sections. And because people tend to do what society says it is OK to [...]
John on September 11, 2007
Voices of the Virtual World, the experimental book project Scott and I contributed to, is now out in paperback. I’ll be ordering my copies(s) today. The price is $19.95 which isn’t bad for 364 pages. And don’t forget, all proceeds go to the Not For Sale Campaign, a group working to end slavery in the modern world. I’m adding a link to the sidebar as well. For those curious, you [...]
John on August 21, 2007
Potter hatred is a cottage industry that embarrasses me no end: Lev Grossman, in the July 23, 2007, issue of Time magazine, writes, “If you want to know who dies in Harry Potter, the answer is easy: God.” In this he has expressed the core problem with the Potter series. There is much that could be written, and has been written, about the specific problems in the books. Without neglecting [...]
John on August 17, 2007
The e-book (and soon to be paperback) Voices of the Virtual World that Scott and I contributed a chapter for is being reviewed in detail by Paul Walker on his own blog, Out of the Cocoon. He’s committed to blogging about each individual chapter of the book over the next month or so. So far you can read his discussion of the first five chapters: Surfing the Liminal Domains A [...]
John on August 2, 2007
I just finished the 7th and final Harry Potter book two days ago. It was a good story well told, as all of them have been. I’ve been at odds with some people I know and with large swaths of evangelical Christianity over this for years. I’ve been telling people since at least book 3 that the Harry Potter series was a Christian fantasy, very much like Narnia or Lord [...]
John on July 10, 2007
One of the reasons Scott and I have been struggling to keep the post count up this summer is a little project we were asked to participate in called Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution. It’s an e-book anthology of Christian writers discussing technology and the church. Some of the authors contributing chapters include: Rex Miller, Bob Hyatt, Brother Maynard, Andrew Jones, and Scott McKnight. [...]
John on May 17, 2007
Al Gore has a new book out called The Assault on Truth. If this sample chapter available on Time’s website is representative, it looks to be a sequence of obvious points broken up by non-sequitur pronouncements about the end of the world. Yes, that’s right, Gore is now worried about Media Climate Change: American democracy is now in danger—not from any one set of ideas, but from unprecedented changes in [...]
John on March 6, 2007
There’s a new book out written by a Boston Univ. professor named Stephen Prothero. The title is Religious Literacy and in it he argues that most Americans are woefully ignorant of religion, including the one they claim for themselves: According to the book, although 90 percent of people in the United States claim they are Christian, only a few know anything about religion. Only 10 percent of American teenagers can [...]
John on February 28, 2007
I just learned that Philip was seriously injured in some type of accident and had to be flown to a Denver area hospital for treatment. I don’t know the circumstances of his injury, but Philip is an avid hiker and mountain-climber who has climbed many of the tallest peaks in the rockies. It seems likely the accident was related to his mountaineering. Word is that he may have suffered some [...]
John on February 6, 2007
In 1940, Hitler really was looking for the “Holy Grail” but he didn’t go to Egypt searching for it: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi SS, made a secret wartime mission to an abbey in Spain in search of what he believed was the Aryan Holy Grail, a new book claims. Himmler visited the famous Montserrat Abbey near Barcelona where he thought he would find the Grail which Jesus [...]
John on January 12, 2007
John MacArthur has a new book coming out titled The Truth War. I haven’t read it, but his website has several articles which were “adapted” from this as yet unpublished book. Based on these it appears to me that MacArthur is about to become the recognized head of the Slice of Laodicea (now Christian Research Net) brand of Christianity. Take, for instance, this article titled “Raising the Error-Alert.” MacArthur’s premise [...]
John on January 11, 2007
From the International Herald Tribune: Fourteen members of a Carter Center advisory board, who worked to build support for the human rights organization started by former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, have resigned in protest over Carter’s latest book. The resignations, announced Thursday, are the latest in a backlash against Carter’s book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” which has drawn fire from Jewish groups, been attacked by fellow Democrats and [...]
John on January 9, 2007
[Attention Joe Rago: This post is brief (but not too brief), well written and contains the USDA recommended daily dosage of irony.] Well, it’s Tuesday so it must be time for another Christian bashing book warning us that theocracy is just around the corner. Viola! Chris Hedges’ American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. I won’t be buying this one, but from the review in the LA [...]
