Monthly Archives: August 2015

Culture, Current Events

The Chase Continues

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Sad that I can’t make it to a protest today, but the flood of #ProtestPP pics is the best thing to happen to my TL in ages. God be praised. I couldn’t possibly ask for a better ending to the week.

Reading

On the Bookshelf XXXIII

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Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Not just one of the best war novels I’ve ever read, but one of the best novels I’ve ever read, period. Tender, cruel, horrifying, tragic, and beautiful by turns. A must-read. This is my second time through.

What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
Another Marlantes gem. Listening to the audiobook as time allows. The New Yorker: “Marlantes brings candor and wrenching self-analysis to bear on his combat experiences in Vietnam, in a memoir-based meditation whose intentions are three-fold: to help soldiers-to-be understand what they’re in for; to help veterans come to terms with what they’ve seen and done; and to help policymakers know what they’re asking of the men they send into combat.”

The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
“… you can’t save people from the world. There’s nowhere else to take them.” Violent and chilling, yet smart and unexpectedly warm. Well worth a read, particularly if you like your post-apocalypse with a Matheson-esque flair.

Against Heresies by Irenaeus
Contemporary Christian writers could learn a thing or twelve from Irenaeus’ utter unwillingness to ‘play nice’ with heretics.

A Humane Economy by Wilhelm Röpke
Joel Miller explains why you should dump Ayn Rand and give this chap a shot instead: “… unlike Rand, Röpke grounded his critique of socialism and his defense of free markets in a thoroughly Christian understanding of man and his world.” Free PDF version here.

What’s on your bookshelf right now?

Christian Living, Quotes, The Bible, Theology

His Goodness Is His Glory

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Reading through the Psalms with Matthew Henry’s commentary has afforded me a wealth of encouragement second to none. Reflecting on Psalm 68:3-6, Henry calls his readers to take note of a heartening but underemphasized truth: that the same all-powerful God who made us, the God “that rideth upon the heavens” – is also, and no less importantly, our Father. He is

a gracious God, a God of mercy and tender compassion. He is great, but he despises not any, no, not the meanest; nay, being a God of great power, he uses his power for the relief of those that are distressed, v. 5, 6. The fatherless, the widows, the solitary, find him a God all-sufficient to them. Observe how much God’s goodness is his glory. He that rides on the heavens by his name Jah, one would think should immediately have been adored as King of kings and Lord of lords, and the sovereign director of all the affairs of states and nations; he is so, but this he rather glories in, that he is a Father of the fatherless. Though God be high, yet he has respect unto the lowly. Happy are those that have an interest in such a God as this. He that rides upon the heavens is a Father worth having; thrice happy are the people whose God is the Lord.