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Showing posts from January, 2025

Finished Reading . . .

- January 28, 2025

The Gospel of Matthew The Acts of The Holy Spirit

"G. K. Chesterton, the "Prince of Paradox," is at his witty best in this collection of twenty essays and articles from the turn of the twentieth century. Focusing on "heretics" - those who pride themselves on their superiority to Christian views - Chesterton appraises prominent figures who fall into that category from the literary and art worlds... those who hold incomplete and inadequate views about "life, the universe, and everything." He is, in short, criticizing all that host of non-Christian views of reality, as he demonstrated in his follow-up book Orthodoxy. The book is both an easy read and a difficult read. But he manages to demonstrate, among other things, that our new 21st century heresies are really not new because he himself deals with most of them." (Goodreads)

Willy-nilly

- January 15, 2025

Into this Universe, and Why not knowing Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing; And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing. Stanza XXXII of “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” by Edward Fitzgerald (1809–1883)

Plutarch’s “Moralia”

- January 13, 2025

“They say those discourses,” the Greek philosopher Plutarch (46-120 AD) writes, “like friends, are best and surest that come to our refuge and aid in adversity, and are useful.” This is an appropriate summation of his 26 chapter work called “Moralia.” This work contains sage advice on topics including education, love, virtue and vice, marriage, parenting, character development, friends and enemies, divine punishment, grief and consolation, borrowing money and even talkitiveness. Each thought-provoking chapter can be read “devotional” style. If you keep a journal, each chapter could fuel your thoughts for reflection. I found my copy at no cost in the public domain on Kindle.

One of my favorites

- January 08, 2025

"’Has no one told you, “In the Country of the Blind the One-eyed Man is King?”’” “‘What is blind?’ asked the blind man carelessly over his shoulder.’” This is one of my favorite short stories published by H.G. Wells in 1904. It deserves to be revisited every now and then— plus, has all the makings of a long-lost “Twilight Zone” episode.

Finished “Lives Of The Stoics”

- January 06, 2025

In the spirit of Plutarch’s “Lives,” Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman present “The Lives of The Stoics. The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius.” The work is an uncomplicated biographical history of Stoicism starting in late Greece through the Roman Empire, centralized on practicing Stoics, who they were and what they did. Students of the Bible should give careful attention to this book, as it provides insight to the world of the early church from a historical perspective. Most telling are the trends that led to the persecution and exiles of the philosophers long before Christianity appeared on the scene. That so many notable Stoics came from Tarsus should be of particular interest. While the book provides an indirect introduction to the thinking of those who met Paul on Mars Hill (Acts 17), the authors present principles for present-day living.