Alban Krailsheimer once wrote that Christianity was oddly missing as a subject in Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris (aka, The Hunchback of Notre Dame). And I agree: that novel can seem like a merely secular story about a Christian cathedral. Les Misérables, by contrast, opens immediately with Christianity as a subject: its entire first … Continue reading Les Misérables – atheism and faith
I've started reading Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, and it's such a long novel that I'm going to start sharing partial impressions and thoughts as I go along. Victor Hugo was a lifelong opponent of the death penalty, which you may guess from the following passage in Le Miz: There is something nightmarish about the scaffold … Continue reading Les Misérables – guillotine and cross
Earlier this year I read John Steinbeck's "East of Eden," so I was very motivated to read his earlier classic, "The Grapes of Wrath." I've finished it now, and I hardly know how to say what a great novel it is, or what to say that has not already been said. I did see the … Continue reading The Grapes of Wrath
I recently read John Steinbeck's "East of Eden", a novel so rich, and long, that one blog post couldn't begin to uncover even 2% of it. But below I've quoted passages from the novel that I'll talk about both in themselves and in relation to certain texts: the Bible, principally Genesis and Job; Miguel de … Continue reading East of Eden
John 20:17 -- Jesus said to [Mary Magdalene], "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Ecclesiastes 3:1, 5 -- To every thing there is a … Continue reading Happy Easter
A couple of weeks ago, Tish Harrison Warren shared a small collection of prayers for Ukraine from readers of her column across the world. She reports that her readers have turned frequently to Psalms, and particularly to Psalm 31, which I quote below in its KJV translation: In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; … Continue reading Prayer for Ukraine
The Two Testaments finished its podcast-tour through the Book of Job recently with a discussion focused on Job's concluding words and the epilogue: Job 42 (Job's Response and Epilogue) with Carol Newsom. The podcast is hosted at The Two Testaments, and it's available at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nmfpbCSEQc Carol Newsom is the author of The Book of … Continue reading Carol Newsom podcast on the Book of Job
In the beginning, God said, "Let there be light." Or, in translation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roqGqhX6_-U "The four-dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric second rank tensor equals zero". That is the formula for light. In physics, light is defined as a form of electromagnetic radiation. If I understand correctly, what we have in the video above is James Clerk … Continue reading Let there be electromagnetism
In my last post I reviewed a book by William P. Brown, The Seven Pillars of Creation, that read God's speeches in the Book of Job as a creation story. This was a very new perspective for me. It made me take a look back at my little journey through Job in recent months. I've … Continue reading William P. Brown podcast about Job
I recently read Michael P. Brown's "The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder", an exploration of scripture in light of modern science, with emphasis on our current ecological crisis here on Earth. Brown, a Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, explores what the Bible and science have … Continue reading Seven Pillars of Creation
