Reading Dickens for the small touches, the word turns, and the character portraits.
All posts by Phil
Beautiful Gallery of Ptolemy's Cosmographia
Here’s a beautiful book to page through.
Claudius Ptolemaeus , Cosmographia , Jacobus Angelus interpres
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France
We Have Seen the Culture, And It Is Us
Jonathan D. Fitzgerald has an article criticizing Pastor Mark Discoll called “Disengage Culture.” He makes a good point about what culture is and how it’s odd for Christians to talk about engaging it, as if it were something outside of us. An interesting discussion has come up in the comments.
Figment Invites Teens to Write More
Figment.com is a new site for teenagers who want to find new writing and write it themselves. The NY Times has a write-up on it. Want to write some great work for the cellular age? This may be your starting point. Just don’t get cocky.
What is Sin?
In a letter to John Wesley in June 1735, his mother Susanna Wesley wrote these words:
The beauty, pleasures, and ease of the body strangely charm us; the wealth and honours of the world allure us; and all, under the management of a subtle malicious adversary, give a prodigious force to present things; and if the animal life once get the ascendant of our reason, it is the greatest folly imaginable, because he seeks it where has not designed he shall ever find it. But this is the case of the generality of men; they live as mere animals, wholly given up to the interests and pleasures of the body; and all the use of their understanding is to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof, without the least regard to future happiness or misery.
I take à Kempis to have been an honest weak man, with more zeal than knowledge, by his condemning all mirth or pleasure as sinful or useless, in opposition to so many plain and direct texts of Scripture. Would you judge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of pleasure; of the innocence or malignity of actions? Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.
(from Susanna Wesley by Eliza Clarke LONDON: W. H. ALLEN & CO., 1886)
Friday Fight: Wouldn't Touch That With a 10-Footer
That’s how you use a spear, children. Keep the bad man at arm’s length or farther.
The Guardian of Children's Books
I don’t know if my kids would go to a children’s library section with this thing on the ceiling. Whoa.
Are the scary books right beneath it?
Slate's HACK/30
Slate’s War Room has a list of thirty opinion makers and commentators they’re calling their Hack 30. “We’re listing the worst columnists and cable news commentators America has to offer. Think of this as our all-star team — of the most predictable, dishonest and just plain stupid pundits in the media.” I plan to read through it, unsure how irritated I’ll feel by the end, not that I want to carry the water for anyone, but a list like this could easily be the work of one cynical curmudgeon against many.
Related to this, Patrol Magazine has a list of “Ten Worst Christian Media Hacks,” which appears to have angered the Internet gods because their site has been down ever since they put the second part of the article on it. (links defunct)
Scary Ghost Stories and Tales of the Glories of Christmases Long Time Ago
Loren has announced his 2010 Advent Ghost Story Flash Fiction Rally. I’m already polishing something, and I think I’d like to work on another one.
Thanksgiving Links
Jared has seven great ways to crush the Thanksgiving spirit, such as freaking out over everything, like a late family guest, and practicing practical atheism.
Bill talks about communal living and productivity.
One of my earliest professional experiences involved leaving a job at a government-run municipal utility to take a job at a private-sector energy company. At the utility, it didn’t much matter what you did, you were going to get paid and keep your job. There was a lot of waste, shoddy work, and sloth at that company. Don’t get me wrong, I worked with good people. But the very structure of the place was set against big productivity gains, risks, improvements or innovation.
Loosely related to these is this post from Tullian Tchividjian on counterfeit gospels: “ways we try and ‘justify’ or ‘save’ ourselves apart from the gospel of grace. I found these unbelievably helpful.”