All posts by Phil

Bookselling

Price Wars Don’t Work When Everyone Fights

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When Amazon, Target, and Walmart sell a book at well below wholesale price, they can’t be making money. So what are they doing? Attempting to hurt every other bookseller in every other city. James Surowiecki writes about the price war for The New Yorker.

The idea is to let your competitors know that you’re not eager to slash prices—but that, if a price war does start, you’ll fight to the bitter end. One way to establish that peace-preserving threat of mutual assured destruction is to commit yourself beforehand, which helps explain why so many retailers promise to match any competitor’s advertised price. Consumers view these guarantees as conducive to lower prices. But in fact offering a price-matching guarantee should make it less likely that competitors will slash prices, since they know that any cuts they make will immediately be matched. It’s the retail version of the doomsday machine.

(via ArtsJournal)

Publishing, Reading

Kindle Under Fire from iPhone Apps

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eReader apps for the iPhone are surging in popularity, according to a marketing research firm. The firm suggests Amazon’s Kindle may become a remainder to Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, which has 57,000,000 users.

Religion

Saving Grace

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Greybeard brought up Roman Catholic tradition vs. Scriptural understand in Lars’ post on braving the dark, and I remembered that reference last Sunday when we celebrated communion. It seems easier to hold to a doctrine in which saving grace can be administered to the unrepentant through ritual and the sacraments than to hold to the idea saving grace is the unmerited gift of God for whomever he wishes. I don’t want to offend anyone, but we’re talking about vital truth, aren’t we? This is the road to salvation we’re discussing.

It seems like an institutional idea, a concept developed from a desire to uphold the institution from which it came, to teach that baptism, communion, repetitive prayer, and a priest’s blessing grant bits of salvation to a soul who must act on those bits to merit full salvation. But Luther was set free from that unending cycle of salvific merit when he understood by the Lord’s grace that the righteous shall live by faith. The righteous–mind you, those who have been declared righteous by the one holy God–live by faith in God’s salvation. The same righteousness given to Abraham when he believed (Genesis 15:6) is given to those who believe today without a need for additional labor. Of course, when James says that faith without works is dead, he is dead right. Those who believe will repent of their sins and follow Christ to the best of their ability, but repentance and the fruit of belief are not works, “so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

When we celebrate communion, we celebrate the finished work of Christ. His suffering, death, and resurrection atones for all of the sin of his people, and anyone who understands the judgment he faces if he stands before God alone can repent and be saved. Christ’s work is the only work required. There is no other saving grace. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13-14).

Uncategorized

Saved by the Dead Ringer on the Graveyard Shift

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Cemetery with old headstones

Did you know this? I quote from An Authoritative Source. “England is old and small, and they started running out of places to bury people [back in the 1500s]. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a ‘bone-house’ and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the ‘graveyard shift’) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be ‘saved by the bell’ or was considered a ‘dead ringer.'”

That’s “true,” folks, as true as it gets, in some circles.

But let’s talk about those phrases again, okay? Saved by the bell, dead ringer, and the graveyard shift. Continue reading Saved by the Dead Ringer on the Graveyard Shift →

Authors, Non-fiction

An Interview with Hunter Baker

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To the Source, a weekly email on cultural issues, has interviewed Hunter Baker about his new book, The End of Secularism. Hunter says:

I think Christians should kindly refuse the invitation to take their religious activity and speech private. They should maintain the validity of the faith for their approach to community life and politics. They should point out that secularism provides little guidance for dealing with big political questions and that the values have to come from somewhere. Too often, secularists selectively crib Christian values without acknowledging the source. We didn’t just get here by accident. We don’t appreciate things like liberty, equality, and democracy by sheer accident. Christianity has been a major civilizational force.

Uncategorized

Relative Maxims

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I have learned that both of these maxims have been employed over the years:

  • The best defense is a solid offense.
  • The best offense is a strong defense.

Which do you think is true or stronger, if both are true? I usually think of this the first way and in terms of a chess game. Your object in chess and any competitive game is to win, not to avoid losing too badly. I suppose in other conflicts you must be careful to avoid taking too much damage so that any victory would be hollow and sorely won, but even then defeating the opponent quickly will keep him from hurting you.

The page I link to above has a quote from George Washington which I looked up for a bit of context. The first American president and great American general said:

It is unfortunate when men cannot or will not see danger at a distance; or, seeing it, are undetermined as to the means, which are necessary to avert or keep it afar off. I question whether the evil arising from the French getting possession of Louisiana and the Floridas would be generally seen, until felt; and yet no problem in Euclid is more evident, or susceptible of clearer demonstration. Not less difficult is it to make them believe, that offensive operations oftentimes are the surest, if not in some cases the only means of defence.

That’s generally the way I see it. What do you think?

Fiction

The Soul of Frankenstein

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Frankenstein's Castle. Photo by Yvo Geis

Burg Frankenstein in Darmstadt, Germany

This professor was very unlike his colleague. He appeared about fifty years of age, but with an aspect expressive of the greatest benevolence; a few grey hairs covered his temples, but those at the back of his head were nearly black. His person was short, but remarkably erect; and his voice the sweetest I had ever heard. . . .

“The ancient teachers of this science,” said he, “promised impossibilities, and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted, and that the elixir of life is a chimera. But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature, and show how she works in her hiding places. They ascend into the heavens: they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows.”

Such were the professor’s words–rather let me say such the words of fate, enounced to destroy me. As he went on, I felt as if my soul were grappling with a palpable enemy; one by one the various keys were touched which formed the mechanism of my being: chord after chord was sounded, and soon my mind was filled with one thought, one conception, one purpose. So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein–more, far more, will I achieve: treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.

From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Music, Non-fiction

Serious Biography on Louis Armstrong

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Terry Teachout has a copy in hand of his new biography on Louis Armstrong. He writes that his book is a bit different than other biographies on jazz musicians or popular figures. “I’ve sought to write a narrative biography of Louis Armstrong that is comparable in seriousness, scope, and literary quality to a ‘definitive’ high-culture biography of a great novelist–or a great classical composer,” he says. Bravo, sir.

Authors, Non-fiction

Cool Notice

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I’ve been occupied away from the blog lately, so I have not yet linked to this cool post by world famous author Hunter Baker on the reception of his book by ubercool and famous author Andrew Klavan. Klavan said, “I’m startled to report I glanced at it while laying it aside, then picked it up again, then read it through. This is a very well written, concise and learned primer on the secularization of the public square.” I love it.

What’s your next book going to be, Dr. Baker?