Religion

On the sanctity of futile gestures

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As you may possibly have noticed, I am not known for my cheery, optimistic demeanor. Whenever I get together with Mark Steyn for brandy and cigars, he says to me, “Chill, dude. Things aren’t that bad.”

So if I counsel you not to despair, and to act on hope even when you feel none, you’ll know I’m speaking from conviction, if not from enthusiasm.

Today I was reading from the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 15, verses 42-43.

It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.

What struck me about this passage was the apparent futility of Joseph’s action. As a member of the Sanhedrin with suspicious connections to the Nazarene sect, in a city occupied by Romans, he had absolutely nothing to gain by bringing himself to the attention of the authorities on either side. The Rabbi was dead. Nothing could be done about that. Wouldn’t the prudent thing be to keep a low profile until feelings subsided?

But for some reason we can only guess at, Joseph went to the hated Roman procurator and ask for the body. Perhaps he went right into Pilate’s house, though that would pollute him ceremonially, since he was planning to handle a corpse anyway. It was a quixotic gesture, like a Confederate soldier flying the Stars and Bars in a city occupied by Federal troops. There wasn’t a thing to be gained by it, and much to lose.

But unbeknown to himself, he was participating in a victory he couldn’t conceive of.

When I read Two Years Before the Mast, I came across a sailor’s proverb, quoted by Richard Henry Dana. It’s passed into our language in abbreviated form since then– “Never say die, while there’s a shot in the locker.”

The moral of this story seems to be that we should never say die even when the locker’s empty.

Coffee, Tea, Drinks

Starbucks: Thanks For Coming, But Please Leave

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High volume Starbucks stores are blocking select electric outlets in order to move sedentary laptop users out of the store. You know the type. Perhaps, you are the type. You take your laptop to the coffee shop, pay too much for something that tastes so good, and take up a chair for the rest of the morning. In some New York Starbucks, they would love for you to move on down the road.

Fiction, Reviews

Back On Murder, by J. Mark Bertrand

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Those of us who read both secular and Christian fiction tend to employ a double standard. There’s a full-out “excellent” category in the secular field, and then there’s “excellent for Christian fiction,” which is understood to be not quite as good as the secular stuff, but better than the average CBA fare.

(As a corollary, I find that I also have a counterbalancing prejudice. When I encounter really good Christian fiction, I think I sometimes depreciate it a little, just out of defensive critical snobbery. Something I need to watch out for. I may have done it with this book.)

J. Mark Bertrand, in his first police procedural novel, Back on Murder, shows himself qualified for a place on the shelf alongside successful mystery writers in the secular market. Perhaps not up in the highest rank (at least yet), but definitely big league.

The hero of Back On Murder is Roland March, a Houston police detective near the bottom of his profession. Once he was a star, the cop who solved a dramatic case that got turned into a best-selling book. But a personal tragedy took the heart out of him. Now he’s a time-server, the “suicide cop”–the cop who gets stuck with the unenviable job of investigating when other officers kill themselves. He’s the subject of pity and derision at headquarters. His marriage is strained.

But at the beginning of this story he finds himself, uncharacteristically, at a crime scene, a house where several gang members have been shot to death. By accident, he notices a detail that changes the whole investigation—someone has been tied to the bed in the house, and that someone is not there anymore. Suddenly March is “back on homicide,” and energized by an investigation for the first time in years. Then he’s transferred to a task force investigating the high-profile disappearance of a teenage girl. He’s disappointed until he grows convinced that the two cases are linked—the missing person on the bed, he believes, was that girl. Working with an attractive female missing persons cop, he enters the unfamiliar world of the girl’s church and faith life, puzzling like an anthropologist over the odd customs and mores of these bizarre evangelicals. Continue reading Back On Murder, by J. Mark Bertrand →

Fiction, Reviews

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness

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The subtitle of Andrew Peterson’s fantastically fun young adult novel just about gives you all the invitation you need to read it: “Adventure, Peril, Lost Jewels, And the Fearsome Toothy Cows of Skree.” You can see the thrills and silliness right there (if you’re stuck on what toothy cows are, stick no further).

I loved this book, despite its minor weaknesses which are minor. Peterson says he knew while writing this book that his sequel would be even better, and I fully believe him. This story of children running from goblin-like occupiers of their home country has plenty of serious thrills, and it’s built on a mythology that is completely silly. For example, the horrible conqueror in a distant land who ultimately commands all of the disgusting troops in Skree is “a nameless evil” called Gnag the Nameless. His evil minions are the Fangs of Dang, in that they have poisonous teeth and hail from the dark land of Dang. A popular sport described early in the book is handyball, “a delightful sport in which each team tries to get the ball into a goal without using their feet in any capacity, even to move,” meaning the players roll on the ground. That detail is delivered in one of many footnotes which sow threads of silliness through the pages. Many of the footnotes reference one of 24 imaginary books, like In the Age of the Kindly Flabbits by Jonathid Choonch Brownman, Taming the Creepful Wood by Rumpole Bloge, and Ready, Set, Chube! A Life in Gamery by B’funerous Hwerq.

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness records the story of the three Igiby children who are waking up to the oppression around them. They’ve never known life without the Fangs of Dang. One night, their dog gets them into a little trouble that quickly escalates into a life-and-death struggle. Soon enough, the whole family is running for their lives.

This is the first book in a series of at least three. The third Wingfeather Saga book was released this summer.

Fiction

Update: Never Mind! Book recommendation: The Last of the Vikings, by "John Bowling"

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Update: Save your money.

This should teach me to make assumptions. I took it for granted that this Kindle book was the English translation of Johan Bojer’s Den Siste Viking. It is not. It’s a book about Vikings, identically named, by an English-language writer with a similar name, and doesn’t look to be a very good one. Sorry.

Today I discovered a book, available in the Kindle format, which I want to recommend to those of you who have that technology.

It’s called The Last of the Vikings, and it’s only 99 cents.

And no, it’s not actually about Vikings.

It’s a Norwegian novel (I’ve read it in the original, Den Siste Viking) by a writer named Johan Bojer. The English translation gives the author as John Bowling, which must have been the result of a decision by a publisher afraid that Americans wouldn’t buy a book by somebody whose name they couldn’t pronounce (it’s pronounced BOY-er). Continue reading Update: Never Mind! Book recommendation: The Last of the Vikings, by "John Bowling" →

Blogs, Socials

DK and GK

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Late to the computer tonight. I had to pick up some family members at the airport. They’re just back from a trip to Germany and Denmark. In Denmark they were able to meet and get to know our distant relatives, in Jutland.

Needless to say, I am filled with impotent rage and envy that I couldn’t go along. However they bought me dinner, so I chose not to steer the car into an abutment, sending us all to a fiery but magnificent demise.

Over at The Corner, Michael Potemra writes of “The Inexhaustible Chesterton:”

One of the things I have come to like most about Chesterton is that he is one of the few writers whose books you can open virtually at random, and have a good chance of finding a breathtaking insight.

Reviews

Film review: Cowboys and Aliens

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OK, here’s the deal. When you’re talking about a movie called “Cowboys and Aliens,” you’ll do well not to overthink it.

I’m glad I hadn’t read some of the reviews I’ve read today, before I went to see the film last night. Because I had a great time. I don’t think I’ve sat in a theater seat and enjoyed myself so much since I saw “Taken.” When you’re talking summer movies, it doesn’t get much better than this, if you’re asking me.

The secret to carrying off a ridiculous genre mash-up like this, unless your intention is to do farce, is to take it as seriously as “High Noon.” No ironic, I’m-above-the-material lines from the actors. No winks at the audience. No blatant contemporary references, either pop or political.

In this the makers of “Cowboys and Aliens” succeeded splendidly. There are funny moments, but the actors don’t know they’re funny. All they know is that they’re being attacked by nearly invulnerable monsters, that their loved ones are missing, and that time is running out.

The film opens with the hero, Jake Lonergan (underplayed in Eastwoodesque style by Daniel Craig), waking up in the desert. He can’t remember who he is, he has a painful wound just under the ribs, and a strange metal shackle is wrapped around his wrist. Continue reading Film review: Cowboys and Aliens →

Non-fiction, Religion

Christian Smith's Straw Men

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Professor at the University of Notre Dame Christian Smith has written a book criticizing an evangelical view of the Bible. The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture complains that many American Christians have what he calls a “biblicist” point of view, meaning essentially the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, understandable by any intelligent reader, and universally applicable to all. (The list is longer than this, but I think it boils down to these main points.)

Kevin DeYoung reviews The Bible Made Impossible:

For starters, the book is littered with straw men. Smith frequently attacks ideas that none of the mainstream institutions, documents, or persons he criticizes holds. He opposes mechanical dictation theory, admitting that “most” thoughtful evangelicals do not hold to it (81). I can’t help but wonder which thoughtful evangelicals do? He chides biblicists for things I’ve never seen anyone do, like worshiping the Bible (124) and thinking that fellowship with God comes through paper and ink (119)…. Likewise, he mocks the logic of biblicism for being equally certain about the divinity of Jesus as it is about the ethics of biblical dating (137). But who actually espouses any of this? These are simply cheap shots…. He frequently attacks the notion that the Bible is completely clear, but then in the end he says the Bible is perfectly clear when it comes to the important stuff of the gospel (132).

Having not read this book, I’m sure Prof. Smith makes some good points in it, but it appears from DeYoung’s review that he loses those points in the middle of a lot of partisan propaganda, by which I mean he is defending his team against other teams with whom he agrees essentially. Read all of DeYoung’s review, and you’ll see what I mean.