Apparently posting by e-mail doesn't work, but it doesn't bounce, either. Anyway, here was one I sent on February 4th and tried resending today to no avail.
I'm in the final chapter of Who Are We?, and, quite frankly, I agree with many of her criticisms of Northern/American society--at least of those I could understand. I only recently hit a few points at which I would bother to put up a counterargument: she is too harsh towards online communities. On the other hand, I acknowledge that growing up, I was much too much of an enthusiast of them. While I accept now that they are no substitute for real, flesh and blood, local communities, they still play a vital role alongside them in connecting the otherwise
alone-in-their-fields from around the world and creating other important bridges that otherwise simply could not exist.
Other bits along the way I disagreed with in the underlying assumptions (surrounding feminism, evolution, and others I've forgotten by now) but
could respect what was being done via them.
It's taking me longer to get through Jonathan's book, Bad Samaritans, because it's my "when nobody's watching TV" book downstairs at the moment, and apparently this means it gets less time than JBE's, being my "bussing to school" book.
Kev
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Kevin Field, Ridiculous Man�
"Give us this day our daily bread."
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Food for thought:
"No one gets too old to learn a new way of being stupid."
1 comment:
Welcome! Sorry for my delay - it's exam/moving-out season. Thank you for your kind words. Yes, Lewis is one author I definitely have not read as much of as I should. Have you by chance read Surprised by Joy? My English teacher jotted in a note somewhere on my Screwtape Letters paper in high school that I should read it some day, and I've been meaning to ever since.
I'm still (!) stalled in the middle of Vallely's Bad Samaritans, but I'm going to bring it with me to a friend's cottage next week, when, God willing, there will be time in which to do some real reading. Even from just the first half of the book, though, it's a very straightforward and relevant look at what it means to be Christian in the global North while the rest of the world supports our bad habits.
I would have recommended it over the Boffs' book, perhaps, except that it would be especially interesting to look at how Ratzinger interacted (warred?) with him before he became pope, where both of their ideas are coming from, and are likely to go. Who Are We?'s first chapter comparing the last pope's framework to Bonhoeffer's would also spice things up if you were interested in looking at the two popes.
Unfortunately I've only been able to skim your blog so far, but I do look forward to delving into it as soon as exams are over. Good luck on your album release!
BTW, do you hail from a specific denomination? I was confirmed a Catholic when I was 13 or 14, but I've also been a member of a Baptist youth group and a Mennonite church. I watch the new pope with some interest (and roll my eyes a bit at the media's portrayal...) and agree with the Catholic church on some issues, but not all. Possibly the number one, recurring, nasty, pervasive problem I see nowadays in my own life, and just about anyone's I can think of, is throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so I'm trying to be careful about that. I think that the denominations as they have ended up are mostly Christian and function as the different members of the Body, although milage within a congregation may vary. These are exciting times no matter what, and I look forward to the day when we can all worship as one to the glory of God.
YFS,
Kev
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