Stopping to Think

  Finding God in the Dark: Faith, Disappointment, and the Struggle to Believe by Ted Kluck My rating: 3 of 5 stars As a listener to The Happy Rant for however long it was dropping into podcast feeds, I am somewhat pre-primed to appreciate a book from Kluck and Martin. Some of Kluck's other writing also pre-disposes me to engage with anything I see from him - he's a really good writer. The title/subtitle of the book are also instant hooks for me, as someone who has often felt what Philip Yancey once described as Disappointment with God. Having said that, this book didn't quite hit where I'd hoped it would. Martin's sections are good, especially when he is diagnosing himself and his own sin. Some of his summaries of Scripture are less appealing, at times distracting. I thought chapter 6 (Blue Mondays) was his best work here. Kluck's portions were mixed. I don't agree with some of the other reviewers here who think he's trying to show off "how good...

  The Shepherd Leader by James Van Yperen My rating: 2 of 5 stars Some good quotes and helpful ideas. Poorly written, organized, and edited. Might have been good as a 5,000 word article. View all my reviews

Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash An Overview and Interaction with the Basic Ideas of Frederich Nietzsche The Man “Frederich Nietzsche was born in rural Prussia, the son and grandson of Lutheran pastors.” A brilliant philologist, he became a professor at just 24 years old at the University of Basil. While his career was short, cut off in 1889 due to a mental breakdown from which he never recovered, he still is read as one of the most important thinkers of the 19th century, and the modern period. In this paper I want to address three aspects of Nietzsche's thought, and contrast them with a biblical perspective. These three areas are the genealogy of morals, the death of God, and the nature of humanity. Together they help display his desire to make a radical break with the assumed Christianity of his day. From Whence Come Morals? In his book The Genealogy of Morals (1887) Nietzsche “sets out to challenge our most basic assumptions, especially our notions of good and ...

Useful introduction to the Greek Philosophers, meatier than Sproul's Consequences of Ideas , though obviously limited to a narrower timeframe.  Not always clearly organized, which made moving quickly to grab the big ideas difficult. I will probably come back through at a slower pace at a later date, but my precis paper was due. Such is life. But this a valuable introductory work, and removed some of my hesitation toward jumping into Plato and Aristotle directly.  Read my Good reads reviews here

How to Be Free from Bitterness: And Other Essays on Christian Relationships by Jim Wilson My rating: 5 of 5 stars This may be the most spiritually beneficial book I read in 2022. Clear and direct teaching. The essays on relationships with parents and saturation love are worth the price of the book. The Q & A on becoming a Christian is beautiful in its wisdom. I’m going to buy a case of these. View all my reviews

  Eggs are Expensive, Sperm is Cheap: 50 Politically Incorrect Thoughts for Men by Greg Krehbiel My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book is going to be given frequently as a gift. To borrow from Doug Wilson's introduction, this book is filled with good horse sense. The first half was good, saying lots of obvious hit not so p/c things; sometimes relying on an evolutionary mindset that is unstable, but doing so in a way which illustrates the rampant instability of our modern insanity on sex and the relationship between the sexes. The second part, giving men advice, was also fantastic. Again: good horse sense. Not p/c, by largely a/c (that is, actually correct). Highly recommended. View all my reviews

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman My rating: 4 of 5 stars Enjoyable, horrifying, fun. Neil Gaiman is a top notch writer, and his narration of the audiobook was excellent as well. I had very little knowledge of Norse Mythology, but my sense is that this is how you should experience it - as if being told the tales of the gods, rather than reading about them in a textbook form. The stories themselves are both fascinating, entertaining, and atrocious. The gods of the North, though superhuman in certain ways, are utterly human in all the ways that matter most. Which, I suppose, is what we should expect from gods made in man’s image. View all my reviews