OK, Here's What I'm Reading

In recent weeks I've had several of my Bible Study participants ask me what I'm currently reading. I'm not sure why they'd want to know; after all, my reading habits are likely no more interesting than anyone else's. Anyway, my tastes in books can also be a bit off-putting to some folks. For example, I rarely read modern novels, and by "modern" I mean anything written during the past 30 or 40 years. There are exceptions; indeed, one of the books I'm currently reading would certainly be labeled a modern novel, but I was introduced to other works by the same author and enjoyed them. The reason I avoid most modern fiction? There's far too much of it and I have so little time to sort out the bad from the not-so-bad. There's really very little good. I hate to waste precious time (and inflationary cash) on something not worth reading, so it's safer to wait several decades and ask a few simple questions:

• Is it still in print? This isn't always a good benchmark, but it does limit the field. Multiple printings tell us little about the critics, but a lot about the general public; and I trust the latter more than the former. The public isn't always right, but it's more right than most critics.
• The above leads to another set of criteria: Who likes it and who doesn't? Is it on the "must read" list of someone I know and trust? Or is it on the "hated list" of someone whose opinions I regularly dismiss as foolish? A "yes" answer to both questions is a definite plus.
• Is it a seminal work, one of those truly influential books that has changed the world? Its impact might have been horribly negative, like Mein Kampf or Das Kapital, or very positive, like Augustine's Confessions or Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind. I read them all, since ignoring them leaves one ill-equipped to cope with their consequences.
• Finally, is it a book I will simply enjoy? For example, Flannery O'Connor's letters, published posthumously as The Habit of Being is one of those books to which I often return. O'Connor was always interesting and usually quite funny. I also enjoy the works of Jane Austen, Gene Wolfe, Alice Thomas Ellis, G. K. Chesterton, V. S. Naipaul, P. G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, Mark Helprin, Maurice Baring, and so many others.

At any given time, I'm usually reading more than one book, all stacked neatly on the table next to my comfortable, squishy easy chair in our living room. Diane thinks this is weird, but it works for me. I simply choose the book that seems to suit my current mood, something that changes often enough. If a book is interesting and well-written, I have no trouble picking up where I left off when I last put it down. And so, here are a few of the books I've recently read or am reading now. 

Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin (1983). Helprin is a wonderful writer, and I often find myself checking to see what he's published lately. I've read many of his works, novels and short stories -- I especially liked A Soldier of the Great War -- but somehow missed this novel, one of his earlier works. A remarkable love story, touched with fantasy, but for me utterly believable. 

The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton (1948). I first read this book when I was a freshman at Georgetown, but that was 60 years ago. As I recall I found it too personal and too spiritual. But what did I expect? After all, it's an autobiography of a man who becomes a Trappist monk. Personal and spiritual? Well, yeah! Right now, I'm smack dab in the middle of it and truly enjoying it. It takes me back to the Church and the world I experienced in my youth. And reading Merton's life, I encounter pieces of my own and my struggles to make my way past many of the same obstacles that confronted the author. Interesting that I didn't recognize any of this during my first reading when I was 18. As college freshmen we were sure we were oh so smart, when in truth we were amazingly stupid.

The Stripping of the Altars 1400-1580, by Eamon Duffy (1992). This absolutely fascinating (and very long) book is another through which I'm now making my way. It's one of those books that has changed how many people, both Catholics and Protestants, understand the role the Catholic Church played in the lives of the English people before and during the early years of Reformation. Duffy focuses on a particular period (1400-1580) and demonstrates that late medieval Catholicism remained the religion of the people throughout. He also writes convincingly of the means by which this truth has been grossly distorted. 

Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book, by Walker Percy (1983). With this book, Percy, a medical doctor and successful novelist, offered us a work of non-fiction designed to help you and me discover, as he phrased it, "who you are not and even (an outside chance) who you are." Percy looks intently, and with his own brand of humor, at man and the universe in which God has placed him and tries to make sense of it all by providing us with a cosmic survival guide. I just finished reading the book, enjoyed it immensely, but in truth preferred Percy's novels, especially The Moviegoer and The Second Coming.

The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murray (2019). If you're sick and tired of all the wokeness that is continuously streamed into your life and that of your family, then this is the book for you. Douglas Murray, a British political commentator and an editor at The Spectator, takes a hard look at the plague of identity politics, its Marxist roots, and its manifestations regarding race, sexuality, and gender. He also examines how technology and the online culture it has spawned has negatively altered human relationships. It's a wonderfully researched and well-written book. You might consider giving copies to grown children and grandchildren, assuming they can still read and have the attention span necessary to make their way through almost 300 pages.

Here are two others on the subject of Sacred Scripture, books that tell us much about modern Scriptural scholarship.

The Case for Jesus (2016), by Brant Petre. This little book should be read by all Christians who have become confused thanks to the work and commentary of so many of today's New Testament scholars. Brant Petre, a Catholic Scriptural scholar, lays bare the false assumptions and conclusions of the form critics who unfortunately have led so many Christians astray and been the cause much lost faith. Focusing on the Gospels, Petre digs deeply into the original manuscripts, as well as the works of Early Church Fathers, proving, as the Church has always taught, that the Gospels were actually written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and relate the truth about the life and public ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Although written for the layperson, Petre provides detailed references and documentation for anyone who desires to pursue the subject in greater depth.

The Decline and Fall of Sacred Scripture (2021), by Scott Hahn & Benjamin Wiker. Here we have another wonderful book focusing on the truth of Sacred Scripture and the attempts by many scholars to turn the Bible into just another book of tall tales. The authors provide an overview of the degradation of Scriptural scholarship over the centuries, and its negative effects on the faith of millions of Christians. From Marsilius and Ockham in the late medieval period, through the Reformation, and into our modern times, we are shown how Sacred Scripture has been radically attacked by generations of scholars who, in the words of one reviewer, left "an incoherent mess" in their wake. 

Doors in the Walls of the World, by Peter Kreeft (2018). I've been reading Peter Kreeft for decades and he never disappoints. This little book is no exception. Its subtitle, Signs of Transcendence in the Human Story, is a perfect description of its content. Although barely 125 pages, it took me several evenings to make my way through it. Almost every page left me with something to think about more deeply and I found myself questioning my own habits of thought. Here's just one example, from p. 43: 

"Divine design is either nothing or everything; and if it is everything, then it extends even to randomness and apparent meaninglessness, to the puzzling presence of evil and the absence of scientific proofs. The hypothesis of faith may not be provable, but it is believable. The doors in the walls of the world may be only loose threads, but they are there."

Because I've long accepted God's omniscience and omnipotence, I had never believed in mere coincidence. Here Kreeft extends this to include a rational disbelief in both randomness and meaninglessness. It's a wonderful book.

And that's enough. Blessings and God's peace...

Springtime Reading

Spring has sprung. After an unusually cold winter -- at least for us here in Florida -- I'm now looking forward to sitting out in our screened-in lanai, rocking easily with a book in my hand, breathing in all that fresh Florida air, and soaking up the warmth of May and June before the real summer heat sets in. With that in mind I thought I'd share my intended reading list, the stack of books I hope to work my way through during the next month or two.

The first is The Shroud Codex, a work of fiction by Jerome Corsi that was published to coincide with the current six-week exhibition of the Shroud of Turin. Written by a devout Catholic who has several best-selling non-fiction works already under his belt, it promises to be a real page-turner. Here's a link to an interesting article about the book and its author: Author Jerome Corsi moves from Swift Boats to the Shroud. The few reviews I've read have been positive and the subject has intrigued me since I was a child. 

The second book I intend to read is a bit unusual, even for me. It's a book of ghost and other supernatural stories by famed political scientist and man of letters, Russell Kirk (1918-1994). Kirk, a convert to Catholicism, is one of my few heroes and probably had more influence on my thinking than any other person with the exception of my father. And my father actually introduced me to Kirk's writing by giving me a copy of The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot (a book every American should read) when I was a junior in high school. Although Kirk's writings generally focus on political, philosophical or literary subjects, he had another side to him, a spooky side that found an outlet in the marvelous ghost stories he wrote. I've read several of his stories and novels over the years, but I just purchased a recently (2004) published anthology entitled, Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales. I plan to savor these ghostly tales one at a time during those special evenings when the wind blows the clouds across the face of the moon and the only sound is that of our neighborhood owl. Fun...fun...

The next tome in my stack represents a radical change of pace from the first two books, but promises to be equally interesting. Christopher Dawson (1889-1970), one of the truly great thinkers and historians of the 20th Century, was another convert to Catholicism and another of those people who had a major impact on my own intellectual formation. Almost 40 years ago -- about the time of Dawson's death -- I picked up a copy of Dynamics of World History and was instantly hooked. I've been reading Dawson ever since. This spring's selection, though, is not a book by Dawson; it's a book about him. Sanctifying the World by Bradley J. Birzer examines the "Augustinian life and mind of Christopher Dawson" and I trust it will provide some interesting insights into the man and his work.

How about a book on the papacy, The Early Papacy: To the Synod of Chalcedon in 451? This little book, written by the late Father Adrian Fortescue (1874-1923), delves into the early history of the Church, and focuses on the papacy as it was understood by the early Church fathers. This classic work by Father Fortescue, a British apologist, has been on my "to-read" list for many years, but I've just never made the time. And it wasn't always an easy book to find. But now Ignatius Press has blessed us by once again making it available in a paperback edition.

And finally, more fiction. Warm weather is always a good time for fiction. Some months ago, digging around in a used book store in St. Augustine, Florida, I came across a large paperback containing three novels by Walker Percy (1916-1990). I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I've never read any of Percy's novels, although I intended to do so on numerous occasions in the past. It was just one of those good intentions that never materialized. And so, this spring I plan to read all three of the novels published in this inexpensive paperback edition --  The Moviegoer;  The Last Gentleman; and The Second Coming -- a sort of Walker Percy marathon. We'll see if it whets my appetite for more of Percy's work. I don't include a link to this particular book since it is a book club edition and not available except as a used book. All of Percy's novels are, however, available on Amazon in new, relatively inexpensive editions.

That's it. If I finish ahead of schedule, I'll add some more.

Blessings...