May 2012
15 posts
3 tags
2 tags
The worldly doctrine of today
simplyorthodox:
The world says: “You have needs - satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don’t hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more.” This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers...
2 tags
“My mother, southern to the bone, once told me, “All southern literature...”
– Pat Conroy, from a speech delivered at the annual American Booksellers Association convention in 1985.
It is, of course, untrue - but I’ve been chuckling over it for the last ten minutes.
5 tags
“Michael Polanyi says that we must relate to information as clues on which we...”
– Esther L. Meek, “It’s a Wonder-Full Life” (2012 Commencement Address, Providence Christian College, Pasadena, CA)
This is a beautiful explanation. I’ve been wanting to read Dr. Meek’s new book Loving to Know, but can’t afford it right now. Looking forward to a few...
6 tags
1 tag
1 tag
WHEN I CATCH A COPY ERROR IN THE NEW YORKER
editorrealtalk:
4 tags
3 tags
“[O]nce one has learnt, like modern man, to become greatly preoccupied with...”
– Martin Buber, I and Thou (p. 94)
3 tags
3 tags
3 tags
“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with...”
– Carl Sagan, Cosmos (via wilfordlauren)
1 tag
2 tags
6 tags
April 2012
11 posts
1 tag
3 tags
“[T]ruth, nature, imagination, affection, love, hope, beauty, joy. Those words...”
– Wendell Berry, “It All Turns on Affection” (2012 NEH Jefferson Lecture)
3 tags
Wendell Berry, American Hero →
Were I not in New England this week, I would have been at The Kennedy Center last night seeing Wendell Berry receive this award. In addition to this affectionate Opinionator piece by Mark Bittman, the presentation and Wendell Berry’s lecture - “It All Turns on Affection - can be found at the National Endowment for the Humanities website.
2 tags
4 tags
“[The United States of America] in its early period was largely populated by...”
– Marilynne Robinson, When I Was a Child I Read Books (p. 135 – “Wondrous Love”)
4 tags
“We could cope—the world could cope—with a Jesus who ultimately remains a...”
– N.T. Wright (via scottxstephens)
5 tags
“In Bach’s St Matthew Passion, towards the close, the centurion’s words (“Truly,...”
– N.T. Wright, The Crown and the Fire: Meditations on the Cross and the Life of the Spirit (p. 55)
The music of which he speaks comes at 1:18 in this video.
2 tags
“But the worst day of all was when it hit me that Jesus’ own most fervent prayer...”
– Jayber Crow, in Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow (via gmd)
1 tag
2 tags
4 tags
“[We should avoid] meeting with people who are bullies, lascivious, cruel,...”
– C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (p. 71-72)
March 2012
5 posts
3 tags
4 tags
"Affinity" (R.S. Thomas)
Consider this man in the field beneath, Gaitered with mud, lost in his own breath, Without joy, without sorrow, Without children, without wife, Stumbling insensitively from furrow to furrow, A vague somnambulist; but hold your tears, For his name also is written in the Book of Life. Ransack your brainbox, pull out the drawers That rot in your heart’s dust, and what have you to give ...
3 tags
3 tags
2 tags
February 2012
10 posts
4 tags
WatchNeed I say more? Class.
2 tags
2 tags
4 tags
“In English class we studied a poem by Robert Frost, “The Oven Bird.”...”
– Marilynne Robinson, “Freedom of Thought” from her forthcoming When I Was A Child I Read Books
1 tag
“Need is the beginning of truthfulness: the need that recognizes that I cannot...”
– Rowan Williams, Open to Judgement (“What is Truth?”), p. 129
4 tags
“Working with Terry has changed my life. I’m a different parent, I’m...”
– Emmanuel Lubezki in an interview about working with Terrence Malick on what is now three feature films.
3 tags
John Tierney: "Picky, Picky, Picky" →
After computing the results of a five-city survey of personal ads, I have evidence that may help answer the question so many New Yorkers ask themselves on Valentine’s Day: Why am I going home alone tonight?
1 tag
4 tags
“Joining a tradition doesn’t mean suppressing your individuality. Applying an...”
– David Brooks, “How to Fight the Man” (February 2, 2012), The New York Times
January 2012
20 posts
3 tags
What Does Newt Gingrich Know? →
Still the best (and most hilarious) article on Newt Gingrich going.
1 tag
“And now of course you want to know what had happened to Edmund. He had eaten his...”
– C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Ch. 9)
3 tags
3 tags
"Deep Attention" - Lauren Winner →
The true enemy of reading is a sibilant voice that begins telling us, around about middle school, that reading is something we do not because we enjoy it, but because it will make us somehow better.
1 tag
“Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the...”
– Flannery O’Connor (via dailyflanneryoc)
3 tags
WatchThe teaser trailer for Jesus Fish, a project spearheaded by good friends and one I am extraordinarily proud of and excited about.
6 tags
Cheers to Plummer
The Golden Globe winners are not all that surprising to me, but one win in particular makes me happier than all the rest, a win that I hope is carried through this awards season: Christopher Plummer for best supporting actor in Beginners.
I watched Beginners a few nights ago in a mildly jet-lagged state and found it largely unremarkable, but was completely drawn in by Plummer’s stunning turn....
3 tags
“To eat is to be implicated in a vast, complex, interweaving set of life and...”
– Norman Wirzba, Food and Faith
2 tags
