Adam Shields

Summary: History, Law and Political Science together help us understand the origin and meaning of the Constitution.

I have been very slowly working my way through America’s Constitution: A Biography for months. Part of what has been interesting is reading it along side books like The Half that Has Not Been Told and Reconstruction: America’s Unfished Revolution, Very Short Introduction to the President and theology books like the one I am currently reading on hermeneutics.

When I picked up America’s Constitution I was expecting something like either a Very Short Introduction series book, that describes the content with a bit of analysis or one of the Biography of Religious book series, like the one on Mere Christianity or The Book of Common Prayer or Letters and Papers from Prison that were as much about how the books were received as they are about the content of the book. Instead Akhil Reed Amar is using a mix of history, legal interpretation and analysis of the politics that created and amended the constitution. This well rounded perspective give both an overview of the content as well as helping to understand why we understand the constitution as we do.

I appreciate the well rounded analysis, but the organization occasionally left me a bit frustrated. The full constitution is in an appendix at the back. And I probably read it completely at least three times and sections of it many more times than that trying to get context for the discussion. I do wish there was more extended quotations of it in context of the book (or better linking to the sections as footnotes in the kindle edition.) In many ways it is exactly like theology books that reference passages of scripture without actually quoting them, so that you need to stop and go look them up in context to understand the discussion.

The most helpful parts of the book was the extended discussions throughout the book on role and politics of slavery in the development of the constitution and how the constitution was amended and understood. What the discussion of slavery shows is how much politics matters. The constitution is not just a document of ideals, but of practical realities. It is what was passed and approved. Amar also includes speculation of what could have been approved based on notes of discussions, the constitutions of states and the understanding of legal theories of the times with English Common Law system. What we have could have been different and that matters to how we understand the constitution.

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Takeaway: The fact that this question (and the related questions about whether the church or Jesus is good for women) needs to be asked is depressing.

Maybe it is just me. But I find when working through books that are a bit to the left of me, it is fairly easy for me to take what is good and leave what is not. However, books and teachers to the right of me, I have to more consciously and intentionally listen to what is being said and not insert “˜so what you means is“¦’ statements that do not adequately reflect what the author is intending.

I have followed Wendy Alsup’s blog for years. There is much that I agree with and appreciate about her writing. I intentionally attempt to read her with an open mind because even though we disagree about some issues of theology and approach to scripture, I have greatly benefited from listening to her over time.

Alsup is in an uncomfortable middle ground. She is writing this book for women that either are from a fundamentalist background and have absorbed teaching that really is anti-women or for those that are outside the church and assume they know what the bible is about.

She is also in an uncomfortable position of pushing back against overly restrictive positions on women (for instance she believes and talks about in the book why women should be ordained as deacons) while not accepting women as elders and pastors. She frequently critiques complementarian views as commonly understood and taught, although many from the more egalitarian side easily lump her in with the term.

Alsup uses the phrase, “˜the bible is the best commentary on itself’ frequently in Is the Bible Good for Women. I like this idea, but it is a nuanced and theological idea and in the working out of it I frequently disagree with Alsup’s takes. My disagreement starts with Genesis 1 and 2. While gender is present in Genesis 1 and 2, my bias suggests that the point of those passages are not about gender or roles, but about God being supreme god above all other gods in the land.

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Summary: How to think is as much art as science, but it needs to become a habit to make a difference

Alan Jacobs is one of my favorite essayists. He was a professor at Wheaton when I was there (although I never had him). He is now a professor at Baylor. I have read a number of his books, from a biography on CS Lewis to several collections of essays, to a history of the Book of Common Prayer, my favorite book on reading, a cultural history of the concept of Original Sin, and now How to Think.

I wasn’t completely sure what I was getting into when I picked this up yesterday morning (it was released yesterday). Jacobs is one of the authors I pre-order. But especially if he was writing something about how to think, I wanted to read it.

This is sort of like A Little Exercise for Young Theologians (or Letters to a Young Calvinist or one of the many other similar short books). How to Think is a book of advice written with the clear intention of helping the reader. Jacobs has taught Literature and Composition for more than 30 years. Helping people to think, write, and communicate has been the job of English Professors more than professors in most other subject areas.

Jacobs starts by taking us down a peg or two. We are not as original as we think. We are not as good at evaluating ideas as we think we are. We, like everyone else, have confirmation bias, mental shortcuts, and sloppy habits. We also probably don’t really listen all that well.

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Summary: Historical fiction imagining the Underground Railroad, as an actual Railroad.

The underlying idea of the Underground Railroad is fascinating. It feels at times like fantasy more than historical fiction. However, The Underground Railroad is as much history as fantasy. Virtual every plot point in the book is based on a real historical event. Having read this after The Half Has Never Been Told and Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution and listening to the Yale Historian David Blight’s lectures on the Civil War and Reconstruction, several of the historical events that I would not have recognized, were part of my recent memory.

I assume that the rest of the plot points that didn’t always make sense were also historical. Fiction can sometimes be more helpful in presenting history than straight history is. What is helpful about Underground Railroad is making that history real through seeing what the impacts of slavery were like on real people.

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Summary: An Evangelical discovers contemplative prayer.

Ed Cyewski is a freelance author. He is roughly my age, a stay at home Dad, a seminary grad and from what I have read, I think we would get along. I have read four of his books (links below) and picked this one up right after it came out. Although it took me months to get around to reading it.

Cyzewski grew up nominally Catholic, but came to a real faith as a teen through Evangelical outreach. He left the Catholic church and rejected it, partially out of Evangelical bias against Catholicism, but also because of some of his own history.

This book is focused on making contemplative prayer accessible to Evangelicals. For Cyzewski, that has meant coming to terms with some of the Catholic practices that he rejected earlier. My own movement toward contemplative prayer is less about coming to terms with than discovering as new.

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