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There are lot of books out there about how Christians should (or should not) engage in politics, but I’ve had three popular-level works on my to-read list because they pretty well cover the landscape: Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics , Wayne Grudem’s Politics – According to the Bible , and this one by Greg Boyd.

Doug Wilson blogged through Boyd’s book a few years ago. I read his posts immediately after Boyd’s chapters, and his commentary was extremely helpful (http://dougwils.com/tag/c125-greg-boy…; the posts are in reverse order). Wilson ably criticizes Boyd’s theology of political engagement, and calls it out for being a jumble of incoherence and inconsistency.

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The Yearling was required summer reading my 7th grade year, and I likely would have hated it had I been forced to read it then (I started attending that school in 8th grade). But reading it now, in my late twenties, I loved it. A coming of age story, it follows the subsistence existence of the Baxter family in the 19th century Florida backwoods–particularly that of Jody, the only survivor of his mother’s many difficult pregnancies. The Baxters struggle through various trials: flooding that destroys much of their crop harvest and decimates the local animal population; strained relations with the Foresters, the rough and uncouth family nearest to their homestead; and an ongoing battle with a stealthy and cunning bear they’ve dubbed “Old Slewfoot.”

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Iain H. Murray’s book, The Undercover Revolution: How Fiction Changed Britain, has a fascinating premise–that the sharp uptick in the popularity of novels in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly novels written by secularists both ambivalent and hostile toward Christianity and her moral and social norms, was the catalyst for the massive cultural shifts that British culture (and Western culture at large) underwent during that time. In other words, Murray argues that it was the subtle, worldview-shaping power of stories–not science or rational inquiry, per se–that shaped and defined the religious and sexual mores of modern society.

It’s an unexpected argument, although it seems reasonable and intuitive once considered. But I remain unconvinced–not because I think Murray is wrong, but because he doesn’t really explain why or how the fiction and authors he reviews directly support his thesis. This is an extremely short book, almost a pamphlet, and can be read in one sitting. Murray provides a some brief biographical info and analysis of Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Hardy, and to an even lesser extent Bertrand Russell, H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw. He shows that their personal lives directly rebutted their public statements about religion, morality and and human sexuality. Despite proclaiming that one can be happy without monogamy (or marriage at all, for that matter), satisfied by “free love,” and fulfilled by agnostic or atheistic philosophy, their lives were absolute wrecks and utterly failed to vindicate their worldviews.

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The essay, in which a writer has ample space–but not too much–to meander across seemingly unrelated topics before eventually drawing them together with whatever connection initially struck him, is a wonderful medium full of rich opportunity for reflection. Alan Jacobs is one of my favorite writers, and he is at his best when writing essays. Jacobs is the kind of writer and thinker who always makes me feel smarter, more contemplative, and broader-minded than I was before I picked him up. He does this as a professional academic, but without sounding like one. His tastes range from the modern “penny dreadful” to the high forms of ancient literature–and, to his credit, unabashedly so. His thoughts are as profound as they are genuine and unpretentious. And this collection was glorious.

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In an alternate version of the sixteenth century the world is flat, its outer edges still unexplored. An ambitious alchemist, a boundary-pushing doctor and his daughter, a ship-load of Protestant refugees, and some stowaway mythical creatures set sail for the legendary island of Horizon on the outer rim of the earth. Some are looking for treasure, others for religious freedom, and still others for immortality. They are pursued by a Roman Catholic inquisitor (persecutor) and representatives from the British crown who want to ensure the treasure returns to England.

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