Takeaway: A strong monarchy does not prevent political complaints about taxes and the economy. As the saying goes, “so many books, so little time.” Very Short Introduction books can be helpful as a quick guide to a subject. My English history is not that great, so I picked this up on sale to help fill in … Read more
Summary: How out we to live? What really exists? How to we Know? Very Short Introduction series has been pretty hit or miss, as are most short introductions. It is hard to introduce a subject that has thousands of books and thousands of professionals working in the areas. Philosophy is one of the better ones. … Read more
Summary: A Very Short Introduction to the Academic field of African History, not actual history itself. Oxford Press’ Very Short Introduction series continues to interest and somewhat discourage me. It is interesting because the idea of getting a short introduction to a particular subject in about 150 or so pages by someone that is well … Read more
Summary: Augustine is very important to the the history of Christian thought and often misappropriated by all sides. Augustine is not my favorite Christian thinker. I know this is partially because he is not incredibly accessible. And partially because I have not read that much of him, and there is a lot to read. I … Read more
I don’t know anything at all about The Jesus Blog. But Brian LePort at NearEmmaus, listed this in his weekly recommended reading list today. I am a fan of Oxford’s Very Short Introduction series. There are almost 300 books in this series. Most books are about 110-150 pages, many are less than $6 on kindle (this … Read more
Takeaway: The Reformation is very important to the history of Christianity and Europe, but the mythology of the Reformation is often overplayed and detrimental to understanding modern history. This is the third book I have read in the Oxford Very Short Introduction series. And I continue to be impressed. I have done some reading on the reformation … Read more
Takeaway: Still not the book I am looking for on the bible. Last week I stumbled on the Very Short Introduction series and was very impressed with Mark Noll’s book on Protestantism. This week I ventured in again and was much less impressed. The bible is a hard topic. But I was really put off … Read more
Takeaway: The common thread of Protestantism is diversity, focus on scripture and change. I first heard of Protestantism: A Very Short Introduction on a podcast from Books and Culture magazine. I am a regular reader and listener to their short weekly podcast and have first heard of a number of books that I have enjoyed … Read more
Summary: A history of how the concept of ethics (or moral philosophy) has been developed over time in western culture. In my long term reading project about discernment, I have been gradually moving toward reading about ethics. I do not think that discernment is primarily about ethical action, but at some point, when you think … Read more
Summary: A historical look at how Christian mystics understood mysticism and how that has changed. Anyone reading along with my reviews is probably aware that I am about 18 months into a reading project on the idea of Christian discernment. And while I have not ended that exploration of discernment, I am at the point of … Read more