One of the most fascinating figures I’ve discovered while researching about the life of Paul Revere is Jonathan Mayhew. He was the pastor at West Church in Boston. He is often cited as the first Unitarian, and in his letters you can read him complaining about, among other things, the average Bostonian’s “zeal for Athanasian and Calvinistic Orthodoxy.” Paul Revere was more than a decade his junior, but they became friends in Revere’s later teens. Mayhew married the daughter of... Read more
The book business isn’t doing too well in America right now. Sales are down. Returns are up. And foot traffic in bookstores is in double-digit decline compared to a year ago. But that’s not the case everywhere. From its lofty seat in the lap of America’s publishing culture, the New York Times recently reported that things are different in Europe, where book sales are actually up. (more…) Read more
To succeed in business you need to “meet the needs of consumers,” right? It’s so hackneyed it must be true. It’s so true it must be wrong. To get what I mean, see how this strikes you. It’s from the jacket copy of Paul Nunes and Brian Johnson’s book Mass Affluence: Seven New Rules of Marketing to Today’s Consumer (Harvard Business School Press): Millions of consumers can now afford to pay more for everything—from household cleaning products to clothing to... Read more
Yesterday the stock market surged. The Dow shot up 380 points, the Nasdaq nearly 90. But while I was rifling through my bedside drawers for some Dramamine, I heard this: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to keep the federal coffers open for additional stimulus packages. I got nauseous for a whole different reason. Didn’t we just float an $800 billion note last month? Slow it down, sister. After conferring behind closed doors with practitioners of the dismal science, Speaker Pelosi... Read more
As right-wing political dominance wanes, politicians, pundits, and activists are waxing nostalgic for progressive policies of yesteryear — shaking loose the mothballs, dusting off the attic cake, looking for the polishing kit. One of these policies is the Fairness Doctrine, which mandated that one broadcast opinion should be balanced by competing views. Though jettisoned in 1985, it was the law for decades, going back clear to 1949. The policy, which was enforced by the Federal Communications Commission, “grew out of... Read more
What’s the connection between political campaigns and megachurches? As this post explains, the secret to building a successful megachurch is in evangelizing people inside cultural subsets rather than imploring people to venture outside of their subset. Political machines are putting the same strategy to use. Here’s the underlying cultural dynamic at play: Neighbors witnessing to neighbors is a marketing technique suited to Americans, who are increasingly sequestering themselves in communities, churches, and clubs with those who share similar ways of... Read more
“There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile.” — British nursery rhyme So I’m reading Alan Jacobs’ new book, Original Sin: A Cultural History, and several thoughts about human will and intention crisscross my mind: 1. The idea that our heart — in the classic sense, the seat of our intellect and will — is by nature corrupt or prone to corruption is not something that people easily accept. Jacobs covers the clashes generated by the idea... Read more
Here’s a fact: The way to write edifying fiction is to write what is. Here’s another: The way to write bad fiction is to write what is edifying. I just read a line by Flannery O’Connor in Mystery and Manners that explains why this is so: “what is written to edify usually ends by amusing.” The word “amusing” is what triggered the realization. Humor is often produced by incongruity, contradiction, and paradox. The fool is comic because man is not... Read more
Tales of tragedy, crime, and corruption have value for several reasons. One is that those that read them do not usually lead tragic, criminal, and corrupt lives, at least not the extent portrayed in such stories. Don’t mistake: Their natures are corrupt. As Paul says in the letter to the Romans, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God….” Greed, hatred, lust, lies — most people are marked by these in some measure. We all bear their... Read more
I have my children every other week. At night we pray. I’m not as consistent about it as I should be, but I find praying together valuable. Most often I use a prayer book, usually The Book of Common Prayer. Sometimes it’s the 1662 version. Other times the 1979, which is what we use at church. Before Fionn went to bed tonight we said compline together. Felicity did not join us because she cashiered earlier on the couch. Traditionally, compline... Read more
Joel J. Miller
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