In weather-appropriate links, forget comfort eating: try comfort reading. Why do some books seem comforting? It may be because they take you back to a particular time or place, or perhaps they have that magic carpet capacity, found in the best children’s books, to fly you out of yourself. Sometimes it’s even consoling to read about people more scared, cold and miserable than oneself – think of all those orphans and consumptives in Victorian literature. Here on the books desk,... Read more
My friend Bethany runs the Park Forum, which is dedicated to helping city-dwellers (particularly New Yorkers) read and listen to the Bible more. And she gave an interview to Christianity Today recently: There’s something about listening to Scripture in community. These letters weren’t meant to be read only in part. People in the time of their writing didn’t read just five verses—there were no verses anyway. These letters were from the apostle Paul, and people wanted to hear them. We took... Read more
I (like many of you, I’m sure) love Handel’s Messiah, ever since I spent years as a teenager participating in a choir that performed the oratorio every Christmas and Easter. But I thought this piece on the recent performance at Trinity Wall Street (which, incidentally, is two blocks from my office) was interesting: But before the first note of Handel was heard, the noble interior of Trinity Church filled with the soaring harmonies of “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika” (“God Bless Africa”), the... Read more
Here’s Bradford Winters on his family’s recent trip to Ireland, and “this great hunger”: For when I came to Ireland entirely well-fed and altogether famished, I came planning that our family sabbatical would double in ways as an individual semi-retreat. I would be working, yes, but far away from the hectic elements of life back in Brooklyn: no daily commute except the shuffle from bedroom to home office; no alternate-side parking rules in effect; no fire trucks, no walk-up, our... Read more
Yesterday was the second Sunday of Advent, and, as promised, I’m posting another round of Advent reflections that I wrote a few years ago. Here’s an excerpt from the one on “peace”: Peace, as St. Augustine says, is more than simply the absence of war. It is the tranquility of order—when all of the spheres of society function in such a way as to create wonderful music. And this is a radical, prophetic notion: To speak of peace and a... Read more
Every so often (probably more than you’d expect), people say to me, “I just don’t get poetry.” Maybe that’s you. If it is – or even if it isn’t – here’s a helpful piece from The Atlantic. It’s a friendly, non-jargony, slightly cheeky intro to poetry. How many of us believe poetry is useless? How many of us don’t even care to ask the question, “Is poetry useless?” Comparatively, a poem moves a reader, physically or emotionally, very rarely. Other media are much better... Read more
It’s that time of year: time to send Christmas packages to loved ones who are far away. That’s not quite as fun as being there to see them open the packages, but Kinfolk has some suggestions. Tips and tricks, homemade goods, spices/teas, and other ideas – take a quick look. You might find something good! Read more
Over at The High Calling, Charity Craig looks at the high calling of abundance: “You’re always so positive,” people often used to say to me. One of my doctors likes to tell me how shocked he was when shortly after he met me, paralyzed and lying in a hospital bed, I told him that the nearby university was handicapped accessible and that even though I might never walk again, I was still looking forward to graduate school. “You have such... Read more
Welcome to Advent! Some of my friends who work at the Center for Christianity, Culture, and the Arts at Biola sent me a link to their very cool new online Advent calendar, which you can access here. They described it this way: Transforming the familiar Advent calendar — a cardboard home waiting to reveal prized milk chocolate — Biola University’s Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts has developed the Advent Project, a beautiful composition of art, words, Scripture, music... Read more
Mark D. Roberts
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Are You A Patron?
Over at Comment, James K.A. Smith talks about patronage – the kind we all engage in, whether or not we’re wealthy: At the heart of this sense of “patronage” is a vision of cultural life—not just the arts, but even the mundane aspects of commercial exchange—that is rooted inrelationship. When the hardware store thanked me for my patronage, it’s not because I made a donation to their business. There were things I needed, I paid a fair price, and the owner of the... Read more