To clear up something that I’ve apparently just been wrong about ever since seeing the classic Disney version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea some ~30 years ago: the “20,000 leagues” in the title is the distance they travel from the Sea of Japan to the coast of Norway, not the distance they travel straight down. In my defense, a “league” wasn’t exactly standard unit of measure in rural Montana (a “rod”, on the other hand…). But having finally read the book,... Read more
Thanks to an undergraduate class taught by a Soviet emigre (or refugee, his accent was thick and I couldn’t always tell what he was saying), I have had extensive exposure to Soviet literature. I have been delighted to read We, Doctor Zhivago, The Foundation Pit, Master and Margarita, and many others as result. But the book which we didn’t have time to get to in the class, and which it has taken me more than a decade to get around to, is possibly the... Read more
In the Neal household, there are children who are approaching school age. While we are still undecided on the homeschooling vs. public school vs. private school options (and fortunately we don’t have to decide for a year or so—and some decisions are best made last-minute), we’ve been reading up on various and sundry aspects of education. Most recently that has included Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classic Tradition by Karen Glass. An important note: Charlotte Mason ≠ Charlotte Bronte. They are... Read more
Jen Wilkin's new book teaches us how to be like God. Read more
A heavily hyped independent film leaves our film critic wanting more. Read more
A high-wire act, Blindspotting puts race, gentrification and class under the microscope, somehow managing to make us laugh along the way. It slips at moments but never falls. Read more
Damsel is a surprisingly enjoyable film without much to say about faith. Read more
"Lloyd-Jones On the Christian Life" identifies the disease of and provides the cure for the modern condition. Read more
Augustine’s writings in reply to the Manichaeans are fairly uneven (at least so far, I’m not done with them yet). We get an interesting combination of solid apologetics/theology and odd allegorical speculation. As the editor points out in the introduction, these are not really the best place to start with Augustine. And yet, as Gerald Bray points out in his masterful Augustine on the Christian Life, despite his problems (including working from a sub-par Latin translation, as Jerome’s Vulgate had not... Read more
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