The following excerpts are readings from books I pick up and do not necessarily reflect what I learned or read in college or seminary. They may reflect any number of interests.
6/6/12 – From a book on the cult of the saints in Latin Christianity:
“We have inherited from our own learned tradition attitudes that are not sensitive enough to help us enter into thought processes and the needs that led to the rise and expansion of the cult of saints in late antiquity. That such models have entered our cultural bloodstream is shown by one fact: long after the issue of the rise of the cult of saints has been removed from its confessional setting in post-Reformation polemics, scholars of every and of no denomination still find themselves united in a common reticence and incomprehension when faced with this phenomenon.”
11/1/11 – Just finished How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. This is a gripping read of Irish history and culture in the broader context and the Irish contributions to the continent during the darkness from the fall of the Roman Empire going into the middle ages. The reader gets a vivid sense of the Irish people, their role in relation to Christianity, the survival of Latin, and the state of western civilization. The reading is entertaining and sometimes gratuitously unorthodox while tracing the historical routes.
T May 