Tag Archives: Christianity

Selections from “How Dante Can Save Your Life”

Posted on August 13, 2020 by smellincoffee

Review of Book Great art speaks with wisdom and authority to what is eternal in the human condition. The presence of God radiated from the Chartres cathedral so powerfully that it even pierced the dark wood into which I had … Continue reading →

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How Dante Can Save Your Life

Posted on August 13, 2020 by smellincoffee

How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem © 2015 Rod Dreher 322 pages Selected Quotations How Dante Can Save Your Life is one man’s account of how that Renaissance poet’s epic  tale of a … Continue reading →

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How Jesus Became God

Posted on January 7, 2020 by smellincoffee

How Jesus Became God: The Exhalation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee © 2014 Bart Ehrman 416 pages When did the early followers of Jesus of Nazareth begin to regard him as not just a prophet worth following, but actually … Continue reading →

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The Lost Gospel of Mary

Posted on December 21, 2019 by smellincoffee

The Lost Gospel of Mary:  The Mother of Jesus in Three Ancient Texts © 2012 Frederica Mathewes-Green 178 pages   We are presently in the season of Advent,  an ideal time to take a look at a question of mine: … Continue reading →

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Of stars and saints

Posted on December 14, 2019 by smellincoffee

Two also-reads in recent weeks have been Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Solar System and Kevin Vost’s 12 Life Lessons from St. Augustine. I’m familiar with Cox from his many appearances in Symphony of Science videos (a YouTube series in  … Continue reading →

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A Plain Life

Posted on November 6, 2019 by smellincoffee

A Plain Life: Walking my Belief © 1998 Scott Savage 224 pages You have to be careful about working in a library. Sometimes books change your life.  Scott Savage and his wife were both librarians whose environmental interests put them … Continue reading →

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Becoming Mrs Lewis

Posted on February 12, 2019 by smellincoffee

Becoming Mrs Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis © 2018 Patti Callahan 415 pages Few books transfix me in the way that Becoming Mrs Lewis did; I suppose it helps to have a strong affection … Continue reading →

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Status Anxiety

Posted on February 7, 2019 by smellincoffee

Status Anxiety© 2004 Alain de Botton 306 pages Who said “comparison is the thief of joy”?  If they hadn’t, Alain de Botton would, as here he argues that most of our misery comes from the constant comparison of ourselves to others … Continue reading →

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The Hiding Place

Posted on August 10, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Hiding Place© 1971 Corrie ten Boom,  John and Elizabeth Sherrill241 PAGES You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalms 32 When Corrie ten Boom turned in her family radio … Continue reading →

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