Tag Archives: Christianity

Frodo’s Journey

Posted on April 8, 2016 by smellincoffee

Frodo’s Journey: The Hidden Meaning of the Lord of the Rings © 2015 Joseph Pearce 158 pages Noting that Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring trilogy is rich with symbolism is rather akin to observing that the Pacific Ocean is big. … Continue reading →

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Pilgrim’s Progress

Posted on March 19, 2016 by smellincoffee

Pilgrim’s Progress in Today’s English © 1678 John Bunyan,   retold 1971 James Thomas 285 pages Years ago I read Pilgrim’s Progress,  the story of one Christian’s spiritual journey made physical. The story begins when a man named Graceless, soon to be … Continue reading →

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This week: the usual suspects

Posted on February 8, 2016 by smellincoffee

Well, dear readers, it’s another month! I have a serious itch for science and science fiction at the moment, so I have no less than five potential science reads stacked up now, and three potential SF books. Among the numbers…Domesticated: Evolution in … Continue reading →

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The Lost History of Christianity

Posted on November 9, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia — And How It Died© 2008 Philip Jenkins315 pages For the first millennium of the church’s history, Europe was less … Continue reading →

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The Way

Posted on October 31, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Way: What Every Protestant Needs to Know About Orthodoxy© 2007 Clark Carlton222 pages   If Protestantism is a willful child of the Catholic church, what is it to the Orthodox?  What is the Orthodox faith for that matter, Catholicism … Continue reading →

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The Seven Deadly Sins

Posted on October 27, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Seven Deadly Sins: A Tomistic Guide to Vanquishing Vice and Sin © 2015 Kevin Vost 224 pages In the first centuries of the Christian epoch, devotees retreated into the desert wastes to flee temptation. Even away from the cry … Continue reading →

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Called to Serve

Posted on October 14, 2015 by smellincoffee

Called to Serve: A History of Nuns in America© 2013 Margaret McGuinness277 pages Long before the suffrage and feminist movements allowed women to assume a more publicly active role within society,  women religious were taking an active role in shaping … Continue reading →

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The Magician’s Nephew

Posted on September 14, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Magician’s Nephew © 1955 C.S. Lewis 183 pages           Diggory and Polly were just two kids on vacation exploring a forbidding-looking attic. They didn’t intend to witnesss Creation, let alone accidently unleash evil into it. Like … Continue reading →

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Ornament of the World

Posted on September 4, 2015 by smellincoffee

Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain© 2002 Maria Rose Menocal315 pages            Ornament of the World is the story of a unique civilization in medieval Europe, one … Continue reading →

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Vanished World

Posted on August 13, 2015 by smellincoffee

A Vanished World: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval Spain© 2005 Chris Lowney320 pages Vanished World sets medieval  Spain before the reader with the warning; we may be blessed or cursed by emulating its example. The Iberian peninsula is the very perimeter of … Continue reading →

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