Tag Archives: religion

Surprised by Joy

Posted on March 20, 2017 by smellincoffee

Surprised by Joy© 1955 C.S. Lewis252 pages “When I first read Chesterton, I did not know what I was in for. God is, if I may say it,  quite unscrupulous.” Mention the name C.S. Lewis and the image of a … Continue reading →

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China: An Introduction

Posted on March 15, 2017 by smellincoffee

China: An Introduction© 1984 Lucian W. Pye400 pages Lucien Pye was born in China and later returned there to advise the US government. China: An Introduction is written in that spirit, being a review of the making of Communist China and … Continue reading →

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Real Music

Posted on March 6, 2017 by smellincoffee

Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church267 pages© 2016 Anthony Esolen In his book Out of the Ashes: Restoring American Culture,  Anthony Esolen devoted an entire chapter solely to music. Here he does one better! To … Continue reading →

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Heretics and Heroes

Posted on November 3, 2016 by smellincoffee

Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created Our World© 2013 Thomas Cahill368 pages It seems the more I read of Cahill, the less I enjoy his cavalier histories, which at this point border on gossipy. Part of … Continue reading →

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The Orthodox Church

Posted on June 17, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Orthodox Church© 1963, 1993 Kallistos (Timothy) Ware368 pages Who are the Orthodox? To the extent Americans have heard of them, it is through eastern European immigrant communities. Those who paid marginal attention in western civ might remember something called … Continue reading →

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The Promise

Posted on April 22, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Promise © 1969 Chaim Potok 336 pages Growing up is never easy, but for Orthodox boys in the mid-20th century, it’s especially hard. The Jewish people are in turmoil after the horrors of the Holocaust, some pinning their hopes … Continue reading →

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The Scotch-Irish

Posted on March 26, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Scotch-Irish: A Social History© 1989 James Leyburn397 pages         Though they have long ceased to be a distinct ethnic group outside of Appalachia, for years the greatest non-English minority in the United States were the Scotch-Irish. … 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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