Tag Archives: religion

The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

Posted on December 12, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc © 1896 Mark Twain 455 pages         In 1428,  a young French teenager arrived at the court of Robert Baudricourt and announced that she and he were to be allies in … Continue reading →

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Race with the Devil

Posted on December 3, 2014 by smellincoffee

Race with the Devil: My Journey from Racial Hatred to Rational Love© 2013 Joseph Pearce264 pages How does a neo-Nazi become a Catholic literary critic?  An act of God?   Joseph Pearce would surely make the claim, his life having … Continue reading →

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A Short History of Byzantium

Posted on November 8, 2014 by smellincoffee

A Short History of Byzantium, John Julius Norwich© 1997 John Julius Norwich431 pages             Rome fell in a.d. 474? Tell that to the Byzantines, who for centuries persisted in being an afterimage of the classical world, … Continue reading →

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Between the Testaments

Posted on October 31, 2014 by smellincoffee

Between the Testaments© 1960 D.S. Russell176 pages             The sudden eruption of Christianity from Judaism is inexplicable when considering only the Protestant Bible.  From nowhere burst the Trinity, Satan as a rebel, and an obsession with … Continue reading →

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Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist

Posted on October 23, 2014 by smellincoffee

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist© 2011 Brad Pitre240 pages Communion, the eating of bread and wine regarded as the body and blood of Jesus, is the heart of liturgical worship. Its place in Christian history holds such … Continue reading →

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The Age of Voltaire

Posted on September 30, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Age of Voltaire: A History of Civilization in Western Europe from 1715 to 1756898 pages© 1965 Will and Ariel Durant             The ninth work in Will Durant’s sweeping Story of Civilization, The Age of Voltaire picks up … Continue reading →

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The Crucified Rabbi

Posted on September 27, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Crucified Rabbi: Judaism and the Origins of Catholic Christianity© 2009 Taylor Marshall236 pages Take for granted Christianity’s inseparable connection to Judaism, but what does it mean, beyond knowing that Jesus was Jewish and died during Passover?  The Crucified Rabbi … Continue reading →

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Conscience

Posted on April 30, 2014 by smellincoffee

Conscience: Two Pacifists, Two Soldiers, One Family© 2012 Louisa Thomas336 pages How does a pious young Presbyterian minister become a six-time candidate for the Socialist party? Such is the story of Conscience,  the story of Norman Thomas and his younger … Continue reading →

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The Long Loneliness

Posted on March 28, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Long Loneliness© 1952 Dorothy Day288 pages (Harper Collins, 2009(             Dorothy Day came of age amid the Great War, a child of struggling parents whose labors to make ends meet stayed with her even after they had achieved some … Continue reading →

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Daily Life in Anglo-Saxon England

Posted on March 13, 2014 by smellincoffee

Daily Life in Anglo-Saxon England© 2008 Sally Crawford224 pages             Who were the Anglo-Saxons? For a people conquered in 1066, their culture seems strangely dominant;  the land the Normans conquered remains England, not Greater Normandy, and Norman French is only … Continue reading →

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