Exploring Books, Life, and Writing
The First Thanksgiving by Robert Tracy McKenzie corrects a lot of the errors and myths that surround that original celebration by the Pilgrims in 1620.
In telling us the real story, McKenzie points us to more fruitful lessons we might learn than the warm feeling we get when we think about those independent-minded Pilgrims seeking new lands and freedom, and thanking God for helping them on the way. For example:
Continue reading “The First Thanksgiving 2: What We Don’t Know Is Inspiring”
What you thought you knew about the first Thanksgiving is wrong. But what you didn’t know can be even more valuable. That’s the message of Robert Tracy McKenzie’s fresh and fascinating book The First Thanksgiving.
Squanto did indeed teach the Pilgrims to fertilize their cornfields with fish, but what else did you learn in school that isn’t true?
Continue reading “The First Thanksgiving 1: What We Know Ain’t So”
One of the most dramatic events of the twentieth century was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. What is less well known is that two other great men died the same day — Christian scholar and author C. S. Lewis, and novelist and pantheist Aldous Huxley.
Continue reading “Fifty Years Ago Three Great Men Died”
What’s the best way to hurt the local agriculture market in a country full of starving people? Indiscriminantly give away tons of free food. Relief organizations have learned the hard way that if they want to create a self-sustaining market of locally grown produce, they can’t always bring in truckloads of rice from other countries.
Continue reading “How to Kill Off Writing”
Rodney Stark loves being a contrarian. And The Triumph of Christianity is no exception to that rule. While the book summarizes much of what he’s written elsewhere, it’s still a fun, breezy exercise in myth busting. Here are a few spots where Stark’s juices get flowing:
Continue reading “Stark Myth Busting”
Charlie Hummel was president of Barrington College for ten years, director of faculty ministry for InterVarsity for another fourteen years and the author of several IVP books. While his most famous IVP title is Tyranny of the Urgent which has sold over a million copies, he also wrote several larger tomes including Fire in the Fireplace and The Galileo Connection.
Continue reading “Faithful Are the Wounds”
What books have shaped me the most? Taking IVP books out of consideration (to keep bias to a minimum), the books below have formed my thought life, my spiritual life, my sense of aesthetics, and how I view and interact with the world.
After making the list I noticed that I read most of them before I was twenty-five. And I suppose that’s to be expected. In midlife and beyond, most people have already been shaped, and it’s harder for any one book to have a significant impact. The last book in my list (presented here roughly in the order in which I read them) is the exception.
Continue reading “Six Influential Books”
“Audiences don’t always hear so good, but they see real well.”
In college I was singing with the University of Denver Chorale when I first heard this. We were backing up the Denver Symphony in a performance of Verdi’s Requiem. During one rehearsal Brian Priestman, the music director, was talking to those of us in the chorus about when we should sit and stand at different points in the piece. We even rehearsed our movements. Priestman said they were an important part of the total experience; how we moved could add drama or emphasis to the end or beginning of a section. “You see,” he explained with a wry smile, “audiences don’t always hear so good, but they see real well.”
Continue reading “Clinching the Content”
In the musical 1776 there’s a classic scene in which Thomas Jefferson starts his solitary work of drafting the Declaration of Independence. Quill in hand, he scribbles down a line, looks at it, then crumples up the paper and throws it on the floor. He sits a moment, thinking, and then scribbles another line. Again, dissatisfied, he throws that on the floor. Then just as he’s about to make a third attempt, but before he even writes one word, he crumples up the paper and throws it down.
Continue reading “Finding an Opening”
Beginnings matter. A writer in search of a way to pull readers in need look no further than a strong opening line. Not all opening lines are created equal. They come in great variety. But they typically arrest attention and set the tone for all that is to come. Here are some of my favorites:
Continue reading “Opening Salvo”