“Once, when I lectured at the University of California at Fullerton, a student asked me for a short, simple definition of reality. I thought it over and answered, ‘Reality is that which when you stop believing in it doesn’t go away.’”
—Philip K. Dick,in Valis
#Authoritative biblical examples (5 February 2008)
The Right Rev James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, has apologized for his opposition to the appointment of Jeffery John, a gay priest, as bishop of Reading, and argued that the Bible contains “authoritative biblical examples of love between two people of the same gender most notably in the relationship of Jesus and his beloved [John] and David and Jonathan” in his new book, A Fallible Church.
Black Iron Prison
A friend recommended Philip K. Dick’s Valis to me, and I’ve been reading it sporadically the last couple of weeks. Today, I came across this:
“To apply a decent standard to the ordinary run of novels is like weighing a flea on a spring-balance intended for elephants.”
—George Orwell,“In Defence of the Novel”
#"Where was your Church before Luther?" (9 August 2007)
“Naphy offers a tidy survey of this extraordinary historical process. He begins with the first stirrings of religious revolt in Wittenberg, Zurich and Geneva, traces how idiosyncratic versions of Protestantism emerged in the nations of both western and eastern Europe, and shows how the Protestant vision was transplanted across the Atlantic to New England. Next we see the efforts to revitalise and reform Protestantism during the 18th century (Methodism, the Great Awakening in colonial America, pietism in Germany and so on), while the later chapters sketch the blossoming of a more socially engaged Protestant sensibility: engagement with the cause of abolitionism, the social gospel movement, and so forth. A final section offers an overview of the tensions that defined Protestantism during the 20th century: attitudes towards modern science, racial segregation and biblical interpretation.”
Gleefully gory and gripping. (6 July 2007)
Empire of Blue Water: Henry Morgan and the Pirates Who Ruled the Caribbean Waves
Jesus doesn’t have any family values (14 June 2007)
“Jesus challenges people’s concepts of the ‘traditional family’ just as much as he provides coherence,” according to Deirdre Good.
Welcome to the gates of digital hell (14 June 2007)
Nicholas Brealey reviews Andrew Keen’s The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy for the New Statesman.

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