Brad
added a quote:
"The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?" — Bob Marley
"The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?" — Bob Marley
Brad
took the never-ending book quiz.
| questions answered: | 65 |
| correct: | 35 (53.8%) |
| skipped: | 3 |
| best streak: | 7 |
| questions added: | 0 |
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]>
"In the Land of White Death" is the (nonfiction) diary account of Officer Albanov as he struggles for survival across the arctic ocean in hopes of finding land. On August 28, 1912 the Saint Anna with a crew of 23 set sail from the port of Alexandrovsk on a hunting expedition that was expected to end in Vladivostok. By October 15, the ship became lock in the arctic ice sheet and drifted ever northward. The crew survived two brutal winters inboard despite running out of fuel and having limited supplies. On April 10, 1914 Valerian Albanov along with several of his crewmen left the Saint Anna in hope of making the 235 miles journey back to land. They travel across the arctic ice on foot using homemade kayaks and sleds to transport their few supplies. The crew fights through near constant subzero temps, malnutrition, glaciers, walruses, northward ice flows and dense fog all while using an incomplete hand drawn map to navigate across an ever changing terrain. At one point Albanov writes about constructing kayaks in -36F without gloves. Another time he explains how his crew is without sleeping bags so they use the hides of reindeer. However, the hides only cover up half of their body, so they need to choose which half would be cold for the night.
Overall the book is stunning. In addition to being a great story the writing style is very engrossing, which makes the 190 pages go by exceptionally fast. ]]>
bookshelves: to-read
]]>
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]>
Once again Bart D. Ehrman has reminded me why I transferred out of Lancaster Bible College. "Jesus, Interrupted" is a summery of the Critical-Historical approach to the New Testament. This is opposed to the devotional studies approach espoused by nearly all evangelical churches. The Critical-Historical approach looks at the various books of the Bible as being historical documents existing separately, each written with a specific message for a specific audience. I.e. Paul's letter to the Church of Corinth was written to the churchgoers of first century Corinth and not to the those of 16th century Singapore or 21st century Pennsylvania. Or that the author of the Gospel of Luke couldn't have intend for his gospel to be combined with any other, such as the then unwritten Gospel of John. Therefore when someone takes a verse from Luke and then combines it with a verse from John they are creating their own version of the Gospel which is completely different from either book. As you can probably imagine this concept is quite controversial, but having attended a Bible believing Christian college I can say that almost every point made in this book I was taught at LBC. The only difference being that my Professor at LBC intellectually bent over backwards with pious imagination to hold firm to the belief that the Bible was with contradiction and is the infallible word of God. Here is a very brief summery of what the book states...
# Only 8 of the 27 books of the New Testament were actually written by the authors to whom they're attributed. Others are likely forgeries.
# The gospels provide remarkably divergent portrayals of Jesus.
# The message of the Apostle Paul and the message of gospel writer Matthew are completely at odds over the question of whether a follower of Jesus also had to observe the Jewish law.
# The Nicene Creed and the Trinity were constructs of the later church and are not found in the pages of the Bible.
# Traditional doctrines such as the suffering Messiah, the divinity of Christ, and the notion of heaven and hell are not based on the teachings of the historical Jesus.
# The commonly told story of Jesus -- his birth, death, and resurrection is actually a composite of four vastly different gospel narratives.
Check out http://www.bartdehrman.com/mp3_NPR_jesus... for an audio interview with the author. ]]>