Currently reading!
Some new publications to share with you — books I am currently enjoying very much or have recently finished:
Mary’s Voice in the Gospel According to John. (affiliate link) Our friend Michael Pakaluk has written a “formal equivalence” translation (as opposed to the misleading “dynamic equivalence” one preferred by our bishops today) that highlights what he presumes is the influence of the Blessed Virgin on “the disciple Jesus loved.”
I say presumes because the Gospels attest to her whole being and the unique witness that it represents — what could be more natural than that her voice would come through John’s writing, especially, as he is her son bestowed on her by her Son; thus Michael’s approach in this translation and in the exegesis he offers for each chapter as we read.
Lots to ponder here. Michael’s emphases and choices make the familiar words new, sharp, and invigorating, like the air at the top of a mountain — sort of hyper-oxygenated. His explanations are insightful and his love for Our Lady shines through as he offers us her point of view in her motherly attentiveness, purity, and devotion.
Of great interest to me is his final word regarding what we ought to translate as “Life Everlasting.” There is a school of thought, Universalism, that teaches that all will be saved, and David Bentley Hart is its prophet (at least in our times).
The arguments turn on translation, and Michael mounts a convincing and elegant refutation. The topic leads naturally to the question of the tradition of Mary’s Assumption (or Dormition). All in all, a readable, accessible, yet impeccably scholarly book!
Deeper Heaven: A Reader’s Guide to C. S. Lewis’s Ransom Trilogy. As I said when I found Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia, (affiliate links) if I can’t be reading Lewis, I can at least be reading about Lewis — if that something is worthy! When I saw that Michael Ward recommended Deeper Heaven, which looks at Lewis’s Space Trilogy (the author insists it should be called the Ransom Trilogy), I had to read it.
I am halfway through and appreciating it mightily. The breadth and depth of Lewis’s scholarship (and sheer life-long reading enjoyment) inform his works, so that ever more inquiry can be brought to them with delightful results. As with other true classics, study of his books only increases the pleasure of knowing them.
When the reader learns more about Lewis’s influences from ancient literature and the medieval conception of the universe (one that has resonance in Scripture and ancient thought as well — in fact, with all human thought except for that of our own era), he will know more about what Lewis was trying to convey in his own works and appreciate them even more. What might have seemed like unevenness or randomness comes into harmony when we look at it from the right perspective.
The author, Christiana Hale, is herself well enough steeped in classical learning that her approach has the air of a familiar guide offering you her mature insights (as opposed to the strained and often boring efforts of a mere researcher). Lewis’s cosmology and his philosophical understanding underlie everything he created, and she is able to show us in his texts where these influences can be found. In one as young as she, it’s an impressive achievement. This book can go next to Ward’s on the shelf; the reader who knows Lewis’s works well will often refer to them both for enlargement of his own observations.
Understanding Marriage & Family: A Catholic Perspective. I heard a podcast with Fr. Sebastian Walshe and was so impressed with his calm and clear way of talking that I bought his book immediately. In it, he offers an explanation for all the teachings of the Church on marriage from a Thomistic viewpoint of the causes of things, and their ends or goals. By using a “questions and answers” format and tackling objections head on, he is able to offer clarity based on sound reasoning in the light of Scripture and human experience.
Perhaps some of you are a bit mystified as to how to answer questions about marriage, divorce, homosexuality, and so on… or have only heard explanations based on the theology of the body. Fr. Walshe’s lucid arguments will help you clarify matters for yourself and others.
Benedictus — like Magnificat, but for the Traditional Latin Mass! We go to the Novus Ordo daily Mass at the nearby Abbey, but I find that reading the traditional ordo for the Mass of the day (the Propers — the prayers in the liturgy that are particular to the day) helps my prayer immensely — more than I would have thought.
I have subscribed even though I won’t be able to use it much, other than on Sundays — just seems like a great initiative to support!
Don’t forget Peter Kwasniewski’s Holy Bread of Eternal Life! What can be more fruitful than recovering our devotion to the Holy Eucharist?
Lots of good reading this Lent. Have you read anything you’d recommend? I’d love to hear about it!
bits & piecesWhat to grow in an unheated greenhouse (like my little one).The Shroud of TurinDeadnaming matters. “Words matter, and not just because it’s nearly impossible to win a fight in which every rule is set by your opponent. In practice, using the other side’s terms amounts to—or, at least, appears as—conceding the substance of their points.”Critical race theory database — find out if the university you’re sending your child to (and paying for) will indoctrinate himThe Iliad in a Nutshell, by Joseph Pearce (the first of an on-going “in a nutshell” articles about great works of literature!).from the archivesHow to be more hospitableLearning warm family life from a children’s bookliturgical livingTomorrow begins Passiontide.
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