Tristan Silva II > Recent Status Updates

Still proving to be the best natural law book I’ve read. I have no serious objections to any of McCall’s claims or positions.

But I also recognize that this is the densest treatment of NL that I’ve read, incorporating Aristotelian philosophy and the following legal traditions at a level far above my pay grade—so, if the devil is in the details, I’m not in the best position to sus him out.

Through the introduction and second chapter. I don’t think my pdf has accurate pagination. Shockingly great to read—I expected it to be much drier. The prose is just great. The preface is incredibly sincere and reflective, too, admitting how the war changed his thinking. It’s all more meaningful given that it’s written while newspaper ink reading “Civil War Over!” dries.

Fantastic. As good as one would expect from St. John Henry Newman.

Reading digitally so I don’t have a page count. After one chapter, I’m floored by how clearly the really complex ideas are presented.

Still going strong; ‘tis excellent. I’m enjoying collecting a bunch of citations for further reading, too. As the book goes on, McCall gradually shifts from painstakingly describing the natural law tradition as we receive it to offering his own prescriptions for how and why things matter in different contexts — both parts are equally fruitful for me.

I feel like I’m flying through this book. Church history is fun!

Confused. Happily confused, but confused nonetheless.

I’m confused. Happily confused, but confused nonetheless.

This book is fantastic. I couldn’t explain the plot to anyone in a way that conveys why or how it’s interesting — but I’m loving the depth of the characters. There’re lots of them, and their names (plus two or three nicknames) don’t make it easy to keep them all straight, but once you get past that, it’s easy to imagine them as whole people. Very cool.