What Are You Reading?

[coco]

An Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion by Tammi J. Schneider

Pretty good overview of extrabiblical knowledge about religion in Assyria and Babylon

[Bloodhound]

[tuttle]

I had a major life change earlier this year that led to my habit of daily reading time being severely altered. It's been tough trying to re-establish a new reading time, so books are being read at a much slower rate. Here's what I'm currently reading:

The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories by Arthur Machen, almost done with this one.


English Literature in the Sixteenth Century by C.S. Lewis, still in the intro (it's a really long intro!)


Norm MacDonald Based on a True Story by Norm MacDonald, I'm a few chapters in. Rich in humor. I'm trying not to fly through it.


The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, still in the intro

[JimVH]

[Del]

The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, still in the intro

Pipeson and I are huge fans of Boethius. Pipeson read it in high school.... and it was the first book that he wanted to re-read after he finished his philosophy & theology training, being free to read whatever he wanted.

Western civilization owes a great debt to Boethius. He devised the classical system of education. He preserved Plato and Pythagoras for us. He was working on translating Aristotle when he was executed, so Aristotle had to wait until the Crusades to be rediscovered. Still, we had Aristotle's Logic, thanks to Boethius. We knew enough to rejoice when the works of Aristotle were found among the Arab scholars.
========================================
Lady Philosophy is, of course, a Marian character. You can avoid noticing this, if you must.

Boethius guides us to understand why so many people seek happiness in accumulating wealth, power, pleasure, or the esteem of others. But these can be lost quickly. Boethius had and lost them all.

What we really want is "blessedness," which means living in virtue and resting in friendship with God. A man cannot be deprived of these, even as Boethius languishes in prison, humiliated and awaiting execution.

[tuttle]

The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, still in the intro

Pipeson and I are huge fans of Boethius. Pipeson read it in high school.... and it was the first book that he wanted to re-read after he finished his philosophy & theology training, being free to read whatever he wanted.

Western civilization owes a great debt to Boethius. He devised the classical system of education. He preserved Plato and Pythagoras for us. He was working on translating Aristotle when he was executed, so Aristotle had to wait until the Crusades to be rediscovered. Still, we had Aristotle's Logic, thanks to Boethius. We knew enough to rejoice when the works of Aristotle were found among the Arab scholars.
========================================
Lady Philosophy is, of course, a Marian character. You can avoid noticing this, if you must.

Boethius guides us to understand why so many people seek happiness in accumulating wealth, power, pleasure, or the esteem of others. But these can be lost quickly. Boethius had and lost them all.

What we really want is "blessedness," which means living in virtue and resting in friendship with God. A man cannot be deprived of these, even as Boethius languishes in prison, humiliated and awaiting execution.

Lewis led me to Boethius. If I recall, he said Boethius was the last great man of the Classical age and it was as if he were a man running through a burning library stuffing as much as he could under his arms to preserve for us on his way out.

[Del]

The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, still in the intro

Pipeson and I are huge fans of Boethius. Pipeson read it in high school.... and it was the first book that he wanted to re-read after he finished his philosophy & theology training, being free to read whatever he wanted.

Western civilization owes a great debt to Boethius. He devised the classical system of education. He preserved Plato and Pythagoras for us. He was working on translating Aristotle when he was executed, so Aristotle had to wait until the Crusades to be rediscovered. Still, we had Aristotle's Logic, thanks to Boethius. We knew enough to rejoice when the works of Aristotle were found among the Arab scholars.
========================================
Lady Philosophy is, of course, a Marian character. You can avoid noticing this, if you must.

Boethius guides us to understand why so many people seek happiness in accumulating wealth, power, pleasure, or the esteem of others. But these can be lost quickly. Boethius had and lost them all.

What we really want is "blessedness," which means living in virtue and resting in friendship with God. A man cannot be deprived of these, even as Boethius languishes in prison, humiliated and awaiting execution.

Lewis led me to Boethius. If I recall, he said Boethius was the last great man of the Classical age and it was as if he were a man running through a burning library stuffing as much as he could under his arms to preserve for us on his way out.

Yes. Lewis also said that up until a few decades before his time, every man who called himself "educated" knew Boethius -- and loved him.

The Consolation of Philosophy is a great summary of ancient wisdom, and also very easy to understand and enjoy.

Boethius lived in an age much like our own. The culture was willfully committing suicide, forgetting its past. Boethius realized this when he, as vice-regent to the Emperor, was unable to find anyone to teach Greek to his children. He committed to the project of seeing the great works translated into Latin for preservation.

[Biff]

This:

AI.jpg (36.26 KiB) Viewed 10918 times

Bit of a slog. I do NOT like German, critical thinking, scholars.

[Rainier]

Working my way through several books in this particular patristics series.

[coco]

Fuller was a mathematician and one of the foremost thinkers of the Twentieth Century. You know him for combinatorial geometry and "tensegrity," popularized in the big "buckyball" at Epcot. Domes and such made this way can be very strong without using a lot of material.

In this book, he lays out a plan for sustaining the Earth's resources as the population grows. Sadly, his plan requires that people not be selfish. Any such plan that fails to account for sin will never be more than a dream.