Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

RANDY ALCORN'S BOOK: "IF GOD IS GOOD . . . FAITH IN THE MIDST OF SUFFERING AND EVIL"

From Between Two Worlds:

Randy Alcorn's new big book on the problem of evil and suffering is now available: If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil (Multnomah).

You can read the table of contents and some excerpts at EPM's page, read an interview that Andy Naselli did with Randy here at Between Two Worlds, or read a review of the book by Tim Challies.

Me:  I've clicked through the links.  This book looks tremendous!  I'm reminded of his earlier blockbuster, Heaven, which I have on my shelf and need to get to soon.

C.S. LEWIS ON OBJECTIVE VALUE

1. "The doctrine of objective value [is] the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are. . . . Because our approvals and disapprovals are thus recognitions of objective value or responses to an objective order, therefore emotional states can be in harmony with reason (when we feel liking for what ought to be approved) or out of harmony with  reason (when we perceive that liking is due but cannot feel it). No emotion is, in itself, a judgement: in that sense all emotions and sentiments are alogical. But they can be  reasonable or unreasonable as they conform to Reason or fail to conform."  --The Abolition of Man (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975), 31-32.   (HT: Doug Groothuis)

Me: This is a great quote.  A bombshell, really.  So many people assume that their "feelings" tell them truths about the universe and about ethics.  Not so.  Anyone who absorbs the message and insights of "The Abolition of Man" will find themselves at revolutionary odds with the insanity of contemporary Western culture.

KEEPING UP-TO-DATE ON "CHILD DEVELOPMENT" NONSENSE FROM THE "EXPERTS"

Did you know that self-esteem theory has now been proven ineffective, and so have tolerance and diversity emphases?  "What!?" you say.  "I thought all that was established orthodoxy amongst social scientists."  No longer.  In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Kay Hyowitz published an eye-opening review of Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman.  Concerning the the latest research on self-esteem, Hymowitz writes:

As Mr. Bronson and Ms. Merryman remind us, the psychologist Nathaniel Brandon published a path-breaking paper in 1969 called "The Psychology of Self-Esteem" in which he argued that feelings of self-worth were a key to success in life. The theory became a big hit in the nation's schools; in the mid-1980s, the California Legislature even ­established a self-esteem task force. By now, there are 15,000 scholarly articles on the subject.

And what do they show? That high self-esteem doesn't improve grades, reduce ­anti-social behavior, deter alcohol drinking or do much of anything good for kids. In fact, telling kids how smart they are can be ­counterproductive. Many children who are convinced that they are little geniuses tend not to put much effort into their work. Others are troubled by the latent anxiety of adults who feel it necessary to praise them constantly.

The benefits of teaching tolerance and promoting ­diversity look equally unimpressive in the current ­research. According to "NurtureShock," a lot of well-meaning adult nostrums—"we're all friends," "we're all

ROBERT SPENCER'S NEW BOOK: "THE COMPLETE INFIDEL'S GUIDE TO THE KORAN"

Robert Spencer  announced today, "My latest book, The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran, is coming September 21 from Regnery Publishing." 

Me:  Judging from the enthusiasm of those recommending the book (all of whom I highly respect), I think I'll seriously consider adding this book to my personal library.

"Robert Spencer incarnates intellectual courage when, all over the world, governments, intellectuals, churches, universities and media crawl under a hegemonic Universal Caliphate‘s New Order. His achievement in the battle for the survival of free speech and dignity of man will remain as a fundamental monument to the love of, and the self-sacrifice for, liberty. In our epoch of intellectual jihadism, this honest book is essential to understand the challenges of the twenty-first century.” — Bat Ye'or, author of Eurabia; The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam; and Islam and Dhimmitude

"Unlike most of today’s self-styled experts, Robert Spencer won’t tell you that ‘slay the idolaters wherever you find them’ really means ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ In The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran, Spencer shows once again that he is

VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE GLAZOV - AUTHOR OF "UNITED IN HATE: THE LEFT'S ROMANCE WITH TYRANNY AND TERROR"

Click here for a 47-minute video interview with FrontPage Magazine’s editor Jamie Glazov discussing his new book United In Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror.

See Jamie’s previous NewsReal posts here [related to Glenn Beck], here [related to Congresswoman Diane Watson], and here [commenting on a woman Muslim woman caught laughing.]

TWO NEW BOOKS WORTH NOTING

--  Chris Castaldo is the author of a new book, Holy Ground: Walking with Jesus as a Former Catholic, to be published by Zondervan next month.  Looks very good.  Justin Taylor posts lots of blurbs.  Here's a sample:

"Because the accounts of a number of high-profile Evangelicals converting to Roman Catholicism have hit the press, we sometimes overlook the fact that statisticians tell us that in America, Catholics are becoming Evangelicals faster than the reverse by a ratio of about three to one. What do these converts find? How do they cope? How do they—how should they—relate to their Catholic families and friends? This is the best book I have read that chronicles such pilgrimages. And it is full of godly commonsense."

                   -D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

-- Hunter Baker. The End of Secularism, is now available. "A number of folks are hailing this as the sequel to Richard John Neuhaus's The Naked Public Square."  (HT: Between Two Worlds)

Available online:

• The table of contents
• Introduction, Chapter 12
• You can listen to a recent interview on Moody's Prime Time America.

"THE SHAME OF ACADEME AND FASCISM, THEN AND NOW"

That's the title of Carlin Romano's Chronicle of Higher Education article that takes a look at Stephen H. Norwood's just-published, "brilliantly researched, utterly thorough and morally upsetting The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower: Complicity and Conflict on American Campuses (Cambridge University Press). 

The book, Romano says, shows how academic leaders got it wrong in the 1930s.

 A chilling chronicle of pro-Nazi enthusiasm, shabby indifference, and amoral tolerance toward Hitler in elite American academe of the 1930s, this book should exert direct impact in this season of cracking heads and bones in Tehran. It relentlessly names names, depositing fact after sordid fact before the reader in a way that leaves its implications for then and today overwhelming.

The book chronicles how Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and university after university failed utterly to respond appropriately to Nazi Germany.  Quite the opposite. 

In one remarkable chapter, Norwood exposes how "many administrators, faculty, and students at the elite women's colleges known as the Seven Sisters—Vassar, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Radcliffe, and Barnard—shared a sanguine view of Nazi Germany and enthusiastically participated in academic and cultural exchanges with the Third Reich."

Writer Romano asks if academic leaders will get it right regarding Iran today.  I would be very surprised.  More here...  (HT: Jonah Goldberg at the Corner)

MICHELLE MALKIN'S NEW BOOK - "CULTURE OF CORRUPTION"

- Update 7/29/09:  Click here for Matt Lauer's Today Show interview with Michelle.  In it Michelle pointedly refers to Michelle Obama's history of cronyism, much to the dismay of Lauer!  Also see her latest column, "Bully boys: A brief history of White House thuggery."

(Original Post) - Before I get to Malkin's book, are you aware of yet another expose of Obama's hypocrisy?  In a 2004 interview Obama accused the Bush administration of ramming through bills without sufficient time for reading and deliberation. Obama would never do that!!!  Click here.

- The full title of Michelle Malkin's book is Culture of Coruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies. Sean Hannity's video interview with Michelle can be found here.    (Update:  Now #1 at Amazon.)   From the blurb:

* Why the Obama White House has more power-hungry, unaccountable "czars" than any other administration
* How Team Obama's first one hundred days of appointments became a litany of embarrassments as would-be appointee after would-be appointee was exposed as a tax cheat or had to withdraw for other reasons
* How Obama's old ACORN and union cronies have squandered millions of taxpayer dollars and dues money to enrich themselves and expand their power
* How Obama's Wall Street money men and corporate lobbyists are ruining the economy and helping their friends.  In Culture of Corruption, Michelle Malkin lays bare the Obama administration's seamy underside that the liberal media would rather keep hidden.

Michelle writes powerfully and skillfully.  Excerpt here.

Note also Michelle's post: "Unscrupulous borrowers: Democrats Dodd & Conrad knew about VIP treatment."

GEORGE GILDER'S NEW BOOK - "THE ISRAEL TEST"

George Gilder's new book,  The Israel Test, has just been published.  David Pryce-Jones reviews it saying Gilder "can be relied on to say striking and original things."  For sure.

Nobody but Gilder could have written this book. Israel of course has its defenders, but they use arguments based on nationalism, territory, ethnicity, defence of minorities, rights, historicism, and so on. Gilder sees Jews since their emancipation as the vanguard of human achievement. They may be few in numbers, but their creativity has brought prosperity to themselves and those around them, and that prosperity in turn has brought freedom. Thus Jews spearhead capitalism and the democracy indispensable to its proper functioning. Marxists, Nazis, and now Muslims and their apologists envy Jews because they cannot emulate them, and so set out to destroy the success that shows up their failure. The attitude you take towards Israel and Jews decides whether you love or hate freedom, and beyond that, mankind — that’s the test he is proposing in the book’s title. And just in case the reader risks failing this test by jumping to a false conclusion, Gilder has a portrait of his very non-Jewish ancestry, saying, “We were classic WASPS all.”

Me: It seems Gilder is something of a Renaissance man.  I recall his book on Wealth and Poverty and his book on marriage.  I'm making note of this book to give it a browse next time I'm in a bookstore.

REDUCING KIDS' SELF ESTEEM A GOOD IDEA

National Review Online has published a blog post of suggested summer reading entitled,"Beach Bag Books."  The book that most grabbed my attention is one suggested by Nancy French.  She writes:

Think Britney Spears, peer pressure, and Twitter are making modern kids sullen, detached, and generally rotten? Think again. Richard Weissbourd’s book about modern parenting trends places the responsibility for kids’ moral well-being squarely where it belongs — on the parents.  In his book, The Parents We Mean To Be: How Well-Intentioned Adults Undermine Children’s Moral and Emotional Development, the lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education talks about popular parenting techniques such as being “positive parents,” focusing on self-esteem, and praising our kids excessively.

And the shock is? He’s against these things.

Weissbourd’s countercultural parenting advice suggests that parents’ intense focus on their children’s happiness actually makes kids less happy, that excessive praise stunts character development, and that “over-parenting” can turn children into “fragile conformists.  Additionally, he challenges the “self-esteem” craze — the belief that if parents bolster their kids’ sense of self, they’ll invariably turn out to be good people. This is the first time in history that people have succumbed to this backwards idea about morality and explains that bullies, delinquents, and gang leaders often have the highest self-esteem.

( Nancy French is the author of A Red State of Mind: How a Catfish Queen Reject Became a Liberty Belle.)

WORLD MAGAZINE NAMES THE "ESV STUDY BIBLE" THE BOOK OF THE YEAR

Marvin Olasky explains:

Among the excellent books of the past 12 months one stands out: Crossway's English Standard Version Study Bible. To the accuracy and readability of the ESV, it adds 20,000 notes based on top evangelical scholarship, 80,000 cross-references, 400 maps and charts, and much more, all under the supervision of two splendid theologians, Wayne Grudem and J.I. Packer.   [more]

Me:  I bought a copy on sale last Christmas and like it a lot.  It's a hefty "tome," and thus not handy for carrying around.    But what I especially appreciate is that it is fully accessible via the internet.  I appreciate the notes and the hyperlinks that make Bible study fast as well as enjoyable and profitable.  And, in general, I prefer the greater literalness of the ESV to the NIV.  Highly recommended!

Update: See my earlier post:  "Online Bible Reading Plans (with Sound!")

WIDE-RANGING INTERVIEW WITH AMIR TAHERI ABOUT IRAN

Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Amir Taheri, author of The Persian Night: Iran Under the Khomenist Revolution.  Taheri is an Iranian-born journalist.  Lopez offers a substantial, informative interview with this very astute observer of Iran and Middle East turmoil.   Excerpt:

All that Iranians want the U.S. to do is to be true to its own principles, not to kowtow to the Khomeinist regime, and not to help it restore its shattered legitimacy. We want Obama to condemn the shooting of demonstrators in Iranian streets and the rigging of the election, and to make it clear that he would not shake Ahmadinejad’s bloodstained hand. We want Obama not to organize a strategic retreat from the Middle East, which would create a vacuum that the Khomeinists would fill. We want him not to leave the region’s new and fragile democracies alone and defenseless against the Islamofascists.

We also want him not to flatter the Islamists by pretending that the Renaissance and the Enlightenment were bred in an Islamic theological college. Don’t claim that Islam invented the pen and the printing press along with poetry and architecture — as if the Hellenic, Byzantine, Persian, Indian, and Chinese civilizations could be scripted out of history. Today, the U.S. has a choice: It can side with the Iranian people and invest in a future democratic Iran, or it can beg for a dialogue with the Islamofacists gathered around Ali Khamenei.   [more . . . ]

THE POLITICAL LEFT'S ROMANCE WITH ISLAM

- (Original Post) -Cliff May wrote an excellent article and cited Jamie Glazov's new book, United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror.  Description:

United in Hate analyzes the Left's contemporary romance with militant Islam as a continuation of the Left's love affair with communist totalitarianism in the twentieth century. Just as the Left was drawn to the communist killing machines of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and Castro, so too it is now attracted to radical Islam.Both the radical Left and radical Islam possess a profound hatred for Western culture, for a capitalist economic structure that recognizes individual achievement, and for the Judeo-Christian heritage of the United States. Both seek to establish a new world order: leftists in the form of a classless communist society, and Islamists in the form of a caliphate ruled by sharia law. To achieve these goals, both are willing to "wipe the slate clean" by means of limitless carnage, with the ultimate goal of erecting their utopia upon the ruins of the system they have destroyed.

Update 9/30/09: Ralph Peters reviews "United in Hate." [my emphases]

If you’ve ever wondered at the delight with which academics excuse Islamist terrorists, or at the callousness with which radical feminists ignore the oppression of Muslim women, or at the gushing adulation the Left devoted to the last century’s worst butchers, from Stalin to Saddam, “United In Hate’ is the book for you.

Radical Leftists have been losing their war against human nature for a long time, but they continue to search desperately for a winning formula. After Stalin, Mao, Uncle Ho, Pol Pot and countless Third World thugs had let them down, they believed they’d found redemption at last on 9/11. Jamie Glazov, the editor of Frontpagemag.com, describes the reaction of Leftist acquaintances to the fall of the Twin Towers: “Never had I seen them so happy, so hopeful and ready for another attempt at creating a glorious and revolutionary future. Without doubt, September 11 represented a personal vindication for them.” Noam Chomsky agreed with Osama that we deserved our misery. Ward Churchill had finally met his love match.

This rigorous, fight-back book dissects the Leftist identity in which personal dissatisfaction and social dysfunction are externalized as the fault of our wicked society an uncanny reflection of the Islamist platform that worldly evil flows from the US and Israel. Glazov is scathing on the inability of Islamists and Western fellow-travelers to form healthy male-female relationships: Sex may (or may not) be OK, but love between a man and a woman threatens the collective.

No matter whether the idealized system is a Communist utopia or an Islamist caliphate, the happy couple is a mortal threat. Worst of all, “The pursuit of happiness implies … that the world can be accepted for what it is,” Glazov argues, “and human beings can be accepted for what they are.”

So the Leftist believer embarks upon “the desperate search for the feeling of power to help him counteract the powerlessness he feels in his own life.” That could equally describe a suicide bomber. You and I may be too stupid to realize we’re miserable or damned, but the American Left and the mullahs are going to perfect us for our own good. The horrific bloodshed along the way is the outcast’s great revenge.

Whether analyzing Code Pink or “Code Sharia,” the book’s descriptions hit the target dead-center again and again: “Like Islamists, Leftists have a Manichean vision that rigidly distinguishes good from evil. They see themselves as personifications of the former and their opponents as personifications of the latter, who must be slated for ruthless elimination.”

Welcome to the hellish alliance that encourages American college brats to root for Hamas andHezbollah. Dead Jews? Today’s Left has no more problem with the Holocaust than Stalin did or Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah does.

Fearlessly, Glazov rips into “the deep-rooted hatred and fear of female sexuality that permeates Islamist-Arabic culture.” But he also unveils our pseudo-feminists who excuse the burqa, genital mutilation, honor killings and general savagery toward Middle-Eastern women, noting that the privileged Americans need to ignore the suffering of their distant sisters in order “to hold onto their self-created victim identity.” If America isn’t so bad, it spoils everything.

I’d quibble with a few propositions: I find all fanatics dangerous, Left or Right but no honest person could deny this book’s validity and power. It’s a serious work by a brave scholar. It’s also fun to read (fun’s another no-no to Islamists and the Left).

Ralph Peters is a Post Opinion columnist and the author of “Looking For Trouble: Adventures in a Broken World.”

"1984" - THE BOOK THAT SAVED THE WEST FROM COMMUNISM

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the book's publication.  David Pryce-Jones gives the historical background of the book and concludes:

"1984," it seems to me, had the effect of saving the English-speaking intelligentsia from the Communist snares and delusions rampant on the continent of Europe, and any future totalitarian society will be obliged to ban it just as the Soviet Union did. That’s an immortal achievement.

BRUCE BAWER ANALYZES THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF EUROPE'S RIGHTWARD TURN

- Update 6/16/09 - Between the Covers produced a short audio interview with Bawer, the author of Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom.  Bawer is an American, currently making his home in Norway.

- (Original post) - Bawer offers a major survey in the Spring, 2009 City Journal.

MARK NOLL - "THE NEW SHAPE OF WORLD CHRISTIANITY"

This looks like a truly fascinating book.  The subtitle reads "How American Experience Reflects Global Faith."   InterVarsity Press has made available the book's Table of Contents and Introduction, and the whole of chapter 2 ("The New Shape of World Christianity") online.   Anyone wanting to be dazzled and stimulated by the jaw-droping spread of Christianity worldwide will be grateful to IVP for making these pages freely available.  (HT: Justin Taylor)

LETTERS OF C.S. LEWIS TO A SPIRITUAL SEEKER (SHELDON VANAUKEN) - NOW ONLINE

1977 saw the publication of a book that rocked the evangelical world and beyond.  I am referring to Sheldon Vanauken's A Severe Mercy.  The book is still in print, as well it should be.  The current edition carries this descriptive blurb on the back cover:

This acclaimed story traces the idyllic marriage of Sheldon and Jean Vanauken, their search for faith, their friendship with C.S. Lewis, and the tragedy of untimely death and love lost.  It includes 18 letters by C.S. Lewis.

That's not bad, but better and more complete is this description (from the Amazon.com website):

A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken, is a heart-rending love story described by its author as "the spiritual autobiography of a love rather than of the lovers." Vanauken chronicles the birth of a powerful pagan love borne out of the relationship he shares with his wife, Davy, and describes the growth of their relationship and the dreams that they share. As a symbol of their love, they name their dream schooner the Grey Goose, "for the grey goose, if its mate is killed flies on alone and never takes another."

While studying at Oxford, Sheldon and Davy develop a friendship with C.S. Lewis, under whose influence and with much intellectual scrutiny they accept the Christian doctrine. As their devotion to God intensifies, Sheldon realizes that he is no longer Davy's primary love--God is. Within this discovery begins a brewing jealousy.

Shortly after, Davy acquires a fatal illness. After her death Sheldon embarks on an intense experience of grief, "to find the meaning of it, taste the whole of it ... to learn from sorrow whatever it had to teach." Through painstaking reveries, he comes to discover the meaning of "a mercy as severe as death, a severity as merciful as love." He learns that her death "had these results: It brought me as nothing else could do to know and end my jealously of God. It saved her faith from assault. ...And it saved our love from perishing."

Replete with 18 letters from C.S. Lewis, A Severe Mercy addresses some of the universal questions that surround faith--the existence of God and the reasons behind tragedy. --Jacque Holthusen

The book had a powerful impact on me as it did on thousands of others.  I recently discovered that three of C.S. Lewis' letters to Vanauken have been placed in the public domain and are available on the internet.  They originally formed part of a small booklet, titled "Encounter with Light," which Vanauken published with C.S. Lewis' permission.  Much of that booklet was eventually  incorporated into Vanauken's larger work, A Severe Mercy.  The text of "Encounter with Light" is available here.   It chronicles in brief compass Vanauken's intellectual journey to belief in Christ, and offers the context of Vanauken's correspondence with Lewis.  The C.S. Lewis letters are reproduced below.

NRO's SYMPOSIUM ON GREAT WAR BOOKS

 Since this is an area in which I know very little, I am grateful to National Review Online (NRO) for providing bibliographic help.  One of the symposium contributors, Victor Davis Hanson, recommends John Keegan's The Face of Battle.  VDH explains why:

THE TRUTH ABOUT "ANGELS AND DEMONS"

- I learned (via Justin Taylor's blog Between Two Worlds), about this useful website set up by Westminster Theological Seminary.

- Ben Witherington of Asbury Theological Seminary reviews the movie.  Update 5/24/09: Christianity Today reviews the movie here, and Plugged In here.

- In a New York Times op-ed, "Dan Brown's America," Ross Douthat says,

It isn’t just that he [Dan Brown, author of "The Da Vinci Code", and "Angels and Demons"] knows how to keep the pages turning. That’s what it takes to sell a million novels. But if you want to sell a 100 million, you need to preach as well as entertain — to present a fiction that can be read as fact, and that promises to unlock the secrets of history, the universe and God along the way.

Brown is explicit about this mission. He isn’t a serious novelist, but he’s a deadly serious writer: His thrilling plots, he’s said, are there to make the books’ didacticism go down easy, so that readers

TIM CHALLIES INTERVIEWS DOUGLAS GROOTHUIS ON "THE SOUL IN CYBERSPACE"

In 1997, Douglas Groothuis (Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary) published The Soul in Cyberspace. Now, 12 years later, Challies interviewed Groothuis to get his current thoughts on technology and computer-mediated communication.  Groothuis says many interesting things.  One of his comments, sure to cheer book lovers, is the following:

... each communications medium shapes its content distinctively and shapes the perceiver necessarily. For one thing, we lose a sense of history when we move from books to screens. Books can be old friends, both the content (which stays in our minds) and the artifacts themselves, which we treasure. For example, I would not part with my 1976 edition of Francis Schaeffer’s The God Who is There, which I read shortly after my conversion. It was that book, those ideas, that

CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY'S BOOK - "LOSING MUM AND PUP: A MEMOIR" (ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS PARENTS, PAT AND WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR.)

The Scriptorium links to an excellent review of the young Buckley's book using the following sentence as a link: "Christopher Buckley tried to write a book about Mum and Pup but ended up writing the first draft of a religious memoir about his own unbelief."

Me:  The review offers significant insight into, and the flavor of, the Buckley relationships.  It concludes with this paragraph (which seems wise to me):

The only son of two outsized individuals, Christopher vainly sought his father's attention and approval, chafed at Bill's public role, and nursed a secret knowledge of his limitations. Today, the world knows that his father was no saint. Despite the occasional laughs, this reader wishes the author had filed the manuscript away and waited for the gift of time and perspective. It would have been a better book.

VISHAL MANGALWADI'S NEW BOOK - "TRUTH AND TRANSFORMATION: A MANIFESTO FOR AILING NATIONS"

  I have long been an appreciative reader of Vishal Mangalwadi, whom I regard as one of the seminal thinkers of our time.  (See an earlier post about him here.)  In fact, on the left side of my blog I have included a category, "Online Books," where I have listed a number of Mangalwadi's books available for free downloading:  "When the New Age Gets Old," "India: The Grand Experiment," "Yoga: Five Ways of Salvation in Hinduism," and "Corruption and the Culture of the Cross."

Today I learned via Charles Colson's Breakpoint, that Mangalwadi has published a new book, Truth & Transformation.   Colson writes:

BOOKS THAT LOOK INTERESTING . . .

The following are books I've recently "bumped into" or otherwise become aware of (i.e. they are not books I have personally read):

From Jay Nordlinger (of National Review Online):

 James Mann -  The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression

From the current InterVarsity Press catalog:

Roger Olson - Finding God in the Shack: Seeking Truth in a Story of Evil and Redemption

John Walton - The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate

Mark Noll - The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith

IVY LEAGUER "INFILTRATES" FALWELL'S UNIVERSITY

Expecting to write an expose, he was surprised to find students "rigorously normal."  Story here.  (HT: HotAir) 

Update 4/23/09 - I went to Amazon.com to dig a little deeper into The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University.  The title strikes me as rather hokey, but judging from the reviews, Kevin Roose has written an exceedingly entertaining and fair-minded book.   Who should read the book?  (according to one reviewer)

* Any Christian who wonders how the un-indoctrinated view believers and their practices
* Anyone preparing to be an pastor, evangelist, missionary, or Christian educator - especially in a post-modern society
* Anyone planning to go to a Christian university (you'll understand the pros and cons of these institutions better after reading Kevin's book)
* Anyone on staff at Liberty University
* Liberals who have made sweeping generalizations about fundamentalist Christianity without honestly investigating it themselves.
* Anyone who wants to read a tremendously thought provoking and highly entertaining story.

Author Roose is posting a blog related to the book.

MEANING IN LIFE

In Shantung Compound: The Story of Men and Women Under Pressure, Langdon Gilkey wrote the following (pp. 193-94),:

Let us take it [meaning in life] to refer simply to a sense of worthful purpose in what we do and the life we lead.  A man possesses a sense of "meaning" when he feels there is a vital connection between the goals he values and the activities and relationships in which he is involved.

Then what he does each day becomes a coherent means to ends he really prizes, his life and work accomplish something of value to him and so "make sense."  Consequently his energies and powers are called forth in creative effort; he is vigorous, hardworking, and, in the good sense of that word, ambitious.  In this sense, meaning in life is the spiritual fuel that drives the human machine.  Without it we are indifferent and bored; there is no ambition to work, we are inspired by no concern or sense of significance, and our powers are unstirred and so lie idle.  Without "meaning" we are undirected and a vulnerable prey to all manner of despair and anxiety, unable to stand firm against any new winds of adversity.  

Me:  Shantung Compound remains one of the top 10 most insightful books I have ever read.  I first read it years ago.  It's the true story of men and women from all walks of life interned in a Japanese prison camp durng World War II.   One won't find a better exposition of "lived" psychology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology and morality anywhere-- better than textbooks!

DAVID HART'S BOOK: "ATHEIST DELUSIONS: THE CHRISTIAN REVOLUTION AND ITS FASHIONABLE ENEMIES"

R.R. Reno offers a review of David Hart's Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies (Yale University Press).  Here's an excerpt from Reno's review:

“But,” as Hart writes in one of those sentences that makes the writer in me jealous, “atheism that consists in vacuous arguments afloat on oceans of historical ignorance, made turbulent by storms of strident self-righteousness, is as contemptible as any other form of dreary fundamentalism.”

So, yes, the modern era presents Christianity with deep and profound challenges, challenges we should engage, because they have the power to reform and deepen our faith. Hart points to David Hume and Edward Gibbon, and especially Friedrich Neitzsche. But it seems that our postmodern age has seen a definite drop in the quality of unbelief. “By comparison to these men,” writes Hart, referring to the serious atheists, “today’s gadflies seem far lazier, less insightful, less subtle, less refined, more emotional, more ethically complacent, and far more interested in facile simplifications of history than in sober and demanding investigations of what Christianity has been or is.”   [more . . .]    HT: Between Two Worlds

Me:  It looks like Hart's book reaches a new level of sophistication and depth and that he wields his verbal sword with notable dexterity.

PSALM 127 - "QUIVERFULL FAMILIES"

NPR published an even-handed account of large families, the parents of which (no surprise) shun birth control.   (HT: HotAir)  From the article:

. . . Those in the Quiverfull movement shun birth control, believing that God will give them the right number of children. It turns out, that's a lot of kids.  (More . . .) 

Me:  But there seems to be more to it than the NPR article indicates.  The article, to its credit, mentions two books:  Nancy Campbell, Be Fruitful and Multiply and  Kathryn Joyce, Quiverfull: Inside The Christian Patriarchy Movement.  The latter evaluates the evangelical patriarchy movement that remains under the radar screen of many, including probably most conservative Christians.  I didn't know of it until very recently.  I learned of it through a friend who encountered it in his small church.  Vyckie Bennett offers a major Amazon review of the latter book.  Her review mentions other books and authors associated with the movement.

WILLIAM R. FORSTCHEN ON "ONE SECOND AFTER"

John J. Miller of National Review Online conducted an audio interview with William R. Forstchen, author of the just-published  One Second After.   It's a novel depicting what would happen after an Electromagnetic pulse [EMP] attack on the United States.   Here's the  publishing blurb at Amazon:

New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP).  A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies. Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America. In the tradition of On the Beach, Fail Safe and Testament, this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future...and our end.

Me:  It sounds to me like a book very much worth reading.

PROF. BEN WITHERINGTON POSES FIVE QUESTIONS TO BISHOP N.T. WRIGHT ABOUT THE AFTERLIFE

Ben Witherington begins his interview saying:

N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope has been called an instant classic, and now with two years of positive reviews under its belt, it was time to sit down with the Bishop and ask some follow up questions which arise from some of the things he has said in the book and some of the responses he has gotten.    More. . .

Me:  This is an exceptionally excellent interview!  It is brief, to the point, and illuminating.  Note: I posted a picture of N.T. Wright at his desk earlier.

REVIEW OF PETER HARRISON, "THE FALL OF MAN AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE"

Douglas Groothuis notes that Jedd McFatter has written a fine review of Peter Harrison, The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 313 pages with index. £50.00, hardback. Groothuis says, "This sheds much light on the history and historiography of modern science and challenges some secular assumptions."

Me:  I read the review and found it fascinating.  It makes me want to go and see if there is any correlation with Rodney Stark's treatment in For the Glory of God.  I suspect that Harrison's book plows new ground.

C. S. LEWIS READ DOROTHY L. SAYERS' "THE MAN BORN TO BE KING" EVERY YEAR DURING HOLY WEEK

A year ago I put up the following post.  I think it is worth re-posting for those who might be interested:

For any who have not yet been introduced to Dorothy L. Sayers' wonderful dramatic sketches of the life of Christ (originally produced for BBC radio in 1943) titled The Man Born to Be King, this might be a good year to indulge yourself.  C. S. Lewis himself said, "I have re-read it in every Holy Week since it first appeared, and never re-read it without being deeply moved."

An Amazon.com reader wrote the following:

After reading this play cycle, you'll never look at the Gospels in the same way again. . .  I've been a Christian for many years, and I can still say that this book changed my life. If you have questions or doubts about Jesus of Nazareth, please give it a try.

C. S. Lewis's comments on The Man Born to be King are part of his panegyric for Sayers which he concluded saying,

"For all she did and was, for delight and instruction, for her militant loyalty as a friend, for courage and honesty, for the richly feminine qualities which showed through a port and manner superficially masculine and even gleefully ogreish--let us thank the Author who invented her."

(For those bibliographically inclined, Lewis's comments on Dorothy L. Sayers can be found in C. S. Lewis On Stories and Other Essays on Literature edited by Walter Hooper.)

** Note:  There's a preview of The Man Born to Be King available online from Google Books.

A year ago I put up the following post.  I think it is worth re-posting for those who might be interested:

For any who have not yet been introduced to Dorothy L. Sayers' wonderful dramatic sketches of the life of Christ (originally produced for BBC radio in 1943) titled The Man Born to Be King, this might be a good year to indulge yourself.  C. S. Lewis himself said, "I have re-read it in every Holy Week since it first appeared, and never re-read it without being deeply moved."

An Amazon.com reader wrote the following:

After reading this play cycle, you'll never look at the Gospels in the same way again. . .  I've been a Christian for many years, and I can still say that this book changed my life. If you have questions or doubts about Jesus of Nazareth, please give it a try.

C. S. Lewis's comments on The Man Born to be King are part of his panegyric for Sayers which he concluded saying,

"For all she did and was, for delight and instruction, for her militant loyalty as a friend, for courage and honesty, for the richly feminine qualities which showed through a port and manner superficially masculine and even gleefully ogreish--let us thank the Author who invented her."

(For those bibliographically inclined, Lewis's comments on Dorothy L. Sayers can be found in C. S. Lewis On Stories and Other Essays on Literature edited by Walter Hooper.)

** Note:  There's a preview of The Man Born to Be King available online from Google Books.

GOOD READING FOR BAD TIMES

Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson of Grove City College offers three suggestions:  Ayn Rand's first novel,  We the Living;  Rose Wilder Lane's The Discovery of Freedom; and Taylor Caldwell’s, A Pillar of Iron.  Reasons for the selections here. 

"SELF-MADE MEN" OBAMA AND GATES HAD EARLY ADVANTAGES

Dan Lips cites Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Outliers, who contends most great success stories spring from unique advantages and opportunities that enable remarkable achievement.  What about Gates and  Obama?  Lips writes (bolding mine):

Consider Bill Gates. Most people know how, as a young computer whiz, he dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft and revolutionize the software industry and the American economy in the process. But often overlooked in this simple tale are the events in Gates' life that put him on the path to greatness.

Gladwell explains that, as a teenager, Gates attended a private school that offered a computer club. At a time when few colleges were offering students hands-on computer experience, Gates was practicing real-time computer programming in the eighth grade. This early experience led Gates to capitalize on other unique opportunities, including

MICHAEL BURLEIGH - A WRITER WITH WHOM I NEED TO BECOME MORE FAMILIAR

John J. Miller announces:

On Between the Covers today, we have a podcast interview with Michael Burleigh, author of Blood & Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism. We discuss why he regards terrorists as "morally insane," whether terrorism is ever justified, how the European view of terrorism differs from the American view, and his involvement with the excellent new British magazine Standpoint (which he describes as a cross between Commentary, Prospect, and National Review). His daily blog on the Standpoint website is here.

Jonah Goldberg writes over at the Corner:

Since John Miller brings him up, I thought I should add a few things. Michael Burleigh's majestic book, The Third Reich: A New History was an enormous influence on me. It is a fantastic piece of work that draws considerable intellectual inspiration from Eric Voegelin's work on "political religions." Two other books by Burleigh, Sacred Causes and Earthly Powers, trace the religious instinct within nominally secular politics. The religious impulse cannot be destroyed, only misdirected to areas where some people can't see through its secular disguise. Nobody's work has ever been more successful — as far as I am aware — at demonstrating this fundamental insight to the affairs of man.  I haven't read  Burleigh's latest book yet, but I plan to.

Andrew Strattaford adds:

FWIW, I wrote about Blood & Rage for the New Criterion here.

Ken Myers: Ten Books to Read on Understanding the Culture

Justin Taylor over at Between Two Worlds posted the following (via James Grant) which I am cribbing (I hope I won't get into trouble.  It's just that Justin Taylor formats posts so well, together with links, that it makes clicking through easy and a pleasure) :

Touchstone editor James Kushiner passes along a list of 10 books recommended by Mars Hill Audio's Ken Myers for understanding culture:

Five “Thinner” Books:

C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1943)
Wendell Berry, Life Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition (2000)
Colin Gunton, Enlightenment and Alienation: An Essay Towards a Trinitarian Theology (1985)
George Parkin Grant, English-Speaking Justice (1985)
Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences (1948)

Five “Thicker” Books:

John McWhorter, Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care (2003)
Jacques Barzun, The Use and Abuse of Art (1974)
David Thomson, The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood (2004)
Julian Johnson, Who Needs Classical Music?: Cultural Choice and Musical Value (2002)
Langdon Winner, Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought (1977)

Me:  From the list above, I have only Lewis' Abolition of Man and Weaver's Ideas Have Consequences. I am not sure what to make of the list.  One of those reading Justin Taylor's post suggested Life at the Bottom by Theodore Dalrymple.  I think I would have added Gene Veith's Modern Fascism among others.  (I have yet to get and read Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism).  Other suggestions?

Hugh Hewitt Interviews J.P. Moreland on Evangelicals and the Left-Leaning Obama Presidency

J.P. Moreland, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Talbott School of Theology in California, has just published a new book, The God Question: An Invitation to a Life of Meaning.  (More on the book at the end of this post).

Hewitt's interview with J. P. Moreland centers mainly on evangelicals and the left-leaning direction of current politics.

Moreland: ... I have a lot of concerns as an Evangelical about the Obama presidency precisely because I’m a Christian Evangelical. 

HH: What kind of concerns? 

JPM: Well, the first, as a Christian, the first thing that I see can be understood by the difference between negative and positive rights. A negative right is a right for me to be protected from harm if I try to get something for myself. A positive right would be my right to have something provided for me. If health care is a negative right, then the state has an obligation to keep people from

EXCELLENT BLOG: "BETWEEN TWO WORLDS"

I have found Justin Taylor's blog, "Between Two Worlds," so valuable that I now read it daily.  Today he strongly recommends two books.  I looked up the comments on Amazon and have put the books on my "wish list."  Here is what Taylor wrote:

If you don't yet have following books on your bookshelf--Reinventing Jesus by Daniel B. Wallace, J. Ed Komoszewski, and James Sawyer, and Putting Jesus in His Place by Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski--I'd warmly recommend them. They are both exactly what the church needs--excellent material, written in clear, accessible English, on important subjects under attack.

He goes on to  recommend inviting Ed Komoszewski to do seminars at one's local church. He also lists mp3s available from the Christian Life Conference at Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis where Alistair Begg and Sinclair Ferguson recently spoke.  Taylor lists the talks available for download on his blog.

JOURNALISTS DO A POOR JOB COVERING STORIES WITH A RELIGIOUS COMPONENT

Such is the lament of Paul Marshall, Lela Gilbert, and Roberta Green Ahmanson in their book Blind Spot: When Journalists Don't Get Religion.  Vincent Caroll discusses the issue in his excellent Wall Street Journal article.   Recommended reading.

HOW AMERICAN TEXTBOOKS PROSELYTIZE ISLAM

Tony Blankley does it again.  He reveals what we need to know.  He begins his column (HT: HotAir) with this paragraph (emphases are my own):

I recently read a book that deserves the widest possible readership. The book is "The Trouble with Textbooks - Distorting History and Religion" by Gary A. Tobin and Dennis R. Ybarra. I have never met or talked with either of these gentlemen, but I can't say enough good things about this book. For all who believe that there is a fairly objective rendition of history that we are obliged to teach our children, this book reveals how shockingly far from that objective American education-and particularly school textbooks-have fallen.

It gets much worse.  Not his column, but what Blankley discovers about U.S. textbooks. 

In their conclusion, the authors quote the great historian of Islam, Bernard Lewis' observation concerning the willful bending of history: "We live in a time when great efforts have been made, and continue to be made, to falsify the record of the past and to make history a tool of propaganda; when governments, religious movements, political parties, and sectional groups of every kind are busy rewriting history as they wish it to have been, as they would like their followers to believe that it was."

Blankley goes on to say:

The grievance group that has become particularly adept at influencing textbook publishing is the organized Muslim lobby. The founder of the Council on Islamic Education, the chief Islamic group for vetting textbooks in the United States, refers to his work as a "bloodless revolution … inside American junior high and high school classrooms."

He is, regrettably, right. While these days one may expect "sensitive deference" to Muslim sensitivities, the authors show how American textbooks have gone so far as to outright proselytize Islam.

Read on . . .

DISTORTING AMERICAN HISTORY TO PRODUCE SELF-HATERS

Mona Charen's article, "Giving Thanks for Genocide," laments "the current pedagogical fashion is to distort American history into something like a war crime."  She draws on Michael Medved's new book, The 10 Big Lies About America, in setting the record straight.

Me:  This anti-American phenomenon promotes national suicide, and it has been doing so for years.  It now takes determination (and often extra-curricular specialized reading) for a young person to retain -- or attain -- a positive opinion of the United States.

Update - Mark Steyn offers a few choice comments on a related subject,  "warts-only education."  Excerpt:

NOV 22, 2008 - THE 45th ANNIVERSARY (1963) OF THE DEATHS OF JFK, C.S. LEWIS & ALDOUS HUXLEY

John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley each represented a distinctive worldview (secular humanism, Christianity and Eastern pantheism, respectively).  It's remarkable that they all died on the very same day, Nov. 22, 1963.

Dr. Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy at Boston College, understands well the respective worldviews  each man held.  Kreeft wrote a fascinating and highly entertaining imaginative book about the three meeting and conversing after death.  It is titled Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis & Aldous Huxley.  I read the book years ago and it has recently been re-issued. 

Now Peter  Kreeft talks about the book in a National Review Online podcast.

"100 YEARS OF WIT AND WISDOM" - G. K. Chesterton's Book "Orthodoxy"

The year 2008 marks 100 years since Chesterton (1874-1936) published his masterful little book, Orthodoxy.  GKC was a major influence on C.S. Lewis, and it was because of Lewis that I personally began reading GKC.  A couple months ago I posted Chesterton's perspective on the need for reason  to be balanced by poetry and imagination.

Today I noticed that Christianity Today has interviewed Lyle Dorsett (a C.S. Lewis scholar) on Chesterton.  The magazine introduces the interview with these words:

Since he published Orthodoxy in 1908, G. K. Chesterton has inspired Christians and challenged skeptics with his unique wit and wisdom. He delivered biting analysis still relevant today: "A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed." And he composed poignant prose that still touches the heart: "Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind.

A few days ago I began a re-reading of Orthodoxy.  For any who may be interested, I have jotted down a few quotes:

THE "REBELUTION" HAS ARRIVED - "Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations"

- Update 10/21/08 - Christianity Today published an interview with Alex and Brett Harris available here.

* * *

The September-October 2008 copy of Mission Frontiers landed in my mailbox today.  Editor Ralph D. Winter always has stimulating things to say in his "editorial comment."  This time he recommends Do Hard Things A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex and and Brett Harris (who happen to be twins, and the younger brothers of Joshua Harris). 

Winter writes:

"This exciting book lays out irrefutably the fact that today's teenagers are what-they-are because society does not expect (even allow) much from them.  This is not just a theory.  An enormous response to their web site, www.TheRebelution.com, and their face-to-face conferences literally all over the world, reveal a huge, powerful, and deep-seated exasperation on the part of millions of bright young people who (especially in the Western world) are essentially deprived of opportunity to do their best -- through 'low expectations" of society." [my emphases  - also, as long as I am adding a comment, check out the Rebelution blog]

Winter says "Look, every teenager ought to have this book." 

A whole lot of other people agree.  Here are some comments from the Amazon.com book listing:

HOW PACIFISM VIOLATES THE COMMAND, "THOU SHALT NOT KILL" (CHARLES WILLIAMS)

Does that sound like a contradiction?  It did to me . . . until I read something by Charles Williams (1886 - 1945), the esteemed friend of C.S. Lewis, and a member of the famed "Inklings."  A couple of weeks ago I happened to dip into Williams' book, The Forgiveness of Sins, and came upon these shocking words:

Must we, for example, consent that men, the other men, shall be killed and maimed?  The answer to that is simple-- we must.

Williams explains: 

We may do it by ourselves inflicting death and torment on others (by bombs or however), or we may do it by abandoning others to death and torment (in concentration camps or wherever), but one way or the other we have to consent by our mere acts.  To call the one war and the other peace does not help.

He goes on:

This--whichever it is--is certainly, in part, the result of what we do.  Is there any direction?  Even to quote "Thou shalt not kill" does not finally help, for we have been taught that consciously to abandon men to death is, in fact, to kill.  To hate is to kill; to kill is to kill; and to leave to be killed is to kill. . .

Me:  I am still pondering these words.  Do  others have responses to offer?  

(The quotes above are from chapter VI,   "The Technique of Pardon.")

The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List

Josh Kaufman produced the following:

Top MBA programs don't have a monopoly on advanced business knowledge: you can teach yourself everything you need to know to succeed in life and at work. The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List features only the very best business books available, based on thousands of hours of research. So skip b-school and the $100,000 loan: you can get a world-class business education simply by reading these books.  (HT: Culture11)

LIBERALS AND BOOK BANNING

Leftists and liberals are spreading false stories about Sarah Palin and book banning.  Michelle Malkin has the full story showing that Liberal accusations against her are totally untrue.  But in treating the subject, Malkin notes some astonishingly full-court press efforts of liberals and leftist  to ban books themselves.  Consider: 

John Kerry and his rabid minions were pressuring Regnery Publishing to withdraw  "Unfit  for command" from bookstores . . .

Where were they when left-wing hit man David Brock of Media Matters for America sent a demand letter to Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble urging them to pull “Unfit for Command” from their shelves?

Where were they two years ago when two Democrat lawmakers, New Jersey Assemblywomen Joan Quigley and Linda Stender, called on merchants to ban the sale of Ann Coulter’s book, Godless,” because of her remarks about anti-Bush 9/11 widows. “No one in New Jersey should buy this book and allow Ann Coulter to profit from her hate-mongering,” the politicians lashed out. “We are asking New Jersey retailers statewide to stand with us and express their outrage by refusing to carry or sell copies of Coulter’s book. Her hate-filled attacks on our 9-11 widows has no place on New Jersey bookshelves.”

Or this:

LIBRARIES IN HOMES ARE COMING INTO STYLE

This Wall Street Journal article is interesting.  I hadn't realized that a guy like me, with a lot of books, could be associated with anything "stylish."   Ha!

WHY IS THE CIA SO DYSFUNCTIONAL?

In answering the question, Michael Ledeen draws on Ishmael Jones’s excellent book The Human Factor: Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture.

Things are really, really bad over at the CIA, so much so that according to Ledeen, the book

. . . paints a devastating and alarming picture of a vast bureaucracy he calls “a corrupt, Soviet-style organization.” He warns that the CIA must “either be restructured as an American organization — which encourages achievement, creativity, and accountability — or it must be dismantled.

Ledeen continues:

I don’t know any other author who has told this devastating story so calmly and so convincingly. He thinks the Agency should be broken up into its component parts and integrated into other Agencies, from State to Defense.

Read on for specific, and depressing revelations...  (Incidentally, here would be a good place for McCain/Palin to exercise their commitment to "reform."  Shake up the CIA but good!!)

WE WOULD ALL LOVE TO LIVE IN THE LEFTISTS' DREAM WORLD

But that's what it is, a dream world. Thomas Sowell published an astute column today.  He says:

Conservatives, as well as liberals, would undoubtedly be happier living in the kind of world envisioned by the Left.

Very few people have either a vested interest or an ideological preference for a world in which there are many inequalities.

Even fewer would prefer a world in which vast sums of money have to be devoted to military defense, when so much benefit could be produced if those resources were directed into medical research instead.

It is hardly surprising that young people prefer the political Left. The only reason for rejecting the Left’s vision is that the real world in which we live is very different from the world that the Left perceives today or envisions for tomorrow.

Most of us learn that from experience — but experience is precisely what the young are lacking.

“Experience” is often just a fancy word for the mistakes that we belatedly realized we were making, only after the realities of the world made us pay a painful price for being wrong.

Those who are insulated from that pain — whether by being born into affluence or wealth, or shielded by the welfare state, or insulated by tenure in academia or in the federal judiciary — can remain in a state of perpetual immaturity.

Keep reading for more of Sowell's column.  [I might insert here that those who believe in "original sin" perceive human life in a profoundly more realistic way than those who do not.  See, for example, Alan Jacobs' book, Original Sin: A Cultural History and the review of the same, by George Sim Johnston originally published  in the Wall Street Journal (6/13/08)]

ESCAPING NORTH KOREA

Melanie Kirkpatrick reviews Mike Kim's new book,  Escaping North Korea: Defiance and Hope in the World's Most Repressive Country: