New Google Reader

For my more tech-savvy friends, how do you 'share' stuff that you read on Google Reader now with the people you orig. had listed as being able to read whatever it is you 'shared'? I usually share stuff that I find interesting with my wife and now that ability seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur with this "new" change (seems more confusing and aesthetically-deficient to me)...

HELP!

Boohoo

On The Guardian (in case you didn't know, a British newspaper) today, Richard Dawkins wrote an article titled, "Why I refuse to debate with William Lane Craig." And also, if you happened among the 'elite' who Dawkins claims do not know who he is at all, Craig is a research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology (see his website here and his faculty profile here). It appears that Dawkins wants to take the 'high road' and refuse to debate with someone who is clearly beneath one with such stature as Dawkins, but to me, it all just sounds like the tantrums of a crying child. Randomly, it also reminds me of how Floyd Mayweather Jr. is crying about reasons why he can't fight Manny Pacquiao. I know it's a random connection, but still, it made sense to me. Also, I'm not even sure that Craig would win or lose in a debate with Dawkins, but it is interesting to me that Dawkins continues to evade the matchup despite good reasons for having a debate between a prominent Christian philosopher and a highly regarded atheist.

My opinion? Either debate/fight the guy and "win" or just leave it be.

Bio busts

Unfortunately, the two biographies I mentioned in an earlier post, on John Calvin and the other on Cicero, were not very interesting at all. They were dry, too detail-oriented, without giving any real insight to the unique personalities. The Cicero one was a tad bit better, but I eventually got bored of that one as well. To switch gears a little bit from famous political-historical figures, per a friend's recommendation, I am going to start reading the autobiography of the greatest college basketball coach in history (I don't think I'm biased here, even if UCLA is my alma mater), John Wooden. Another friend of mine had the chance to visit Coach Wooden at his home to take a portrait shot before he passed away, and told me what a gentleman he was. I'm not much of an autobiography fan, but let's hope it's better than the last two!

People's lives are interesting... to me at least (and hopefully to you too)

I'm not sure what it is, but I've always been very curious to learn the details behind the lives of figures in history. So, one of my reading habits is reading biographies of anybody I'm mildly interested in whenever I get the chance. I don't even recall what my first biography was, but thankfully, for the most part, I've enjoyed almost every single biography I've read to date. This past year, I've read a biography of the following (in no particular order):

George Whitefield

John F. Kennedy

Cornelius Vanderbilt

C.S. Lewis

Jesse James

George Eldon Ladd

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (#2)
Winston Churchill

George Washington

Cleopatra

Jonathan Edwards

Louie Zamperini
Alexander the Great

I admit, a couple of the books above I did not finish because they were not very good, but otherwise, the rest of them were fun to read. In terms of being the most compelling read, I'd have to say Metaxas' book was probably the best page-turner (despite the critique of some reviewers). And on the other hand, the Vanderbilt book lost a lot of steam as it continued and I basically skimmed the 2nd half... I'll be starting two biographies soon: one on John Calvin and the other on Cicero. Hopefully they'll be interesting reads.

My question to you is, do you like biographies? If so, what have you read that is worth reading? Any suggestions welcome!

Good article

I just came across an insightful article by Professor Stanley Hauerwas who teaches here at Duke, and in it, he lays out a strong critique of American Protestantism, and how its own presuppositions are contributing to its possible demise (at least in its current form). I recommend you all go read the article for yourself, but here's a quote to whet your appetite:

"More Americans may go to church than their counterparts in Europe, but the churches to which they go do little to challenge the secular presumptions that form their lives or the lives of the churches to which they go. For the church is assumed to exist to reinforce the presumption that those that go to church have done so freely. The church's primary function, therefore, is to legitimate and sustain the presumption that America represents what all people would want to be if they had the benefit of American education and money. That is what Americans mean by "freedom."

Journal article help?

I thought I'd ask for some help from my readers: does anyone have Stephen Westerholm's article from Svensk Exegetisk Arsbok 51-51 (1986-7) titled "On Fulfilling the Whole Law (Gal. 5.14)"? I'm sure if I went digging I could probably find a hardcopy somewhere and scan it, but I thought I'd give it a try here first to see if anyone might have a PDF or something they can send along...

Much appreciated!

Minority rules?

Thanks to my wife's suggestion, I started reading an interesting new book titled The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, by Alan Jacobs. It seems to be a semi-response (though this is only a minor impetus for the writing of this book as far as I can tell) to the classic, How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. In it, he references a recent research conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts titled "Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Legacy" (For the full report, go here). The first conclusion found in this research caught my eye:

What surprised me was that the findings found in 2008 showed that for the first time in 26 years(!), the percentage of adult readers increased. In other words, since 1982, they conducted this survey 5 times and they have only witnessed a downward trend of adults in America who read a work of literature in the past 12 months. I suppose the advent of eBook readers may have contributed to the recent findings, but more than the increase in % readership, what intrigued me was that for the first time in almost a decade, the "majority" (by the slightest of margins; 50.2%) of Americans read some work of literature in the last 12 months.
I've been thinking about the kind of problems that the seemingly infectious aversion to reading creates in our society, and in my view, I don't know what other conclusion one can come to besides negative ones. It has shocked me more than a few times to hear some folks declare that they have not read a single book cover to cover since high school, claiming this feat as a badge-of-honor. And if not the detriment to society in general, then what about to our families and our churches? The study proved that the American-reader is now the "majority" over against the "minority" of American-illiterates, but it certainly feels as if minority rules strong in the overall American culture.

What interesting reads have you come across lately and what are some ways to battle this ubiquitous aversion to reading?