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May 7, 2007
Books, We Have Books
In the past week, I've received four books, two of which I intend to discuss here without further amplification, two of which I hope to write more extensive reviews of.
The first of those that I will not belabor is a biography of Mother Angelica called, appropriately enough, Mother Angelica by Raymond Arroyo. Mr. Arroyo might be considered Mother Angelica's foremost proponent, supporter, and friend. He prepared a book I reviewed earlier of her sayings, and from my point of view, that way by far the more interesting book--a purely subjective judgment. There is nothing wrong with the style or writing of Mr. Arroyo's book, nor is there anything intrinsically wrong with the subject. When I have more time, I may return to it. However, Mother Angelica simply does not captivate me the way she does some of those who admire her. I have for her a certain amount of admiration and respect, but, unfortunately, no real interest, so a biography is lost on me.
Even so, I dipped in at a few places and found some fascinating details about goings-on in EWTN world as well as information about Mother Angelica's early life.
If you are an admirer of Mother Angelica, you'll probably find this book to your taste. And now that it is in a paperback edition, you'll probably also find it within your budget.
The second book that I'll touch on briefly is by a person whose writing I would like to like more--Scott Hahn. He has produced another opus Reasons to Believe, written in his characteristically irritating evangelical preacher/motivational speaker patois. As with all books by Scott Hahn, it is packed with useful information if you're interested in apologetics or even in simply understanding your own faith better. It is peppered with the personal, which makes it accessible and acceptable reading. Even so, it is thoroughly documented and clearly annotated. There is a wealth of information for those who have an easier time with his prose than I do. Having had my share of the evangelical set, I'm not particularly enchanted with its arrival in Catholic prose; however, once again that is a completely subjective view and does not reflect in any way on Mr. Hahn's ability to clearly express central truths of our Faith. My chief difficulty comes not from the main body of the argument, but from the titles that are pithy, catchy, motivational-speaker types of mnemonics that drive me to distraction: "The Mass of Evidence," "You Have the Rite to Remain Repentant." "Soar All Over." That said, there are far fewer of them in this book than in previous and I have high hopes of being able to place the blinders on sufficiently to get through the rest of it. When he's not making bad puns as part of his patter, the prose is clear, convincingly argued and well-supported.
Two books that I hope to have more to say about later in the week: Anthony DeStefano's Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To, which, despite its title, is NOT a Catholic version of "The Prayer of Jabez." Also Frank J. Tipler's The Physics of Christianity. I can't tell you how excited I was to receive this latter--I had read some time ago Tipler's The Physics of Immortality and came away somewhat perplexed and feeling like I should have paid more attention SOMEWHERE in school, but I wasn't precisely sure where. However, the main thrust of the book was utterly fascinating.
Below I include a short, intriguing excerpt from the new book because I think it expresses so well my own thoughts about this very subject:
from The Physics of Christianity
Frank J. Tipler[After a discussion of an electron as a "quantized, relativistic, fermion field, Mr. Tipler continues:]
Similarly, everyone has an image of "God," but to really understand what God really is and how He could interact with the universe, one must use a theory beyond everyday commonsense physics. Contrary to what many physicists have claimed in the popular press, we have had a Theory of Everything for about thirty years. Most physicists dislike this Theory of Everything because it requires the universe to begin in a singularity. That is, they dislike it because the theory is consistent only if God exists, and most contemporary scientists are atheists. They don't want God to exist, and if keeping God out of science requires rejecting physical laws, well, so be it.
My approach to reality is different. I believe that we have to accept the implications of physical law, whatever these implications are. If they imply the existence of God, well then, God exists.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 7:48 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Back from Jacksonville
Should have posted this Friday when it happened.
Sam, Ladywife and I took a trip to Jacksonville, the University of North Florida, to be exact, to attend the All-State music competition. We drove up Thursday and came back Friday at about 10:30 am after he had completed his part of the "trial."
We left without knowing how he did, and we may never know how he did. And, in fact, that is fine. What the competition allowed him was a larger audience than his usual two. And we are less interested in competition qua competition than in competition as a way of having a good time in front of a broad audience of listeners.
Upon returning Samuel was inspired and has been composing his own short melodies on piano. I'm really excited to see what the stimulation of an audience can do to the creative faculties. This is, by far, the most important part of the competition for us.
Near future--Royal Conservatory judging and then dance recital. Conservatory judging should be fairly easy, although it requires things I never learned (what is the minor key relative to C major, playing several different minor and major scales, and other such things). What really matters is that it is a real pleasure to listen to Samuel as he "gets" a piece. The initial tink-tink-tinkling on the keyboard, and then, as he has a sense of the piece, the integration of his own expression of the piece in terms of dynamics and some quality that I can't name that is greater than merely playing the notes. There is, somehow, an expression or feeling that I know I never had when playing my instrument. (But then what would you expect of a person who shares the instrumental choice of Squidward Tentacles?
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:38 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack