The last post of Volume II of this topic is here. I'm currently reading this: Vowell is a nut, but so smart.
Since mean Mr. Footix closed the last thread after my post, I will repost: First 50 pages have been excellent despite the horrible cover. here's the review from amazon.com: The spiritual traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Church are all but unknown to most Christians in the West, who often think of Christianity as split into two camps: Bible-based Protestantism and sacramental Catholicism. Yet in The Mountain of Silence, sociologist Kyriacos Markides suggests that Orthodox spirituality offers rich resources for Western Christians to integrate the head and the heart, and to regain a more expansive view of Christian life. The book combines elements of memoir, travelogue, and history in a single story. Markides journeys to a cluster of monasteries on Mount Athos, an isolated peninsula in northern Greece and one of the holiest sites in the Orthodox tradition. He also visits the troubled island of Cyprus, largely occupied by Turkey since 1974, and makes the acquaintance of a monk named Father Maximos, who has established churches, convents, and monasteries. Markides, a native Cypriot, tells the tale of this journey in a tone that's loose and light, with many excursions on Church history and Greek and Turkish politics. But despite the easygoing tone, the importance of this book is potentially immense. The Mountain of Silence introduces a world that is entirely new to many Western readers, and unveils a Christian tradition that reveres the mystical approach to God as much as the rational, a tradition that Markides says "may have the potential to inject Christianity with the new vitality that it so desperately needs."
Heard a lot in the news lately about "Flight of the Creative Class," so I thought I'd start with this first before I read "Flight."
Within the Catholic Church there are a lot of smaller communities which are part of the Greek instead of the Latin tradition, while maintaining community with Rome. They are often refered to as Greek Rite or Eastern Rite Catholics. I even believe there is one monastary on Mount Athos for Greek Catholics. Pope John Paul II was extremely respectful of the Eastern tradition in the church, and encouraged Latin Rite Catholics to occassionally attend Eastern Rite services and study Eastern Rite theology. I can remember a priest at my law school who absolutely hated the Eastern Rite tradition as overly mystical (he was a "progressive"). Pope John Paul's connection with the Eastern Catholics probably was a result of his Polish upbringing. Western Ukraine, once part of Poland, is Catholic, but uses a Slavonic liturgy (the Archbishop of Lov was considered a dark horse for the papacy). So the Pope was probably well versed in Eastern liturgy and belief. His papal letters often made reference to Eastern Christian theology.
There was an Eastern Rite Catholic parish in my hometown. I knew one of the priests there, he was a really cool guy. I also hear of them referred to as Melkites or Uniates. They have married priests like the Orthodox do right? Mount Athos is 100% Orthodox and an autonomous republic (you need a seperate visa to go there), but it is militarily protected by Greece. It is often referred to as "The Heart of Orthodoxy." It is pan-Orthodox though: Greek, Russian, Arabic, Romanian, Serb, Bulgarian, Georgian, American, African, Asian, etc. Monks from all over the world make their homes there. It has been interesting seeing the Papacy trying to engage Orthodoxy in recent years. The apology from JPII for the sack of Constantinople and the Crusades was important. Apparently the new pope is interested in trying to "connect" with the Orthodox Church as well. It'll be interesting to see how relations between Catholics and Orthodox are in the future.
For the first time in an age I had the afternoon to myself and not an unread book in the house. So I picked up an old copy of "God is an Englishman." It was released in 1970 but I was reluctant to read it then because of the title. Don't ask. it just irked me. Anyway I read it in the mid 70's and was pleasantly surprised, subsequently I read all Delderfield's books. Anyway after 30 years I started again and once again got sucked into his style. He's a very easy to read author, I know a lot of the history of the period and his story weaves in with it. And after that much time a lot of it is like a new book...
I saw an parts of an adaptation of Delderfield's To Serve Them All My Days on PBS about a decade ago, then went and read the book. It's not major, classic literature, but it's pretty far from a waste of time, too. The guy knows how to keep a story going, that's for sure. Just about done with Eric Idle's The Greedy Bastard Diary, which is very good. There are enough flashbacks that it's as much a memoir as it is a tour diary (in that respect he's ripping off former fellow Python Graham Chapman's book, A Liar's Autobiography, but I doubt if Graham's going to object). A minor character in the book is Fox Sports World, which Idle watches frequently from his tour bus. All this talk about Roman Catholic and Orthodox connections has led me to conclude that my next book will be Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom.
After reading the MelB and GT mano y mano thread a couple of weeks ago and reserved Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. About 75 pages through it right now. I'm going to watch the movie afterwards to compare them.
I've read that, but it's been ages and I would like to read it again. It seems like a lot of Catholics love this book eventhough it was written by a Russian Orthodox bishop. It was first recommended to me by a Catholic and I've heard several Catholic people say they love it. Is it frequently recommended by priests and/or the Catholic church in general?
Melkites are one of the eastern Catholic Churches. There are otehrs. Uniates are eastern churches which are in union with Rome. It gets its name due to the "Union" movement of the late Middle Ages. It began when the eastern churches, under threat from the Ottoman Empire, hoped that by ending the schisim with Rome, they might get Western assistance. The Union movement was not very popular among the Orthodox faithful and the term "Uniate" was originally one of abuse. Not all Eastern churches are Uniate. For example, the Maronites of Lebanon and Syria do not consider themselves Uniates because they like to point out that they never broke with Rome. There are a few smaller Eastern churches also not considered Uniate because while they may have at some point broken with Rome, it was for reasons unconnected with the Orthodox-Roman schisms and were short lived. The Eastern Churches generally (but not all) follow Orthodox prescriptions about married priests -- priests may be married if they were married before ordination, they may not remarry if widdowed, and, I believe, in most cases, bishops must be celibate. Some wonder why Catholic men who wish to marry do not get ordained in an Eastern Rite church. It is because technically you cannot. Technically, your rite follows your father's rite, with some exceptions.
There is a Maronite parish in my hometown too. One block away from the Melkites. (The Melkites food festival is better though! ) That's the deal with us too, except we don't ever have married bishops. Gotcha. You can't switch rites and become clergy? Doesn't that rule seem a bit archaic though? I actually had a friend drop out of Catholic seminary because he didn't want to be celibate. At the time I didn't know anything about the Eastern Rite, but apparently the suggestion wouldn't have done him any good.
A novellette that was not publish (outside of it's original magazine appearance) until relatively recently. Good, but not nearly as tight as Hammett at his best.
Just finished If you have kids you will find it funny and touching. Otherwise you will think it weird. Now reading this Very easy to read, almost conversational.
I've come across several references to it in books by RC priests and nuns, and I decided to read it because it was in the book drop the day I came across the above-mentioned posts (I'll often let coincidence/synchronicity determine my reading) (well, that and the fact that it's only 75 pages -- though I figured out shortly after I started it, it's not something to rip through.)
Finished this tonight (last night...however you want to say it.) It was quite good. As I heard someone say though, pay attention to the words of Fr. Maximos and take Markides' words with a grain of salt at times. I believe Markides to be sincere and devout, but he injects a bit too much comparison at times when it isn't appropriate or tries to make parrallels out of things that aren't, and sometimes just can't put the sociologist in himself aside. Despite that tiny disclaimer, it is an excellent, quick read that has some substantial things to say.
My wife and I checked out from our library the DVD of the A&E Biography episode on The Impressionists (which is damn good), so today I'm going to start reading Camille Pisarro's Letters to Lucien his oldest son. It will be my "read on break" books for awhile. I also found out this weekend that, instead of teaching two sections of Freshman comp this fall (that news was even better than the second half of the Fire match, and the USA/Costa Rica match COMBINED!), I'm teaching an intro to CW class and a "Masterworks of British and American Literature." Having never read Jane Austen, I'm going to take a look at Pride and Prejudice.
I'm hoping it works out so that I could do what most of the people who teach this class do: compare a classic to a contemporary. I'm leaning toward putting Pride and Prejudice on the syllabus and following it with High Fidelity. I don't know if Hornby would want to be considered a Masterwork of British Literature just yet... but it's a pretty decent novel.
Sorry, but books by Austin, the Brontes, etc are nothing more than the 19th Century equivilent of a Chick Flick.