Posted by Jeff Short on May 19, 2020 · Leave a Comment
The Paradox of the actor (annotated): Le paradoxe sur le comédien by Denis Diderot
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Investigating the concept,
l’esprit de l’escalier, led me to this book, but the reading of it yielded no insight. Diderot was a French philosopher and seemingly the incarnation of modernity. He was a passionate moralist, but his mechanistic view of the universe left him without any moral footing. He seems also to have practically invented modern internet discourse with his penchant for stream of consciousness composition, aversion to editing, resorting to inflamed outbursts when his reasoning failed to persuade, and his satisfaction with his rough draft if it amused himself and his friends. For Diderot, the beginning of wisdom was “not to reproach others for anything, not to repent of anything.” Henri Meister remembered Dierot as “rich, fertile, abounding in germs of every sort, but without any dominating principle, without a master and without a God.” Not quite Meister. Clearly, Diderot was his own god.
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Posted by Jeff Short on April 22, 2020 · Leave a Comment
The Homiletical Plot, Expanded Edition: The Sermon as Narrative Art Form by Eugene L. Lowry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Overall a pretty good book. The concept of narrative sermon has to do with final form for delivery. So, the parts of the book dealing with how to get a sermon idea were the weakest. He doesn’t underplay exposition or theology, but I think the readers might not take them seriously enough. I understand how speaking of the plot of the sermon could be confusing to some, but it needs to be worked through. You going to have to overlook somethings and other things you will need to discern principles and make your own applications. It is a good and helpful read.
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Why I Love the Apostle Paul: 30 Reasons by John Piper
A Prefect’s Uncle by P.G. Wodehouse
The Message of the Psalter: An Eschatological Programme in the Book of Psalm by David C. Mitchell
