Do great books always make great movies?

Austen is nothing if not acerbic and funny, her best dialog a fountainhead for the kind of writing that would take wing a century later in the work of Wilde, Huxley, and Coward — which may help to explain why she was so long in finding a devoted audience. Austen raises characterization to an audacious pitch, almost to the level of Moliére in the instance of Mr. Collins.The 1940 film, in which Austen's wit is augmented by Huxley's, was one of the funniest chamber comedies of its day, and remains so today.
In contrast, there are few laughs and no wit in the 2005 version...(read)

Favourite Hymn #13

The Church’s One Foundation

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.

She is from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

The Church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against both foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed:
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song!

’Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won,
With all her sons and daughters
Who, by the Master’s hand
Led through the deathly waters,
Repose in Eden land.

O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
rForever shall abide!

Books to read

Reynolds has also provided a list of books he deems essential reading ranging from preschool to high school.

I gotta get me some book learnin'

He's a tad too politically conservative for my taste but I like John Mark Reynold's take on education

Tim Keller's 9/11 Sermon

This short sermon is just one example of why Tim Keller is probably my favourite pastor/preacher.

Ben Witherington on Wealth

See his top ten reasons why God doesn't want you wealthy and the comments they drew.

Christian singleness

Scot McKnight started a post on singleness and has drawn a number of responses.

via GiCurlz

Neuroticism 92???? What the...actually that's about right.



My Personality

Neuroticism	92
Extraversion	1
Openness To Experience	26
Agreeableness	28
Conscientiousness	14

Test Yourself Compare Yourself View Full Report Bebo, MySpace Codes and MySpace Layouts by Pulseware Survey Software

You are introverted, reserved, and quiet with a preference for solitude and solitary activities. Your socializing tends to be restricted to a few close friends. You can be very easily upset, even by what most people consider the normal demands of living. People consider you to be extremely sensitive and emotional. As a practical person you like to think in plain and simple terms. Others describe you as down-to-earth, practical, and conservative. People see you as tough, critical, and uncompromising and you have less concern with others' needs than with your own. You like to live for the moment and do what feels good now. Your work tends to be careless and disorganized.

This report compares you to other men between the ages of 21 and 40 in Canada. It analyses you based on each of the five broad personality domains of the Five-Factor Model (Goldberg, L R. 1999), and the six sub domains at each level.

Now hear this

I've been enjoying William Lane Craig's Stob Lectures that he gave at Calvin College a couple of years ago on the necessity of apologetics.

Refreshments will follow the service...some of you may want to pass the plate (if you know what I mean)

Airplane and car manufacturers are designing bigger seats to accomodate larger bodies. Pew makers might have to follow this trend. (Link)

The axeman cometh

Guitars weren’t made for sissies (though if you are a sissy don’t let that stop you from picking one up. With regard to my own sissy quotient, uh, let me get back to you on that…)

Amazon Wishlists

I've added my Amazon Wishlist items on the sidebar. These are merely books and albums/DVDs that I'd like to read/hear/view, even possibly own. Not that I'm asking anyone to buy them for me, though you could if you wanted to (ha! fat chance eh?) I'd say I've read/heard/viewed about 10 to 20 percent of the lists, exclusively by borrowing from the library. I'll keep adding to them from time to time.

Republic

I finally finished Plato’s Republic. It only took eight months (or so). And Simon Blackburn has written this piece on the Republic.

More articles

Here are three interesting articles linked at Arts and Letters Daily:

Blood on the Tracks
Jolt Culture has Twice the Trivia
The Forbidden Experiment

Favourite Hymn #14

Holy, Holy, Holy

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.

Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power, in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

Witherington on 'Critical Scholarship'

Ben Witherington has a post explaining why skepticism is not the same as critical scholarship.

Science and faith

Here's an interview with Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project

Book Meme

I was tagged (surprising since only so many people know that I exist…however).

1. One book that changed your life:
Beyond the Cosmos by Hugh Ross. The book itself was interesting (all about superstring theory, extra-dimensions and their theistic implications ); but it included an 800 number to Ross’s organization at the back of the book. I called the number, received their catalog, and was suddenly exposed to an abundance of books on science and philosophical apologetics that, up till then, I had been ignorant of. Those books later led me to read works by Alvin Plantinga and other Christian philosophers, as well as scientists such as Fritz Schaeffer and John Polkinghorne (though I make no claims to understanding much of what they wrote). The upshot was that my faith, which was flagging at the time got an energized boost. And the way that Ross’s book ended in my hands was rather strange as well, almost providential even.

2. One book that you've read more than once: Not counting the Bible, I’d have to say Mere Christianity. I received it as a gift and it sat on my shelf for almost 12 years before I actually read it.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island:
Not counting the Bible, I’d have to say Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Ron Tacelli. It’s interesting reading but also fairly light. I would have said the Norton Shakespeare but it’s just too heavy (It would have sunk to the bottom of the ocean before I could get it ashore). A close second might be How to Build an Emergency Coconut Radio by the Professor from Gilligan’s Island.

4. One book that made you laugh: On the Road with the Archangel by Frederick Buechner. Also, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Also, Canterbury Tales.

5. One book that made you cry:
The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

6. One book you wish had been written: A Beginner’s Guide to Living Life Without Looking Like or Being a Fool (on the other hand maybe Proverbs qualifies). Also, the sequel to Brothers Karamazov.

7. One book you wish had never been written: The Communist Manifesto. Also the Late Great Planet Earth. Also Left Behind.

8. One book you're currently reading:
Dog Creek: A Place in the Cariboo by Hilary Place

9. One book you've been meaning to read: Summa Theologia but I may have to settle for reading Kreeft’s Summa of the Summa.

10. Tag 5 others:
Do I even know 5 other people? Eh, you know who you are.

Power to Will

If you don’t have enough willpower, this article tells why.

A Method of Evangelism

Tim Keller has written a short piece on how to do evangelism/apologetics with urbans/postmoderns.