I just finished reading The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larsen. Wow, what a book! It is the story of the Chicago world's fair of 1893--The Columbian Exposition--and also the very sad tale of a psychopath who killed perhaps 27 or more people during that time. The book is a little gruesome in parts, but as a piece of cultural history it is utterly fascinating. I should say that most of the book is taken up with an inspiring account of the building of the Chicago fair, which was an engineering achievement of grand proportions. It is a tale full of stunning details, amazing individuals, and the sights and sounds of Gilded Age Chicago.

The AD Reading Plan

A couple of years back I spent some time reading a series of interlocking biographies in American history. I began with the first generation of European settlers, reading a life of John Winthrop. The idea is to follow each biography with another of someone whose lifespan overlaps with the previous subject, but a younger man whose life story carries the reader further along the timeline, as it were. Each life intersects somehow with the one before and after, and in this way one may read through the history of a nation by reading lives.

Well, perhaps you've got to be kind of intense about reading, like me, to find this reading plan compelling. The way I see it, I'm going to be reading books for the rest of my life anyway, so I might as well have a plan.

Okay, so I'm ready to start again. But I'm feeling more ambitious this time. The last time I did this, I cycled through several centuries of American history. But let's broaden the canvas. Perhaps I'll start this time with someone from the first century . . . we'll call it the AD Reading Plan. Then read through 2000 years of intersecting lives. Is it even possible?

Hmmm, looks like I'd better get started. See you later!

"Books and Culture" Again

How is Evangelical Christianity nearly indistinguishable from "the world" that it so often claims to be "in but not of"? [What a laugh!] Let me count the ways . . . no, on second thought, let me not. It would be too depressing. On the other hand, let's do read Books & Culture, the mission of which seems to be to reintroduce a lively intellectual honesty into the Christian dialogue. Example: this article about the gross misuse of statistics in order to draw a consumer response. [Funny, that sounds just like, Hmm, "the world."] For a sample, I'm going to cut to the chase, where author Christian Smith pegs the problem with commendable precision:

But I suspect that to squarely address this question, the self-criticism and raising of standards needs to go deeper. The real question is not whether evangelicals can clean up their statistical act. The deeper question is whether American evangelicals can learn to live without the alarmism that is so comfortably familiar to them. Evangelicals, by my observation, thrive on fear of impending catastrophe, accelerating decay, apocalyptic crises that demand immediate action (and maybe money). All of that can be energizing and mobilizing. The problem is, it also often distorts, misrepresents, or falsifies what actually happens to be true about reality. And to sacrifice what is actually true for the sake of immediate attention and action is plain wrong. It should be redefined as a very un-evangelical thing to do.

New "Books and Culture" Column by Alan Jacobs

Alan Jacobs, one of our finest essayists, has begun a regular column for Books and Culture. It's called Rumors of Glory, and the first installment is going to get you thinking. Literate, stimulating, and signifcant. Want a sample?

one of the peculiarities of fallen human nature is that we find it difficult, over the long haul anyway, to remember that there is a world of difference between "I have no control over this" and "this isn't very important." We tend, against all reason, to diminish the importance of everything we cannot shape or direct. But our joy will be short if it is grounded in circumstances and events, because circumstances and events always change: if they please us now, they will displease us later. And then what will we do?

There, now go read the whole thing.