For those of you into “heavy lifting” on topics of religion, literature, philosophy etc. Check out the excellent book review in First Things this month. Edward Oakes discusses the ubiquitous Stanley Fish’s book “How Milton Works.” It is not necessarily a quick or easy read for the uninformed but it does deal with some fascinating and important issues surrounding faith, knowledge, and religion. For example: Can rationality and empiricism lead one to God’s existence or does a belief in God lead one to search for empirical or rational “proof” of that existence? Should one be obedient to God because he is good or because he is God? These and other fascinating theological, philosophical, and literary questions also relate back to a 1996 give and take in the pages of First Things between Fish and editor Richard John Neuhaus. It is articles like this that make me long for graduate school – where ideas seem to take on real meaning and debates on important questions can be had regularly.
If you haven’t checked out First Things you really should – reliably thought provoking and well written material every month.
For those of you into
