Biography-Memoir – Page 17 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

The Confession of St. Patrick

By Scott J. Pearson | October 28, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

Translated by Charles H. WrightFifth century C.E. Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was a British heathen-turned-missionary who spent his life “civilizing” or “Christianizing” the Irish. Though affiliated with the Roman church, Patrick was remarkably free of scholastic learning. As such, he represents a distinct wing of the church’s intellectual tradition. While the Western church was becoming other-worldly (and overbearing), Patrick and his Irish converts emphasized the worldly usefulness of faith. This confession was…

Martin Luther: The Man who Rediscovered God and Changed the World

By Scott J. Pearson | October 25, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Eric MetaxasCopyright (c) 2017.AudiobookMartin Luther’s life is controversial any way you cut it. Fundamentalists (with whom Metaxas is sympathetic) like to claim Luther as one of their own because of his insistence on Scriptural primacy. (They like to call it Scriptural authority, but such concepts were not present within Luther’s writings.) Liberals like to claim him because he broke free from institutional chains to usher in the freedom which founded to modern world. Unfortunately,…

Biography-Memoir Science

Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism

By Scott J. Pearson | October 10, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Mario BiagioliCopyright (c) 1993. This work, now considered the definitive treatment on the Galileo saga where he was silenced for arguing for the Copernican view that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around, argues that the setting of Galileo’s story has never been well-considered. He was a courtier. He lived under the patronage of various rulers of his day and had to produce great wonders for them. As such,…

Biography-Memoir Humanities Religion-Philosophy

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

By Scott J. Pearson | October 1, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Eric MetaxasCopyright (c) 2011.Audiobook. This book has been on my to-read list for a while, and it feels good to finally cross it off. Bonhoeffer’s story is worth sharing. Educated as a theologian, raised as a scientist under a German psychiatrist, Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived his life in rejection of the German state-church which was coopted under Adolf Hitler. He is a reminder of what living a life in the Resistance is like. Along the…

Biography-Memoir Science

Isaac Newton

By Scott J. Pearson | June 16, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by James GleickCopyright 2003 Sir Isaac Newton ranks among history’s greatest geniuses. For inventing modern physics. For overturning Aristotle’s hegemony upon thought. For co-inventing calculus (as an introduction to physics). For being more into theology and alchemy than physics. His treasure-trove of personal writings – kept hidden until near the middle of the twentieth century – show this man to be, like Luther before him, the last of the great medievalists who birthed the movement…

Biography-Memoir Science

Galileo

By Scott J. Pearson | June 12, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Bertolt BrechtCopyright 1966 This book, as the introduction delineates, was originally written in Fascist Germany whose attitude towards science and knowledge in general paralleled the ignorance of the Papacy in Galileo’s era. Then in a post-atomic-bomb world with two superpowers on the brink, Brecht adapted this play into a new set of concerns about the “fruit” of knowledge. As such, in our era of Trumpian ignorance and North Korean nuclear ambition (two parties who…