Religion-Philosophy – Page 4 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-Up Thinker

By Scott J. Pearson | April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

John Polkinghorne is a respected professor of physics at Cambridge University who became an Anglican priest. The President Emeritus of Queen’s College, he is well-known for his understanding of common terrain between science and religion. This book contains the text of the 1993-94 Gifford Lectures and describes his theological belief system. This belief system roughly aligns with Christian orthodoxy. This text explains how he studiously came to these beliefs as he explains why he eschewed…

Sunflowers Beneath the Snow

By Scott J. Pearson | February 27, 2022February 27, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

As I write, Russian troops are invading the independent nation of Ukraine. This backdrop compelled me to hurry up to read this book for insight into the current conflict, and I am glad I did. It tells a complex tale of three generations of Ukrainian women trying to make a life amidst international strife. The coincidences are stultifying, but the author claims that the general narrative is true. The story reminds us of the enduring…

Kids Religion-Philosophy

The Good for Nothing Tree

By Scott J. Pearson | December 28, 2021December 28, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

It’s easy for children to feel as if they are “good for nothing” because they do not commonly make as significant of societal contributions like adults. Sometimes, forgotten in a Christian, technological culture is that care and nurture are required for all things to bloom. This book, based on one of Jesus’ parables from Luke 13.6-9, reminds us all – children and adults alike – of the value of love so that things can grow.…

Religion-Philosophy Science

Belief in God in an Age of Science

By Scott J. Pearson | December 27, 2021December 27, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Religious belief and science are often put at odds with each other in contemporary society and popular culture. One needs only to listen to fundamentalist preachers or read newspapers about anti-vaccine protestors to think that these groups are forever at odds. Further, the histories of religious wars and persecutions turn many educated, reality-based citizens off of the religious path. To this situation, Polkinghorne offers a detente by suggesting that the two fields are cousins in…

Biography-Memoir Religion-Philosophy

Beautifully Broken

By Scott J. Pearson | December 21, 2021December 21, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

To preface, my wife and I are involved in the organization that the authors helped to found in Nashville, Tennessee, but what this essay lacks in objectivity, I hope to regain in honest intimacy. This memoir relates the story of how Hartley’s family escaped the “Brentwood Bubble” (Brentwood is a well-to-do suburb of Nashville) while encountering the Mwizerwas. Having fled the genocide in Rwanda during the 1990s, the Mwizerwas became refugees in Nashville and rebuilt…

Economics Management-Business Religion-Philosophy

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

By Scott J. Pearson | October 17, 2021October 17, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

For my job, I work in a technical field with high-level people in medical research who make important decisions that impact many. Thus, though I am not a primary decision-maker, anything I can do to better understand their mindsets and the impact of their decisions benefits my organization and my career. It is with this perspective that I approach this book. In it, Taleb uses a rare philosophical approach to business by addressing how we…

Religion-Philosophy Software-Technology

The Question Concerning Technology by Martin Heidegger

By Scott J. Pearson | September 26, 2021October 20, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Technology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries can be as much of a problem as a help. As an instrument, it can make mass killing much easier. Indeed, nuclear bombs enable the world to potentially destroy itself in less than an hour. Yet technology can enable human flourishing as well. For instance, I develop software professionally that I hope will help my domain (medical research) advance. How are we to understand technology, a concept as…

Religion-Philosophy

The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross

By Scott J. Pearson | August 1, 2021August 1, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

I studied this book with my Presbyterian Sunday School class over the summer of 2021. It contains a long prologue, seven short meditations on Jesus’ seven last words from the Cross, and an epilogue. Meacham speaks from the Christian Episcopal tradition, one that respects the Bible but does not embrace Biblical literalism. At several points, he acknowledges the “mystery” or “uncertainty” of faith. He also talks at length about the value of partaking of regular…

Biography-Memoir Religion-Philosophy Writing-Communication

Albert Camus and the Human Crisis

By Scott J. Pearson | July 25, 2021July 25, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Albert Camus is one of my favorite literary figures of all time. I favor authors rooted in the Christian and classical literary traditions, and Camus fits this description well – even though he made no profession of faith after childhood. (Another fascinating and controversial book contends that Camus sought baptism just before his sudden death.) To me, Camus’ words capture the human condition very well. This biography, born out of college classes Meagher taught, attempts…

History Religion-Philosophy

Christ in Camp & Combat: Religious Work in the Confederate Armies

By Scott J. Pearson | July 18, 2021July 18, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

The American Civil War comprises one of the most complex stories in a complex nation’s almost-250-year history. Further, the Christian religion is its own complex entity, even when just restricted to the southern states. In this work, Peterson seeks to combine both subjects in a study of the work of chaplains in the Confederate armies. He does a detailed job in collecting primary sources about southern religiosity during the war. However, on the historical front,…