Religion-Philosophy – Page 6 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Biography-Memoir History Religion-Philosophy

Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mohandas K. Gandhi

By Scott J. Pearson | August 26, 2020August 26, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Gandhi’s name sticks out in bold in twentieth-century history. Words associated with this great include India, non-violence, independence, integrity, and freedom. Yet those (like me) who have been schooled in a different religious tradition (for me, Protestant Christianity) might not be aware of the depth of Gandhi’s greatness because of differing idioms. That’s why I originally picked up this book, and that’s why I suggest that your reading of this book is important, too. Gandhi…

Religion-Philosophy

Can I Believe? An Invitation to the Hesitant

By Scott J. Pearson | August 7, 2020August 7, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Despite the academic publisher, this book is essentially a defense of (a conservative version of the) Christian faith to skeptics. Stackhouse deals with defending religion in general, but he obviously addresses Christianity in the most detail. Despite his expertise in teaching world religions, these other religions receive only superficial treatment. I take issue with Stackhouse’s description of Christianity in chapter 2. It contains a description of conservative Western Christianity. He does not describe progressive and…

Fiction-Stories History Poetry Religion-Philosophy

The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton

By Scott J. Pearson | June 15, 2020June 16, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

This poem attempts to mark a great historical event in English history. It does so not by chronicling history but by celebrating the human spirit. King Alfred the Great, against all odds, defeated Danish invaders in the year 878. The Battle of Ethandune went a long way in establishing the constitutional unity of an English people. Chesterton, writing over a millennium later, sought to use his prodigious talents to excite the English people to embrace…

History Religion-Philosophy

The Idea of History by R.G. Collingwood

By Scott J. Pearson | June 13, 2020June 13, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

What makes history tick and what turns history into human progress? These questions have been explicitly asked by philosophers since the Enlightenment, and historian R.G. Collingwood adds his voice to the mix in this classic work. He summarizes how we understand history since its recording began. In each epoch in the Western tradition, he outlines the major players and then provides his critique on their limitations. Unfortunately, Collingwood’s analysis is, too, limited by his era.…

Poetry Religion-Philosophy

The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation

By Scott J. Pearson | May 24, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Dante’s Divine Comedy is famously organized into three sections: hell (inferno), then purgatory, and finally paradise. The first section (hell) is generally considered the greatest of the three, and Robert Pinsky attempts to re-translate the verses in this edition. Dante intentionally wrote the Divine Comedy in the Italian of commoners (instead of the Latin of scholars) so that the masses could read it. Therefore, it is appropriate for Pinsky to translate the Inferno in a…

Biography-Memoir Religion-Philosophy Writing-Communication

Spiritual Quests: The Art and Craft of Religious Writing

By Scott J. Pearson | May 12, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

This book is the manicured transcript of an event in New York City in the 1980s. This seminar featured six prominent writers influenced by different faith traditions. They spoke on how their religious beliefs/practices changed the way they wrote. By commenting on a practice as timeless as writing, this account captures much of religious writers’ sentiments towards their craft. All of these six speeches were interesting. They covered faith traditions as disparate as Roman Catholicism,…

Fiction-Stories History Poetry Religion-Philosophy

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

By Scott J. Pearson | April 12, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Dante’s famous The Divine Comedy lies at the intersection of art and theology. I love artful renditions of theology. Further, it is known as the best work of poetry ever to grace the language of Italian. Therefore, I decided to look for a good translation. I’ve enjoyed Longfellow’s poetry in the past, and when I saw that he undertook an adaptation, I chose to give it a go. Unfortunately, Longfellow seemed to stick a little…

Religion-Philosophy Society

Christianity and Culture by TS Eliot

By Scott J. Pearson | January 18, 2020January 18, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

I first read these essays while a senior at college. Now, about twenty years later, I reread them in a study on the English poet TS Eliot. Eliot uses language very carefully, as any poet should, but he is a poet approaching the world of an anthropologist. Further, he writes in an era (pre- and post-World-War-II) in which European culture was pulled apart at the seams and remade again. Eliot himself is an American transplant…

Fiction-Stories Religion-Philosophy

The Power and the Glory

By Scott J. Pearson | December 13, 2019December 13, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

I picked up this highly regarded work because I like books that put an interesting spin on meaning-of-life issues and religion in general. I had heard that this book was ranked as one of the greatest 100 books written in English in the twentieth century. It did not disappoint. The author Greene was a Englishman who travelled in Mexico – the setting of this novel. He wrote about a “whisky priest” – an alcoholic. The…