Peter Parslow > Recent Status Updates

“the goal of the Christian life is not simply to get us into heaven, but to get heaven into us!”

Amazing to see a ship and some characters from Patrick O’Brian’s Mauritius Command, which I had just read

A little muddled in wording occasionally but another fun page turner

Generally a good read, accepting the author’s thoroughly materialistic view of life.

But his discussions of sexual orientation and gender differences seem so keen to accept the current momentum of western society that he doesn’t even mention some of the most obvious possible explanations, even to debunk them.
(Hitting word limit so will explain later)

11th impression, 1965

Chapter 1, in which a bizarre determinist asserts that relativity proves him right before hoping that people will behave better as a result - seemingly missing the irony of thinking that his readers might decide what to do.

Absolute determinism is so counter intuitive I have yet to see someone own it fully

1954 edition, 1965 impression

Curious, sometimes meandering - but that’s possibly deliberate. Powerful stuff and lots of believable data.

But from things I know, and could check, at least once he’s “economical with the truth”: when the Chubbs gifted the land to the government “to be held for the nation”, they did say people should have “free access” … but “on payment of a sum”!

Time to restart, with the rest of the series read

A bit tedious at times. At other times, annoying. But I suspect there are some good ideas in here.

Turns out to be the sixth in the series!

Hang on, this is book three!

A largely annoying book with some good bits.

I am not clear who it was written for; as “apologetics”, I think it was written for Christians. Very specifically politically right wing US American Christians.

For anyone else, he undermines himself by routinely having a dig at “the left” to the extent of describing anything he disagrees with as “leftist”.

So far, rather annoying - he allows his dislike of anything "politically left" to get in the way of his stated aim of providing a Christian apologetic. Perhaps that's because his audience appears to be right wing (conservative) Americans - but why just bolster their prejudices?

For example, he says (early) that Christianity is purely anti-Marxist, rather than address the commonality e.g. polemic against greed.

Amazing to read that the Lunar Orbiter satellites of the 60s and 70s had automated film development labs & scanners. Without digital photography, how else could they get the pictures back to earth?

It’s not wise to read this out of order, in particular, some 45 years after reading Pigeon Post

The second essay on the legitimacy of Solomon’s claim to the throne takes an approach that even the author suggests may be a waste of time

The first essay, Genesis as Myth, is perhaps a child of its age. Published in 1965 and frankly bizarre and obsessed with interpreting everything as sex

As good as I remember. A holiday tale from more “innocent times”, when parents could let their children be children.

OK

Written just a few years ago by a friend of my son’s, this is a good but challenging look at how British Christians’ response to poverty needs to change.

Many of us need to check that our attitude matches the Jesus’s - matches the faith that we claim. Others of us need to do more to put good thoughts into action.

I am writing this for myself. Do read this book for yourself- and for your neighbour.

Written just a few years ago by a friend of my son’s, this is a good but challenging look at how British Christians’ response to poverty needs to change.

Many of us need to check that our attitude matches the Jesus’s - matches the faith that we claim. Others of us need to do more to put good thoughts into action.

I am writing this for myself. Do read this book for yourself- and for your neighbour.

A good end to an enjoyable series

It's been a while since I read book six, so it took me a bit of time to remember what's going on. Worth it, but don't start with book seven!

Some wonderful thought provoking reflections in prose & poetry

It could provide some good "persuaders" for the value of data quality management to an organisation.

The language is rather dry - in particular all the "reversed phrases" that pepper modern management-speak, but could be written in much more natural ways, such as "data quality strategy management" (one such phrase has seven words!). This makes it far from ideal to give to a "non-believer" to read for themselves

A collection of essays about how as Christians we could live & learn during this pandemic. Some interesting stuff - from theology to simple practical hints. Covers a range of aspects of living and dying; mourning & hoping.

It is beginning to drag, documenting Churchill's 'staying on' - perhaps he was right, perhaps he only felt validated by being in power?

From this account, he was right about a number of things - now the way the atomic & then hydrogen bomb re-drew the conceptual map of the world. I'm just about where they realise - and he tells the House of Commons - that Britain was dependant on the USA to survive.

Interesting to get Dr Moran's "inside track" on the talks between Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt. He says that Roosevelt brought Stalin onside by basically promising to work with him to "bring democracy" to the British colonies/empire. Churchill apparently reckoned that if we & the US didn't get to eastern Europe before Stalin, then Stalin would turn out to be worse than Hitler - he was probably right on that one!

I reckon it should have been published in small sections - to avoid being out of date before I get a chance to finish it & recommend it to others.

Good so far!