Mel Foster > Recent Status Updates

Good. But if anything I wish it were even more comprehensive. I'm not going to finish by the end of the year but that's ok.

This has been mostly great so far. We're really appreciating the letters of Ignatius of Antioch right now.

I returned it to the library unfinished some years ago. Keep thinking I'll get back to it but probably not.

Listening to the Tom Parks audiobook on Hoopla.

I listened to it once. It sounded great. Then I found a Miaphysite critique of it so I'll have to go back again and see what I think.

I'm listening to James T. Majewski's audio (apparently not yet among the dozens of editions on Goodreads). This is really good. I admit that over the years this book kept cropping up but I avoided reading it because first of its timing as a Catholic devotional book from the Counter-Reformation, and also because no one I knew shared a passion for it. But it will be valuable to re-read, journal, and pray upon.

Well I enjoyed the idea of this book and its introduction. But I got bogged down in the academic flavor of the essays. I'm so into earlier patristics right now that I don't know if I will get back to finish it.

Great book! However, one very off-putting act of Gatiss as editor was to change every singular pronoun, in the Homilies or even the scripture, to 'they.' This has resulted in confusion and complications in numerous places. He said in the Crossway interview that he 'lightly edited,' and indicated that he removed archaic language. Pluralizing every singular pronoun is more the work of an ungendering culture warrior.

Listening via Catholic Culture audiobooks, Spotify. Among the plethora of listings here on Goodreads, many are pieces of S of H (just the visions, just the parables) or pieces of pieces (vision 1) or pieces + commentary, or the whole Hermas PLUS other works of the fathers.
My short summary of the repeating pattern so far: Guide: here are 12 things that are nearly alike. Hermas: Can you explain? G: Are you stupid?

I know. I have a lot of books going that I haven't finished.
In the first sections of this book Andrade evaluates The Acts of St. Thomas (in multiple forms) to show its date and some confidence problems with the facts. This is because of the influence that book has had on views of evangelization of India. In the second he discusses the 'many Indias' of the late antique Mediterranean world--Aksum, Arabia, etc.

Reading during family time.

Headings looked decent. But he takes strange stands. "the early Church disdained riches" based on Acts 2. 24. He wades into the ransom atonement theory without clarifying other views 22 as well as pronouncing against predestinationism, chalking it all up to a translation misunderstanding 77.
I'm seeking recommendations for a History of Christianity volume for high school aged homeschool students for next year.

Really great read. Beats out most modern devotionals.

As thoughtful, careful, and well written as I anticipated, given what I have seen of Neil Shenvi in his articles and social media posts. This is one of this year's books that I would have liked to have voted for in the so-called "Goodreads Choice" vote, but of course it is not an option.

Can't help but notice his takes on blacks & Native Americans which haven't aged well & would be incendiary in our time. Probably most shocking is his unilateral portrayal of Chinese immigration as a bad thing. He does incisively point out the hypocrisy of the Reconstruction republicans who wanted to enforce greater rights for southern black citizens than they were willing to grant in their own states in the north.

I have to wonder about Alcott on this dissonance. In ch 34 A Friend, Bhaer provokes guilt in Jo, memories of Father's instruction, and a resolve to avoid the baser sort of romance writing& its moral degradation. But in ch 35, Jo rebuffs Laurie's proposal with this romance-novel stuff about "oh we've been best friends and all but I could never love you like that" and as far as I know this assertion is left standing.

It just occurred to me to contrast the portrayal of the Civil War in LW with that in The Red Badge of Courage that we will read later.
Two larger ideas worth diving deep on this one--the heavy allusion and reference to Pilgrim's Progress (as a child I missed a lot of this since I hadn't read Pilgrim's Progress), and contrasting play and childhood as portrayed in the novel with today's play.

I read this as a child, and some of the social mores seemed quite stiff and far away. (And I completely missed the saturation by Pilgrim's Progress.) Now I wonder how alien to the modern child must appear a culture where children are present with those in the same room, where they learn to self-entertain, and to enjoy the simple gifts of life. For all this it is so much more valuable a read than it was 25 yrs ago.