2010-06-23 2300: I need to get caught up blogging about books I've been reading.
I've been reading about religion. Two particular books I've read on religion were recommended to me by my brother Tom (who is an Episcopal deacon in Portland). One of these was by Marcus and Borg, The Last Week, which traces the last week of the life of Jesus. They point out interesting political implications of events such as Palm Sunday, where Jesus enters Jerusalem in what the authors interpret as a pointedly political manner—a procession of peace and love in contrast to the procession of Herod, who would have been entering Jerusalem for Passover in a grand and intimidating military procession. Another book my brother recommended was Mysteries of the Middle Ages, by Thomas Cahill. I was very impressed by this book; it was extremely interesting and enjoyable to read. Cahill describes the lives of several well-known saints, such as St. Francis of Assisi, as well as artists and scholars, to explain how the values of our modern world grew out of the late medieval period.
A third book on a religious theme I've recently read was The Creed, by Luke Timothy Johnson. This book was quite interesting. It was intended to be for readers who have a liberal theological perspective, readers who might have trouble reciting the Nicene Creed on Sunday morning (as is done in the Episcopal Church). Johnson traces the historical development of the Creed; many of its rather odd or elaborate phrasing was introduced to block various heretical readings of Scripture. For example, the Creed affirms that Jesus was "begotten, not made," to indicate that Jesus was not merely a man who was then adopted or elevated by God to be his Son; Jesus was always his Son. Johnson explains how the Creed defines the Christian community and serves as a guide to a sound, orthodox reading of the Scriptures. To a large extent, Johnson succeeded in increasing my own understanding of the Creed as well as my comfort level in reciting it. Yet he doesn't always expect his readers to hold to a literal understanding of the entire Creed: he asks his liberal readers to believe that God has the power to effect a virgin birth, but he asks his conservative readers to consider reading that part of the Creed in a figurative manner. (My own trouble believing in the virgin birth is not in believing that God could have arranged for a parthogenetic birth, but rather in the clear evidence from the Bible itself that the original followers of Jesus didn't believe in the virgin birth: The two nativity stories in the Gospels are markedly different, and read like fiction; but St. Paul never mentions this doctrine—very strange given how much you would expect him to comment on it given its theological implications. St. Paul wrote about 30 years after Christ but Luke and Matthew were written decades later.)
I read another book by Luke Timothy Johnson last month: The New Testament: A Very Short Introduction. This is one of the Oxford University Press series of Very Short Introductions. I have half a dozen or more of the VSI's; some of them are very enlightening as well as very short. I thought this one would be worth reading because Johnson is relatively orthodox in his Christian beliefs (he is Roman Catholic); he is also a well-regarded scholar on the New Testament. His Introduction is new (published this year), so I hoped it would reflect current understanding on questions of authorship for various books in the New Testament. But it was a cautiously-written guide to a literary understanding of the books of the New Testament, understood as reflecting the experiences and perspectives of the communities that wrote them; the introduction was evidently too short to detail questions such as when the books of the New Testament were written and by whom.
I'm now finishing up yet another book on religion: Atheist Delusions, by David Bently Hart. This was written in reaction to the popular New Atheist writers, such as Christopher Hitchens. But rather than offer detailed rebuttals to these writers, Hart details the spread of Christianity in late antiquity, and how it humanized the Roman Empire. He also exonerates Christianity in the decline of ancient Greek science (it was already in decline long before the rise of Christianity), and he says the Renaissance was not the rebirth of ancient science so much as it was its final destruction—scholars from ancient times through the middle ages had a dogmatic attachment to Aristotle's natural philosophy, but Galileo and Newton overthrew that scientific world view. One particular point he makes concerns the Alexandrian mathematician and philosopher Hypatia. Carl Sagan told her story in his series Cosmos: a Christian mob killed her. But Hart says the real story is more complicated. It turns out that Hypatia and other pagan philosophers studied and worked with Christian philosophers; the Christians were not hostile to this kind of learning. Hypatia was killed for political reasons in an era when political violence was very common. Likewise, Hart says that stories of how Christians burned certain large ancient libraries, such as the one at a famous pagan temple called the Serapium, turn out to be unfounded.
But I haven't been only reading about religion the last month or two. A colleague recommended the techno-thriller Daemon by Daniel Saurez. The story involves an artificial intelligence that takes over corporate and military computer systems as part of a grand design by its late creator to fulfill his anarchist dreams. I might get around to readings its sequel Freedom when it appears in paperback. I read another thriller with a rather more prestigious pedigree: Thunderball, one of the famous James Bond novels by Ian Fleming. I enjoyed the novel, which was written in the early 1960s, but I was surprised that the 1965 movie version actually has more action and plot twists than the novel. A couple of my favorite sadistic but adolescent moments from the movie are not in the novel: The shark pool, and the scene where Bond kills an enemy agent with a spear gun ("He got the point!").
2010-06-20 1500: I was fortunate enough to be able to see the Moody Blues in concert last night. They gave a fine show; they played many of my favorite old songs of theirs, with a strong and confident beat. They played "Tuesday Afternoon," "Peak Hour," "Higher and Higher," "Gypsy," "Nights in White Satin" (of course!), "Questions," "I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band," and "Ride My Seesaw" (their encore). For me, the highlight of the concert was the song "Questions"; their rendition was rich and full of energy.
The band only has three of the original members left: Graeme Edge, Justin Hayward and John Lodge; their playing was fine even if their voices weren't what they used to be. They were backed up by four younger musicians, including a flute player (a woman who has taken Ray Thomas's place in the band), a second drummer, a woman who sang backing vocals, and a keyboardest (who takes the place of Mike Pinder, who along with Ray Thomas has also retired). Graeme Edge seemed to be having the most fun. At one point, he abandoned his drum kit to play tamborines at the front of the stage; he took the opportunity to make light of his age. This was to introduce his song "Higher and Higher."
The concert was at an outdoor venue, with about 1000 seats for reserved seating, and 500 seats in bleachers on the sides and in the back. I waited too long to get a reserved seat, but the bleacher on the right where I sat was not very far from the stage, and the sound quality (and volume of the sound) were fine. Loud but not too loud. The concert began as the sun set behind the nearby hills, and it was warm but pleasant. Lightning bugs, Venus and the Moon competed with the video projections behind the band. Those projections were sometimes suitably trippy, but often they were more like a Moody Blues-themed computer screen-saver.
The only negative to report about the concert is that it was only open to people 21 and over (apparently because they sold beer in the venue). I thought this was unfortunate, because it prevented the hordes of baby boomers there from bringing along their kids. In fact, I bought my ticket from a fellow who had bought his son, a boy of maybe 10, along; they couldn't attend. The concert was at Horseshoe, a casino in southern Indiana near Louisville. This is not a good place to go if you dislike cigarette smoke. I hope the band finds more wholesome venues for their concerts.
So I was glad to see the band. I saw them once before, circa 1979 in Portland, Oregon. I was delighted that they compared well with their incarnation thirty years ago. I hope I'm able to see them again someday.
Added 2010-06-23: I found out a playlist has been posted on the official Moody Blues fan web site (www.moodybluestoday.com):
THE VOICE DAY WE MEET AGAIN SLIDE ZONE GYPSY TUESDAY AFTERNOON LEAN ON ME NEVER COMES THE DAY PEAK HOUR I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE SOMEWHERE STORY IN YOUR EYES WILDEST DREAMS ISN'T LIFE STRANGE THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE DRIFTWOOD HIGHER AND HIGHER ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY SINGER IN A ROCK & ROLL BAND LATE LAMENT NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN QUESTIONS ENCORE: RIDE MY SEE SAW
2010-06-18 2030: I finally decided to buy a photograph of myself running the Papa Johns 10 Miler, taken by a certain company that takes pictures of all of the runners and offers the pictures for sale afterwards (by email to the race participants). So, here I am, as I was running down a hill in Iroquois Park. (The race was in April.)