An accidental blog

"If God is sovereign, then his lordship must extend over all of life, and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the church or within the Christian orbit." Abraham Kuyper Common Grace 1.1.

Sunday 27 February 2011

Defiant Joy by Kevin Belmonte - a review

Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life and Impact of G. K. Chesterton
Kevin Belmonte
Thomas Nelson, 2010
336 pp; £10.99; pbk
978-1595552013

Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936) is a multi-faceted character. He is a detective writer, a biographer, an apologist, a poet, a cultural critic among many other things. He has been called an 'apostle of common sense' (Dale Ahlquist), 'a theologian' (Aidan Nichols) and 'a prophet for the twentieth century' (Aidan Mackey). Numerous biographies have been written about him. So why the interest in him and why another biography? Particularly as a major biography is soon to be released in 2011 by Ian Ker published by OUP.

What makes this book by Belmonte, stand out? This is not a biography in the normal sense of the word - its first chapters are biographical covering the period form his birth through his 'dark night of the soul' while at the Slade school of Art, his marriage to Frances Blogg and his career as a journalist and writer (chapters 1-4). The rest of the book looks at Chesterton's key work in chronological order and uses them to look at the man and, as the subtitle suggests, his impact. Thus it provides an interesting slant on a biography and we get a fuller look at Chesterton's work than we would in a traditional biography.

Belmonte makes good use of secondary sources - he utilises at least ten other biographies. He also draws upon contemporary reviews and criticisms of Chesterton's work; this serves well to place Chesterton's work in its cultural milieu. It is fascinating to read what H L Mencken, G B Shaw and T S Elliott made of Chesterton.

There is a helpful timeline and bibliography, there are 29 pages of notes, but, unfortunately, no index.

This is a great starting book for those who want to get to know better the life and works of G K Chesterton.



Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Saturday 26 February 2011

Reformed academic reviews of Calvin and culture

Reformed Academic are posting a series of reviews of each the chapters of David W. Hall and Marvin Padgett, Calvin and Culture: Exploring a Worldview (P&R, 2010)

Chapter 1 History
Chapter 2 Law
Chapter 3 Art
Chapter 4 Economics
Chapter 5 Literature
Chapter 6 Philosophy

Other chapters will no doubt follow.

Clifford Stoll on computers in school

Sunday 20 February 2011

John Lennox and Peter Atkins - debate

Is intelligent design a lazy option? Or does science increase the evidence for design?
God and science or God or science?

Thursday 3 February 2011

Herman Dooyewerd's Collected Works

The Reformational Publishing Project and Paideia Press are working hard to get out the Collected works of Herman Dooyeweerd out at an affordable price.


Crisis in de Humanistische Staatsleer
has been translated and recently published at £7. More details here.

Also forthcoming are the following.
(Thanks to Danie Strauss for providing the contents of each one)


  The Historical and two Systematic Volumes of the Encyclopedia of the Science of Law contents

  The collection of Essays on Time, Law and History contents

  Essays on the Transcendental Criticism

  Volume II of Reformation and Scholasticism in Philosophy: An Introduction to the anthropology of the philosophy of the cosmonomic idea contents

  Volume III of Reformation and Scholasticism: Philosophy of nature and philosophical anthropology

contents

  Dooyeweerd’s Inaugural Address contents

  Philosophy and theology