Most of the literature on secularization tends to focus on its character as an assumed and necessary effect of modernization. What is particularly intriguing is that very little in the way of substantiating this claim is ever presented in the literature. It is a theoretical hypothesis that intuitive experience appears to confirm if we look [...]
Posts under ‘Book Reviews’
best of 08: an exercise in irrelevance
I have already posted my top 15 albums of the year here. Here are a few other random favorites. BOOKS Fiction – The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler Social Theory – The Sacred Canopy by Peter Berger Social History – The Age of Abundance by Brink Lindsey Education – The Decline of the [...]
I Don't Get The Shack and I Don't Get the Fuss
Why is The Shack so bloody popular right now and why in the world did Eugene Peterson compare it to the classic allegory The Pilgrim's Progress? Why is it that whatever Oprah picks up it suddenly becomes gold and true, filled with inspiration and truth? I have read some of the books in her book [...]
Falling Man: An Early Review
I was in suspended animation having my teeth cleaned. Pricked and scrubbed with the forceful persistence of sterile steel tools and empathy from an hygenist who understood how miserable the whole experience could be. The Pentagon already compromised. The suction tool in my mouth. Vacuuming out the refuse of my teeth. The report came over [...]
Book Review: Consumed
Benjamin Barber's primary thesis in Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole is that marketing that reinforces adolescent behavior in adults and seeks to make children more usable consumers. This marketing is continually reinforced by a privatized capitalist system that undermines civil liberty and citizenship at the expense of consumer behaviors. [...]
