High-Quality Christmas

Before the Christmas season gets too far behind me, I have to comment on some high-quality items I received. Now, I received many other high-quality items beyond the following list-- but it really is more difficult to blog about cool ties and coats than books and DVDs. Without further ado, the top-notch list includes:

1) The Road, by Cormac McCarthy: The author of Blood Meridian drops another 500-pound bomb of a novel. He's the best American fiction writer alive today. Most of his work reads like a potent mix of the Old Testament, Homer, Dante, and William Faulkner.

2) In the Bedroom: If there's one thing I hate about some movies, it's when a director tries to get too philosophical at the expense of telling a good story. In the Bedroom starts with telling a good story, which proceeds naturally into big picture questions of Justice, Law, Forgiveness and Revenge, without getting pretentious. (Spoiler alert: do not expect a happy ending to this one).

3) The Great Omission, by Dallas Willard: Willard is a professor of philosophy at USC, who happens to be a powerful Christian teacher as well. Nothing but simple, straightforward explication of the words of Jesus himself. This book (in addition to his earlier Divine Conspiracy) will challenge recently entrenched notions about what it means to be a "Christian". Willard is the like the scribe Jesus mentions who receives the Holy Spirit, drawing out what is old and new.

4) The Histories, by Herodotus: For those of us who believe in the maxim, "Multiculturalism begins at home." Or, to paraphrase Chaim Potok, you have to learn your own history and culture before you can learn someone else's (this may seem an odd conclusion for many who know my lifelong interest in other cultures). Herodotus is next in line in a reading series we're in the middle of on the Great Books of Western Civilization, following the historical line of literature produced by Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and now the sovereign citizens of the United States of America. And yes, given the pace of life these days, it will take years to complete this list. Year one is already in the bag.

BC