Monday, December 30, 2019

Review: Never Try to Arouse Erotic Love Until . . .: The Song of Songs, in Critique of Solomon: A Study Companion

Never Try to Arouse Erotic Love Until . . .: The Song of Songs, in Critique of Solomon: A Study Companion Never Try to Arouse Erotic Love Until . . .: The Song of Songs, in Critique of Solomon: A Study Companion by Calvin G Seerveld
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A very surpriſiŋ — at leaſt to me — take on Ðe Soŋ of ſoŋs as a dramatic poem between a decadent, polygamous Salomon, ðe Shulamite he preſumably had kidnapped, ðe Shulamite’s country lover & a chorus of harem women. Starts very well, ðen wanders off a bit tryiŋ to find applications on friendſhip & ðe like, but ðen finiſhes well wiþ ðe Soŋ itſelf ſet dramatically.

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Friday, December 20, 2019

Review: Percevejos, ideólogos — e alguns escritores

Percevejos, ideólogos — e alguns escritores Percevejos, ideólogos — e alguns escritores by Rodrigo Gurgel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Eßencial. Entre recuperações de eſcritores injuſtamente olvidados, amiúde por motivos inconfeßáveis, e demolições de autores idolatrados, Gurgel expõe em crítica o que já expuſera como jurado do Jabuti — que Machado de Aßis continua certo em sua Teoria do medalhão.

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Saturday, November 30, 2019

Review: The Wandering Earth: Classic Science Fiction Collection

The Wandering Earth: Classic Science Fiction Collection The Wandering Earth: Classic Science Fiction Collection by Liu Cixin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very imaginative. But the author, being a man of his time, fails to transcend the already obsolete worries of global anthropogenic warming & deforestation; worse, he cavalierly dismisses transcendence as being an evolutionary result of our ‘surface’ civilisation.

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Monday, November 11, 2019

Review: The Remnant of Israel: The Theology, History, and Philosophy of the Messianic Jewish Community

The Remnant of Israel: The Theology, History, and Philosophy of the Messianic Jewish Community The Remnant of Israel: The Theology, History, and Philosophy of the Messianic Jewish Community by Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting book, but deeply flawed. Some flaws are more relevant than others. My guts & personal theological preferences would have me give only three stars, but for the questions it raised it gets four, even when I disagree with the answers.

The major flaw is that it pressuposes dispensationalism. It would be a oh-so-much better book if it dealt with different escathologies and covenantalisms. Specially fruitful would be explorations of new covenantalism, progressist covenantalism and Baptist 1689 federalism.

A minor irk is its use of Jewish forms of New testament names, such as Messiah instead of Christ. But that is understandable given both the Hebrew origins of the Greek names, and the propensity of Jews to use Hebrew names for religious concepts.

Another irk is the amount of text about legalism, which is relevant perhaps to US fundamentalism but feels like a surpassed issue already.

Perhaps it would need a third edition.

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Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Review: The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very interesting alternate history, with a few oddities:

First, the victory of the Axis seems to hinge upon Roosevelt having died before the New Deal could recover the United States — but it seems today that the New deal delayed recovery instead of aiding it. Also, upon the whole Pacific fleet being destroyed in Pearl harbour, which is a near impossibility. Russia seems to have collapsed in 1941, which seems more credible. But all these are trifles.

Second, all religion seems to be centered on the I Ching. Even with Jews and reputedly Protestants. This seems a major flaw, specially as there is so much superstition and even extase around.

Third, in 1962 Nazis are both carrying out an African genocide and colonizing Mars. Both too soon after the war. And the Japanese crimes of war are altogether ignored, to the point of idealizing the Pacific coprosperity sphere.

Fourth, the language is very strange, sounds to me ungrammatical. For example, articles and pronouns are often absent. Not sure if it is supposed to reflect an evolution of language under Japanese influence or whatever, but again it would have been too soon.

Fifth, the ending is altogether obscure. It never becomes clear why after all the German and Japanese would have lost the war in winning it. Perhaps because they will destroy each other, but a bit of clarity would have been welcome, even if under the guise of a sequel.

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Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Review: The Fatal Flaw of the Theology Behind Infant Baptism

The Fatal Flaw of the Theology Behind Infant Baptism The Fatal Flaw of the Theology Behind Infant Baptism by Jeffrey D. Johnson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A very clear take on a complicated subject. Forceful, yet irenic. I may be biased: I do not see how one cannot see the force of the evidence & arguments presented, even if I may disagree on his take on New covenant theology.

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Saturday, September 28, 2019

Review: アンゴルモア 元寇合戦記 5

アンゴルモア 元寇合戦記 5 アンゴルモア 元寇合戦記 5 by Nanahiko Takagi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good art, interesting historical setting. Could be less explicit.

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Friday, September 27, 2019

Review: From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions

From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions by Ruth A. Tucker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Quite engrossing. I almost gave it four stars for its theological latitudinarianism, but it really brings the History of Christian (in quite a wide sense of ‘Christian’) missions alive.

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Monday, August 12, 2019

Review: The First Five Centuries

The First Five Centuries The First Five Centuries by Kenneth Scott Latourette
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Latourette, after the most part of a Century has passed, is still the standard work on Missions from the Protestant standpoint. Yet its age shows: while an Evangelical, he does concede too much to secular conceptions of Historiography that even in today’s secular environment would be perhaps outdated, showing that it is better to stick to your tradition & convictions than to try to be modern.

While bringing in a huge amount of facts, still much is summed up, since while the field of missions can be quite detailed nowadays, at the period covered by this first volume much information is missing; on the other side, he spends quite some space on a historiographical set of questions that may today sound quite speculative and outdated.

There are more recent works that must be consulted for the developments of the last Century, but none I found of this extension & ambition. Either they are useful but specialised in a short span of time, or they are equally useful but way too short. Anyway, a global History of Missions that would cover the situation until, say, the turn of the XXI Century would certainly colour the previous periods differently.

As a Reformed Baptist reader, to me he also does sound quite Latitudinarian in his attitudes, refraining from a proper Protestant Biblical evaluation of his subject. One hungers, thus, for a new History of Missions that will be not only up to date, but also more Reformed in character; perhaps something definetly Reformed Baptist such as Nicholas R. Needham’s 2 000 years of Christ’s power would be best, as his work shows Baptists can face old realities better, not being attached to mediæval survivals in the magisterial strand of Reformation.

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Saturday, August 10, 2019

Review: Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom by Peter J. Leithart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fascinating book. One of these I think merits actually half a star plus, but I cannot bring myself to give it five — please do not hold that against me, as I find my use itself of stars shifts with time and humour.

Essentially it is a probing critique of John Howard Yoder’s anti-Constantinanism. While I myself am a critic of what one could call Constantinianism, this book would seem to challenge me, and it did, but not as I expected. Which is an index of a good book, when it actually surprises one positively.

He has to spend quite some effort delineating what Yoder understood — yes, the man is dead, so it is a pity Leithart wasn’t quite around at the time to initiate a public debate — by Constantinism, which is not quite my concept. So Leithart’s critique of Yoder’s anti-Constantinianism did not constitute a direct challenge to my own convictions; yet the book retained my interest because it mainly exhonerates Constantine, or at least enables us to understand him better, by a very balanced picture of Constantine himself and his times, correcting Yoder’s partisan & partial reading, while leaving open the door for better, more focused criticism.

Where it really lost the fifth star was only in the last pages of the final chapter, tellingly called ‘Rome baptized’, where Leithart’s ‘Federal vision’ leanings appear as given, which may make sense for adepts of the new perspective on Paul, for Iconodulics and the so, but will be baffling for the Evangelical reader, even the Reformed one that happens to have had no interest in the Federal vision.

In a series of baffling references:

He never explains what he means by ‘every baptism is a infant baptism’, which while probably meaning that all neophytes are babies in the faith, just waves away the very serious Radical Reformation (Anabaptist &, later, Baptist) challenge to the late Antiquity innovation of baby sprinkling;

He seems to say we should avert apocalypse, which may be related to some version of Postmillenniarism (I don’t know his position actually) but on the face of it sounds quite anti-Biblical, as we are to expect Jesus’ return, the sooner the better;

He seems to endorse Augustine’s baptismal regeneration convictions, which is a really big red flag for Biblical Christians, being the most radical, even heretical, extreme of the wide range of ideas broadly identified as Federal vision.

A very minor quibble is when he never explains why, in modernity, ‘there is blood, more… than ever… than any ancient tyranny would… and all of it human.’ I assume it is a reference to abortion, but I am baffled none the less.

Finally, he avoids the elephant in the room: Yoder’s having being posthumely discredited for having been a molester. But that is another issue.

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Friday, August 2, 2019

Review: 月影ベイベ 6

月影ベイベ 6 月影ベイベ 6 by Yuki Kodama
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Delicate tale of ſufferiŋ love after a broken family.

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Sunday, July 14, 2019

Review: A History of Christian Missions

A History of Christian Missions A History of Christian Missions by Stephen Neill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very complete, succint global history of Christian missions up to the 1980s. Feels dated today, because of facts it could hardly deal with, each for a different reason:
* takes an œcumenical approach, for instance to Romanist and Greek/Russian iconodulic missions;
* takes seriously liberation theory;
* ignores Reformed missionary activity in the XVI century;
* ignores the liberal destruction of mainstream European Christianity;
* predates the conservative resurgence, the Calvinistic renaissance, the global South and the revelation of the then-hidden, astonishing advance of Protestantism in China.

We still lack a more decidedly Reformed, even Evangelical, and more recent approach to the subject.

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Sunday, May 26, 2019

Review: O Povo Brasileiro: A Formação e o Sentido do Brasil

O Povo Brasileiro: A Formação e o Sentido do Brasil O Povo Brasileiro: A Formação e o Sentido do Brasil by Darcy Ribeiro
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Interessante, até pela influência nefasta que teve em nossa esquerda, mas um fracasso. Propõe o Brasil como uma nova, e melhor, Roma. Embuste de autoengano de quem vivia em rebelião contra Deus.

O que não significa que não tenha algumas informações e análises úteis.

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Sunday, May 19, 2019

Review: The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context

The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context by John H. Walton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I muſt ſay my giviŋ five ſtars does not mean I am ſure I totally agree wiþ ðe auþors. I gueß I will need to read furþer books before convinciŋ myself, even if ðe propoſal conveniently expoſes ðe weakneßes of claßical (Baptiſt & Preſbyterian) alliance þeology — not ðat ðe auþors mention it. Ðey make a convinciŋ, even if perhaps not as readable as I would want, caſe for ‘Law’ beiŋ a miſtranſlation for Torah, even if the LXX actually tranſlates νομος. Ðe implications are multitude, & ðey include a readable appendix on the Decalogue (Δεκαλογος, the Ten words).

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Friday, May 10, 2019

Review: Orange: The Complete Collection, Volume 2

Orange: The Complete Collection, Volume 2 Orange: The Complete Collection, Volume 2 by Ichigo Takano
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of ðeſe nice climate Japaneſe ſtories.

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Thursday, April 18, 2019

Review: Manipulation: Knowing How to Respond

Manipulation: Knowing How to Respond Manipulation: Knowing How to Respond by Lou Priolo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very ſuccint advice on biblically dealiŋ wiþ emotional manipulation. Barely twenty pages of text.

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Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Review: Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology

Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology by John H. Walton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A more ðan worþy succeßor to Kline’s approach on ðe cultural context of ðe Old Testament, puts forward anoþer angle to his framework hypoþeſis, makiŋ a convinciŋ caſe for Geneſis, chapter i beiŋ intended not as a chronological account of material origins but a deſcription of teleology in Creation.

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Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Review: The Screwtape Letters

The Screwtape Letters The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Second or third reading. A classic. May be difficult to overly sensitive souls who lack a developed sense of irony.

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Review: Legislativo e democracia : reflexões sobre a Câmara dos deputados

Legislativo e democracia : reflexões sobre a Câmara dos deputados Legislativo e democracia : reflexões sobre a Câmara dos deputados by Fernando Sabóia Guimarães
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Leitura dificutosa. Talvez eu tenha sido privilegiado ao ler um equivalente estadunidense antes.

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Sunday, February 17, 2019

Review: Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made

Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made by Eugene D. Genovese
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just loved it as a Christian and as a History freak.

Based on extensive exploration of oral History and other records from slaves, slaveholders and observers of slavery in the US, what began as an exploration of how slaves influenced the world of slaveholders ended up, as the title hints, as a record of the witness that preachers but specially slave converts gave of their faith and its power to change people and societies.

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Sunday, January 20, 2019

Review: The Logic of Congressional Action

The Logic of Congressional Action The Logic of Congressional Action by R. Douglas Arnold
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting take in the motivations and mechanisms of legislative work, scientifically dismantling a few myths about how constituencies, either general or particularist, influence legislators’ actions.

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Saturday, January 12, 2019

Review: HAIPOJI 5

HAIPOJI 5 HAIPOJI 5 by Takashi Kira
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A great read. Why only four ſtars?

* Explicit ſex. Totally uneeded. Lack of ability of ðe auþor to imply ðe dirtineß of ðe protagoniſt’s life wiþout actually ſhowiŋ it.

* Quite confuſiŋ towards ðe end. It depicts a multiverſe where ðe protagoniſt gets mixed between þree or four univerſes, but unleß one’s familiar already wiþ ðe concept, & ſpecially in a ſerialiſed work, it can be uneceßarily taxiŋ to read.

* It is highly unſatiſfyiŋ ðat ðe protagoniſt’s wife turns irretrievably againſt him for no apparent reaſon, even if he ſeems a genuinely faiþful & nice huſband — juſt not a hero, but growiŋ even in his fourties & fifties.

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Friday, January 11, 2019

Review: 3月のライオン 14 [3-gatsu no Lion 14]

3月のライオン 14 [3-gatsu no Lion 14] 3月のライオン 14 [3-gatsu no Lion 14] by Chica Umino
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A lyrical, quite ſane ſlice of life ſtory wiþ ſurpriſiŋ depþ. Not diet-friendly.

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Friday, January 4, 2019

Review: Haruka 17, Volume 19

Haruka 17, Volume 19 Haruka 17, Volume 19 by Sayaka Yamazaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very intereſtiŋ in-depþ view of the Japaneſe popular entertainement induſtry. The ending was ruſhed & roſy.

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