Friday, April 20, 2007

Book Review: Religious Literacy - What Every American Needs to Know - and Doesn't by Stephen Prothero @ Blogcritics.org

Book Review: Religious Literacy - What Every American Needs to Know - and Doesn't by Stephen Prothero @ Blogcritics.org:
"What would be a theological argument for God’s sense of humor? I think it is threefold. First, God gave imperfect Man free will (this is Arminian and not Calvinist thought). That alone should be evidence enough. Second, God entrusted his Word to imperfect Man with free will to be written down and declared by that imperfect Man with free will to be God’s inerrant Word (for Fundamentalists) and divinely inspired (for Evangelicals). Third, when the imperfect Man with free will reaches the age of 40 years, he or she can be both nearsighted and farsighted at the same time. Ain’t that a kick in the head?"
I'm not sure what this paragraph I quoted from C. Michael Bailey's review of Prothero's book has to do with the topic of religious literacy, but after I thought about it a while, it seemed somehow appropriate -- especially since I am somewhat over 40 myself, and have had to correct for astigmatism since I was in my early 20s. (to oversimplify, I am nearsighted in the vertical and farsighted in the horizontal, not to mention having presbyopia since about age 35)

First, a disclaimer -- I have not yet read Religious Literacy - What Every American Needs To Know, but it is high on my list -- in fact, it will probably arrive while I am out of town next week.

So, if you read Bailey's comments on God's sense of humor and decided to click the link to his full review, you might see what prompted me to place my order for this book with Amazon.

No comments: