Moving Towards Zion: A Review of The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2: Belonging, 1492-1900 by Simon Schama

The Story of the Jews Volume Two: Belonging: 1492-1900 by Simon Schama

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The recent surge of anti-semitism in Europe and America has been heart breaking, especially when that anti-semitism led to violence at a Pittsburgh synagogue by a white supremacist terrorist in 2018. Sadly, Jewish history is fraught with such tragedies, even before you get to the Holocaust under the Nazis. But Jewish history is far more than these senseless tragedies. In this second volume to his planned trilogy, historian Simon Schama traces the history of the Jewish people from the Renaissance to the dawn of the 20th century, laying out in dense detail their many triumphs and tragedies and their persistence in the face of unbelievable hardships.

Starting right where he left off in volume one, Mr. Schama details how the constant attacks on the Jewish people forced them to adapt and migrate multiple times.  What is interesting is that the beginning and end of this narrative are bookended by messianic movements that led Jews to try to migrate out of Europe and into Palestine.  The earliest attempts were not always successful, but the last one detailed by Mr. Schama leads readers into the beginning of the Zionist movement, which will lead to the creation of the modern state of Israel in the 20th century.  It was fascinating to see how Jewish people could be just as susceptible to messianic movements and false messiahs in the same way that Christians of this period could.  It seems looking forward to a better world and trying to proactively bring it about is not exclusive to any single religious group.

Though the descriptions of anti-semitic assaults are difficult to read, Mr. Schama does a great job of walking his readers through it and drawing a subtle line from the attempts at forced conversions and the creation of the ghettos in the 16th century, and the nationalistic anti-semitism of 19th century Germany, which would be supercharged by the Nazis later.  Yet, in the midst of these terrible trials, Mr. Schama also paints several portraits of fascinating characters in Jewish history.  People like Shabbetai Zevi, Moses Mendelssohn, Uriah Levy, and so many others are absolutely fascinating in this book.  Also, Mr. Schama’s details about the rise of Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Kabbalah Judaism are interesting too.

Another great aspect of this book is how Mr. Schama describes how the age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution promised to amicably assimilate Jews into the wider European culture, but it was a promise that was never fully realized.  As soon as France and other nations offered a hand, once Jewish groups tried to take it, they would find that it was almost always filled with empty promises.  The failure of the Enlightenment’s assimilation promises, combined with a new and virulent form of anti-semitism by the late 19th century, creates the historical backdrop for the forming of the Zionist movement.

However, this is not an easy book to get through.  This book is stuffed to the brim with details and stories that it implores you to read it slowly.  Skipping or speed-reading a single paragraph means that you will inevitably miss important details and get lost pretty quickly.  This is, without question, one of the densest history books I have ever read. In fact it is denser than his previous volume.  Do not start this book expecting to get through it quickly.  I did, and I ended up having to pause my reading or slow it down considerably just to get through it all.

Overall, this is a fascinating book, but one that is incredibly dense and begs its readers to chew on it slowly, rather than to rush through.  I look forward to reading Mr. Schama’s third volume and hope that it will be released sooner rather than later.

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Beautifully Living Between Faith and Science: A Review of Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Contemporary literary fiction is not typically my thing as I find it hard to relate to the plot, characters, and storylines. It also doesn’t help that I have found few very satisfying endings in recent contemporary literary fiction. That said, I was absolutely floored by this book. Ms. Gyasi has written an incredible book about faith, addiction, and grief about an African immigrant family living in the United States.

Set in the present, but also flashing back to the past, this book is told from the first-person perspective of Gifty, a young Ghanaian immigrant to the United States, and her family which includes her mother, father (known as the Chin Chin Man), and her older brother Nana. In the present, Gifty is a neuroscience researcher in California studying addiction in rats, but her story frequently flashes back to her childhood growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, and the evangelical church she and her family grew up in as well as her college days where she first experiences people who do not share her childhood beliefs. If this sounds like another version of the movie “God’s Not Dead,” don’t be afraid. Ms. Gyasi handles Gifty’s struggles over faith and science in an amazing way that doesn’t go for easy answers in favor of one side or the other. As Gifty and her family try to process an unbearable grief, Ms. Gyasi imbues her characters with a great deal of depth, humanity, and compassion. Even the ending, which often gets reduced into head-scratching or saccharine ways in other contemporary literary fiction works I have read, felt perfect for this story. It’s soft, but again does not end in an easy, black-and-white kind of way.

I honestly have nothing against the writing in this book. The characters are great, the story and inner struggles are amazing, and the ending is perfectly soft. Whether you are a fan of contemporary literary fiction or not, I highly recommend this book to you.

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October 2020 Readathon Live Blog

October 25, 11:25 a.m.

I finished my final book, Divine Self-Investment by Tripp Fuller at around 4 a.m., one hour before the end of the readathon.  But I was so exhausted from pushing myself to finish this book that I immediately went to bed without an update.  So, I didn't make it the full 24 hours, especially if you include the hours when I was traveling or in my virtual reunion meetings, but I cam pretty close.  Also, I ultimately feel like I will have to reread Divine Self-Investment at some point in the future as I feel my reading of it was affected by my exhaustion.  This was a complicated book and I am not sure how Mr. Fuller got to the conclusions that he did, so a more careful reading is called for.  But, that is the end of this readathon.  I look forward to the next one.  And next time, I will make sure that I am not interrupted and have the ENTIRE day to read.

8:47 p.m.

After another reunion event catching up with old friends from grad school and getting a small dinner, I finally completed the poetry book I was on, There Should be Flowers by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza.  I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to like this book, but it turned out to be great.  I highly recommend it to poetry lovers, particularly and trans readers out there.  Now, on to Divine Self-Investment by Tripp Fuller.

5:06 p.m.

I finally finished a book that I have been stuck on for over a month now, The Gospel as Social Revolution by Timothy Black.  It's an incredibly detailed look at why evangelical Christians should consider poverty alleviation to be central to our Gospel mission and not on the periphery.  He also examines a program in South Africa to show how evangelicals could implement such a program based on the needs of the local community.  Now that I have gotten books that I had already started reading out of the way, it's time to start some new books!

2:42 p.m.

So my break took way longer than I expected it to, but now I am back and ready to get into my next book, The Gospel as Social Revolution by Timothy Black.

10:26 a.m.

I'm on a bit of a break right now as I am taking part in my grad school's online reunion right now.  Then I have to travel a little bit with my wife, but I'll get back to reading on the car ride.  See you soon.!

8:23 a.m.

I just finished reading my first book for the day, The Diary of Young Girl by Anne Frank.  Strangely, this my first time ever reading this book as I somehow managed to make it through public school without encountering this book in any class that I took.  I know I read some book about the Holocaust, I just don't remember what it was.  A pity it wasn't this one.

5:58 am

It's been a while since I have done a live blog of a readathon and what better time than to start with Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon in October. I just got finished with some devotional reading and now I am moving on to The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, which I have less than 100 pages to complete.    For the sake of my sanity, I will only be updating this blog when complete something or take a break of some sort.  Let the reading adventure begin!

Moral Clarity in Disturbing Times: A Review of Reclaiming Jesus

Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus by Jim Wallis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The election of Donald Trump in 2016, the White Supremacist march in Charlottesville, VA, in 2017, the separation of immigrant families at the U.S. southern border, and many other events have been a terrible wake up call to the moral decay that has infected the highest levels of our government. Though popular imaginations of Christianity in America have Christians being some of the strongest supporters of Pres. Trump, what the media too often fails to notice is the large numbers of faithful Christians throughout the country who are just as appalled by recent events as other Americans are, but perhaps more so as it seems to cut to the very heart of everything the gospel of Jesus Christ is suppose to oppose. Jim Wallis is one such prominent Christian thinker and activist who has been calling on Christians in America not, as he puts it, to go left or right, but to go deeper into faith. In this incredibly timely book, Rev. Wallis examines the core questions at the heart of the Gospel message and applies the answers to our current political time.

Inspired by the Reclaiming Jesus Movement that was kicked off in 2018, Rev. Wallis takes a deep dive into the Gospel and our current political environment (I highly recommend you visit the website as well as watch their video statement for more information). In a time where lies, corruption, and authoritarian actions at the highest levels of our government seem to define our daily headlines, Rev. Wallis gives the morally clearest statement of how Christians should respond to the times from anyone inside our outside the faith I have ever read. And the fact that this book is centered on the strong moral principles taught in the Bible, as exemplified in Matthew 5 & 25, of loving your neighbor as yourself is deeply stirring. As I wrapped up reading this book over the course of the Lenten season (and using a Lenten study guide to do so), I have been deeply stirred to "be transformed by the renewing of my mind" (Romans 12:2). The lessons I have learned from this book as well as the many other resources Sojourners has provided will be sitting with me for a long time.

This book will not appeal to everyone, unfortunately. For those who are already "ride or die" for Pres. Trump will be turned off by Rev. Wallis's unrelenting criticism of him and his administrations. There were one or two places where I thought that even Rev. Wallis was starting to lose sight of his topic, but his long criticisms always have the point of contrasting what is happening in our country and government to what the Gospel calls Christians to be and how to act at all times. I also fear that the closeness of some Christian denominations to right and far right politics will turn off others from reading a book on social justice in our present times with Jesus at its center. On top of that, depending on how the 2020 presidential election shakes out what the future of America holds post-Trump, this book and its social critiques may have a limited shelf life.

That said, this is a deeply moving call to action and social justice to Christians in America and around the world. Whether you are Christian or not, American or not, pro-Trump or not, I wish everyone would read this book and "go deeper" into the Gospels. The country is in need of strong moral clarity and Rev. Wallis provides it in this book.

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Plague!: A Review of The Great Mortality

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time by John     Kelly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Compelling Melding of Science & History, with Lessons for Today

As I sit writing this review, the world is once again ravaged by disease (COVID-19) that is killing thousands around the globe and forcing millions of others to shelter in their homes and pray that this illness would pass over them. So, to say that reading this book about the Black Death, the plague that ravaged Europe
in the middle of the fourteenth century, is timely would be an understatement. The past can be both teacher and guide in times like these.

One of the great things about this book is how it is not just a recounting of death, though there is plenty of that to be had in these pages. The first few chapters and the afterword are devoted to understanding just what kind of a disease the Plague was. So, on top of reading a thorough history about how the Plague decimated the Eurasian continent, you will have better scientific understanding of the disease itself, where it originated from, and how it spread and killed.

Of course, Mr. Kelly uses the majority of his narrative to describe the when and where the Plague struck Europe and how it left a wake of human destruction in its path. Through the use of the best statistical information available as well as the numerous contemporary accounts that were written at the time, Mr. Kelly’s history is both incredibly thorough and accessible. There is something for both the hardcore historian and the layman to like in this book. At times, it even seems a little excessive. Mr. Kelly devotes two chapters to the Plague’s rampage through England when probably one chapter would have done.

Mr. Kelly does not restrict his history to the disease’s destruction. Mr. Kelly also points out how the Black Death affected society in several negative ways. One of the most horrendous and heartbreaking portions of this book is about the number of pogroms committed against Europe’s Jewish populations that would presage the Holocaust in a number of horrifying ways. Just as COVID-19 is unleashing a wave of anti-Asian American bigotry right now, so too did the Plague unleash a wave of virulent and violent anti-semitism, though the currently bigotry against Asian-Americans is nowhere near as violent as the Plague pogroms were.

By the time the Plague dissipated, the tinder of overpopulation, resource strain, climate change and religious & intellectual stagnation that defined Europe in the years prior to its arrival would all be burned away, paving the way for the Renaissance, the Reformation, and modern Europe. By chronicling this critical period in world history, Mr. Kelly has given us a wonder picture of both the medieval era and the calamitous disease that signaled the beginning of its end. It also holds up a mirror to our own time and warns us that virulent disease, if left unchecked, can easily devastate human civilization. Whether you are living in a time of disease yourself or not, you owe it to yourself to read this book about one of the greatest natural disasters to befall humanity.

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"He Who Increases Knowledge Increases Sorrow": The Lesson of The Name of the Rose

I recently took one of those Buzzfeed quizzes to determine which one of America's Founding Fathers I am most like (for the curious, it was John Adams).  One of the 29 questions I was asked was what kind of a seeker I was.  There were answers for seekers of truth, seekers of the soul, etc.  But the answer I gravitated towards was a seeker of knowledge.  That should be very obvious to anyone who has been following this blog with any kind of regularity.

The pursuit of knowledge can be very rewarding.  Scientists and scholars are lauded for their ability to uncover the secrets of our world, our cosmos, and our very selves.  Our education system is premised on the idea that ignorance can be a kind of burden and that knowledge can set us free.  Wall Street traders try to get some "inside information" in order to make investments, even if that knowledge is considered by many to be unfair or illegal (see my previous blog post on the book Black Edge for more about that).  But there is also another thread to the this triumphalist view of knowledge.  In the Bible, King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes wrote, "For in much wisdom is much vexation,/ and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." (1:18, ESV)  Too much of a good thing, in this case knowledge, can be a problem in its own way.

This is where the book The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco shines brightest.  The main character, the monk William of Baskerville (by the way, Mr. Eco, a little on the nose with your allusion to Sherlock Holmes, don't you think?), is an incredibly knowledgeable fellow.  He is well read and enjoys conversing with the monks of the Italian monastery he is visiting about different esoteric aspects of philosophy and theology.  The murders that take place in this monastery and their connection to the mysterious and closed library seem to really tickle William's fancy.  Much of the action revolves first getting into the forbidden sections of the library and then finding a mysteriously forbidden book.  William and his assistant, Brother Adso, pursue these goals, knowing that it will lead to the identity of the murderer, with a passion.  In fact, at times they seem more interested in unlocking the secrets of the library and the book than they are in identifying the murderer.  

(WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!) 

But the pursuit of these secrets lead to tragedy. William and Adso do find the murderer and learn the secrets of the library and the forbidden book, but their pursuit leads to the fiery destruction of the monastery, the library and all of its priceless works.  William is obviously crushed by the destruction his quest has caused and we learn that he ultimately dies of plague in a rather brokenhearted state and that the monastery and its library are completely abandoned.

In this, I see a warning for all seekers of knowledge.  A single-minded pursuit of knowledge can be dangerous when the costs and possible consequences of that quest are not properly accounted for.  J. Robert Oppenheimer later in life regretted the research he did that led to the invention of the first atomic bombs.  Alfred Nobel was so ashamed of his invention of dynamite and the destruction it had caused in subsequent wars that he created the Nobel Prizes to promote peace, literature, and science.  The lesson we should take away from The Name of the Rose and some of our greatest scientists is this: all seekers of knowledge should count the cost of of their quests for "he who increases knowledge increases sorrow."

Thank you for reading this blog.  Tomorrow, I will be writing about Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli.  Be sure to follow my posts and share them with your friends.  Until tomorrow, happy reading!

Feel the Power of Love: The Lessons of Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables"

As long as through the workings of law and customs there exists a damnation-by-society artificially creating hell in the very midst of civilization and complicating destiny... as long as there are ignorance and poverty on earth, books of this kind may serve some purpose. - Victor Hugo

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is rightly considered one of the great novels of the 19th century.  The reason why is because Hugo touches upon themes that are universal and transcend race, religion, politics, etc.   Indeed, there is a reason why this book is so beloved by people and spawned one the greatest Broadway musicals of all time.

Frankly, I am a little nervous to be adding my own provincial scribblings to this fine work of art, as if a mouse had anything of worth to say to a demigod.  Nevertheless, I am going to try to put into words some of the things that I have learned as I have struggled through this novel for the past 10 months(!) in the hopes that others will not be intimidated by this book's physical and thematic weight.

Here are some things I learned from reading Les Misérables:

In the World, Not of the World: The Lessons of Frances Fitzgerald's "The Evangelicals"

The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America by Frances Fitzgerald was a very hard book to read for me and not just because there were some editorial problems I felt should have been addressed before publication.  No, I found this book hard to read because I identify myself as an evangelical Christian.  I grew up in an evangelical church and was baptized there.  Many of my best friends are evangelical Christians and they are the nicest people I have had the privilege of knowing.  However, evangelical Christianity has jumped into the messiness of worldly politics in America for one particular side of the political spectrum and now not only have many evangelical Christians become disillusioned with politics in America, but the Gospel message has been discredited in the eyes of Millennials, if the surveys cited in here are correct.  If the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is the salvation of man in a fallen world, then the church's inability to attract younger men and women is a problem.  That's why Christians must examine our history and draw some conclusions about where things went wrong.  Having read this book, here are a few lessons I will be taking away from this book: