Books read in February 2008 (6)

1. Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's 'Orientalism' by Ibn Warraq

The author is an apostate Muslim from Pakistan living in Europe. He writes with scholarship and erudition to demolish the postmodernism of the liberal Palestinian Christian Said. In his Orientalism Said dismissed the scholarship of all Western orientalists as corrupted by imperialist motives. The author shows this is not the case. The scholars were out to discover the truth about the Orient, to understand not to exploit. He accuses Said of encouraging the modern Muslim victim culture He demolished the myths of a tolerant Islam In Spain Jews were persecuted, killed and hounded out Islam does not promote understanding of other cultures nor scholarship on matters not Islamic. He sees Islamic anti-semitism as rooted in Mohammed, not in Zionism He is appreciative of missionaries like Lull and Carey though strangely silent on the anti-slavery of the Clapham Sect. He tells us that the Triangular Trade enslaved 11 million Africans but Arab traders enslaved 17 million Africans and also Europeans. Highest prices were for eunuchs as only about 10% survived the operation. This book is an indictment of Said and of Islam. He sees the root cause of Islamic fundamentalism is Islam.

2. Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia - John Gray

The best book on politics I have read. His thesis is that history is littered with the dire consequences of utopianism. Its origin is Christian. History is going somewhere is basic Christian theology. That it can result in a millennium, a utopian reign of righteousness is one strand of Christian eschatology not shared by all. The prospect of a utopia was according to the author not lost bur revived by the Enlightenment. Man was perfectible. The French Jacobins brought in the innovation of terror to spread revolution. Marxism and Nazism were both utopian. So too Thatcher, Bush, Blair and of course the Islamists. It might sound an amazing thesis but it is forcefully and persuasively argued. Certainly this is the best critique of recent politics I have read.

Gray is no atheist but neither does he seem to be particularly Christian. He would describe himself as a realist, especially in the politics he wants. I think he is naturalistic in his critique of Christianity. Jesus did not believe the world was soon to end. He said he did not know. I think him a bit naive on islam, especially its supposed scientific, cultural and toleration credentials. But if you only read one book to understand the contemporary world this is it. I wish I had been able to read a book like it before we invaded Iraq. This one shows the folly of all armed missionaries. I want to read more Gray.

3. Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World by David F. Wells

Not the easiest read but a devastating critique of post-modernism and the church's response to it. Wells says our world is that of consumerism. You choose your religion like you buy your consumables and seeker sensitive mega churches churches may be conforming to this spirit of the age. Wells calls back to a truth centered Biblical faith.

4. Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back by Frank Schaeffer

Frank Schaeffer has a good entertaining writing style. He is much
better than his prolix mother and he tells us of her dislike of
editors. As someone who has struggled with depression for years I an
encouraged by his description of his father's moods and even
contemplation of suicide. I think it is silly of him to say his
father was much more at home on holiday in Italy and in the art
galleries. Who is not happier on holiday away from the pressures of
work? I find his repeated sexual references unseemly to say the
least. At times he is most unkind, writing for example as he does
about Cynthia . Above all Frank does not understand GRACE. It was not
the intellectual arguments that changed people's lives at L'Abri. It
is by God's grace we are saved and the God of grace used his parents
to transform many sinners.

He should have known how to spell Martyn LLoyd-Jones. Those of us who
came to Ealing L'Abri were not characterised by upper class accents
either.

Another inaccuracy is his quote from Latimer who saw himself in the
flames as lighting a candle not being one. So when Frank is
inaccurate about what is known to all I wonder how accurate his
family recollections are.

He complains about his mother's super-spirituality but if seems if he
has read his father's book on True Spirituality he has learned
nothing from it.

I have never read such a sexually explicit book from a professed
Christian. His unashamed sexual revelations are near pornographic and
not the mark of a Christian.

Frank was a boy after three girls born to the family. My personal
experience id that the last one is the child most likely to have the
soft ride and be spoiled. So I wonder if this is part of the problem
with Frank. it was not so much his parent's were too busy in the work
as that he did not get the discipline his sister's did.

Further to Frank being the spoiled boy, an artist friend who was at L'Abri at the time confirmed this. He describes Frank's painting as second rate and he only was exhibited because people knew his father.

Frank is certainly an inveterate name dropper. He puts Fan's pro-life stance id down to him. But was not Fran talking about co-belligerents not allies before the public pro-life stance which according to Frank, his father had shied away from as abortion was a RC issue?

I object to Frank likening his father to Lewis as not really being evangelical. Fran was always evangelical though he preferred the term Bible believing. Lewis was never an evangelical.

I wonder if he misnamed the book. it should be Crazy Against God. but
that title would be about Frank. Crazy for God is a slander on his
parents and it is their name more than Frank's which still sells
books.

I never went to one but his description of English boarding schools
rings true. A wonderful culture of good and bad teaching, eccentric
masters and and an absence of the ogres of Elf an Safety which blight
present living. His descriptions of the Alps are a delight too.

Do we really believe though that Fran went on vacation without a Bible?

His revelations about his father seem to me to be the sin of Ham, the
son who uncovered his father's nakedness. if FAS was violent o his
wife I can understand Frank relating it but what is the point in
telling us his father's sexual demands on his mother? Frank lacks
self restraint in this and other matters.

Frank is not only sexually explicit but profane in language using the f word to his father. He understands Fran;s apologetic but not grace as I wrote before. I wonder if his move away from the Republicans has more to do with theology than politics.

I can agree with his repulsion at the antics of Robertson et al but Frank has departed the real pro-life position with approval of abortion after rape. There is evidence that FAS has a good relation with Rushdoony contra Frank's slander. I met RJR as well as FAS. RJR was in no way insane. He had a formidable intellect.

Frank manages the usual slanders against Calvin too. There is no evidence that FAS was anything other than a Calvinist. Listen to his WMC lectures.

It is easy to criticise over Iraq but some of us believe tyrants should be overthrown. I do not understand why he should be critical over Afghanistan .Frank does not seem to have a real vital faith. He writes,"If God exists". His spirituality is looky feely not propositional. He excludes Ranald and Susan when he lists who are his family now. This is a sad omission. His writing can be very moving but is spoiled by his unecessary profanity in the use of the f word. He does not know where his children are spiritualy and does not seem bothered by it. Like father like son? Not in this case. He needs to repent of more than stealing chops and slapping his child.

5. The Appeal - John Grisham

Grisham's latest returns to where he is at his best, The Deep South. It is the little people devastated by pollution from a chemical plant versus the big corporation. When big business loses the case they seek to get a reversal on appeal by secretly arranging for a sympathetic lawyer to be elected to the state supreme court. How voters can be manipulated is frightening. It leaves one thankful to be in a country where judges are appointed not elected. Money makes the world go round. The story is about the misuse of riches to make more money. It does not have a happy ending but that is life.

6. Straw Dogs - John Gray

A devastating critique of humanistic secularism but a bleak prospect for the future. Gray is better at demolition than building. He denies human personality. Man is merely another animal. For me, Gray is too much in love with some dubious science, particularly evolution, the possibility of artificial intelligence and the threat of over-population. He is though very stimulating and gives much food for thought and discussion. His thinking is global and refreshing.