What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

[JimC]

The Australian author Greg Egan does dense future science speculative fiction really well. Try "Permutation City" or "Diaspora"...

[Brian Peacock]

Egan has a new one out atm. Paul J McAuley is also very good. Try "Fairyland" if you haven't already.

[rasetsu]

Woot! My hold on a library book was finally fulfilled. I want to buy the book, but it's $19, so I'll sample it first.



I've got the audiobook, but I haven't been listening to audiobooks. I'm greedy. I want fast information!

And my Audible subscription is up for renewal. They're offering the first year for $85. I'm tempted.

[rasetsu]

[Joe]

[Brian Peacock]

What's the conclusion Joe?

[Joe]

I'm about a third of the way into it, but Holland's preface has a pretty good summation of what he's on about.

How was it that a cult inspired by the execution of an obscure criminal in a long-vanquished empire came to exercise such a transformative and enduring influence in the world? To attempt an answer to this question, as I do in this book, is not to write a history of Christianity. Rather than provide a panoramic survey of its evolution, I have sought instead to trace the currents of Christian influence that have spread most widely, and been most enduring into the present day. That is why - although I have written extensively about the Eastern and Orthodox churches elsewhere, and find them themes of immense wonder and fascination - I have chosen not to trace their development beyond antiquity. My ambition is hubristic enough as it is: to explore how we in the West came to be what we are, and to think in the way that we do. The moral and imaginative upheaval that saw Jesus enshrined as a God by the same imperial order that had him tortured to death did not bring an end to the capacity of Christianity for inspiring profound transformation in societies. Quite the opposite. Already, by the time that Anselm died in 1109, Latin Christendom had been set upon a course so distinctive that what today we term ‘the West’ is less its heir than its continuation. Certainly, the dream of a world transformed by a reformation, or an enlightenment, or a revolution is nothing exclusively modern. Rather, it is to dream as medieval visionaries dreamed: to dream in the manner of a Christian.

I'm finding it quite facinating to see how he jumps through the flow of time illustrating this development he's arguing for, and rather enjoy his decidely non-evangelical approach. An athiest writing about Christianity's influence is a nice twist.