Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:5-6a ESV)

This is the great and glorious theme of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ book Spiritual Depression, a collection of sermons delivered before Westminster Chapel dealing with depression in the Christian experience. With the pastoral heart of a true and loving shepherd, he unpacks various causes of depression, doubt, and inordinate fear in the life of the Christian and directs his hearers (and readers) continually back to Scripture and to the marvelous grace of their Savior as their sure anchor and the cure to their condition.

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Robot Visions is a collection of robot stories, supplemented with a few essays, by Isaac Asimov. I saw it at my friend Jon’s apartment and, having never actually read any Asimov, borrowed it for a time.

It’s been a lot of fun to read. Asimov is a skilled storyteller and the short story is a quite effective format for building a world such as he does. Each story provides a small glimpse into his vision of what a robot-powered human culture would look like.

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Earlier this spring, my brother recommended that I read C.S. Lewis’s The Weight of Glory. It was well worth the read.

The version I found at the library is a 1965 edition, containing five essays:

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I recently finished reading How the Irish Saved Civilization. I fully concur with Jennifer’s assessment and cautions, and I’ll add a bit here.

It was a rather interesting read to see the story of the preservation of classical literacy through the Dark Ages. As the barbarians sacked Rome and the culture of learning and reason of the Greco-Roman era was demolished, significant bodies of Latin work were on track to be lost. When St. Patrick evangelized the Irish, their monastic culture soaked up learning and devoted considerable effort to copying Scripture, classic Greek and Latin texts, and numerous other works. Some time after Patrick, when they went back to continental Europe with the Gospel, they also brought their learning, books, and monastic systems, re-introducing Europe to her literary roots and bringing back some degree of literacy. Hence Ireland seems to have been God’s tool for preserving Roman literature and literacy, particularly church literature, through the fall of Rome.

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To help me learn how to better engage in literary criticism, my wife encouraged me recently to read The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles and report on a few particular aspects thereof. Results follow.

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (Julie (Andrews) Edwards, 1974) relates the journey of the three Potter children, guided by one Professor Savant from the local university. On a dare, the youngest, Lindy, knocks on the door of a reputedly haunted house while trick-or-treating with her brothers (Ben and Tom). The house turns out to the be residence of Prof. Savant, and he tells them of the Whangdoodle, a fantastic creature that roamed the earth many generations ago. However, as humanity became more rational and prone to doubt the existence of such creatures, it faced near-extinction and the last went into exile. The Professor takes the children on a quest to go to Whangdoodleland and see the Whangdoodle.

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While visiting a friend this weekend, I picked up his copy of a collection of H. P. Lovecraft stories, and began reading The Call of Cthulhu. Upon returning home, I found an online copy and was able to finish reading it.

I appreciate the way Lovecraft conveyed his dark tale. The opening lines paint a chilling portrait of his vision of humanity as an insignificant spec in the midst of cosmic powers:

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I checked another active book off my list today — The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges.

Bridges wrote a book, The Pursuit of Holiness, a couple decades ago. Later, he wrote Transforming Grace. Some people didn’t see how the same author could write both books. The Discipline of Grace bridges this gap. It explains how God works with us to make us holy.

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Oh, sweet satire. I finished reading Gulliver’s Travels (by Jonathan Swift) last night. That was a fun trip.

Not much has changed since Swift’s time. He describes a humanity continually embroiled in senseless wars, injustice, and dispute, while all the while thinking we’ve had it made. Much of what he describes — the perversions of justice, the foolish workings of politics, the general inhumanity with which man can treat man — all ring true with with our present world. And in the end, we are a bunch of filthy, messed-up Yahoos.

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In line with my desire to write about books I read, I’d like to devote this post to a book I’ve put on the back shelf for a while — E. Dijkstra’s A Discipline of Programming.

Discipline seems to be a rather excellent work. It sets out a formal framework for reasoning about programs. And not just that - it does this in the context of imperative, iterative programming, rather than the declarative or functional styles commonly upheld as the material most conducive to rigorous reasoning.

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I have determined that it would be wise for me to take some time to collect, write down, and perhaps communicate my thoughts when I have finished reading a book. This is the first installment in this series; more should be posted as I read more books.

About a week ago, I finished reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. A rather interesting book, it.

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