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defrogA new year, a new Reading Challenge, business as usual then.
Ministry in the Anglican Tradition from Henry VIII to 1900 by John L. Kater
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Like the title says, this book covers the evolution of Anglican ministry from Henry VIII to 1900. It’s a seminary school textbook that I wouldn’t normally read, except I promised a friend I’d write a magazine article about it. This is not that, but it counts towards my Reading Challenge, so here you go.
Actually some of it I already knew – I studied British history ages ago for one semester, and as it happens, Anglican church history and Britain’s political history are tightly intertwined, given that the monarchy is the head of the church and all. So in that sense, this book may also be of interest to UK history buffs looking for an angle that focuses more on the Anglican church side of things. But it also focuses on the church’s expansion outside of Britain, starting in the American colonies. So, as someone who was raised Episcopalian, I was interested to see how the Episcopal church came about and why it had to be different from its home church, and how this actually played a role in the Anglican church evolving even as the British government evolved and the power of the monarchy subsided.
For me, an interesting takeaway is that the Anglican church evolved because it had to – not only to respond to the political and social upheavals going on around and within it, but also to work out its own identity and sense of mission. It hasn’t always gotten things right, and Rev. Kater doesn’t hesitate to point this out (though he does so rather gently). Which raises the perhaps more important takeaway that the Anglican church is still evolving today. It’s only been in the last 25 years or so that various dioceses have started ordaining women and LGBTQ priests, and while most still resist performing same-sex marriages, a growing number of people from laypersons to bishops are pushing for this to change as well (though Rev. Kater doesn’t get into this specifically). Point being, the book shows that the Anglican church has evolved before and remains intact despite its disagreements on certain issues. There’s no reason to believe it won’t continue to do so.
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In which John Scalzi takes on the kaiju genre and applies science and comedy to it. The story follows Jamie Gray, who works for a food delivery start-up until his boss, billionaire CEO Rob Sanders, steals his idea, fires him and rehires him as a food delivery guy. One of Gray’s regular customers turns out to be an old college friend, Tom Stevens, who offers him a job at his NGO, called KPS. Gray accepts, and finds out the hard way what KPS actually stands for.
In this case, the kaiju live on an alternate earth whose ecosystem is different enough to have evolved giant monsters. The job of KPS is indeed to preserve them – largely from other humans who might want to exploit them, hunt them, or otherwise do them harm. Which also means that KPS is a secret organization, albeit one that also gets funding from governments and billionaires who are sworn to secrecy. The first half of the story is mainly Jamie and his fellow new recruits learning the ropes and the science as well as the above information. The second half revolves around a kaiju mysteriously disappearing.
This is typical Scalzi fare in three ways: (1) it’s heavily driven by Bruckheimer-esque snarky banter dialogue with little to no description of the characters – even the kaiju are mostly left to the reader’s imagination, (2) Scalzi makes a point of coming up with a reasonably plausible scientific explanation for how a kaiju can even exist when its size alone is physically impossible, and (3) he still manages to make it all work somehow. It’s the novel equivalent of a popcorn movie, which is to say it’s fun and entertaining, which is exactly what Scalzi set out to do. Mission accomplished.
View all my reviews
Kaiju you,
This is dF
Ministry in the Anglican Tradition from Henry VIII to 1900 by John L. KaterMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Like the title says, this book covers the evolution of Anglican ministry from Henry VIII to 1900. It’s a seminary school textbook that I wouldn’t normally read, except I promised a friend I’d write a magazine article about it. This is not that, but it counts towards my Reading Challenge, so here you go.
Actually some of it I already knew – I studied British history ages ago for one semester, and as it happens, Anglican church history and Britain’s political history are tightly intertwined, given that the monarchy is the head of the church and all. So in that sense, this book may also be of interest to UK history buffs looking for an angle that focuses more on the Anglican church side of things. But it also focuses on the church’s expansion outside of Britain, starting in the American colonies. So, as someone who was raised Episcopalian, I was interested to see how the Episcopal church came about and why it had to be different from its home church, and how this actually played a role in the Anglican church evolving even as the British government evolved and the power of the monarchy subsided.
For me, an interesting takeaway is that the Anglican church evolved because it had to – not only to respond to the political and social upheavals going on around and within it, but also to work out its own identity and sense of mission. It hasn’t always gotten things right, and Rev. Kater doesn’t hesitate to point this out (though he does so rather gently). Which raises the perhaps more important takeaway that the Anglican church is still evolving today. It’s only been in the last 25 years or so that various dioceses have started ordaining women and LGBTQ priests, and while most still resist performing same-sex marriages, a growing number of people from laypersons to bishops are pushing for this to change as well (though Rev. Kater doesn’t get into this specifically). Point being, the book shows that the Anglican church has evolved before and remains intact despite its disagreements on certain issues. There’s no reason to believe it won’t continue to do so.
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John ScalziMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
In which John Scalzi takes on the kaiju genre and applies science and comedy to it. The story follows Jamie Gray, who works for a food delivery start-up until his boss, billionaire CEO Rob Sanders, steals his idea, fires him and rehires him as a food delivery guy. One of Gray’s regular customers turns out to be an old college friend, Tom Stevens, who offers him a job at his NGO, called KPS. Gray accepts, and finds out the hard way what KPS actually stands for.
In this case, the kaiju live on an alternate earth whose ecosystem is different enough to have evolved giant monsters. The job of KPS is indeed to preserve them – largely from other humans who might want to exploit them, hunt them, or otherwise do them harm. Which also means that KPS is a secret organization, albeit one that also gets funding from governments and billionaires who are sworn to secrecy. The first half of the story is mainly Jamie and his fellow new recruits learning the ropes and the science as well as the above information. The second half revolves around a kaiju mysteriously disappearing.
This is typical Scalzi fare in three ways: (1) it’s heavily driven by Bruckheimer-esque snarky banter dialogue with little to no description of the characters – even the kaiju are mostly left to the reader’s imagination, (2) Scalzi makes a point of coming up with a reasonably plausible scientific explanation for how a kaiju can even exist when its size alone is physically impossible, and (3) he still manages to make it all work somehow. It’s the novel equivalent of a popcorn movie, which is to say it’s fun and entertaining, which is exactly what Scalzi set out to do. Mission accomplished.
View all my reviews
Kaiju you,
This is dF
