Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam for layfolks

The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by James Martin

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Every now and again, there’s a picture of David Tenant that pops up on social media where he’s taking a selfie at a con, and there’s some guy just next to him with his nose in his phone. The caption is almost always some suggestion of what the other guy is missing being that close to a celebrity and not knowing it.  Here’s my version of that, kind of. I kind of remember the final time I graduated that the Commencement speaker was referred to […]

Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo—“I was not. I was. I am not. I care not.”

Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife by Bart D. Ehrman

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* from a purely Western religion-focused viewpoint.   It was interesting to read about mainly Judaism/Christianity written by someone who was raised Episcopalian, became a Born-Again Christian and then chucked it all in to become an Atheist/Agnostic. Wanted to say to him “You think you’ll get letters over not believing in Heaven, Hell, or life after death? Not over the fact that you state Jesus was just some random Jewish prophet, and not in any way the Son of God? That won’t get a few […]

Mostly Amusing, Sometimes Confusing

Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead, The Loyal Opposition Trilogy Book 1 by K.J. Parker

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As a product of the Catholic school system from second grade through university, I have sat through A LOT of religion and theology classes. Heresies, schisms, saints, martyrs, whatever, I feel pretty well versed in church history. While KJ Parker’s Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead is a fantasy novel, it leans hard into Christian church history and theology, setting up some good old fashioned good versus evil scenarios, but it’s not always clear who is good or evil. That’s intentional, but while Parker […]

Dietrich in Harlem

Bonhoeffer's Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance by Reggie L. Williams

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer is widely celebrated by mainline Protestant (mostly white) Christians because he’s one of the rare public instances in which a white Christian has been on the right side of history. In standing up to the Nazis, Bonhoeffer is considered a modern day martyr. But what’s not as publicly known is that Bonhoeffer found the strength to resist the Nazis during his time in Harlem. Studying at General Theological Seminary, located in nearby Morningside Heights, Bonhoeffer worked in the famous Abyssinian Baptist Church. It […]

Wrestling with Theology in Short Fantasy Fiction

Pulling the Wings Off Angels by KJ Parker

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I started reading KJ Parker’s Prosper’s Demon as an ARC a few years back. I remember putting it down about halfway through the novella and being fully OK with not continuing it but not having strong feelings about it one way or another. The book has since earned raves. I regularly come across recommendations for it as a readalike for something I really like. I can’t shake that I didn’t like it. I just didn’t. I didn’t hate it. I wasn’t offended by it. I […]

Choose this day whom you will serve.

The Kingdom of God Is Within You: Christianity Not as Mystic Religion But as a New Theory of Life by Leo Tolstoy

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I took a long, weird road to this book. I grew up in Texas with public-service-minded parents of faith. I was a political science major turned public-interest lawyer turned political staffer. Public service, making the world a better place, all of it. In my mind, Jesus’ line about rendering to Caesar what’s Caesar’s meant that, in my democratic context, I had to work the system for good. I navigated the classic political argument of the “problem of dirty hands” with all of that in mind […]



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