Joe's Updates en-US Sun, 25 May 2025 06:34:58 -0700 60 Joe's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Rating860943397 Sun, 25 May 2025 06:34:58 -0700 <![CDATA[Joe liked a review]]> /
Joe liked Nathaniel's review of Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux:
Story of a Soul by Thérèse of Lisieux
"Magnificat anima mea Dominum

Within all suffering lies treasures offered for the Glory of the Lord"
]]> Rating841201198 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 07:20:42 -0700 <![CDATA[Joe liked a review]]> /
Joe liked Nathaniel's review of Crossing the Threshold of Hope:
Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II
"banger alert"
]]> Review4074827378 Sat, 21 Dec 2024 15:04:16 -0800 <![CDATA[Joe added 'Paradiso']]> /review/show/4074827378 Paradiso by Dante Alighieri Joe gave 5 stars to Paradiso (The Divine Comedy, #3) by Dante Alighieri
bookshelves: favorites, the-good-italian, come-at-me-bro
A few years ago, an older Italian man told me that in his 70 years of life, he felt the greatest proof of God’s existence was the smile in Paradiso 33. “If that doesn't convert someone, nothing will!� he said. I still think about that conversation.

PS: Peter Hawkins, noting the frequency of smiles in Paradiso, says the smile is Dante's “greatest contribution to theology."

PPS: I can’t help but wonder—though most Dante scholars would likely deny it—if Dante, during his exile from Florence, might have made his way to Paris, where he would have encountered a devotional practice emerging in Europe that humanized Mary and the saints by giving them smiles. Before the mid-thirteenth century, Christian art rarely expressed joy, but by Dante's time, a new form of expressivity had begun to appear, starting with an angel at Reims Cathedral (L'Ange au Sourire). This shift spread across Europe to places like Bamberg (Lachender Engel), Magdeburg (the three foolish women), and even England (the angel choir at Lincoln Cathedral), where religious figures were depicted with newfound radiance and subtlety. Dante’s afterlife reflects this change, where it became acceptable to express the divine not only through solemnity but also through joy.

PPPS: This raises the question: “What’s in a smile?� It might sound childish—perhaps it is—but the more I think about it, the less I have a ready-made answer. Perhaps all that can be said is that a smile, like laughter or play, is perfectly unnecessary, whose beauty, once it exists, makes it entirely necessary. ]]> Review7052122523 Mon, 02 Dec 2024 15:51:35 -0800 <![CDATA[Joe added 'Phenomenology of Spirit']]> /review/show/7052122523 Phenomenology of Spirit by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Joe gave 1 star to Phenomenology of Spirit (Paperback) by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
The depunctualization and dechronologization of the Christian narrative—he’s cannibalizing Christianity, and he knows it.

Understanding these denarrating operators is important, because while someone like Newman appears to limp into the twenty-first century, Hegel’s influence still haunts us, framing the assumptions of our age. ]]> Review5552255547 Wed, 27 Nov 2024 14:56:42 -0800 <![CDATA[Joe added 'The Two Towers']]> /review/show/5552255547 The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien Joe gave 5 stars to The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2) by J.R.R. Tolkien
Portraying uncynical merriment and delight is one of the most challenging feats for a writer, yet Tolkien excels at it. From the hobbits and the Shire, to the elves and their unique connection to language and nature, to the house of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, and even Gimli and Legolas� growing friendship—Tolkien fills his world with unselfconscious joy. Take, for instance, this description of Quickbeam:

"All that day they walked about in the woods with him, singing and laughing; for Quickbeam often laughed. He laughed if the sun came out from behind a cloud, he laughed if they came upon a stream or spring: then he stooped and splashed his feet and head with water; he laughed sometimes at some sound or whisper in the trees." ]]> Review5401239821 Wed, 27 Nov 2024 14:56:08 -0800 <![CDATA[Joe added 'The Fellowship of the Ring']]> /review/show/5401239821 The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien Joe gave 5 stars to The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien
bookshelves: favorites
If freedom is reduced to simply choosing what I want, then it becomes indistinguishable from nihilism. True freedom is closer to a “letting be”—a release that breaks from our habitual drive for possession and control. This is the central message of The Lord of the Rings and why it RULES. ]]> Review5365216220 Tue, 12 Nov 2024 16:46:32 -0800 <![CDATA[Joe added 'Ordering Love: Liberal Societies and the Memory of God']]> /review/show/5365216220 Ordering Love by David L. Schindler Joe gave 5 stars to Ordering Love: Liberal Societies and the Memory of God (Paperback) by David L. Schindler
bookshelves: come-at-me-bro
Last month, someone asked me what social issues I care about, and I responded by emphasizing the importance of stillness, rest, wonder, and surprise. It's such a delight to discover that I have a kindred spirit in David Schindler. ]]> Review7000020421 Tue, 12 Nov 2024 16:45:00 -0800 <![CDATA[Joe added 'Biographia Literaria: Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life & Opinions']]> /review/show/7000020421 Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Joe gave 2 stars to Biographia Literaria: Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life & Opinions (The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
TIL imagination is a Protestant invention ]]>