Happy Thursday/Halloween/Reformation Day/All Hallow’s Eve!
As junior fellow Sandra Laguerta would like to remind you, tomorrow is a holy day of obligation for Catholics ( get ready ):
Tomorrow is the Solemnity of All Saints. It is also a Friday. #DeoGratias for Code 1251 of the Code of Canon Law. Happy feast(ing)!
— Sandra Laguerta (@SandraLaguerta) October 31, 2013
Over at Postmodern Conservative , Carl Scott is blogging about books , in particular a new biography of Woodrow Wilson. Concerning that book, he says “dont buy the book, even if you are interested.”
Peter Leithart has one post today, also about Agamben’s book (which he has now finished) and “the transformation that Christianity brought to classical metaphysics.”
Dr. Boli has some Halloween gloom (if you’re in an altogether wrong state of mind).
Here at First Thoughts , Mark Movsesian reviews the late Ronald Dworkin’s Religion without God , and and Carl R. Trueman tells us all to go read Terry Eagleton’s new book.
On the Square today, R.R. Reno summarizes Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ Erasmus lecture, “On Creative Minorities.” There’s a video of the talk over there, too, and the lecture itself will be published in First Things proper sometime in the future. And Pete Spiliakos says that for everything there is a time . . . and now is the time . . . for health care .
And that’s it! I hope everybody has a nice evening, maybe with a spooky book, like this or this or this or a spooky movie, like this .
Other junior fellow recommendations: Tristyn K. Bloom recommends Chekhov’s “The Black Monk.” J. David Nolan does not believe in spooky stories, so he recommends The Hound of the Baskervilles , since “they solve the spookiness at the end.”
Sandra Laguerta, in honor of Reformation Day, told me “the 95 Theses,” and then she hid behind her desk because the ghost of Martin Luther appeared and threw an inkwell at her (at least . . . that’s my story . . . whatever she tells you, the inkwell did not come from me ). (Her actual recommendation is The Turn of the Screw .)
And Marilynne Robinson has a nice piece on Reformation Sunday (via The Marilynne Robinson Appreciation Society ), so we’ll end on that note and see you tomorrow!
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.