In her monumental study, Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages (TMR), Holly Ordway debunks the popular misconception that J.R.R. Tolkien was an anti-modern medievalist whose inspiration came from the Middle Ages and who avoided influences more recent than Beowulf. This error, planted by “rogue” biographers such as William Ready, Daniel Grota, and […]
Long before the printing press, Solomon complained that “of the making of many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”[1] What would Solomon say in the day of blogs and self-publishing? Yet despite the flood of Too Much Information, we at An Unexpected Journal still believe there […]
Michael Ward. After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man. Park Ridge, IL: Word on Fire Academic, 2021. 243 pp. Initial Impressions A review is a form of response, and if we are to respond to Michael Ward’s After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man from […]
Terry Glaspey, 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know: The Fascinating Stories Behind Great Works of Art, Literature, Music, and Film. Ada, MI: Baker Books, 2015. 382 pp. There are books that challenge us to visit1,000 Places to See Before You Die and 1,000 Places to See in the United States; to travel on 1,000 Adventures; […]
Brian Melton, The Wrackturn Method. Columbia, SC: Moral Apologetics Press, 2021. viii + 97 pp. My dear Wormwood, I hate to interrupt our retirement from active tempting so soon. It seems like just yesterday I was proposing my famous Toast at the Annual Dinner of the Tempter’s Training College. (Having to deal with time and […]
Donald T. Williams. Ninety-Five Theses for a New Reformation: A Road Map for Post-Evangelical Christianity. Toccoa Falls, GA: Semper Reformanda Publications, 2021. 485 pp. In 1517, Martin Luther nailed a list of ninety-five theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany, suggesting ways in which the Catholic Church needed reform. Over 500 years […]
