EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK: Warren Smith’s Quarterly List of Books Worth Noting
Editor’s Note: Most Saturdays we will feature this “Editor’s Notebook” column. MinistryWatch President Warren Smith will offer his opinion on stories in the week’s news or, sometimes, offer a behind-the-scenes look at how and why we do what we do.
However, once a quarter, we use the ‘Notebook” for Warren Smith’s list of books either released in the past quarter, or those he just got around to reading this quarter. To read last quarter’s list, published in May, click here.
Deep Anglicanism: A Brief Guide by Gerald McDermott. The book’s sub-title notwithstanding, this book is not so brief, but it does provide perhaps the best overview of Anglicanism I’ve seen, especially for laypeople. This book is at its best when it is making careful and graceful distinctions between Anglicanism and “Anglican-adjacent” religions, such as Catholicism and other Reformed traditions.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. The New York Times recently released its list of top 100 books published in the first quarter of the 21st century. This book was near the top of the list (#5), and is a National Book Award winner, so I decided to (finally) read it. Published in 2001, just days before 9/11, it has gained an almost mythic reputation for being both a deep look back at 20th century life as well as a prophetic look forward, accurately diagnosing the malaise of the 21st century. I found it to be all that and more. If you like David Foster Wallace (and I do), you’ll like this book. If you don’t, well…you still might like it. It is much more readable than Wallace’s fiction and deals with many of the same ideas.
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The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr. Another book I felt like it was time to finally read, and since my friends at The Rabbit Room had recently published a new edition, I decided to give it a try. I am probably revealing a real character deficiency when I admit that I didn’t love it. This book also won the National Book Award and has been praised by people I admire. So it must be me.
Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes by Jacques Ellul. This book, originally published in French in 1965, had become legendary to scholars of “media ecology.” Some of the examples Ellul uses – Stalin, Hitler, and other early 20th century totalitarians – feel a bit dated, but it is not hard to extrapolate from them to the populist/totalitarian leaders of today.
The Psychology of Totalitarianism by Mattias Desmet. A key premise of this book is that totalitarianism rises from an impulse humans have for order and certainty. So, for example, we are willing to accept the clear rules of COVID mandates, though draconian, over the uncertainty of a virus we don’t understand and can’t control. Totalitarians rise to power by promising to bring order out of chaos. And if there is no chaos, then they create chaos, or the threat of chaos, if we don’t follow them.
A World Split Apart by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Alexander Solzhenitsyn delivered the commencement address at Harvard University on June 8, 1978. Most commencement addresses are short, filled with feel-good bromides, and quickly forgotten. Solzhenitsyn’s address was anything but that. He delivered an hour-long speech, dense with big ideas, to an audience that endured passing rain showers. He criticized the West’s lack of moral courage, and our failure to understand what was going on in other parts of the world. This little book, the text of that speech, has been on my bookshelf since it was published, and I read it every year or two – usually on the anniversary of its original delivery — just to steel my spine and soften my heart.
Shepherds for Sale by Megan Basham. I’ve had my say about this book here, so I will not add much, except to say that I recommend that people read this book and make up their own minds. I would also reiterate my invitation to Megan to appear on the MinistryWatch podcast. As I wrote to her twice privately, I would love to have her on. I think we would have a lively and fruitful conversation.
