ReviewAmazon384

Study of Causes of WW1-2

Revisado: 12-15-24

This is an excellently researched and clearly written study of the causes of WW1 and WW2, which highlights Churchill’s leading role in causing both wars. He argues both wars were completely unnecessary for Great Britain, that both were in many respects precipitated by Churchill’s amorality and lack of judgment, and together they led to the downfall of the empire and untold suffering in Europe and around the world. He closes by noting how modern hero worship of Churchill is leading America to repeat his disastrous mistakes. A very different perspective on WW2 than most have probably heard.

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Fascinating

Revisado: 12-27-23

This is a fascinating, scholarly history of arguably Judaism's greatest philosopher, Moses ben Maimon (aka Maimonides, the Rambam). Not only does this book do a great job of covering the major events in his life and paraphrasing the principal doctrines in his main works (philosophical, theological, legal, and medical), it also gives a fascinating glimpse at what life was like in twelfth-century Spain, Morocco, the Crusader States, Egypt, etc. I do think this book presupposes a fair amount of prior knowledge of medieval philosophy and history as well as Jewish culture; because of this, some may get lost or find the book overly dense. With that caveat, I think the book is well worth reading!

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Perspective on Biblical Inerrancy and Creation

Revisado: 12-27-23

Drawing on extensive new evidence from Ancient Near Eastern creation narratives as well as intrabiblical sources, Enns argues that a mythical reading of Adam in Genesis and a mistaken historical view of Adam in Paul's letters is compatible with scriptural inerrancy. While I don't find Enns's argument totally satisfying it is certainly an interesting and worthy contribution to debates about how to interpret Genesis and Paul's letters in light of scientific knowledge about human origins. John Walton and N. T. Wright's book (also on Audible) is a good counter-perspective to this one. Both books are worth reading back-to-back. Walton and Wright argue for a historical Adam, but also argue that that historical Adam was not the first human. They, like Enns, are committed to scriptural inerrancy, but also accept that biblical authors may have implied scientific errors that are beside the theological point they intend to communicate.

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Reformation(s) Textbook from Catholic Perspective

Revisado: 12-27-23

Carlos Eire is a leading historian of early modern Catholicism. This book is written in the style of a textbook. It is less of a scholarly history (and is therefore both less deep and ranging) than Diarmaid MacCulloch's Reformation history (also on Audible), but it is not a popularizing or apologetic work either. It is a textbook—probably the best textbook on Reformation history available today. With that said, those who have read MacCulloch's history or other textbooks on the Reformation will benefit from this work's unique Catholic perspective. Though he does not engage in polemics or apologetics, Eire, as a Catholic, gives more attention than is usual to Catholic reformers and Catholic countries—hence the title Reformations (vs. Reformation).

Eire's discussion of conciliarism and the conflicts of councils and papacy in the century and a half before the Reformation should be supplement by consideration of the works of another Catholic historian, Francis Oakley (e.g., The Conciliarist Tradition), who gives a very different account of that crucial period.

For those interested in Reformation history, I highly recommend reading both this work and MacCulloch's as the top two histories of the period (both available on Audible). They complement each other nicely with unique information and unique perspectives. Both are written by preeminent scholars, specializing in this period. I hope Audible acquires more of Eire's books.

The narrator, David Drummond, is eminently intelligible, but admittedly sounds like a robot.

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Excellent, scholarly biography

Revisado: 12-27-23

Parker's Emperor: A New Life of Charles V is an excellent, scholarly biography of Charles V, the great transnational monarch contemporary and rival of Henry VIII and Martin Luther, who reigned during the birth of Protestantism, the Spanish conquest of Peru and Mexico, the Council of Trent, and Henry VIII's break with Rome. With an empire covering Peru, Mexico, the Caribbean, Spain, parts of North Africa, the Kingdom of Naples, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, and Austria, and a reign stretching through many turbulent decades, Charles V is unquestionably one of the most important monarchs in late medieval-early modern history.

This biography is written in a scholarly style and, thus, makes for dry reading—especially early on. But if you are in it for the information, it makes for fascinating reading and is not without its stylistic flourishes. While many historians dabble in bouts of philosophizing nonsense, Parker is different. He manages to provide not only historical information about the life of Charles but robust insightful analysis of his human strengths and weaknesses, the role of fortune in his career, and the nature of political cause-and-effect. For those interested in the philosophy of political institutions, this book will be rewarding.

Nigel Patterson's narration of this difficult work with many bracketed quotations in diverse foreign languages—French, Spanish, German, Latin, etc.—is flawless.

Audible should definitely acquire more scholarly, historical Audiobooks like this one!

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Excellent performance!

Revisado: 12-08-23

This is Tolkien's chronicle of the history of the world, from the creation of the gods to the destruction of Sauron's ring by Frodo, narrated in greater depth in the Lord of the Rings. If you find the Lord of the Rings dry, don't both with this one. Even less than the Lord of the Rings, it is not a novel, but a history, and not even really a history, but a chronicle. It is the work Tolkien gave the most attention to and, arguably, the one he considered most important. In its own, highly idiosyncratic way, it is beautifully written and rich with the theological and philosophical insights of its author.

I don't know enough about Tolkien's languages to say whether Shaw pronounced everything right, but, in my view, he did an excellent job of making his pronunciation convincing. In my view, he delivers the narrative and dialogue perfectly. I would absolutely choose this version over the Andy Serkis one.

The book is divided into three ages with by far the most attention being paid to the First Age, when the world is formed and then populated sequentially by the gods, by the elves, and by the humans and dwarves, when the heavenly bodies and silmarils are fashioned, and when the war of the elves against the god, Morgoth/Melkor, over the silmarils takes place. The Second Age recounts the days of Numenor, the Island kingdom of men, who end up following the servant of Morgoth, Sauron, and rebelling against the good gods in the West. The Third Age, in which the events of the Lord of the Rings take place, is covered in a very brief manner.

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Short intro to Voegelin's work and thought

Revisado: 12-08-23

This book is a short autobiographical introduction to Voegelin's principal works and ideas. Unfortunately, nothing is said about his childhood. It starts with his academic career. It tells when and how he learned his various languages, where he served his academic appointments and wrote his various major works, who influenced him intellectually, etc. It also includes an interesting discussion of the differences between American and European students (pre-1980s). For many it will be very dry reading; for some, it will be a fascinating, if unfortunately brief, look into the mind of one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century.

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Must read for Western & Church history

Revisado: 12-08-23

The Book and its Author: This third edition of Peter Brown's introduction to the "Dark Ages" is much more scholarly than the previous editions. Peter Brown himself is, perhaps, the leading historian of the late Antique West. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in Church history or European history.

Scope of Book: This book really covers the first 1000 years of European history (or if you prefer, of Church history in Europe) with lengthy and surprisingly detailed excursions into the Christian cultures of the Byzantine empire and of the lands that would be conquered by the Arabs. The range of the book within European history is astonishing. It doesn't just focus, as one might expect, on Italy, France, Ireland, and England, but gives attention also to central Europe and Scandinavia.

What's Unique About this Book: While you'll find several histories of the Dark Ages on Audible, this one is unique for its novel (even shocking) interpretation of those events and scholarly (as opposed to popular) approach.

Contrary to the usual narrative coming from Edward Gibbon, Peter Brown argues that there was no fall of Rome due to barbarian invasions. The "barbarians" were hardly different culturally from the frontier Romans and much of what is taken to be "barbarian" culture is really Roman military culture applied to the general population through the mediation of Germanic peoples who had taken on Roman military culture; the "invasions" were not invasions, but minor disturbances mostly coordinated by one Roman faction against another; and the net result of the "barbarian invasions" was next to nil. In place of Gibbons "fall of Rome," Brown offers a great decentralization of Romaness due to the breakdown of the Roman tax collection system during the long civil wars; the centralized Romaness was followed by a period of local Romaness, which gradually and mostly voluntarily transformed into idiosyncratic local cultures.

Contrary to the Catholic historiography of Christopher Dawson, he argues that papal Rome did not function as a centralizing governing force in preserving the political-religious unity of Europe after the fall of Rome. Rather, Italy functioned as a sort of cultural epicenter from which, in a decentralized way, common cultural and religious customs were preserved through traveling holy men and cultural exchange across Europe—much as the Aztecs provided a cultural epicenter for distant American tribes not politically under their control.

Performance: The narrator, Tom Parks, does a great job reading this book. The quality of this audiobook performance is vastly better than that of Peter Brown's study of patristic perspectives of wealth, Through the Eye of a Needle, which is unfortunately and dramatically marred by an astoundingly bad narrator.

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Glad Audible added this long-awaited title!

Revisado: 12-08-23

Humphrey Carpenter's biography of J. R. R. Tolkien is the classic biography of that author. It has been criticized lately for downplaying Tolkien's Catholicism and his knowledge of modern literature (post-Chaucerian literature). Fair enough. I hope Audible uploads some more recent books on Tolkien as well, which fill in these gaps, but I'd say this book is very worthwhile. It gives a broad and reasonably deep overview of his life. It is respectful of the author—neither hagiographical nor iconoclastic—and shows a surprising understanding of his theological outlook, which would be difficult for more recent authors to replicate, even if I do wish it gave more information about his religious / spiritual life.

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Great performance, good book

Revisado: 12-08-23

This is one of Walker Percy's most famous books. It is very humorous at times and has some depth as well. The performance is perfect for the book.

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