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Parallel biographies of philosophers
From my previous two posts, I notice there’s a whole lot of parallel biographies of philosophers that have been published over the last 20 years. These are some of the ones I have noticed: Wolfram Ellenberger The Visionaries: Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil, and the Power of Philosophy in Dark Times. Time of the Magicians: Wittgenstein,…
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Benjamin J. B. Lipscomb, The Women are Up to Something – A review
Note: this is repost of a book review I published on my Tumblr in 2023: https://www.tumblr.com/paulw76/699609328827744256/ive-read-another-book-on-elizabeth-anscombe-iris I’ve read another book on Elizabeth Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot and Mary Midgley – Benjamin J. B. Lipscomb’s The Women are Up to Something, published a year earlier than Metaphysical Animals. I found it a much easier read…
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Clare MacCumhaill and Rachael Wiseman, Metaphysical Animals – A Review
Note: this was first published at my Tumblr blog in 2023: https://www.tumblr.com/paulw76/698960504699387904/over-the-long-weekend-here-in-new-zealand-i-have Over the long weekend here in New Zealand I have read Metaphysical Animals by Clare MacCumhaill and Rachael Wiseman. This is a biographical study of the philosophers Elizabeth Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot and Mary Midgley and the ways their lives, friendships and…
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Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind – A Review
Over the weekend I finished a book of social theory and social psychology that I’ve had on my to-read list for a very long time: Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (Penguin, 2010). It’s an overwhelming and stimulating mix of cognitive and evolutionary psychology, classical and biblical references, sociological…
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Kierkegaard: A Single Life by Stephen Backhouse
I have read Stephen Backhouse, Kierkegaard: A Single Life over Easter. This is arguably the best all-round Kierkegaard biography available for those wanting an introduction to his life and thought in around 300 pages. It was very enjoyable for me. Backhouse is a Christian theologian who clearly loves Kierkegaard as a thinker, but who doesn’t…
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Ephesians – recommended reading
As I said in my previous blog post, I struggled through reading and translating the Greek text of Ephesians. What did I find most helpful? As usual, the Greek text I used was The Greek New Testament Fifth revised ed. (Stuttgart Germany: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft/American Bible Society/United Bible Societies, 2014) together with Timothy Friberg, Barbara Friberg…
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1-3 John – Recommended reading
At the moment, I’m reading through the Greek text of, and doing a personal translation, of 1 John. After working through Ephesians, and often feeling at sea with the vocabulary and syntax of it, reading 1 John has built up my confidence again, because it’s relatively easy to read and translate. The Greek text I…
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Matthew commentaries and studies – update
I’m still reading through Matthew in the Greek New Testament. I initially started with the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5, but I have decided to go back to chapter 1 and read from there. Now that I’m no longer studying towards a graduate theology diploma, I have made it a priority to keep…
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Matthew – Commentaries and studies
Since Christmas, I have been reading through the Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew in the fifth edition of the United Bible Society’s Greek New Testament (UBS 5). I’m now on to chapter 9. What have I found helpful? For help at points where I’m stuck, I’ve found Maximilian Zerwick’s A Grammatical Analysis of…
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Recommended biblical commentaries – Amos
Amos is one of my favourite of the prophets in the collection called the ‘Twelve Prophets’ in the Hebrew Bible. An excellent small exegetical commentary is the newly published commentary on Joel and Amos in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentary (TOTC) series by Tchavdar Hadjiev, an Evangelical Old Testament scholar based at Queens College, Belfast,…