Summer reading

For the month of June, I am consciously avoiding any specific theological reading unless absolutely necessary (for Sunday school preparation, etc). This is because I want to actually feel like I'm having a summer break; although I enjoy reading theology, it has practically become part of my job and so I'm drawing the line of demarcation.

One was "The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchester. A very interesting account of two men who contributed much to the writing of the massive Oxford English Dictionary, a veritable tome and exhaustive treatment of the English language. The madman spent several decades from his place in the asylum writing and reading, in order to help with the citations of the OED. But the thing is, while he was clearly off his rocker in certain respects, in many other ways he was perfectly rational. It is a story worth reading. I enjoyed the chapter about Samuel Johnson's

dictionary too - he is one of my heroes.

The second was "Under the Banner of Heaven" by John Krakauer. It is basically a history of Mormonism mixed in with the story of a group of Mormon fundamentalists who believe in polygamy. Certainly Krakauer offers a "critical history" here, arguing for the persistent and uneasy tension between Mormonism and American culture. It's also includes disturbing accounts of murder. But all in all, I think it's a good digest of Mormon belief and history from an outsider's perspective.

I'm developing an interest of sorts in Mormonism - not out of sympathy, but out of curiosity. It is a very fast growing religion, and although Krakauer wants to place it as a religion at odds with American culture, I tend to think it shares several key characteristics with American life and thought. For one, Joseph Smith basically saw himself as an entrepeneur, and came up with a new "product" to match the tastes of his day. This was to be sure just one example where Christian religion and capitalist marketing have been mixed in the US. Mormonism is also heavily moralistic without a doctrinal center. This is not to say that they don't have doctrine - they do and much of it is flat out bizarre. But on the practical level the upstanding behavior of the community is held above "orthodoxy" and in many ways this reflects the pragmatic spirit of America from its beginnings.