Here are a few new book releases from this week that are worth checking out…
(Where possible, we have also tried to include a review/interview related to each of the new book releases …)
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*** Our Starred New Book of the Week:
<<<<< Last Week’s Starred New Book
Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News
Jeffrey Bilbro
(IVP Academic)
“Reading the morning newspaper is the realist’s morning prayer.”―G. W. F. Hegel Whenever we reach for our phones or scan a newspaper to get “caught up,” we are being not merely informed but also formed. News consumption can shape our sense of belonging, how we judge the value of our lives, and even how our brains function. Christians mustn’t let the news replace prayer as Hegel envisioned, but neither should we simply discard the daily feed. We need a better understanding of what the news is for and how to read it well. Jeffrey Bilbro invites readers to take a step back and gain some theological and historical perspective on the nature and very purpose of news. In Reading the Times he reflects on how we pay attention, how we discern the nature of time and history, and how we form communities through what we read and discuss. Drawing on writers from Thoreau and Dante to Merton and Berry, along with activist-journalists such as Frederick Douglass and Dorothy Day, Bilbro offers an alternative vision of the rhythms of life, one in which we understand our times in light of what is timeless. Throughout, he suggests practices to counteract common maladies tied to media consumption in order to cultivate healthier ways of reading and being. When the news sets itself up as the light of the world, it usurps the role of the living Word. But when it helps us attend together to the work of Christ―down through history and within our daily contexts―it can play a vital part in enabling us to love our neighbors. Reading the Times is a refreshing and humane call to put the news in its place.
*** READ an interview with the author …
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Reading for the Common Good
From ERB Editor Christopher Smith
Reading for the Common Good
From ERB Editor Christopher Smith
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![Jeffrey Bilbro - Reading the Times [Feature Review]](https://englewoodreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Reading-the-Times-130x130.jpeg "Jeffrey Bilbro - Reading the Times [Feature Review]")
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