The best of 2008
Well, the year is drawing to a close: we left Princeton yesterday, and we’re spending the week in snow-white Vancouver before heading back to red-hot Australia. So if you’ll allow me another moment of nostalgia, here are some of my highlights from 2008:
- Best novel: Marilynne Robinson, Home
- Best book of poetry: Rowan Williams, Headwaters
- Best film: The Visitor
- Best Australian film: The Black Balloon
- Best TV show: John Adams (HBO)
- Best online superhero musical tragicomedy: Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
- Best theology book (in English): Nate Kerr, Christ, History and Apocalyptic
- Best theology book (in German): Günter Thomas, Neue Schöpfung
- Best work of literary criticism: Rowan Williams, Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction
- Best book on politics: Ian Hunter, The Secularisation of the Confessional State: The Political Thought of Christian Thomasius
- Best book on history: Quentin Skinner, Hobbes and Republican Liberty
- Best journalistic piece: Chris Hedges, “The Best and the Brightest Have Led America Off a Cliff”
- Best food: fresh tomatoes and watermelons in Rome
- Best place for kids: Cotsen Children’s Library in Princeton (a wonderful, magical place for kids to read and play)
- Best vacation: a lovely overnight stay in Soho, New York (incidentally, this little holiday for my wife and me was the generous gift of an F&T reader!)
- Best live music: seeing Bob Dylan in New York
- Best surprise: receiving a painting of Karl Barth from Oliver Crisp!
- Best new discovery: the works of William Stringfellow – I’m completely obsessed with Stringfellow at the moment; try to talk to me about anything else, and I’ll be sure to slip Stringfellow into the conversation somehow...
You have excellent taste! I saw The Visitor on Monday and that would be my pick too. Brilliant film.
The fireworks seem to be starting early - happy new year (we're the first nyadiya!)
that's just the one steph :-)
Glad to hear you're on your way home! And, boy, the temperature has been intense over the past few days ... hope it's not too much of a shock for Elise and the kids. Not sure how else to contact you, so pardon my informality: be sure to let me know if you need an extra set of wheels or pair of hands at the airport. The Stephenses would be only too happy to help. We can't wait to catch up with you all.
Delighted to hear that Robinson's Home is a worthy successor to Gilead. I'm sure there's the potential for several further stories from this same community.
Couldn't agree more about Stringfellow. I picked up Keeper of the Word after your comments here and I've been simply astounded by what I've read. I haven't yet recovered from my amazement.
Oliver Crisp painted KB for you. How charming!
I'm just glad you found Stringfellow.
Ben, will you make it out to Regent College while you're in Van.?
Great taste! Love Marilynne Robinson, and the Hedges article reminded me of Lewis' comment in "God in the Dock"
"Any fool can write learned language. The vernacular is the real test. If you can't turn your faith into it, then either you don't understand it or you don't believe it."
-----God in the Dock, p.338
If you like Bill Stringfellow you might also like Will Campbell and others who were around for the Conference on Religion and Race in the early 60s in Chicago. Stringfellow and Campbell raised difficult and confrontational issues and were skewered by the established church folk. Campbell lost his job in the NCC. It was an interesting time. I stayed with WS and his companion Anthony Towne on Block Island in the 70s for a while, enough to appreciate both his extreme frailty at the time and his penchant for circuses. The two men had recently played host to a fugitive Daniel Berrigan. Among those who were instrumental in developing the East Harlem Protestant Parish, Don Benedict died last summer in Vermont and Bill Webber lives in New Jersey and George Todd is still active in New York. Among the inspirational figures of that era, one who is largely lost to us online is Jim Robinson who was the pastor of the Church of the Master in Harlem and who later founded Crossroads Africa. The demise of Christianity and Crisis magazine, also thriving during this era is a tangible indication of how seriously the input of Stringfellow and others was taken by the mainlime churches.
Oh, how wonderful to know another Dr Horrible lover will be joining the CFM community! Are you a Whedon fan more generally?
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