Lots of reading this month, from a 1500+ page theological tome to a bunch of X-Men comics (and everything in between.) Take a look!
4 Articles I Like This Month
A fun look at the life of professional auctioneers as told by someone who took a class to learn how to do it herself.
Baseball, which celebrates Jackie Robinson Day every year, has fewer black players now than in decades, with black players making up only 7.7% of the league. Preston Wilson, a retired second-generation ballplayer, has some ideas on what MLB needs to do to turn things around.
An intimate, heartbreaking look at the life of someone struggling to get by, aided by food banks and aid programs, during the pandemic.
This essay, penned by congressman and Civil Rights icon John Lewis days before his death and published on the day of his funeral, gives the American people what Bill Clinton accurately called our "marching orders": "stand up, speak up, and speak out" for freedom.
PAUL AND THE
FAITHFULNESS OF GOD by
N.T. Wright
N.T. Wright has spent
the bulk of his career advocating for the so-called "New Perspective"
on Pauline theology, arguing that Paul should not be regarded as the teacher of
a new Gentile religion, but as a first-century Pharisee who understood Jesus to
be the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel and therefore to the world. It
is with that understanding that Wright lays out his understanding of Paul and
his theology in the two-volume Paul and the Faithfulness of God,
the fourth and latest installment in his series on "Christian Origins and
the Question of God."
As he did in the
previous three volumes, Wright here argues that in order to fully understand
Paul's writings, you must read them in the context in which they were written,
when Roman government ruled and Hellenistic philosophy and culture prevailed
but Judaism remained nevertheless defined and relatively separate. When you do
so, aspects of Paul's theology become fuller—for example, when Paul boldly
proclaims that Jesus is Lord, the implicit second half of that sentence is
"and Caesar is not."
It is by reading in this
context that Wright is able to show the limits of the Reformed understanding of
Paul that dates back to Luther and Calvin and argue for an understanding of the
New Testament that fulfills the Old Testament instead of essentially
disregarding it. Wright reads Paul in light of the critical touchstones of
first century Judaism, and in every instance sees Jesus fulfilling God's promises
to Israel: Jesus brings about new creation, Jesus offers a new exodus, Jesus
ushers in the new covenant, and Jesus is the return from exile. It's a
compelling, persuasive case.
While this was not my
favorite volume in the series (that award goes to The Resurrection of
the Son of God), it does cover the most ground, and can truly be regarded
as wright magnum opus. At 1520 pages of content plus another 100+
pages of indexes and back matter, it is a massive undertaking for writer and
reader alike, but one worthy of the time. Should he complete the next (and
final?) volume, I will be first in line to purchase it.
THE POWER AND THE GLORY by Graham Greene
Arguably the most famous
work by arguably the most famous Catholic novelist, The Power and the
Glory had a high bar to clear when I began it this month—I was
expecting a novel with plenty to say about sin, salvation, and life. To my
delight, the book largely met my expectations, with a thematically poignant
tale told well by Graham Greene.
The Power and the Glory is the story of a so-called "whisky
priest" whose personal indulgences (primarily alcoholism and sex) contrast
with his heightened sense of integrity and penitence. In 1930s Mexico, when
Catholicism is stifled by the Mexican government, he alone remains willing to
administer the sacraments, and finds himself on the run for doing so. Pursued
by a Javert-like lieutenant, the unnamed priest finds himself caught between
his duty to God and the weakness of his flesh until a final confrontation with
his own mortality establishes once and for all who he really is underneath.
In Greene's capable
hands, the book is rarely dull and wastes no time, nor does it sacrifice story
for theme (a pet peeve of mine in a lot novels). The best novels have the
ability to make you feel and think, and The Power and the Glory certainly
does both—indeed, when the protagonist meets his fate, it's one of the more
affecting climaxes I've read in a while. I would certainly recommend this book,
and especially to readers who appreciate spiritual themes in novels.
ONLY THE BALL WAS WHITE by Robert Peterson
Was the Negro Leagues a tragedy? Of course—its very existence was owed to baseball's unofficial but rigorously upheld color line, which kept black ballplayers out of the major leagues for decades until Jackie Robinson finally broke through in 1947. Was the Negro Leagues a triumph? Absolutely—told they couldn't play with white players, black players formed a league organized and profitable enough that it was one of the nation's foremost black businesses during its heyday.
But mostly, the Negro Leagues was a great story, and Only the Ball Was White, Robert Peterson's 1970 classic history of black baseball up to that point, does a splendid job telling that story. Alternating between chapters telling the linear history of black baseball starting in the 19th century and miniature biographies of black baseball's icons (Rube Foster, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, etc.), the book gives a splendid overview. And the appendix, which provides a few paragraphs about dozens of the Negro Leagues' most notable players, is an excellent reference point for baseball historians wanting to know the basics about some of baseball's underappreciated stars.
As a historical work, Only the Ball Was White has been surpassed in the 50 years since its publication, thanks to the hard work of researchers at SABR (The Society of American Baseball Research), the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, among many others. However, Only the Ball Was White was the catalyst that began a renewal of interest in historic black baseball, and it remains an important, fascinating, and entertaining read. In this year when we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues' founding, do yourself a favor and give this book a read.
THE SPORTSWRITER by Richard Ford
The Sportswriter is a thoughtful, melancholy novel about a sportswriter who can't seem to get his life on track following the death of his son and divorce from his wife. Though a decent man on the exterior, Frank Bascombe is trapped in his own mind, and his introspection leads to a serious of selfish choices one the Easter weekend in which the novel takes place. Nevertheless, by the novel's end you can't help but see some quiet dignity in Frank even as he flails his way through life's small tragedies and triumphs.
I wanted to like this book more than I did. The premise—a serious novel about an introspective sportswriter—was catnip for me, since "introspective sportswriter" is exactly what I wanted to be until was called into ministry. Furthermore, Richard Ford is an excellent writer, who beautifully communicates what Frank is thinking throughout the story.
However, the melancholy tone of the book started to drag me down the more I read, to the point where I wanted the book to end more than I wanted to read it. And while the book's lack of dynamic plot is something good enough character work can overcome, by page 300 I was getting a little bored. All in all, Richard Ford is a writer I'll keep my eye on, but The Sportswriter isn't a book I plan to revisit.
ESSENTIAL CLASSIC X-MEN
VOL. 3 by Roy Thomas,
Steve Englehart, Neal Adams, Tom Sutton, et al.
After years of
mediocrity, the X-Men were seemingly doomed for cancellation by the dawn of the
1970s—as I described last month, the book never really got much
traction and was creatively inferior to most of the other superhero titles
Marvel was putting out in the Silver Age of the 1960s. But with its dying
breaths, writer Roy Thomas and new artist Neal Adams (who would go on to
greater fame with his Batman work in the 1970s) rejuvenated the book and pulled
no punches before its demise.
In their 10 issues on
the book, Thomas and Adams introduced characters like Havok and Polaris, pitted
the X-Men up against the pterodactyl-like Sauron and a revived Sentinels
program (whose design Adams perfected), and most importantly, never let up on
the gas. Driven by the dynamic art of Adams, who also did most of the plotting,
these stories are worlds better than anything else the book had seen up to that
point, including the early Stan Lee-Jack Kirby stories. Unfortunately, the
title was too far gone by that time, and died its untimely death after issue
#66, resorting to reprints for years until the dawn of the "All-New,
All-Different X-Men" in 1975.
This volume concludes
with an X-Men-adjacent run, Steve Englehart and Tom Sutton's stories from Amazing
Adventures about the Beast following his departure from the team. It
is in these stories that he acquires his now-familiar furry appearance, the
result of an experiment gone awry. While this change is important to the
history of the X-Men, the stories aren't particularly memorable and can be skipped
by all but completists.
Though my favorite
volume of the three Classic X-Men Essentials, this third book serves as
confirmation that the X-Men title's cancellation was warranted—despite good
ideas and the occasionally impressive creative run, the brass at Marvel never
quite figured out what they wanted from this team. It would remain for another
generation to revive the merry mutants and bring them to new heights.
ESSENTIAL X-MEN VOL. 1 by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, John
Byrne, Terry Austin, et al.
This is when the X-Men got good.
After several years of printing nothing but reprints, the X-Men title was revived in 1975 with a brand new team—not a merry band of teenagers this time, but a diverse group of grown-up mutants under the leadership of Professor X and Cyclops, two holdovers from the Silver Age team. When you think about the X-Men, these are the characters you think of first: Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and, of course, Wolverine.
And let me tell you, it worked pretty much from the first issue. With writer Chris Claremont at the helm and first Dave Cockrum and the John Byrne on art duty, these comics are modern, dynamic, and fun from the get-go. As the team takes on old foes (Magneto, Juggernaut, Sauron) and meets new allies and antagonists (the Shi'ar, Alpha Flight, the Starjammers), the action never stops and you get to know and love the new heroes more with every issue.
With interesting plots, fun characters, and stellar art (John Byrne was the premiere artist in comics at this time, and this is his peak), these are the comics that made the X-Men a household name. And stay tuned...it only gets better in volume 2.
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