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The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos © 2012 Anansi Press 292 pages I love scientists who make physics comprehensible. After hearing Neil Turok interviewed on Quirks & Quarks, I knew that I needed to read his Massey Lectures. In The Universe Within, Turok covers every scale imaginable. He is equally at home explaining quantum mechanics and [...]

This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues, and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life. —C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 131.

Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters © 1972 Touchstone: Simon & Schuster 277 pages Sadness. Every time I set this book down after reading a chapter or two I was filled with an odd sense of melancholy mixed with frustration, but above all, sadness. Hasidic Judaism, one of the branches of Orthodox [...]

The old structures in all the denominations are crumbling, and we need to be alert to the work of the Holy Spirit in creating new structures that can carry the truth of the gospel. Like Philip Schaff we should strive to be transdenominational, pinning our hopes not on the refurbishing of denominational structures but on [...]

Canexus: The Canoe in Canadian Culture © 1988 Betelgeuse Books 212 pages In November of 1987, James Raffan and Bert Horwood held a conference at Queen’s University. During the conference, a number of academics from various fields who share a love for paddling presented papers which now make up this book: Canexus. I was thrilled [...]

Protection is the first necessity of opulence and luxury. —Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent, 10.

Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said? © 2012 Thomas Nelson 272 pages On the surface this looks like a book written by the odd couple. On one side you have Tony Campolo, the wizened elder statesman. On the other side you have the iconoclastic young radical, Shane Claiborne. Fortunately for [...]

We must never reduce the gospel to a form of existentialist philosophy wherein salvation is merely rescue from being lost to oneself (people aren’t sure who they are) or from being lost concerning life’s purpose (they find life meaningless). —Victor Shepherd, Our Evangelical Faith, 46.

Day 4: The Pivabiskau River to the Opasatika River (50 km) There’s nothing quite like waking up on a gravel spit in the middle of nowhere to a breakfast of pancakes and coffee (courtesy of Brian). As we ate and packed up our gear we watched the mist lift off the river as the sun [...]

The Quest: Christ Amidst the Quest © 2012 Wipf & Stock xix+272 pages What is religion, anyway? It’s common to suggest that everyone is using religion to find their own way up the mountain to God, but what about religions where there is no God to speak of at the summit? If we want to [...]