StephenBarkley.com

For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge Of Time – A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics © 2011 Free Press: Simon & Schuster xvi+302 pages Like a lot of people, I was introduced to Walter Lewin through his compelling physics lectures from MIT, which are freely available [...]

Web © 1979 Penguin (1980) 141 pages Web is a posthumously published novel by one of the last century’s greatest science fiction writers: John Wyndham. Like his more famous works (i.e. The Chrysalids, The Day of the Triffids), Web rides the line between science fiction and horror—this time swerving more towards horror. Lord Foxfield was [...]

Colossians and Philemon © 1986 Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Eerdmans 192 pages Long before the massive Christian Origins and the Question of God, long before “The Right Reverend Father in God, by Divine Providence Lord Bishop of Durham”, we had N. T. Wright, Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey. While some the later themes of Wright’s [...]

Interpreting Martin Luther: An Introduction to His Life and Thought © 2008 Regent College Publishing 345 pages Interpreting Martin Luther is a seminary course converted into a book. Each of the twelve chapters correspond to the twelve classroom lectures in the semester. Having taken the course from the author a little less than a decade [...]

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen © 2009 Vintage: Random House 287 pages “It simply makes you want to run.” I bought this book because of that blurb from Outside Magazine on the inside of the cover.  They’re absolutely right. After all the chapters are [...]

Peace Be with You: Monastic Wisdom for a Terror-Filled World © 2011 Thomas Nelson 276 pages In the wake of 9/11, David Carlson sought answers. He knew “something was missing” in our response to the tragedy, but he wasn’t quite sure what. This question led him to monasteries and retreat centres across America where he [...]

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains © 2011, 2010 W. W. Norton & Company 280 pages Have you ever tried to read a book—the sort of book you could lose yourself in only a few years ago—only to find yourself fidgety and distracted? That symptom, described by Carr and attested to [...]

Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N. T. Wright © 2011 IVP Academic 294 pages It had to be awkward. The good theologians at Wheaton College threw a Theology Conference based solely on the theology of N. T. Wright, and invited him to come and respond. Wright handled the situation [...]

The Confessions ©2001 (originally AD 397) Translation by Philip Burton Introduction by Robin Lane Fox Alfred A. Knopf li+370=421 pages The peril with reading classics is my insufficiency to write a proper review. As with The Imitation and Revelations of Divine Love, you’ll have to be content with my amateurish reflections instead. When I first [...]

Revelations of Divine Love © 1966 Trans. Clifton Wolters Penguin 213 pages The scribe who put the words of Mother Julian to paper offered a warning: I pray God almighty that this book shall fall only into the hands of those who intend to be his lovers, and who are willing to submit to the [...]