Wittgenstein: A Very Short Introduction

Title: Wittgenstein: A Very Short Introduction
Author: A. C. Grayling
Rating: ***1/2
Description: This book achieves what it claims in the title – a short introduction on someone considered one of the greatest philosophers of the last century. Actually, it depends on what one would define as short – at more than 120 pages, it is not exactly very short. Yet compared to Wittgenstein's own works and the numerous interpretations and commentaries on them, 120 pages is really just scratching the surface of this enigmatic genius. A. C. Grayling himself is an established and well known philosopher and author, and he does a relatively good job of getting key ideas of Wittgenstein as well as his most famous arguments into the book. Knowing no Wittgenstein whatsoever, I managed to understand most of what was written, although I'm sure that there is definitely much more to study in depth. The early and later Wittgenstein are both covered and the transition between the former to the latter is also handled properly for a brief book.

Rather dry though, for those not used to philosophy, especially of logic and language.

The Unconsoled

Title: The Unconsoled
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Rating: ****
Description: A pianist arrives in an unknown city somewhere in Europe, where he is plunged into the lives, hopes and adulation of all its residents, while he himself can hardly remember what he is there for.

A dream, a surreal painting of a city, or a psychological glimpse into the subconscious? Ishiguro plays again with the unreliability of memory, the transience of subjective experience, and leaves us frustratingly intrigued without ever revealing the answers. A curious mixture of absurdity, sympathetic portrayals of the strivings of people and their 'trappedness'; a study into unfulfilled ideals, strange hopes, and to use the words of H.D. Thoreau, lives of quiet desperation.

A word to interested readers - don't read the book like you would a mystery thriller. There are no simple resolutions or answers in the strange world Ishiguro describes, right up till the end of the book. Rather, try taking the dissonant scenes to be semi-abstract sketches of the absurdity of life and our attempts fo make sense of it.

Letters from a Skeptic

Book: Letters from a Skeptic
Authors: Gregory and Edward Boyd
Rating: ***
Description: A grown-up son writes to his intelligent and sceptical father on the Christian faith. Through 30-odd letters they correspond, the father raising every doubt and objection he can think of, and the son responding sincerely. As a result, God brings the father to faith in Him eventually. A real-life demonstration of apologetics at work, with a heart.

Note though, that Gregory Boyd holds the view of open theism, which is that God does not know the free will choices that people will make in the future because God either chooses not to know or because the future isn't knowable. (See http://www.carm.org/open.htm). In my opinion, this view is unbiblical and does not edify Christians, despite what open theists say. Boyd may try to confront the problem of evil and suffering by saying that God did not have complete control, but I think it is ultimately more comforting to have a God who is absolutely sovereign and good, such that even the most seemingly senseless evil turns out to be allowed for His good purposes. There is no intellectual difficulty with accepting God's sovereignty and goodness in the face of suffering - the difficult lies in emotionally and volitionally accepting it, and that's what faith is about.

Yet all in all, the book provides good apologetic material in a real situation and Boyd shows patience and lots of sincerity in engaging his skeptical father - something we all can learn from.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Book: The Lord of the Rings (comprising The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return Of The King)
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Rating: *****
Description: Countless accolades have been lauded upon this epic, and justly so. No other modern work I have encountered has presented an alternate world so real and so compelling, steeped in so much of its own lore and history. The different peoples and places, their ancestries and past ages, are interwoven into the very narrative such that the reader feels he is witness to a great fabric of history of which these are merely strands. Coupled with Tolkien’s prose that reads with gravity and grace, the wistful and magical elven songs that hark back to the beauty of lost ages, the wonderful descriptions of nature, and the genius of creating the elven language, you see how the book starts to rise above the ordinary ‘bestseller’, And not forgetting, of course, the grand moving tale of the smallest hobbit destroying the great ring of Mordor.

All in all, it is a book that shows, more than subtle philosophical arguments, or clever rhetoric, what really is wrong with both modernism and post-modernism. For all its ‘backwardness’ and ‘pre-scientific’ concepts, the ancient world, the kind of world described in LOTR, is so much richer and beautiful, because it allows for a larger worldview. One where there is real goodness, truth and beauty, where higher purpose comes calling, where honour and courage and sacrifice really do matter absolutely for victory and glory to come, where one dares to fight for the good, where courage comes from true hope and desire. Reading the book itself is almost a spiritual experience. The reductionists just don’t know what they’ve missed.

The Message of the Sermon on the Mount

Book: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount
Author: John Stott
Rating: *****
Description: First-rate commentary that journeyed with me through my months in Finland. Walking through Jesus' revolutionary words with Stott is humbling, exciting and ultimately challenging. Because the whole sermon is a declaration of the manifesto of Christian culture and the call to live it out right here, right now. Stott's careful exposition and sensitivity to application will spur any reader who is willing and serious to follow the footsteps of Jesus. It is a testimony to the timelessness and power of those divine words first uttered 2000 years ago on the hill slopes of Palestine.

From a more philosophical perspective, the ethics spelled out by Jesus are simply breathtaking. Much has been made of the Golden Rule (Do unto others what you want them to do unto you), but check out the whole sermon. The beatitudes are the profoundest set of virtue ethics, the Golden Rule precedes Kant's categorical imperative, and Jesus' interpretation of the great Jewish Law trumps all the religious leaders. No wonder the crowds were astonished that He taught as one who had authority.