Magnifica Humanitas

The Weekly Wrap: May 31-June 6

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The Weekly Wrap: May 31-June 6

Why I Still Read

I see many stories about the eclipse of reading. I’m not sure what to believe about all that. What I am sure of is that I’m going to keep reading.

First of all I’m still able. Neither the mind nor the eyes have failed. So let’s read while we can.

Also, you could argue that it is a habit. And that would be right. Reading has enriched my life for over 65 years. Why stop?

“Because I think I am making progress.” That’s what famed cellist Pablo Casals said in his eighties when asked why he still practiced for hours a day. I think that is true for me as well. I think I’m a better reader than five years ago. I carry more from what I’ve read before into what I read now.

I’m still curious. I still long to understand more of God, the world around me, human history, and even baseball. Actually, it’s humbling, because in all of these things, the more I read, the more I grasp how little I understand.

I also read to resist everything from AI to the bombardments of our visual and social media that would turn my mind to mush. Longform writing challenges me to focus, to see the connections of one idea to the next, one event to the next. None of us sees the totality of the big picture. But I don’t want to settle for memes, slogans, and nostrums.

Finally, did I mention what a pleasure this all is? Not the quick, evanescent pleasure of a snack but the slow, savoring pleasure of a multiple course dinner at a top end restaurant, where each bite is savored.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Persepolis was a ground-breaking graphic story, depicting an Iranian girl’s life during the Iran-Iraq War. Sadly, Marjane Satrapi, once that girl, died June 4 in France. “Marjane Satrapi, creator of Persepolis and acclaimed French-Iranian artist, dies aged 56” reports that death, offering a retrospective on her life and work.

We celebrated our 48th anniversary this week. Count me in as a believer in marriage. But marriage isn’t easy, nor is it the institution it once was. Stephanie Coontz has a new book title For Better and Worse, reviewed by Honor Jones in “How to Save Marriage.” The article portrays how our cultural landscape has changed and why.

The Man Who Read Everything is a literary biography of Harold Bloom through his correspondence. Barry Schwabsky introduces us to Bloom and the book in “The Critic’s Loves.”

Reaction continues to come in to Magnifica humanitas, Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI. In “Should the Lion Lie Down With the Electric Lamb?” Anton Barba Kay argues the encyclical doesn’t recognize the greatest threat of AI. He writes:

“The letdown is not that Magnifica humanitas is too moderate or that we are called on to ‘embrace’ technology ‘with gratitude and realism,’ it is that the Church and the pope have not yet discovered what technology is or how it recomposes us—have not realized what it would truly mean to articulate the disagreement they have with Big Tech.”

Finally, I’ve long been a fan of Ann Patchett, both as a writer and a bookstore owner. Her latest novel was published this week and is reviewed by Helen Schulman in the article “Ann Patchett’s Latest Will Engage Your Mind and Warm Your Heart.”

Quote of the Week

Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King and an accomplished writer as well, was born June 4, 1972. He observed:

“You think you know someone. But mostly you just know what you want to know.“

Miscellaneous Musings

Did you ever feel you were reading a book the author wasn’t ready to write? That was my feeling about a book I just finished. It had some great insights, but it just didn’t feel “ripe” to me.

I agreed to review a book from an e-galley in .pdf format. It’s from a very small publisher and I understand their financial constraints. But the experience reminded me how I prefer physical books in reviewing. They allow me to easily flip back and forth. This did not even have any hyperlinks, so it meant lots of scrolling of a 400 page book.

Today the Allies landed on the Normandy beaches 82 years ago. I’ve read several histories of that day as well as watched Saving Private Ryan. One can’t but celebrate the heroism of those who fought and those who died. It also sobers me to remember that they were resisting in Nazism a tyrannous, expansionist, nationalist, and white supremacist regime.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Tish Harrison Warren, What Grows in Weary Lands

Tuesday: Sharon Delgado, Love in a Time of Climate Change

Wednesday: Daniel Smith, Hard Feelings

Thursday: Mikel Del Rosario, Did Jesus Really Say He Was God?

Friday, Howard Thurman, Nothing Can Separate Us

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for May 31 – June 6.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: May 24-30

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The Weekly Wrap: May 24-30

Logging Off

As a reader, I am at war with a not-so-silent intruder. My phone. Spam calls. Texts trying to sell me or scam me. Social media feeds that either fascinate or anger me. And it often takes me away from reading.

I am not one who necessarily pines to read more. Rather, I wouldn’t mind reading what I try to read each day in less time. And the biggest time waster often is my phone.

The only answer I’ve found is physical separation. I put the phone somewhere else. Then I do focused phone time. Part of my challenge is being what some call “a book influencer.” The main way to do this is online–and most of my posting and interactions are on the phone. But one practice is to take a day away from this every week.

I find myself wondering if I’m contributing to the very problem I battle. I hope not. I try to create spaces pointing people to the goodness, truth, and beauty in books with the hope that this will feed people’s reading habits. Hopefully, I provide a redemptive alternative to so much of the ugliness and distortion of truth one finds online.

But I don’t want people to live here. Too much time on screens arguably affects our ability to think. Longform reading, such as we encounter in books literally cultivates our brains. And as a senior, I need all the brain cells I can get! So, as delighted as I am that you are reading this, may I also encourage you to “log off and read a book!”

Five Articles Worth Reading

Doonesbury was one of the comics we read back in the day of newspapers for its humorous take of the politics of the day during the Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan years. Although Garry Trudeau, its creator keeps a low profile, the strip is still going as a weekly. This year, a new biography of Trudeau is being published by Joshua Kendall, a journalist. Pamela Newton sat down for a conversation with the two of them captured in “Authorized? Unauthorized? Garry Trudeau Calls a New Biography ‘Unopposed’“

What books had you read by the time you were twenty-two, when many of us graduated from college? Anna Holmes advises students to “Read These Books by the Time You Graduate.” But why these books? She chose books for those trying to find their way in life, not for advice given, but for qualities one might emulate. I’ve read (and had read by 22) two on the list, and three hadn’t been written when I passed that threshold.

This past week, Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical, Humanitas Magnifica. Ed Simon takes the occasion to explore the impact of encyclicals in “How Many Divisions Has the Pope?“–a remark first made by Joseph Stalin.

Although there has already been extensive commentary on the encyclical, I wonder how many have read it. “Encyclical Letter Humanitas Magnifica” is available at the Vatican website and extends the social teaching of the church reaching back to Leo XIII Rerum Novarum, as it discusses the brave new world of AI.

Many of us were readers from childhood, and like C.S. Lewis grew up in homes full of books, or at least homes that encouraged reading. Bethel McGrew talks about growing up in “The House of Ten Thousand Books.”

Quote of the Week

G. K. Chesterton, who was born on May 29, 1874 had a different take on a slogan that is still popular:


‘My country, right or wrong’ is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying ‘My mother, drunk or sober.’

Miscellaneous Musings

I found what looks to be a most interesting trip on a recent bookstore outing: The Wounded Generation by David Nasaw. It talks about those who returned from World War II. My father fought in that war and was proud of his service, as are we. But he only talked about a few incidents that occurred during his deployment in Europe. This was before PTSD was recognized. I wonder how he was changed by his experiences, and look forward to reading this.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters was a powerful song that addressed all the forms of weariness we struggled with in the early 1970’s Vietnam era. What Grows in Weary Lands is like that, but of greater substance. Tish Harrison Warren writes about the weariness that often happens around mid-life and what the life of faith looks like in such times, and other wearying times.

This week, I reviewed Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul, a collection of 31 essays on the thought of Ellul. As impressed with the Pope’s encyclical as I am, I would say this work is more far-reaching in scope. And Ellul was a prescient thinker I wish more were aware of.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: The Month in Reviews: May 2026

Tuesday: Robert H. Woods and Mark Allen Steiner, From the Outrageous to the Scandalous: Re-imagining Christian Thinking and Scholarship in an Age of Tribalism and Ideological Resentment

Wednesday: Robert Coover, The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.

Thursday: Coleman M. Ford and Shawn Wilhite, Nicaea for Today

Friday: Agatha Christi, Mrs. McGinty’s Dead

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for May 24-30.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.