Lynched, by Angela D. Sims

This post is not a review or a critique, just a few insights gleaned from Sims' incredibly important project (published 2016). Over the course of 18 months (July 2009 - February 2011), Sims traveled around the country collecting oral histories from people in locales as varied as New Jersey and Louisiana, Texas and Nebraska. She … Continue reading Lynched, by Angela D. Sims

City of God, Book 18: A Brief History of Nearly Everything

In Book 18, Augustine takes up a history of "the earthly city" with was growing alongside the heavenly city. This society of mortal men, though men share a common nature, is divided against itself as "one part of it oppresses another." In the providence of God, some nations have "been entrusted with empire, while others … Continue reading City of God, Book 18: A Brief History of Nearly Everything

City of God, Book 15: Urban Sprawl in the Two Cities

I'm convinced writing these summaries is beneficial, but I'd have been done with Augustine's tome long ago if I wasn't writing these. But I am benefiting from writing these, if for no one but myself. Book 15 traces the progress of the two cities, the "two societies of human beings, one of which is predestined … Continue reading City of God, Book 15: Urban Sprawl in the Two Cities

City of God, Book 13: Better than Adam ever was

Book 13 is given to the topic of man's mortality and the nature of death. Augustine dissects the difference between angels and men, "The condition of human being was such that if they continued in perfect obedience they would be granted the immortality of the angels and an eternity of bliss, without the interposition of … Continue reading City of God, Book 13: Better than Adam ever was

City of God, Book 12: Good and Bad Angels

Augustine continues a discussion of a topic we rarely consider - the nature, creation, and destiny of the angels, good and bad angels. The two cities which find their origin in man can already be seen, Augustine posits, in the angels. Good and bad angels did not have a different source, creation or nature, but … Continue reading City of God, Book 12: Good and Bad Angels