The Luminous Web

I just finished this book by Barbara Brown Taylor, and I highly recommend it.

Taylor is an Episcopal priest who has made a study of cetain frontier areas of science like evolution and cosmology. In this book, she looks at what she learned from the perspective of how science and religion interact or the boundaries separating them (if any).

It appears to me that she sees less separating than a lot of scientists might. I am on her side on this.

Although I really liked the book, I did find that the last chapter went off the edge a few times. For one thing, she seems to equate Heisenberg's principle with the observer effect which I think is wrong. Fortunately, this does not seem to prevent her from reaching some reasonable conclusions.

Despite a few flaws, the book does raise many interesting questions and even suggests some answers of sorts that greatly satisfy. I strongly recommend it.

The Death of Ivan Ilych

This longish short story is by Leo Tolstoy. I had heard about it many times, but never read it. Recently, I read something about it in a book about Jesus and decided to give it a try.

I liked the story very much even on a surface level. The deeper level might be a real eye-opener for some! You can't miss the latter either, because Tolstoy pretty much spells it out in the last few pages.

Not to spoil it for you, but to give you some idea, Tolstoy is not exactly writing about the virtues of the middle class. Made me stop and think about what I have been up to in the last several years.

See what you think.