Writing; Reading; Politics

Yesterday was a bad day and I didn't write anything. Wednesday was a regular day and I didn't write anything, except for a response to Tuesday's post. Tuesday I wrote plenty, but nothing that was suitable for publication. I don't remember what Monday was like. You know, I'd like to be able to promise more consistency in the future, but I can't. I'd like to be able to tell you when to expect posts, or how many to expect, but I can't. And right now, that's just gonna have to be okay.

There are two books I am reading right now in addition to The Brothers Karamazov. They are When Religion Becomes Lethal: The Explosive Mix of Politics and Religion in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Charles Kimball, and Validity in Interpretation by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. The Hirsch I've been wanting to read for some time. Modes of interpretation, theories of reading, and the ways rhetoric is used by authors as they present their cases are a passion of mine. If I can say that. I mean, I don't get all excited about this stuff, but I want to learn everything I can about them. As usual, I'm reading Hirsch now with the understanding that it will probably take a second reading before I get much of anything out of him, so I'm not reading it very slowly.

The Kimball looks interesting, but I can't say that I'm excited about reading it. I've been putting it off, in fact. I've been reading politics, and discussing politics with my husband, a lot lately, with plans to read even more in coming months, but I don't actually enjoy reading about politics. Especially since I had such a negative response to Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw. I've promised a write up of Jesus for President to a couple of people, but I've been putting that off too. It makes me nervous even mentioning these books here, because when it comes to politics and the relationship between politics and religion, I am way out of my depth and less than enthusiastic. I started to draft something earlier this week or late last week positioning myself in relation to the subject in the abstract, and if I can ever finish it, I will probably publish the results here.

In the meantime I am satisfied to leave it at that. If I am going to make any kind of declaration, I have to make sure that I agree with what I am saying, and that gets tricky sometimes. Reminds me of something I read yesterday in Hirsch. I'm gonna have to remember to look that up later.