PintsWithJack.com Launched!
I’m pleased to announce that today Matt and I have launched www.pintswithjack.com, a new website specifically for the podcast and to host our new YouTube series:
Category: Announcement
One Minute Review: Becoming Mrs Lewis
This past week I’ve been working my way through Becoming Mrs Lewis by Patti Callahan, a novelisation of the relationship and romance between my hero, C.S. Lewis, and Joy Davidman. I hadn’t known that much about either Joy or her writings prior to starting this book, most of which was gleaned from the rather unreliable Shadowlands movie.
I have to say that, by the time I finished this book, my appetite had greatly increased to know more about this fascinating woman. In fact, I immediately ordered two books by Dr. Don King, one an edited collection of her letters, and another of her poetry, short extracts of which we were treated to at the start of each chapter.
The book is beautifully written. I can’t emphasize that enough. Patti Callahan took me on a journey. I couldn’t help be drawn in as I travelled with Joy, experiencing the highs of her trip to England, as well as the lows of her crumbling marriage.
Fiat Award 2019
The San Diego diocese will be giving me an award next month:
The San Diego Young Adult Office is pleased to announce David Bates as one of our FIAT AWARD recipients for 2018! David will be honored at the Annual Christmas Gala on December 15th.
David Bates was born in England where he worked as a software engineer. In his search for adventure, he moved to the United States over ten years ago, living in Washington DC, Seattle & finally settling in San Diego.
While David continues to work in IT, he is also a Catholic speaker, presenting at events around the country on Scripture, Church History & Evangelization. His talks can be found on his blog, RestlessPilgrim.net, & on the podcast Theology With An English Accent.
An active member of the San Diego Young Adult community since 2010, David has been involved in many different ministries at parish level, such as playing guitar for Our Lady of the Rosary Lifeteen Mass & leading the JP2 Group at St. John the Evangelist for several years. He is now a member of Holy Angels Byzantine Catholic Church where he is a choir member & cantor.
David has also served at Diocesan level, as a member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council & the Young Adult Commission, the group which inaugurated many San Diego traditions including the Annual Diocesan Young Adult Mass. David maintains the SDYAM Podcast which contains recordings of all the San Diego Theology On Tap talks. He orchestrated the “Daughters of the King” gala events & helped organize retreats for the Goretti Group. For fun, David enjoys dancing & has taught salsa & swing lessons at many youth & young adult church events.
Recently David has been pouring most of his time into the podcast, “The Eagle and Child” where, with his co-host Matt, he unpacks the works of C.S. Lewis, the Christian apologist & author of the Chronicles of Narnia. David also hosts a monthly book club where Lewis’ works are discussed at a local coffee shop. In addition to leading monthly Taize prayer evenings and a running group, he also organizes, as part of The Finer Things Club, outings to the theatre, the Symphony & other cultural events. He is currently writing the final chapters of his 1st book, The Table of the Word, a guide to starting and leading a Parish Bible study.
My pastor put an announcement in the parish bulletin on Sunday. As you may guess, he has a sense of humo(u)r about my being English…
One Minute Book Review: Tolkien’s Ordinary Virtues
Today I finished Tolkien’s Ordinary Virtues: Exploring the Spiritual Themes of Lord of the Rings by Mark Eddy Smith. It’s an extremely readable book, riskly through The Lord of the Rings, drawing out important life lessons and the importance of virtues from Tolkien’s magnum opus.
One Minute Book Review: Crazy Love
This weekend I finished Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan. It has been quite some time since I’ve read a book by a contemporary Protestant author which blew me away, but this is definitely one of those books. Over the course of this short volume, Chan re-sensitizes us to the holiness of God, to demands of obedience and to the call of Jesus to give him EVERYTHING.
If you want your life to continue uninterrupted, don’t read this book. If you are satisfied with a happy, comfortable Christianity, don’t even think about cracking the cover… However, if you have a sneaking suspicion that you’ve grown lukewarm in your faith, order this book right away. Don’t be surprised if you are made to feel more than a little uncomfortable.
One Minute Book Review: If I had lunch with C.S. Lewis
This morning I finished If I had lunch with C.S. Lewis: Exploring the ideas of C.S. Lewis on the meaning of life by the well-known Lewis biographer, Alister McGrath.
It was an intriguing approach to discussing Lewis’ thought – imagining a series of lunches with the man himself – the dream of any C.S. Lewis fan! The book is not, as one might imagine, a fictional dialogue between the author and Lewis. Instead, in each chapter, the author looks at some topic close to Lewis’ heart and provides a digestible overview of what Lewis had to say about it. Such areas of discussion include the meaning of life, friendship, the importance of stories, apologetics, education, suffering and Heaven.
This was a quick, enjoyable read and provides a nice alternative to the more traditional books about Lewis.
One Minute Book Review: C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity: A Biography
This last weekend I finished C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity: A Biography. Just to be clear, this isn’t a biography of C.S. Lewis, it’s a biography of a book he wrote.
George Marsden recounts the genesis of what is probably Lewis’ most famous Christian apologetics book, Mere Christianity. He traces how Lewis’ talks to the RAF transitioned into radio addresses on the BBC and these were converted into three separate books which were ultimately collected together under the single title “Mere Christianity”.
It was interesting to hear the criticisms which were offered at the time against both Lewis and his arguments by skeptics, as well as the reception of his work over time among different Christian denominations.
If you like learning about C.S. Lewis, but want to read something a little different from the usual popular biographies, I’d thoroughly recommend this book!