The Good Book: Proverbs, chapter 22: Books
Prepare for an incoming lack of irony… 1. Something is learned every time a book is opened. Indeed. So far I have learned that A.C.Grayling is a crappy prose stylist. 2. A book may be as great a thing...
View ArticleThe Good Book: The Lawgiver
Okay, I have, to date, given Grayling a lot of crap for the contents of this book, but now there’s finally something worth talking about. The Lawgiver, as a section of The Good Book, finally lives up...
View ArticleThe Good Book: Acts, chapter 1
Now this actually is interesting. The Book of Acts, contrary to the book of the same name in the New Testament, uses this opening chappter to call upon the reader to reflect upon the doings of the...
View ArticleThe Good Book: Acts, chapters 2-15 – Lycurgus of Sparta
Grayling suffers from a particular disordering of the senses that seems oddly common amongst the academics of Britain: the idea that no one has had a good idea, anywhere in the world, since around the...
View ArticleThe Good Book: Acts, chapters 16-27 – Solon of Athens
Something that only just struck me about the work of A.C. Grayling is that the man is a professional academic. He must, in his time, have marked literally hundreds of assignments and essays submitted...
View ArticleThe Good Book: Acts, chapters 28-49 – Pericles of Athens
As much as Grayling’s philhellenia was on display up until now in the Good Book, all prior entries must take a backseat to his man-crush on Pericles of Athens. Combining this with Grayling’s...
View ArticleThe Good Book: Acts, chapters 50-66 – Cato the Censor
Finally, with the fourth of his word portraits, Grayling returns to the idea with which he introduced the book of Acts: the idea that we should read and judge for ourselves. But again, he’s going to...
View ArticleThe Good Book: Acts, chapters 67-86 – Cicero
The final character portrait of the book of Acts is that of the Roman orator Cicero. Again, as with Cato, Grayling seems more able to give an even-handed portrait of a Roman than a Greek – although he...
View ArticleThe Good Book: Epistles
Epistles is framed as 25 letters of fatherly advice to a son who has gone out into the world, and it’s here at last, writing in first person, that one finally gets some idea of Grayling the man....
View ArticleThe Good Book: The Good
The shortest of the books of the Good Book, The Good is also the best of them. It has a simplicity and a poetry that the other books aspire to but fall far short of. But it starts on page 591 of the...
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