More links

I can type a bit better today, so watch for more posting (you were warned!). Meanwhile, a few more links.

Joel muses on whether or not we are all atheists. Sound like a familiar refrain? Here's a snippet:

I think that the notion of separating our faith into a private realm and forgoing any and all public expression of it in an effort not to offend anyone helps us to forget the immanent God. I think that for us, we have forgotten to live our faith, and instead shield it, suffocating it until it is gone all the while pretending we still have it.

<idle musing>
He's singing from the same hymnal I am. We have stripped the divine of all mystery; all that is left is a shadow not worth worshiping. But, God is bigger than that! We just need to open ourselves up to his proddings.
</idle musing>

On a somewhat related note, the newest Biblical Studies carnival is up. I don't know where he found the time to chase all those links; there is something there to make everyone mad, from fundamentalists to atheists and everywhere in between!

Shifting gears to bookselling, I just discovered this site today. It was started by the bookseller at 57th Street Books in Chicago—one of my favorite bookstores. When I was in graduate school, we would go there as a family and read the books in the kid's section. It is a part of the Seminary Coop Bookstore and I spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars there in the three years we were in the area. Great store! Anyway, give the site a read and bookmark or RSS it.

One of today's gems from the site is Books After Amazon. Please read the whole thing, but here is a short snippet:

For decades the publishing world has been anxious about the end of books. Industry consolidation has led to a much-lamented shift to a business-oriented ethos, particularly at some of the larger conglomerates. With corporate ownership came a demand for profit margins that the book-publishing world had never seen. Yet even if new management is nothing like that of the past—gentlemen with large fortunes who became gentlemen with small fortunes—publishing remains an intensely people-driven business, the kind where folks meet face-to-face. Even today most people involved in publishing are there because they love good books.

<idle musing>
You don't go into bookselling or publishing to get rich. Well, unless you are the founder of Amazon, that is.
</idle musing>