Shakespeare influenced by Montaigne

Via Arts and Letters Daily and The Weekly Standard:

Stephen Greenblatt and Peter G. Platt argue that Montaigne had a clear influence on William Shakespeare, a connection that affirms Montaigne’s intellect and standing within the Western canon.

Click the link to see more: The Inner Light | The Weekly Standard

Points:

• “Greenblatt begins with a short critical essay on Montaigne references in Shakespeare’s plays, and Platt follows with a chapter on John Florio, who produced the first complete English translation of Montaigne’s essays, the version that Shakespeare most likely read.”
• “…the mere existence of these two men was a miracle in itself.”

Writers will be interested in how one author’s work was influenced by another’s work.

What is Contextualization? Presenting the Gospel in Culturally Relevant Ways

Via Christianity Today: What is Contextualization? Presenting the Gospel in Culturally Relevant Ways.

Key statement: "Contextualization involves an attempt to present the Gospel in a culturally relevant way."

Points:

• "We use the term ‘culture’ to refer to the common ideas, feelings, and values that guide community and personal behavior, that organize and regulate what the group thinks, feels, and does about God, the world, and humanity."
• "Contextualization, then, is simply about sharing the Gospel well."
• "The goal for contextualization is to create 'indigenous expressions of gospel-centered, mission-shaped churches.'”

The Digital Transformation Of The Way Books Are Published And Sold Has Only Just Begun

Via Business Insider:

Books are not just "tree flakes encased in dead cow", as a scholar once wryly put it. They are a technology in their own right, one developed and used for the refinement and advancement of thought. And this technology is a powerful, long-lived and adaptable one. 

The Digital Transformation Of The Way Books Are Published And Sold Has Only Just Begun - Business Insider

Books will likely continue to become more interactive, so authors need to develop some new media skillsets. When publishers develop apps so readers can do things like post selfies with authors within the author's e-book, there will be more ways to generate interest and sales.

Why The Digital Revolution Has Not Yet Fulfilled Its Promises

Via Business Insider: Why The Digital Revolution Has Not Yet Fulfilled Its Promises - Business Insider.

Do you agree with these points?

• "...the digital economy, far from pushing up wages across the board in response to higher productivity, is keeping them flat for the mass of workers while extravagantly rewarding the most talented ones."
• "The world has more than enough labour...That meant firms were able to keep workers' pay low. And low pay has had a surprising knock-on effect: when labour is cheap and plentiful, there seems little point in investing in labour-saving (and productivity-enhancing) technologies."
• "...excess labour was relatively easily reallocated to new sectors, thanks in large part to investment in education. That is becoming more difficult."
• "Most rich economies have made a poor job of finding lucrative jobs for workers displaced by technology, and the resulting glut of cheap, underemployed labour has given firms little incentive to make productivity-boosting investments."

The Rapture Keeps Coming Back

Via Christianity Today: The Rapture Keeps Coming Back | Christianity Today

Key sentences: "...the original resonance of the dispensational Rapture among Christians had more to do with the anxious effects of modernity than with its theological merit. "Signs of the times" is a common trope in Rapture narratives, but in a profound sense, the Rapture's popularity is itself a "sign of the times," a byproduct and manifestation of larger societal unease."

Points:

• "Who would have predicted that in the most secular age in human history—an age in which events are thought to have no ultimate or eternal meaning—a constant sense of apocalyptic dread would loom large?"
• "...21st-century society is oriented around the present moment."
• "...a byproduct of the focus on the present moment is the rise of what Rushkoff calls "Apocalypto"—a fascination with disaster, doomsday, and zombies."
• "Living in a flattened timescape, we long for moments to take us out of the profane and everyday."
• "Christians of all people need not buy into the prevailing culture's preoccupation with doomsday. Let the world have its apocalyptic versions of the Rapture—Christians have something better. Surely there are movies to be made about not destruction, but resurrection."

‘The Glass Cage: Automation and Us’ by Nicholas Carr

Via  The Boston Globe: Book review: ‘The Glass Cage: Automation and Us’ by Nicholas Carr - Books - The Boston Globe.

Key sentence: "...all of us will see our skills eroded, our intelligence debased, and our work devalued, if we sacrifice human responsibility to black boxes full of microchips."

Points:

• "...machines are coming for the well-paying jobs we perform in air-conditioned offices or clean, well-lighted factories, or the cockpits of commercial aircraft."
• "...the smartest and most diligent workers can be dumbed down by the digital tools meant to assist them."
• "...automated systems should require humans to participate in vital activities."
• "...we’ll have to tolerate a world of ever smarter machines, operated by ever less capable humans."

This Interactive Chart Is The Best Way To Find The Perfect Laptop For You

Via Business Insider:

Thanks to Marek Gibney, a programmer and web designer based in Hamburg, Germany, now you can browse laptops by price, screen size, weight, brand, and several other metrics you might be considering in your ideal computer. Gibney calls it “The Tourist Map Of Laptops.”

This Interactive Chart Is The Best Way To Find The Perfect Laptop For You - Business Insider

Interesting way to do comparison shopping.

Missionary doctors treating Ebola in Africa: Why people are suspicious of missionaries.

Via Slate:

…missionaries are incapable of separating their religious work from their medical work.

Missionary doctors treating Ebola in Africa: Why people are suspicious of missionaries.

Something Christians might take issue with.

The Case Against 'Radical' Christianity

Via Christianity Today:

…the underlying theology behind oft-heard calls to be wild and crazy radical believers—as if Christianity were an extreme sport—is works righteousness in a new, consumerist mode.

The Case Against 'Radical' Christianity | Christianity Today

Contrarian or spot on?

‘Lean In’-Type Program for Christian Women

Via Christianitytoday.com:

Christine Caine, the speaker, author, and activist out of Australia’s Hillsong Church, announced last week that she will begin a training program featuring inspirational videos, industry-specific articles, mentorship pipelines, and urban events to encourage Christian women leaders in the marketplace.

Propel will mark its official launch in January at Liberty University in Virginia

Christine Caine, Liberty University to Launch ‘Lean In’-Type Program for Christian Women | Her.meneutics | Christianitytoday.com

Some key statements from the article:

• "...a training program featuring inspirational videos, industry-specific articles, mentorship pipelines, and urban events to encourage Christian women leaders in the marketplace."
• “Christian women are on the frontlines with no one supporting them,” she said in an interview with CT. “We’ve got a church that’s already in the world. What are we going to do about it?”
• "A majority of women of faith work outside the home, forcing them to grapple with the now much-talked-about challenges of balancing work and family, duty and calling."
• "...ministries like Propel reflect two bigger trends: a move toward practical help for women leaders and a renewed interest in God’s work done through secular vocations."
• "We were created to work and to enjoy doing it with our always-working God. It's just that sin made it hard and, at times, unfruitful," said McCulley, a filmmaker and small business owner. "But in the new heavens and new earth, the joy of creativity and productivity will be fully restored. And that's what we're aiming for even now, for both men and women."

Faith in the workplace is on the verge of becoming the next Promise Keepers kind of phenomenon.