Wednesday grab-bag

Truly random thoughts on a frigid Northern Illinois Wednesday...

Sharper Iron

Joy of karagraphy let me know about Sharper Iron, which she says is "a blog/forum combination website designed to soapbox biblical perspectives on current news and ideas within and without the corner of Christendom that is fundamentalism."

"Fundamentalism," despite characterizations to the contrary in both the ultra-liberal and extremist fundamentalist camps, is not a dirty word. True biblical fundamentalists are not the Christian equivalent of terrorists who blow up themselves and others and wreak havoc throughout the world.

Fundamentalists believe in absolute truth, and hold to the fundamentals of the faith such as the virgin birth and the inerrancy of scripture.

I visited the Sharper Iron blog, and was fascinated by some of the polls there, including a survey that questioned young fundamentalists on things like soteriology (there's a big word for you! It basically means "the study of salvation") and Bible version usage.

Says Joy, who says she's helping with the background work for Sharper Iron: "With its primary defining point being a belief in the inspired/preserved/relevant/sufficient Word of God as absolute truth and absolute rule of faith and practice, fundamentalism is a broader movement than denominations and stripes and circles... If we believe firmly in absolute truth, we ought to avail ourselves of new technical means to insert that truth into the ongoing dialogue around us."

Very interesting...I'm sure I'll be visiting again.

My search for beloved childhood books continues...



The Internet can truly be a wonderful tool.

I've blogged about finding two of my favorite childhood books (Red Knights fro Hy Brasil and Auntie Robbo on the Internet.

Now, I learned that another favorite book is available, although I can't afford it right now. I don't know how I came into possessing this book as a youngster...I think perhaps my older sister may have borrowed it from a library and never returned it. It was printed in 1942, way before my older sister and I were even a twinkle in our dad's eye!

However, it was "Carol Plays Summer Stock," by Helen Dore Boylston. I've located it on several sites, and it's a bit too pricey for me at the moment, but I may eventually order it. I really loved that book, and read it several times. Apparently it was one of a series about Carol, a young actress.

And this leads me to tell you about a couple of blogs I've found that plunged me into delighted reminiscing about other fiction favorites of my youth, some I had even kind of forgotten about.

I've mentioned before that I love Debra's As I See It Now. I enjoy her lovely style of writing about things that always seem to touch a chord in my heart, accompanied by lovely photos of yesteryear.

But check out Debra's sidebar. There you'll find links to info about authors like Rosamond du Jardin, Elizabeth Enright and Bess Streeter Aldrich.

Then I found a link on Miss O'Hara's blog to her website, which includes a Victoria Holt page.



I can vividly remember reading Holt's "Menfreya in the Morning" as a young girl. It launched me into true Holt fandom, and I believe I've read everything she wrote as Victoria Holt (her real name was Eleanor Hibbert), and as Phillippa Carr.

It's been many years since I've read some of those Holt titles, and I wouldn't mind re-reading them at all.