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Seven Resolutions in Search of a Blog Post: 7QT IX Seriatim

Seven Resolutions in Search of a Blog Post: 7QT IX Seriatim

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 4:17 pm by Scott Eric Alt

Seven Resolutions in Search of a Blog Post: 7QT IX Seriatim 2017-03-09T16:17:38-04:00 Scott Eric Alt

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Merry Christmas. (It is still Christmas, did you know?) It is also a New Year, and with every new year come the inevitable resolutions. The reason people make resolutions at the start of a new year is because last year’s resolutions failed. Some use that as an excuse not to make resolutions: If I’m not going to keep them, why make them? That sounds like a hard-earned wisdom, but the same logic applies in the confessional. Who says, “I do not firmly resolve with the help of thy grace, because my last firm resolution brought me back to the same line”?

So here, before 2015’s mea maxima culpa, are my resolutions for the blog while 2014 is still young:

I.

I will read and blog my way through St. Augustine’s City of God.

I have wanted to read this book for a long time, but the size and heft of it have been off-putting. But as I thumbed through my Penguin edition, I noted that I could finish it in a year at the rate of only three pages a day. So as I do that, I will also be keeping an ongoing “reading journal” on this blog, merely recording my impressions, questions, epiphanies, and so forth, as someone encountering the text for the first time.

II.

Last year was my Dark Night of the Soul; I cannot say, as yet, that day has come. But I want to use the opportunity to read—and also blog—my way through the literature on this subject, beginning with the Book of Job and moving on to St. John of the Cross and other authors. If light is to be found through darkness, I want to seek it through the light of words.

III.

I am not going to give Dr.* James White (Th.D., D.Min., etc., etc.) a moment’s rest.

The good Reformed Bishop of Phoenix, light of knowledge, hope of the Elect, etc., etc., has been busy on his Web site posting links to all his glorious debates from years gone by.

I wish to thank Dr.* White, from the bottom of my Tiber-jumping, Romanist heart, for all this useful material. Now I can do a point-by-point analysis of his performance in said debates. How does the crow fly? In 2014, this blog will answer that question.

IV.

While I’m at it, I am going to revive a series I began last year on sola scriptura. The series began well, but I never got around to carrying it through, since I lost some blogging momentum while I was doing a series of (needed) re-designs. That fault will be corrected in 2014. I also began a few other series, including one on gay marriage, which I intend to return to this year.

V.

Not long ago, The Imaginative Conservative did a series on “books that make us human.” It was an interesting concept, but I have always wanted to tweak it a little: Books that Explore What it Means to be Human. That will be an ongoing series through 2014; and I am open to taking suggestions from readers in the combox regarding books they think fit that category.

VI.

I will write more book reviews, and literary analysis from a Catholic point of view. Both new and old, fiction and non-fiction, whatever comes my way. I have wanted this site to focus on the “Muse” of the title at least as much as the “Logos.” 2014 will be the year for me to start making that happen.

VII.

A secret. And no, it does not mean another re-design or time away from blogging for me; you will have to keep reading to discover it.

My hope, God willing, is to be able to post here 4-6 times a week. I hope you will find these posts useful and interesting and worth coming back for. Thank you for being with me through 2013. There is much more to come.

Read more of this week’s quick takes at Conversion Diary here.

***

If you like the content on this blog, your generous gift to the author helps to keep it active. I remember all my supporters in my Mass intentions each week.

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