Noah Oppenheim and David S. Kidder's “The Intellectual Devotional”

This book I include as a second installment of 'books we like, sparsely written'. Noah Oppenheim and David Kidder's first joint publication is a clever take on the daily devotional pocketbooks that have been popular for centuries. Whereas once upon a time a typical daily devotion--those five or so minutes spent in prayer or meditation—came from one of the old or new testaments or the book of psalms, Oppenheim and Kidder have made the tacit argument that one can meditate just as productively on the wide world of History, Literature, the Visual Arts, Science, Music, Philosophy, and also, Religion. I have capitalized these subdivisions of the world of culture or intellectualism (otherwise known as 'human contributions to the world') because this is what the authors, themselves have done. Noah Oppenheim and Kidder have very sweetly chosen these categories as well as specified the day of the week that each type of entry is to be read. In case I have not yet been clear about the nature of this book, it is not a story but a charming bedside (or fireside, or coffee table-top) book of neat little entries that span this world and the ancient world over, many times. One can read about Byzantine art on one day and a Super Nova on the next. The concept is that one treats each topic and each entry as they would a meditative reading of a biblical verse or parable.