Barre, Bennett, Voll and Esposito

I read the biography by Jean-Louis Barre of the Maritain couple. It is a bad translation, in the sense that I could hear the French that was being translated all the time. It was a bad biography in the sense that is was not critical enough and was lacking in insight. Nonetheless, I am far better informed about the Maritain than I was. I suppose that strange little menage a trois qualified as preternatural Jesus freaks, with the sudden conversion, the extremes of mortification and religiosity, and, of course, the attempts to convert others, including pressure on Raissa's parents, attempts to hold gay people off their lifestyles, and most famously, a man who went from wanting to be a priest to being a Gestapo collaborator, finally committing suicide. It does the reputation of the philosopher no good, like Sartre's life story doesn't help his reputation either.

Bennett's book is called Beyond UFO's, and I already knew most of the science. But I had never even hear of the moon Titan, and came to appreciate the accomplishments of scientists who not only got pictures, but landed a satellite (named Huygens) on it.

Finally, I read Voll and Esposito's Islam and Democracy, a series of case studies of modern political systems dealing with or incorporating Islam. It includes Egypt as a Arab country, which will make specialists smile and Egyptians seethe, and does nothing for their credibility.

I also read several long essays by Jacques Maritain. I was sort of thinking (heretically, I'm sure) "What's the big deal?" and now, having read the sordid details of his religiosity, I'm even less enthusiastic. But I want to finish off the lot, and I am going to put Julien Green, whom Maritain knew, on my list of books to read.