Updike and Schmemann

In the “I know you don’t care about this at all, but it interested me, for whatever it’s worth” department, apparently John Updike read Alexander Schmemann’s For the Life of the World.  In a book review of Still, a recent memoir by Lauren Winner (which I haven’t read, by the way), I came upon this paragraph:

She stumbles on a scribble in a copy of For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy, by the Orthodox writer Alexander Schmemann, that belonged to late novelist John Updike. In the margins, Updike had penciled “God gives us many gifts, but God is He Who gives God,” a quote from Augustine.

One Response to “Updike and Schmemann”

1. Paul Says:
   February 10th, 2012 at 11:52 pm

   Hey, I care!

   Meanwhile, I also care about Lauren Winner. I’m a bit crestfallen to read about her divorce. I sat in Barnes & Noble tonight and skimmed the book. It’s frustratingly vague about the divorce, and I don’t think it’s just prurient interest that leaves me wishing I knew more. I’m perplexed by her ordination as well.

   (By the way, the last line of that review — “till death do us part” — is jarring. I can’t believe the writer really means to say what she says: “Christ … is the same … till death do us part.” Say what?)

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