The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

The Rest is History by Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook


I don't really listen to podcasts and so I was unaware of The Rest is History a podcast issued by the historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. This volume, which I have just finished reading, is a very easy to read breeze through various historical materials and is most enjoyable. In his book Unruly David Mitchell recommends moving on from there to a detective novel or something of that ilk. Though both books could be described as "Horrible histories for grown ups" it has not been a problem reading them virtually back to back. This current volume is very random and covers all sorts of subjects. I found it quite stimulating. One tiny snag is that references to topical news mean that even just a year or two later the book can sound unnecessarily dated.

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