Gradually making my way through ‘Summa Theologica: Volume I’ on audiobook, yesterday’s reading featured Aquinas talking about eternity and time. Consequently, here’s a mind-blowing idea for you: God is His own eternity.

But what does that mean? I confess to not fully knowing. 

Even so, these are not useless or trivial ideas to contemplate. Aquinas stands as the last great medieval scholar of theology. So whereas theology was regarded up until the Enlightenment and our Modern era as “the queen of the sciences,” this really is saying something. 

Whether you agree with him or not, or even know what to make of him, this is not fluff and stuff. But reading him really is good mental and spiritual exercise. 

Even so, there are practical troubles to be found in reading books like Summa Theologica. The frank truth is that many folks find this pointless at best. And some feel downright threatened by it, and react with hostility accordingly.

Besides that, another byproduct of reading these sorts of books is that you start to talk funny. And this is because you think funny. When most people don’t cultivate their minds or inform their opinions this way, doing so makes you stick out. 

So what if nobody cares? And what if nobody wants to hear it? 

To not be just another recluse who keeps to himself, sitting around the house waiting for the next chance to talk with other people who are well-read, you might find yourself on the horns of a dilemma. Give up on reading to fit in, or keep prodding everyone around you to join you?

Someone I’ve been listening to recently who navigates this well is Dr. Jordan B. Cooper. About my age, Cooper is a Lutheran minister who has his own podcast and YouTube channel - Just and Sinner - where he talks about theology and church history. In a video examining the methodology at the heart of Michael Heiser's 'Supernatural' and 'The Unseen Realm,' Cooper does a fine job carefully unpacking the presuppositions, assumptions, priorities, and tradition which explain why men like them disagree over what to make of Biblical passages about angels, demons, and gods.

Be it known I agree with some of Cooper’s biggest concerns - about not only Heiser’s methodology, but also John Walton’s found in books like ‘The Lost World of Genesis One.’ At the same time, I confess to agreeing with many of Heiser’s conclusions about the competing religions of the world not just being demonic in the abstract. The gods of those religions are, or were, actual and personal demons. And I would appeal to Augustine on this point; my reading of City of God puts he and I on the same side of this question.

To make something of my closing point here, though, consider the story from just yesterday by Joel Abbot at Not the Bee, of FBI special agent Timothy Thibault, who resigned last week and was escorted from the building Monday. He it is who reportedly pressed the bureau to investigate President Trump, to not investigate Hunter Biden, to inflate domestic extremism stats towards putting angry American parents on terrorist watch lists, and to fire agents who refused the COVID vaccine.

Repeating myself, I will say that the trouble with conspiracy theories is that sometimes they turn out to be true. And reading great books helps us know when they are or may well be. Thus to read great books is not just a safeguard in the abstract, but at every level practically.