26 December 2007

Rapt: Deeply engrossed or absorbed.

• Suddenly the micro-forest of the turf seemed to swell and become one with the universe, and with the rapt mind of the boy contemplating it.
• The visionary theater-director Peter Brook told me he'd bring all his productions to Japan because even in his nine-hour rendition of The Mahabharata, without subtitles, Japanese audiences sat rapt. (Pico Iyer)

Snigger: a disrespectful laugh.

• Anyway, you can see why atheists snigger.

Clarion: clear and shrill

• This book is a clarion call to cower no longer.

Crosshairs: A center of interest.

• Not only did the award make the professor emeritus of philosophy at Montreal's McGill University nearly £800,000 richer, but it also brought him into the crosshairs of Richard Dawkins who, in his 2006 bestseller The God Delusion, argued that the Templeton involved "a very large sum of money given [...] usually to a scientist who is prepared to say something nice about religion".

Vituperative: Marked by harshly abusive criticism.

• Taylor's account is much more complicated. There is chronology, but hardly a straightforward narrative that might explain why the only recent bestseller about religion was written by a vituperative atheist.

22 December 2007

• Go-between: a person who acts as an agent or intermediary between persons or groups; emissary.
• The go-between from Washington arrived at very short notice.