Legacy of the King James Bible

Another worthy book by Leland Ryken

This year, 2011, marks four hundred years since the King James Bible was first published. At this time, when we focus upon the Reformation, we should also remember the blessings of the King James Bible. Although the publication of the King James Bible occurred nearly one hundred years after Luther posted the 95 Theses on the church door at Wittenberg, both events are closely linked.


The greater significance of Luther’s hammer and nails is the chain reaction of events that followed. The Reformation was not a one man show or even a two or four man show. What made the Reformation world-changing and on-going was the many sparks that it ignited across Europe and across time.

The battle for the Bible in English is a rich and tumultuous story. The very fact that James Stuart, who was James I of England and James VI of Scotland, is associated with a faithful translation of the Bible is richly ironic in many ways. Although he was well trained theologically, morally he was degenerate. His leadership style is antithetical to imitation. Otto Scott said that his name being attached to a Bible is a blasphemous joke.

King James threatened to “harry the Puritans out of the land.” This statement illustrates the several great accomplishments of his troubled reign, all of which came about in opposition to his personal and theological preferences. He helped create a Puritan commonwealth in the New World. He fortified Puritans in England, and he commissioned a Bible to blunt the edge of Puritan theology (by countering the Geneva Bible). One is stunned into seeing the Sovereign God ruling history for His own glory when contemplating England during the time of the Stuart kings. (And such a vision for history should give us some comfort in our own leadership-challenged times.)

Dr. Leland Ryken has written a book that highlights and celebrates the history and influence of the King James Bible. The book is titled The Legacy of the King James Bible: Celebrating 400 Years of the Most Influential English Translation.  This book is published by Crossway Books (one of my favorite publishers).

Several points should be noted about this most enjoyable book.

First, Dr. Ryken is eminently qualified to write this work. One of my pleasures back in August was meeting him at Wheaton College. My son, Nick, is taking Dr. Ryken’s Shakespeare course. Every time Nick and I talk, I ask, “What is happening in the Shakespeare class?” Leland Ryken has written quite a few books that work as a two way street.  By that, I mean that he writes about the Bible as a literature professor and about literature from a Christian perspective. On the one hand, he has written a number of books on literary devices in the Bible. Similes, metaphors, personification, poetic parallels, and other terms from English class are all useful tools and terms for unlocking and enriching our understanding of the Bible.

Along with those books, Dr. Ryken has written quite extensively on seeing literary works from a Christian perspective. His studies of literary classics includes both overtly Christian works and works that contain, but not proclaim a Christian perspective. I have plundered his books for years in a fruitful search for insight into literature.

Second, Dr. Ryken is not a “King James only” man, nor one who prefers the KJV to all other translations. His preference is the English Standard Version. He has written several works on Bible translations and has great concern over the use of “dynamic equivalent” translations. He recognizes the literary and cultural greatness of the KJV, but also sees limitations, especially in regard to its readability for modern people.

Third, Dr. Ryken is a teacher. Teachers at their best point to really great things and say, “Look.” Dr. Ryken’s book is a survey of history, literature, and culture that is filled with exhortations to look and see. I was astounded and reminded and amazed at the many influences of the KJV. I needed the reminders, and I was blessed by seeing what I had either never seen or what I had overlooked.

I don’t normally recite chapter and section titles in a book review, but will use the table of contents to survey this book. First, the book covers the history of English translations of the Bible. Men labored to translate, print, publish, and distribute something we take for granted—the Bible in a readable English translation. That story is centered around a host of theological and political events that were brewing in England for centuries. Quite simply, the battle for the Bible in England and the battle for political freedom are two sides of the same coin.

In the second section, Dr. Ryken covers the influence of the KJV in history. We live in a time where new translations or paraphrases appear almost yearly. Modern political leaders are known for misquoting the Bible continually. But for centuries, at least until the 20th century, the KJV undergirded much of the language and thought of society. People were nurtured in the rhythms and poetry of the Bible. This is illustrated in the case of the old grandmother, an emigrant from Europe, in the movie “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” She wants her grandchildren to read the Bible and Shakespeare so that they can succeed in the United States.

The third section of The Legacy of the King James Bible focuses upon that translation as a literary masterpiece. Since some of us are relentlessly pursuing the recovery of a sense of literary value, this section is useful. Like many Christians who came to a knowledge of the faith in the 1970s, I was blessed by less than stellar translations. From Good News for Modern Man to The Living Bible, I am thankful for at least touching the hem of the garment of Biblical thought, but I could have potentially benefited far more by being caged with a King James Bible.

The last section of the book should be required reading for anyone getting a literature degree. It is titled “The Literary Influence of the King James Bible.” It is no wonder that author, poet, literary critic, and teacher Robert Penn Warren, who personally was not a believer, demanded that English student read and master the Bible. Many works of literature are obscured without an understanding of the Bible. It is not just the Puritans of colonial America and John Bunyan who depended upon the KJV. Early American writers like James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville, all borrow from, allude to, and echo the language and concepts of the KJV.

More recent American writers like William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Eudora Welty all used the KJV for terms, ideas, and themes. Across the pond in England, literary figures from Shakespeare and Milton to Dickens and Lewis were moved along by the cadences and ideas from the King James Bible.

This year, I have been using the King James Bible for my morning New Testament reading. I have been reminded continually of both its beauty of form and its obstacles to understanding. Normally, I bounce back and forth between the New King James and the English Standard Version. I will never be an expert on the KJV or an advocate for its exclusive use, but books like Dr. Ryken’s remind me of the great use God has made of this Bible in the past. And the King James Bible, at age 400 and counting, is still making an impact.

Where Is History Going?

"As the Roman world fell apart and all of Western Civilization collapsed with it, men's hearts failed them for fear. It was then that Cyprian spoke for himself and for others of the Christian persuasion:
'We want to stand upright amid the ruins of the world, and not lie on the ground with those who have no hope.'
Today we look out on a world which has uncomfortable parallels with Cyprian's time. Secular philosophies of history, because they themselves are conditioned by the flux of passing time, are not capable of standing upright.  But the One who stood upright on the cross two thousand years ago--and who can transform our lives today--and who will assuredly come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead, He is able to life us up from the ground, and give us the gift of a historical hope that will never be disappointed."

From Where is History Going: A Christian Response to Secular Philosophies of History

by John Warwick Montgomery



A weighty study on views of history.

Trying to Grasp the Greatness of Homer

On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer

by John Keats

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;

Round many western islands have I been

Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;

Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

When a new planet swims into his ken;

Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes

He star'd at the Pacific--and all his men

Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

It was somewhere around the fourth reading of Homer, that someting happened to me. The first reading was a prose translation by Samuel Butler. After going to a conference of the Association of Classical Christian Schools, I became convinced that I should read this classic.  I thought it was okay, but did not grasp its power.  Then I taught through the book once or twice.  I enjoyed it more each time and found more richness in it, but still thought it suffered from quite a bit of overkill (literally so).  In the summer of 2000, I heard Dr. Louise Cowan give a lecture on The Iliad.  It was a life transforming experience.  Also, I sat through some discussion groups and began reading some collateral materials on it.  That was all followed by additional lectures and discussions I heard on The Odyssey.

My reading of The Iliad has never been the same since then.  Last night and this morning as I read Book One in preparation for class, I was stunned, shaken, and even frightened by the prospect of trying to grapple with Homer.  This is a beautiful book that will leave you feeling an ache in the heart every time.

Resources I would have to have on a deserted island, along with a copy of The Iliad:



A challenging, but useful collection of essays.

 1.  The Epic Cosmos, edited by Larry Allums.  This study of epic literature begins with Louise Cowan's defining essay, "The Epic as Cosmopoesis."  Read it at least a dozen times.  Glenn Arbery's essay, "Soul and Image: The Single Honor of Achilles" is also outstanding.

2.  Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature by Peter Leithart.  Great study guide for The Iliad and numerous other works of ancient literature.



An incredible work.


3.  From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics by Louis Markos.  Another gold mine.  A different angle from Leithart and equally useful.

4.  A Companion to the Iliad by Malcolm Willcock.  This book gives line by line comments and explanations of different part of the book.  A great tool to have open alongside the epic.

5.  Why Literature Matters by Glenn Arbery.  Yet another outstanding lecture by Dr. Arbery.  This one is titled "The Sacrifice of Achilles."  I read and use portions of this essay in class.

And, I have a chapter in this book!

6.  Omnibus IV:  The Ancient World.  The chapter on The Iliad is written by Douglas Wilson and the sessions by Bruce Etter.  Great to fill in some gaps.

7.  The War that Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander. Subtitled "The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War."  I cannot wait to start dipping into this book.

8.  Mythology by Edith Hamilton.  Besides all the useful material on the gods, goddesses, and background myths, Miss Edith has a whole section devoted to the full story of the Trojan War. 

Convincing.

9.  Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom by Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath.  Anything that Victor Hanson writes is on my "must read" list.  He is one of the best military historians and defenders of classical learning today.

10.  The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.  Why is this on the list?  Shaara re-wrote The Iliad and set it in the context of the battle of Gettysburg.  General Lee is Agamemnon and General Longstreet is Achilles.  Are the parallels exact? Of course not, but the modeling of this novel after Homer's epic is unmistakenably present.

And, to be on the safe side, I have ordered Michael Wood's In Search of the Trojan War and Alberto Manguel's Homer's the Iliad and the Odyssey: A Biography.

I read and use the Richmond Lattimore translation of The Iliad, but certainly plan on acquiring and reading Robert Fagles' translation and the recent translation by Stephen Mitchell.  I also have and need to reference a few other translations, preferably the poetic ones but also the prose versions.

(I don't use the Brad (the) Pitt movie Troy, nor do I, after one partial viewing, plan on watching it again.)

Ancient Cities by Charles Gates



The study of Ancient Civilizations IS the study of Ancient Cities

Years ago, I told my world history teacher that I did not like any of the assigned topics on ancient history.  (I loved World Wars I and II).  I have never forgotten her answer:  You do not like what you do not know.

Most of my college work in history (both undergraduate and graduate levels) has been on more modern history and on American history.  I am insanely in love with the Reformation, the Tudor Age of England, English and American Puritans, American Colonial History,  U.S. Presidents, U.S. Wars, everything 20th Century, and everything Southern.

There is still much fog covering the ancient world.  But several years ago, I began the Humanities program at Veritas Academy.  Modeled after several other programs, the idea was to have a four year study that combined history and literature and that surveyed four broad areas:  The Ancient and Classical World, The Age of Christendom and Medieval World, The Modern World of Reformation and Revolution, and The American Story.  So, once every four years, I find myself wading deeper and deeper into the Riches and Relevance of Antiquity.  And I find myself on yet another book buying and reading binge.

Today, I received a copy of Ancient Cities: The Archeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece, and Rome by Professor Charles Gates at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.  Filled with charts, maps, diagrams, and pictures, this work holds lots of promise either as a book to read or reference extensively.  Much of the history of the Ancient World is the study of Ancient Cities.  Already, I have been looking up information about Troy in preparation for this afternoon's beginning study of Homer's Iliad.

Those of you who either follow Dr. George Grant's King's Meadow program (Antiquity) or the Veritas Press Omnibus series would benefit from this resource.

This book is published by Routledge.  This is the second edition.  http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415498647/

From the web-site review and the back cover of the book:

Ancient Cities surveys the cities of the Ancient Near East, Egypt, and the Greek and Roman worlds from the perspectives of archaeology and architectural history, bringing to life the physical world of ancient city dwellers by concentrating on evidence recovered from archaeological excavations. Urban form is the focus: the physical appearance and overall plans of the cities, their architecture and natural topography, and the cultural and historical contexts in which they flourished. Attention is also paid to non-urban features such as religious sanctuaries and burial grounds, places and institutions that were a familiar part of the city dweller's experience. Objects or artifacts that represented the essential furnishings of everyday life are discussed, such as pottery, sculpture, wall paintings, mosaics and coins. Ancient Cities is unusual in presenting this wide range of Old World cultures in such comprehensive detail, giving equal weight to the Preclassical and Classical periods, and in showing the links between these ancient cultures.

User-friendly features include:

1.  Use of clear and accessible language, assuming no previous background knowledge. 

2.  Lavishly illustrated with over 300 line drawings, maps, and photos.

3.  Historical summaries, further reading arranged by topic, plus a consolidated bibliography and comprehensive index.

4.  New to the second edition: a companion website with an interactive timeline, chapter summaries, study questions, and illustrations; a timeline allowing easy comparison of urban habitation; and a glossary of archaeological and historical terms.

Arthur Holmes, 1924-2011

A Christian professor and teacher who brought a Christian perspective to philosophy and education.

Dr. Holmes' more than one dozen books on Christian perspectives in philosophy and higher education include The Idea of a Christian College in 1975,  All Truth Is God's Truth in 1977, Contours of a World View in 1983 and Fact, Value and God in 1997. He also wrote numerous articles.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-holmes-obit-20111019,0,7888465.story

"The Christian, of all people, we have observed, has good reasons for believing in truth. He has good reasons for believing it to be universal and unchanging, and good reasons for being concerned about the unifying truth of a biblical worldview. He has good reasons also for emphasizing sound logic, for testing what he hears by rational means. And he has good reasons for doing this in whatever field he is engaged. For all truth is God's truth, and the believer is called to attest to it by both his life and his thought."

Zach Ramsey's Life and Poetry

Zach and Dori Ramsey at Christmas this past year.

In the year 2000, Kent Travis and I were teaching our high school students British literature.  Part of our readings came from the Metaphysical poets, including John Donne.  Building on those studies, we and our students put together a short collection of poems with the daunting title of Poems of a Metaphysical Nature and Design.

Only one great poet's work was included in this student and faculty collection.  That poet was John Donne and the poem was "Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star." (http://www.online-literature.com/poe/339/)

One of our students, Zachary Ramsey wrote a poem modeled after, and answering, Donne's poem.
Here is what Zachary wrote:

I have caught a falling star.
    I saw its capturing glow--
It is the fairest by far,
    And pure as winter's snow.
It's like an angel from above
    Singing honey sweet songs of love.
         I find
        My mind
Filled up with thoughts of her design.

She's Donne with truth and beauty,
    So recant your words, old bard.
Chosen o'er Aphrodite.
    With her beauty, it's not hard
To cast Helen of Troy aside,
    Or in the deepest pit reside.
        Her hair
        Is fair;
Eyes full of joy, not despair.

I'd travel lands to see
    This woman like Una true.
Crowned with grace and honesty
    And fresh as the morning dew.
She's worth treasures piled most high.
    Whether she's wealthy or poor, I
        Don't care.
       I swear
I've found a woman true and fair.

Zach found this "woman true and fair" just a few years back.  Her name is Dori, and he did "travel lands to see" her and later her family.  Dori came to the United States from Albania.

Zach Ramsey died at about 5:55 this morning in Houston, Texas, surrounded by his family.  For seven years, Zach battled a rare form of cancer.  He was the longest living survivor of that disease.  Dori and his family and his incredible fortitude and faith kept him here for a much longer time.

Zach was a lover of literature, a hunter and outdoorsman, a student of biology with several scientific articles to his credit, a lover of music, and student of theology, and sometimes, a prankster.  (I got a call once from an FBI agent:  Turned out to be Zach.)

Today we are all rejoicing and mourning.  In Christ, he is healed.  Those of us who remain in this world of tears and illnesses, mourn, but we mourn with certain hope.

National Review's Top 100 Non-Fiction Works, Part 3

More of the National Review list.

67. The ABC of Reading, Ezra Pound
Brookhiser: "An epitome of the aging aesthetic movement that will be forever known as modernism."
I have never quite understood the poetry or influence of Pound.  But I recognize that many of my betters have noted his work.

I love the cluttered stacks of books on the floor.  Looks like my life.

68. The Second World War, John Keegan
Hart: "A masterly history in a single volume."
Keegan is one of the best military historians of all time.  His work Faces of Battle and History of War are among his great works.

69. The Making of Homeric Verse, Milman Parry
Lind: "Genuine discoveries in literary study are rare. Parry's discovery of the oral formulaic basis of the Homeric epics, the founding texts of Western literature, was one of them."
I simply must find this book. I teach Homer.

70. The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling, Angus Wilson
Keegan: "A life of a great author told through the transmutation of his experience into fictional form."
Another book I have not heard of.

71. Scrutiny, F. R. Leavis
Hart: "Enormously important in education, especially in England. Leavis understood what one kind of 'living English' is."
And another I have not heard of.

72. The Edge of the Sword, Charles de Gaulle
Brookhiser: "A lesser figure than Churchill, but more philosophical (and hence, more problematic)."
As one who has been consumed with reading about Churchill, I should know more about this contemporary.
73. R. E. Lee, Douglas Southall Freeman
Conquest: "The finest work on the Civil War."
All of Freeman's histories are high priority acquisitions and reads.

74. Bureaucracy, Ludwig von Mises
This short work is very readable.  Since I read it back in the 1980s, don't quiz me on the contents.  Mises is a pivotal thinker.

75. The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton
Neuhaus: "A classic conversion story of a modern urban sophisticate."
Thankfully, I picked up a nice, but cheap copy of this book some time back.  Even Calvinistis need to read some of the Catholic thinkers.

76. Balzac, Stefan Zweig
King: "On the joys of working one's self to death. The chapter 'Black Coffee' is a masterpiece of imaginative reconstruction."
The King comment lures me in.

77. The Good Society, Walter Lippmann
Gilder: "Written during the Great Depression. A corruscating defense of the morality of capitalism."
Lippman is too little remembered.  I have long owned an unread biography of him.  He was one of the good liberals of a bygone era.

78. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson
Lind: "For all the excesses of the environmental movement, the realization that human technology can permanently damage the earth's environment marked a great advance in civilization. Carson's book, more than any other, publicized this message."
Certainly Carson had a big impact on a movement that is not always sound, but obviously not always wrong.

79. The Christian Tradition, Jaroslav Pelikan
Neuhaus: "The century's most comprehensive account of Christian teaching from the second century on."
Pelikan was one of the best of Church historians.  I have quite a few of his books.

80. Strange Defeat, Marc Bloch
Herman: "A great historian's personal account of the fall of France in 1940."
Although I have read several accounts of the fall of France in 1940, I don't know this book, but would like to.

81. Looking Back, Norman Douglas
Conquest: "Fascinating memoirs of a remarkable writer."
Not familiar with this fascinating memoir or the remarkable writer.

82. Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, Henry Adams
I own this in the Library of America series.  Must read this worthy descendant of a great American family.

83. Poetry and the Age, Randall Jarrell
Caldwell: "The book for showing how 20th- century poets think, what their poetry does, and why it matters."
Jarrell was a first rate poet and a student of the Agrarian/Fugitive poets (particularly John Crowe Ransom and Robert Penn Warren).  This sounds like a book to fight to own.

84. Love in the Western World, Denis de Rougemont
Brookhiser: "What has become of eros over the last seven centuries."
Tell me more, Mr. Brookhiser.

85. The Conservative Mind, Russell Kirk
Despite R.J. Rushdoony's disdain of Kirk, he was a pivotal thinker and this is a classic work on conservative thought.

86. Wealth and Poverty, George Gilder
Gilder's thought helped create the Reagan Revolution.

87. Battle Cry of Freedom, James M. McPherson
McPherson is perhaps the best historian of "those people" and this is a really good account of the War from their perspective.

88. Henry James, Leon Edel
King: "All the James you want without having to read him."
I have real very, very little of Henry James, but Flannery O'Connor was influenced by him, so I need to know more.

89. Essays of E. B. White, E. B. White
Gelernter: "White is the apotheosis of the American liberal now spurned and detested by the Left (and the cultural mainstream). His mesmerized devotion to the objects of his affection-his family, the female sex, his farm, the English language, Manhattan, the sea, America, Maine, and freedom, in descending order-is movingly absolute."
Sounds good.

90. Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov
Family with the author, not the book.

91. The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe
Besides his fiction, Wolfe has now been listed twice on this list.

92. Darwin's Black Box, Michael J. Behe
Gilder: "Overthrows Darwin at the end of the 20th century in the same way that quantum theory overthrew Newton at the beginning."
Behe and a few others will be the centers of science history in the future.

To Paraphrase Yeats: A Terrible Beauty is Written

93. The Civil War, Shelby Foote
I read these wonderful volumes years ago.  The beauty of Foote's literary style and Southern accent pervades this grand account.  Also heard him speak at a college some years back.

94. The Way the World Works, Jude Wanniski
Gilder: "The best book on economics. Shows fatuity of still-dominant demand-side model, with its silly preoccupation with accounting trivia, like the federal budget and trade balance and savings rates, in an economy with $40 trillion or so in assets that rise and fall weekly by trillions."
Probably not well known at the current White House or Treasury Department.

95. To the Finland Station, Edmund Wilson
Herman: "The best single book on Karl Marx and Marx's place in modern history."
I want this book.

96. Civilisation, Kenneth Clark
Humanistic, artistic, and enlightening, this book is the secular version of Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live?

97. The Russian Revolution, Richard Pipes
If Pipes published his grocery list, I would want to buy a copy.  I have profited from Pipes for years.

98. The Idea of History, R. G. Collingwood
I learned of this book and acquired it after reading Gordon Clark's Historiography: Secular and Religious.

99. The Last Lion, William Manchester
Last Lion: William Spencer Churchill: Vol. 1 Visions of Glory, 1874-1932
Last Lion: William Spencer Churchill: Vol. 2 Alone, 1932-1940
It is sad that Mr. Manchester's health (mental and physical) and life failed before he was able to write the remaining volume or volumes of this biography.
100. The Starr Report, Kenneth W. Starr
Hart: "A study in human depravity."
I don't doubt Hart's comment, but I wonder why this would be ranked on this list.

Summary: By my rough estimate, I own about 42 of the 100 volumes or sets on this list.  It sounds like a book buying blitz is desparately needed.  I need some stimulus money quickly.

National Review Top 100 Non-fiction Titles, part 2

So many books that I have not read.

More from National Review's Top 100 Non-Fiction Titles.  Be patient, my list is being developed.

34. The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Richard Phillips Feynman
Gelernter: "Outside of art (or maybe not), physics is mankind's most beautiful achievement; these three volumes are probably the most beautiful ever written about physics."
I am sorry I know so little about physics.  I would probably never open these three volumes even if I had them.

35. Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, Tom Wolfe
O'Sullivan: "Wolfe is our Juvenal."
Many have testified to the writing skills of Tom Wolfe, so I must some day read some of his books.

36. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, Albert Camus
I thought The Stranger  a powerful, but sad work of fiction.  Camus shows the alternative to Christian thinking.

37. The Unheavenly City, Edward C. Banfield
Neuhaus: "The volume that began the debunking of New Deal socialism and its public-policy consequences."
Neuhaus' comment convinces me to acquire this book.

38. The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud
Freud truly impacted the century.  I recently acquired Civilization and Its Discontents.

39. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs
Heard of it often.

On the reading list.


  40. The End of History and the Last Man, Francis Fukuyama
Got a copy of this book some time back. Several historians have written answers to Fukuyama.

41. Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker
What is this book?

42. The Age of Reform, Richard Hofstadter
Herman: "The single best book on American history in this century, bar none."
I have at least a couple of Hofstadter's books, including this one, and know him to be one of the premier historians of the recently past era.

43. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, John Maynard Keynes
Hart: "Influential in suggesting that the business cycle can be modified by government investment and manipulation of tax rates."
Too influential, in my opinion.

44. God and Man at Yale, William F. Buckley Jr.
Gilder: "Still correct and prophetic. It defines the conservative revolt against socialism and atheism on campus and in the culture, and reconciles the alleged conflict between capitalist and religious conservatives."
This book first opened my eyes to many of the ills that I still oppose.  A defining book of the conservative movement by one of the best thinkers of the time.

45. Selected Essays, T. S. Eliot
Hart: "Shaped the literary taste of the mid-century."
I still ache over not buying a nice old copy of this book for twenty dollars.  Eliot is quite good.



All of Weaver's books are worth having.

 46. Ideas Have Consequences, Richard M. Weaver
Weaver is among the best.  Read this book and need to reread it often.

47. The Economy of Cities, Jane Jacobs
Another Jane Jacobs book.  Are they still relevant?

48. The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom
I bought this book at a K-Mart when it first came out.  Anyone in education must be at least familiar with it. 
49. Ethnic America, Thomas Sowell
Anything by Thomas Sowell is good, very good.

50. An American Dilemma, Gunnar Myrdal
An American Dilemma, Vol. 1
An American Dilemma, Vol. 2
Not familiar with the books or author although I have heard of him through National Review.

51. Three Case Histories, Sigmund Freud
Gelernter: "Beyond question Freud is history's most important philosopher of the mind, and he ranks alongside Eliot as the century's greatest literary critic. Modern intellectual life (left, right, and in-between) would be unthinkable without him."
Freud a "literary critic"?  I probably need to read more of his work.

52. The Struggle for Europe, Chester Wilmot
Sounds quite good, but I don't know anything of this book.

53. Main Currents in American Thought, Vernon Louis Parrington
King: "An immensely readable history of ideas and men. (Skip the fragmentary third volume-he died before finishing it.)"
I think I own this, or at least a volume of it.  I need to read it.

54. The Waning of the Middle Ages, Johann Huzinga
Lukacs: "Probably the finest historian who lived in this century. "
This book is often on the lists or bibliographies for history.  A newer translation is titled Autumn of the Middle Ages.  Next year in Humanities, I will try to tackle it.

55. Systematic Theology, Wolfhart Pannenberg
Neuhaus: "The best summary and reflection on Christianity's encounter with the Enlightenment project."
Systematic Theology, Vol. 1
Systematic Theology, Vol. 2
Systematic Theology, Vol. 3
I certainly need to know a bit more of this work and author.

56. The Campaign of the Marne, Sewell Tyng
Keegan: "A forgotten American's masterly account of the First World War in the West."
The book and the topic sound fascinating, as does Keegan's recommendation.

57. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein
Hart: "A terse summation of the analytic method of the analytic school in philosophy, and a heroic leap beyond it."
Probably won't delve into this one.

58. Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, Bernard Lonergan
Glendon: "The Thomas Aquinas of the 20th century."
I need, at least, a short working idea of the man and his influence.

59. Being and Time, Martin Heidegger
Hart: "A seminal thinker, notwithstanding his disgraceful error of equating National Socialism with the experience of 'Being.'"
I only know of him through Francis Schaeffer.

60. Disraeli, Robert Blake
Keegan: "Political biography as it should be written."
I need to know more of both Disraeli and Gladstone.

61. Democracy and Leadership, Irving Babbitt
King: "A conservative literary critic describes what happens when humanitarianism over takes humanism."
I do believe I own this book.  I will take advantage of it.

62. The Elements of Style, William Strunk and E. B. White
A. Thernstrom: "If only every writer would remember just one of Strunk & White's wonderful injunctions: 'Omit needless words.' Omit needless words."
I have taught from this short work many times.

63. The Machiavellians, James Burnham
O'Sullivan: "Burnham is the greatest political analyst of our century and this is his best book."
I read Burnham's Suicide of the West many years ago.

64. Reflections of a Russian Statesman, Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev
King: "The 'culture war' as seen by the tutor to the last two czars. A Russian Pat Buchanan."
I would like it I am sure.

65. The Hedgehog and the Fox, Isaiah Berlin
I have a larger collection of Berlin's writings that contain this famous essay.

66. Roll, Jordan, Roll, Eugene D. Genovese
Neuhaus: "The best account of American slavery and the moral and cultural forces that undid it."
Genovese is an excellent historian.

National Review's Top 100 Non-Fiction Works, part 1

I love book lists.  I lull myself to sleep some nights working through lists of books.  A list of titles is such an adventure.  There are the books I own, the books I have read, and then the books I NEED.  I have enjoyed looking over National Review's Top 100 Non-fiction Works.  So, I am going to reproduce this list and comment on the selections.  By the way, I also love National Review.

On the list, I will give the title and author and the brief comment by the NR panel member.  Then I will give my own commentary.

Nobel Prize Winning Historian--Winston Churchill

1. The Second World War, Winston S. Churchill.
Brookhiser: "The big story of the century, told by its major hero."
I have the six volume set, along with Churchill's books on World War I.  I have read a shorter version of this work, titled Memoirs of the Second World War.  Churchill is one of the few people who were both major participants in an event and major historians of the same.  Also, his History of the English Speaking People is outstanding.
The individual titles in the Churchill set:
Vol. 1, The Gathering Storm
Vol. 2, Their Finest Hour
Vol. 3, The Grand Alliance
Vol. 4, The Hinge of Fate
Vol. 5, Closing the Ring
Vol. 6, Triumph and Tragedy

2. The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
Neuhaus: "Marked the absolute final turning point beyond which nobody could deny the evil of the Evil Empire."
Yes, to this selection.  It was astounding.  It remains a great work.  My son, Nick, recently read the first volume.  Solzhenitsyn is too much ignored.

3. Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell
Herman: "Orwell's masterpiece-far superior to Animal Farm and 1984. No education in the meaning of the 20th century is complete without it."
Sounds like a work I need to read, expecially if what Arthur Herman says is true.  The two Orwell novels are certainly essential.

4. The Road to Serfdom, F. A. von Hayek
Helprin: "Shatters the myth that the totalitarianisms 'of the Left' and 'of the Right' stem from differing impulses."
I have read from this work on several occasions.  I am glad it has experienced a resurgence.

5. Collected Essays, George Orwell
King: "Every conservative's favorite liberal and every liberal's favorite conservative. This book has no enemies."
I will take a copy as a gift.

6. The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper
Herman: "The best work on political philosophy in the 20th century. Exposes totalitarianism's roots in Plato, Hegel, and Marx."
I know that Paul Johnson likes Popper.  Here is another book I need!

7. The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis
Brookhiser: "How modern philosophies drain meaning and the sacred from our lives."
This has never been one of my favorite Lewis works, but I recognize its importance.

8. Revolt of the Masses, José Ortega y Gasset
Gilder: "Prophesied the 20th century's debauchery of democracy and science, the barbarism of the specialist, and the inevitable fatuity of public opinion. Explained the genius of capitalist elites."
I am beginning to think that I am illiterate.

9. The Constitution of Liberty, F. A. von Hayek
O'Sullivan: "A great re-statement for this century of classical liberalism by its greatest modern exponent."
At least I own this one, I think.

10. Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman
I have several books by Friedman.  Not sure he is as widely read these days.  Obviously not known on Pennsylvania Avenue.

11. Modern Times, Paul Johnson
Herman: "Huge impact outside the academy, dreaded and ignored inside it."
Perhaps the best books by one who may be the best historian.

12. Rationalism in Politics, Michael Oakeshott
Herman: "Oakeshott is the 20th century's Edmund Burke."
I knew there was some reason why I got this book years ago.

13. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Joseph A. Schumpeter
Caldwell: "Locus classicus for the observation that democratic capitalism undermines itself through its very success."
Don't know the book.

14. Economy and Society, Max Weber
Lind: "Weber made permanent contributions to the understanding of society with his discussions of comparative religion, bureaucracy, charisma, and the distinctions among status, class, and party."
I need some book money and some time.

15. The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt
Caldwell: "Through Nazism and Stalinism, looks at almost every pernicious trend in the last century's politics with stunning subtlety."
I don't think I have this book, but I really liked Clarence Carson's World in the Grip of an Idea.

16. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West
Kelly: "For its writing, not for its historical accuracy."
I know nothing about this book.

17. Sociobiology, Edward O. Wilson
Lind: "Darwin put humanity in its proper place in the animal kingdom. Wilson put human society there, too."
Not convinced by Lind's comment.

18. Centissimus Annus, Pope John Paul II
Don't know this work, but do like Rushdoony's Institutes, also Calvin's.

19. The Pursuit of the Millennium, Norman Cohn
Neuhaus: "The authoritative refutation of utopianism of the left, right, and points undetermined."
Unknown to me.

20. The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
Helprin: "An innocent's account of the greatest evil imaginable. The most powerful book of the century. Others may not agree. No matter, I cast my lot with this child."
Caldwell: "If one didn't know her fate, one might read it as the reflections of any girl. That one does know her fate makes this as close to a holy book as the century produced."
Yes, an important book, but not sure I would list it among the Top 100.  Wurmbrand's Tortured for Christ is important too.

21. The Great Terror, Robert Conquest
Herman: "Documented for the first time the real record of Stalinism in the Soviet Union. A genuine monument of historical research and reconstruction, a true epic of evil."
Conquest is an important historian and this is probably his best known work.

22. Chronicles of Wasted Time, Malcolm Muggeridge
Gilder: "The best autobiography, Christian confession, and historic meditation of the century."
Muggeridge also did a shorter autobiography.  He was an incredibly interesting man.

23. Relativity, Albert Einstein
Lind: "The most important physicist since Newton."
Heard of the book and author.

24. Witness, Whittaker Chambers
Caldwell: "Confession, history, potboiler-by a man who writes like the literary giant we would know him as, had not Communism got him first."
Certainly one of the Top 100.

25. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn
Lots of people I read and admire have referenced this book.

26. Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
Neuhaus: "The most influential book of the most influential Christian apologist of the century."
Maybe this book should be number one.

27. The Quest for Community, Robert Nisbet
Nisbet has influenced lots of my favorite thinkers.

28. Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed.
Helprin: "The infinite riches of the world, presented with elegance, confidence, and economy."
Well known, defining reference work.  Rare.

29. Up in the Old Hotel, Joseph Mitchell
What is this?

30. The Everlasting Man, G. K. Chesterton
Lukacs: "A great carillonade of Christian verities."
Chesterton is great, really great.

31. Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton
O'Sullivan: "How to look at the Christian tradition with fresh eyes."
And this is Chesterton's best.
32. The Liberal Imagination, Lionel Trilling
Hart: "The popular form of liberalism tends to simplify and caricature when it attempts moral aspiration-that is, it tends to 'Stalinism.'"
?

33. The Double Helix, James D. Watson
Herman: "Deeply hated by feminists because Watson dares to suggest that the male-female distinction originated in nature, in the DNA code itself."
Probably won't make it to my "Must Read" list.

More to come. After I work through NR's list, I will issue my correct version.

Wisdom and Wonder of Abraham Kuyper



New from Abraham Kuyper

 Just heard about this book today.  With too many books and too little time, I still will have to make the effort to squeeze in this work by one of the greatest Christian thinkers of all time. 

Forthcoming November 2011


Wisdom and Wonder: Common Grace in Science and  Art is a new and complete translation of two sections that the Dutch Reformed theologian and politician Abraham Kuyper appended to his larger three-volume work on common grace. During his life Kuyper labored tirelessly, publishing two newspapers, leading a reform movement out of the state church, founding the Free University of Amsterdam, and serving as Prime Minister of the Netherlands. Popular in our time for his devotional work, Kuyper's Wisdom & Wonder displays his talents as a public theologian, focusing on his comprehensive and Reformed vision of science and art, still relevant for Christians today.

Foreword by Gabe Lyons and Jon Tyson
Introduction by Vincent E. Bacote
Edited by Jordan J. Ballor and Stephen J. Grabill
Translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman

"With the appearance of Wisdom & Wonder, English readers now have access to a far more extended and nuanced account of how Christians can wholeheartedly embrace the independence and integrity of science and art as manifestations of God's sovereignty."

-Gordon Graham
Director of the Abraham Kuyper Center, Princeton Theological Seminary

About the Author:
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) is a significant figure in the history of the Netherlands and modern Protestant theology. A prolific intellectual, he founded a political party and a university, and served as the prime minister of Holland (1901-1905). His enduring passion was to develop a theology for the general public and was seen in his extensive elaboration of the doctrine of common grace.