Crossways and the Christian Intellectual Tradition

 Christian worldview.  Christian thought.  The Christian intellectual tradition.  The Christian mind.
Crossway Books wins again.  They have become one of my favorite publishers due to the great books balancing solid theology and vibrant Christian living.

Crossway is also publishing books designed to feed the Christian mind.  It has been over 50 years since Harry Blamires bemoaned the loss of the Christian mind and over 30 years since Mark Noll bemoaned the loss of the evangelical mind.  In the Christian tradition, when a prophet speaks out in the wilderness, a crowd gathers, listens, and begins bringing forth works of repentance.

The Great Tradition of Christian Thinking: A Student's Guide by David Dockery and Timothy George is the initial volume of a new series.  The series is called "Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition."
In a little over a hundred pages, this book surveys Christian thinkers and movements.  This is in no way a thorough, in-depth treatment of Christian thinking and interaction with unbelieving thought.  Rather, it introduces the student to names and ideas.  One can read this book as an introduction to Augustine, Athanasius, other church fathers, Luther, Calvin, and other Reformers.  Or one can read this as a review or overview.  It packs a good punch either way.


The first of a new series of Christian books for the academic disciplines



Essays in honor of Dr. Leland Ryken

A few weeks back, right after my son Nick got home from college, I was in his room and I found something every parent dreads to find--a book about Christianity and literature, writing, and thought.  I confronted Nick about this book and he confessed that they were giving copies away at Wheaton.  "Why didn't you get me one?" I yelled.  After some family counseling, it was decided that I would need a copy of this book of my own, so I am now the proud owner of another fine book to feed the mind and soul from Crossway Books. This book, titled Liberal Arts for the Christian Life, wasedited by Jeffrey Davis and Philip G. Ryken.  This esssays were written and compiled in honor of Dr. Leland Ryken on the occasion of his 70th birthday.  As I have said on other occasions, Nick took two of Dr. Ryken's literature classes during his first year at Wheaton College.

A book about books--one of my favorite types of books

I look forward to delving into Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading.  I don't know why I love these kinds of books, for I don't need encouragement to read or ideas for a book list.  But these kinds of books are fun for me and helpful for Christian who struggles with the hows and whys of reading.

Readings of Late

Really enjoying reading one letter a day from Letters to Malcolm:  Chiefly on Prayer by C.S. Lewis.

Almost always either deeply moving or stylistically amazing.

This one is more difficult, but still rewarding:  John Frame's The Escondido Theology: A Reformed Response to Two Kingdom Theology.  I don't always like internal criticisms amongst Reformed brethren, but this one seems justified.  And I really like John Frame's writing and thought.



Having lots of fun getting into this book by my friend Kent Travis--Another Angle: Sacrament and Life Through Poetry and Story.

Civil Wars: Barton Hollow

The Civil Wars:  Barton Hollow

The name intrigues me:  The Civil Wars.  It hints of something Southern and rooted in history, but it also contains irony  and the word 'Wars' is plural.  How can war be civil?  And what are the wars (plural) that this two-some refer to?

Civil Wars is a duo, consisting of Joy Williams (formerly a musician in a Christian group) and John Paul White.  Their style is country, largely accuoustic, and folk. It is modern and youthful, with an aged feel, as though these artists know something of a lost world of Southern rural Christian culture.  Maybe if Faulkner had sung instead of wrote, his music would have been like this.  I can easily imagine these two singing with Ralph Stanley, or Bob Dylan, or Alison Krauss, or Emmy Lou Harris.

The conflicts are those of the human heart and those of relationships.   The songs on the CD Barton Hollow reflect the pains, the longings, the brokenness, and hopes of people going through the often dark vale of this world. These songs and two singers, to quote George Jones, "tears your heart out when they sang." 

Consider the song lyrics:  The first one, "Twenty Years," deals with time, pain, wrongs done, with the hope for redemption.  "I'll be praying for redemption and your note underneath my door."  This song, like many great songs, is analogous to our relationship to God.  We go with our confession, longing for an anwer. Remembering our long past sins, we still hope for restoratioin.

The next song, "I've Got This Friend," reminds us of the lonliness of the world.  It reminds us of people in need of love, of relationships.  As it echoes, "If the right one came...." 

A few songs later, "To Whom It May Concern."  This song keeps repeating, "I've missed you, but I haven't met you."  Clever and profound.  This album has quite a few songs that echo themes of longing.

"My Father's Father" talks about going home.  Elusive at points, the song repeats the word "Home" many times.  That returning to roots, to home, to our father, to our Heavenly Father, to something good about the past:  all this is woven into this song.

The title song is "Barton Hollow."  It is named after a place John Paul White knew in Alabama.  This song is forlorn and plaintive. It is the story of one who has fallen, sinned, and who has yet to find redemption.  It is the lonely quest when some unnamed action (murder?  selling one's soul?) has led to guilt and pain.  The singer is "a dead man walking."  He knows that he is lost, that no preacher man can save his soul, that no mere religious act can atone for him.  This song is a powerful testimony to the human experience of one who has reached the depths of his sin, but has not yet experienced grace.

The next piece is an amazing respite from the dark drift of "Barton Hollow."  It is titled "The Violet Hour."  It is a comforting instrumental piece.  It is the promise of peace after the turmoil of the previous song.

And these comments cover only a few of the songs.  I look forward to both listening more and more deeply to this album and in listening to future music from these two.  We all deal with our own civil and not-so-civil wars.

Oxford, Mississippi

Oxford, Mississippi is one of my favorite places on earth.  I know next to nothing about Ole Miss and their sports legacy, however.  My love is for the writings, the world, and the house and locales related to William Faulkner.

I also love the square in Oxford.  It resonates with history and literature.  It is rich in Southern-ness.  You walk around the square and you find yourself wanting to read a Southern novel or listen for the pounding of hooves of Forrest's cavalry (or maybe Col. John Sartoris' troop).  At moments, you think that you are in Yoknapatawpha County and in Jefferson City.  Oxford is an experience.

It also has two of my favorite bookstores.  One is Square Books.  This long rambling store is filled with stairs, nooks, and crannies carrying lots of books of all kinds.  One of their specialties is signed firsts by Southern authors.  Their other specialty is books by and about William Faulkner.

Luring just like the Sirens in the Odyssey.

 One visit to Square Books and suddenly the local Books-A-Million seems coarse and tawdry.  You realize that this bookstore is not a chain, a franchise, a cog in a corporate business machine.  Rather, it is a love affair, a romantic get-away, a world where fine books are not merely bought and sold, but acquired like all the finer things of life.


Danger--These steps lead to books one cannot live without.

 The one drawback to Square Books is that new books and rare books and signed firsts cost money.  With four kids and a wife at the end of a trip across Tennessee and then back through Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, there is little money to spend.  A thousand dollars would be easily spent there.  A hundred would suffice. 

Thankfully, down the street, just off the square is another book store, the sister to Square Books.  It is called Off Square Books.  It, too, is a fine bookstore.  Not as inviting in its physical layout, not a big and winding, but still quite good.  Off Square sells bargain books, remaindered books, and cheaper used books.  I almost escaped there with no purchases, but the second visit broke my resistance.  The third visit was devastating and glorius.  And, if I could go back one more time....

An open door, open windows, a newly published author speaking, and lots of books at affordable prices.

The bookstores would be reason enough to make a pilgrimage to Oxford.  But the bookstores are there in part because Oxford is a literary Mecca.  The incredible event was visiting Rowan Oak, the Southern home of Nobel Prize winning author William Faulkner.  This was my third visit to Rowan Oak.  About 3 years ago, we went there on a Monday.  Unfortunately, the house is closed on Mondays so we only roamed the grounds and looked in the windows that day.

Yesterday, however, we were able to tour the house.  What an experience.  Just trying to fathom Faulkner walking through the halls, typing away at his little portable typewriter, sitting on the porch, or roaming around the yard was amazing.  Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning novels, deep and archetypal characters, and the world of Yoknapatawpha Country were created, or refined, or developed at that house or by the owner of that house.

The author was as complex as any of his characters.

Raiding the Center for Southern Culture and gathering up a huge stack of posters and newsletters was yet another benefit of the trip.
Eating at Ajax which is on the square was yet another delight.
And you simply have to go sit on the bench where the bronze statue of Faulkner sits on the other side.