Wrapping Up a Year's Readings

As the year quickly draws to an end, there is a bit of time to finish a book, a chapter, a page.  I suffer from BADD, that is, Book Attention Deficit Disorder.  It's not that I cannot concentrate on reading; rather, it is that my mind jumps from one book to another in rapid, non-sequential, non-logical order.  Maybe it is the many subjects I teach; maybe it is the many review books I recieve and am obligated to read; but most likely, it is the realization of how little I know and how much I need to know.

What is New Year's Eve, to paraphrase Ebenezer Scrooge, but a time to find yourself a year older and many hours of reading richer?  The books read from cover to cover, the books re-read, the books skimmed and scanned, the books started with faithful bookmarks standing guard over the middle of chapter one,  and the rows and boxes and stacks of books. 

To bring order to this reading chaos and cornucopia, I began this day (the 7th Day of Christmas) by finishing The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke.  We have an old and beautiful copy of this book, and it should be a one-evenings read, but I kept getting delayed when starting the book.  It was a most appropriate way to begin a day and end a year of reading. 

There are now two books I am in the process of reading.  One is Fred Zaspel's Theology of B. B. Warfield.  An in-depth review will hopefully be forthcoming, but for now, suffice it to say that this is a sturdy systematic theology as Warfield's writings are distilled and synthesized by Zaspel.  Warfield's theological battles appear ancient, but he won the fields we fight today's battles upon.  This book is published by Crossway Books, as is the St. Andrew's Expositional Commentaries by R. C. Sproul. Several volumes of this series have been published, but I am getting introduced to it by means of the latest volume, Acts.  This book is perfect for combining a morning Bible reading, devotional, and serious study.  I am still in the opening chapters of this book.

Another Crossway book I just happened to start the other day is Colin Duriez' Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life.  In January of 2012, a little over a year from now, we will be celebrating and remembering Schaeffer on the Centennial of his birth.  This book, which follows several Schaeffer reads over the past year, will be good preparation for 2012.

Yesterday, while searching for some bargains at Books-A-Million, I picked up a nice hardback copy of The American Future: A History by Simon Schama.  I have five or six of Schama's books and continue to grow in my admiration of him.  This book would not have been on my greatest wants list, but it was $3.  Last night, while watching my two younger kids at basketball practice, I read the introduction, which was a 20 page discussion of the Iowa Caucus of 2008.  Simon Schama, British historian by birth, art historian by calling, expert historian on the Netherlands by training, now writing on American politics?  He seems a bit too far to the Left, but after all, he's British, Jewish, and a university professor.  But his writing, his narrative style, his wit and descriptions, all were engrossing.  Wonderful book, while maybe not one that will result in agreement.

Yesterday, I finished two soon-to-be-posted book reviews.  One was of FDR's Fireside Chats, edited by Russell Buhite and David Levy.  I have read a number of the historic talks in this book and am impressed by the rhetorical skills of Franklin Roosevelt.  This book calls for more study in order to understand our nation, how we cope with economic problems, and what we expect government to do.  It is also a worthy study for a rhetoric teacher.  The other review was of Ancient Highway by Bret Lott.  Lott is the best new Christian fiction writer I have discovered since Flannery O'Connor.  I really want to learn more from him.

The morning readings included a lull where I glanced at another page or two of a good find.  D.A. Carson's A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers was a Goodwill find that cost a dollar.  So far, in just a few pages, he has stripped the faded veneer off my poor prayer life and revealed to me the need for some REFORMATION that does not allow me to read about the 1500s, but pray about the 2011s.

And I finally got a bit more into Peter Leithart's latest book, Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom.  That brutal task-master Andrew Sandlin is making me read and review this book for the Center of Cultural Leadership. 

There are other books that I am reading from, opening up at random and lifting a few sentences out of, and chomping at the bit to read.  But, I will soon have to begin baking a cake, Olivia Walton's Applesauce Cake, for a New Year's Celebration with my family in DeKalb tonight. 

Tomorrow is a new day, however, for reading.  And it is the beginning of a new year.

Heroes in their Mid-Fifties

There are ample reasons on this day to consider where my heroes were when they reached their mid-fifties.  And, even more important, I want to consider what accomplishments still lay in store for them.

Winston Churchill 

Churchill's political career was a roller-coaster.  He survived more political defeats, more party changes, more political disasters than almost any other political leader in history.  In his mid-fifties, around 1929, the Conservative Party was defeated, and Churchill grew away from the party over various issues. Politically, he was moving into his Wilderness Years.  During these years, he was most prescient over the course of political events abroad and he was most ignored.  His writing career and projects were proceding at a great rate.  He devoted much time to his biography of his ancestor, John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough, titled Marlborough: His Life and Times (I cannot write this without the pain of remembering how I passed up a nice edition of this work once at an estate sale) and his History of the English Speaking Peoples, which would not be completed and published until after World War II.  A History of the English Speaking Peoples is a model history for its style and content.

Ronald Reagan

While his acting career was fading, Ronald Reagan's political career was still in its opening phases as he approached his mid-fifties. He gave his great "Time for Choosing" speech in 1964, giving Republicans a sense of what Barry Goldwater could not articulate and what the country desparately needed to hear.  In 1966, Reagan won the Republican nomination for Governor of California.  A political novice and an actor by profession, Reagan was then...and continually later...despised, scorned, and under-estimated by his critics.  He was, however, extremely articulate and what he articulated was a well thought out political philosophy based on years of reading, observing the world, and dealing with all kinds of people.  California was a mess in the 1960s (just like it is now).  Reagan promised to get welfare bums back to work and to clean up the mess at the University of California at Berkeley.  Defeating two-term Governor Pat Brown, father of the recently elected (again) Jerry Brown,  in 1966, Reagan began the first of two terms as governor, which would lead him to a national platform as a Presidential candidate who was unsuccessful in 1968 and 1976, but definingly successful in 1980 and 1984.

William Faulkner

In his early and mid-fifties, most of Faulkner's greatest works had already been written, published, forgotten, and rediscovered.  He began to receive greater recognition for his books.  He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.  He worked on a little read novel titled A Fable during this time.  The outline of the story is still sketched on the wall of his Oxford, Mississippi home.  The book was published in 1954 and won a Pulitzer Prize, perhaps more as a recognition of the earlier neglect of Faulkner than for the novel itself.  Prior to that, in 1951, his book Requiem for a Nun was published.  A strange tale, it contrasts two fallen women, the vain and troubled Temple Drake and the condemned Nancy Minningrode.  Nancy was in the jail, awaiting her execution for the murder of Drake's children (with lots of complicating factors), and while in jail, she sang hymns each night, while crowds gathered to hear her.  Strange way to portray redemption and forgiveness, but this was, after all, Faulkner.  He also won a National Book Award in 1951 for his Collected Stories.

C. S. Lewis

While in his mid-fifties, Lewis compiled a series of radio talks from the war years together and published them under the name, Mere Christianity.  That book came out in 1952. Three years later, Lewis' remarkable autobiography Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life was published/

Paul Johnson

The great British historian and writer Paul Johnson has written many books over the course of a rich career. In his mid-fifties, his monumental work, Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the 1980s was published.  This book was the history most appropriate to accompany the political changes being wrought by the Thatcher administration in Britain and the Reagan administration in the United States. 

And where were Christopher Dawson, George Washington, Robert Frost, Herman Dooyeweerd, Iain Murray, Francis Schaeffer, Ralph Stanley, and so many others at half-past the century mark?

Gifts from the Family

Two favorite authors, two much wanted books:

In the fine tradition of Southern writing about home and family and growing up Southern, Rick Bragg has shown outstanding skill for describing the hardships, faith, and worldview of Southern people.  He grew up hard, with many struggles due to his father's alcoholism and failures and his mother's labors to hold the family together.  Last year I read All Over But the Shoutin', which is the story of his mother's life and then Prince of Frogtown,  which is about his father.  I will hold this short book for some occasion when the mind needs rest and the emotions need lifting.  Thanks Nick for taking my subtle suggestion:  "Here, get me this book."

Way back around 1979, I got The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morriss through the History Book Club.  There were no book stores around here and no internet.  Morriss' book was the selection of the month.  I read it during the summer when I was finishing up working at the Texarkana Gazette and continuing to work on a master's degree from ETSU.  There is nothing more devastating to the human psyche than to read about people who accomplish more in a day, a week, a year, than most of us accomplish in a life-time.  I loved and feared TR from that time forward.  It was many years later when I read the second volume of this trilogy, titled Theodore Rex.  I don't remember at the moment where I got the book, but I read it and later H.R. Brands' biography of Roosevelt.  Now, after a period of over 30 years, the final volume is out.  I look forward to reading this book.  Roosevelt is a hero and a villian in conservative circles.  I really like the man, although I reserve that same appreciation when it comes to many of his policies.  His pro-active policies of his time would be considered conservative in ours by current political judgments. No doubt he opened the door for many Progressive policies in the Federal government.  Those who laud his activism usually ignore his moral and Christian presuppositions. Thanks, Stephanie for following my subtle hint when I wrote the name of the book and its location in the store on my want list.

Poetry of the Incarnation

The Incarnation, Part I

I stumble at the thought of God sleeping on hay,
With scent of cow manure and cud-chewing blank stares;
Or of God twisting a tiny finger around the young mother’s hand,
As he nurses and drifts to sleep to her weary psalm.

I stumble to see the slow afternoon, the rhythm of planing wood,
Halting to fetch Joseph a saw.
Or figuring accounts of his father’s business
As God plans to change his career.

I stumble to believe that he fluffed and propped a pillow,
Then fell into sleep too deep for storm to waken;
Or to see God, dust covered, with tired feet resting;
Longing for a drink and talking to a cheap woman.

To be found wandering Roman territory without papers—
No letter from Heaven certifying his claim.
To be lumped with every radical with blazing eyes
And visions who portrayed the certainty of society’s fall.

A wine making, mud dabbing, temple brawler God,
Broke, homeless, surrounded by weak and foolish men.

God can be myth and metaphor and image;
A rock, a mountain, sun, light, or sea;
But the sweating flesh of a middle age man—
A descent that would so easily be heresied away.

I stumble at the thought of God incarnated—
But not drunken night stumbling down an empty road;

I stumble at the thought of God incarnated—
Intensely light blinded, fearfully secured, irresistibly drawn.

From Dirt Roads (forthcoming)

Best Christmas Gift of 1999

In late December of 1999, most people were either wrapping up their Christmas shopping and preparations or they were getting ready for the cataclysmic Y2K that promised to shut down all computers and life on planet earth.

In the House house, we were preparing for baby number 3.  Since all had gone relatively well in the pregnancy, we refrained from finding out with certainty whether the baby would be a boy or girl.  Stephanie strongly believed it to be a boy, while I thought it would be a girl.

In the early hours of the morning on December 23, Joseph Nathaniel arrived quite quickly.  As usual, the doctor was not ready, but Nathaniel was.  He burst into a room surrounded by family and nurses and into a world celebrating Christmas. Everyone shouted, "It's a boy!" when he arrived. 

Although he will someday be embarassed when we say this, Nathaniel has always been a cuddly baby and child. Like a teddy bear, he is great to have around for a hug. But his hugs now witness to an increasing strength. In looks, he resembles me more than my other children, but he inherited the strong, stocky body build of his Paw Paw Kemp, Stephanie's father.  His hands feel like small clubs. 

Joseph Nathaniel goes by the name Nate.  Also, he goes by Nathaniel, Joe Nate, Natie (when he was younger), Nato, Natty Bumpo, and the Spanish pronunciation of Nath-an-yel.  His name is rich in Biblical and Covenantal textures.  Also, the name Joseph connects him with me, my Dad, my Grandfather, and other Joseph House men, while Nathaniel connects him to Stephanie's great-grandfather, Nathaniel Moffat, who was a Southern soldier in the War Between the States. (And I connect his name to that great hero of literature, Natty or Nathaniel Bumpo, of the Leatherstocking Tales.  I hope he has the honor and dignity of that frontier hero.)

Talented with music abilities, wit, and intelligence, Nate is still a bundle of untapped potential.  Born on December 23, 1999, he was evidence that the closing of Y1K and the coming of Y2K would both be testimonies to God's goodness.


 

The whole family at the Veritas Advent Service, "Celebrate Christmas," held at the beautiful First Methodist Church, downtown in Texarkana, Arkansas.  Stephanie is holding the flowers she received for her marvelous job of conducting.

Gonna Have a Bluegrass Christmas

Bluegrass music has a natural affinity for Christmas themes. After all, Christmas is a time to praise God, gather with the family, go back to the homeplace, enjoy mountains, music, and snow, and a time to sing and celebrate. Bluegrass music is a music of the folks, a bowing to tradition, the rhythms and cadences of ordinary life with pauses to celebrate. And bluegrass music has a strong Christian component. The naturalness of the acoustic instruments, the gifts of the musicians, and the heart-felt themes are all testimonies of a Christian worldview. And bluegrass music combines the shameful indulgence of a Saturday night bootleg whiskey drinking and brawling binge with the Sunday morning reconciliation found around the cross, or the manger, of Jesus.  Read More....

Favorite Christmas Books or Stories

The power of the compressed brevity of the Gospel birth narratives of Jesus always stun me when I hear the passages over and over during the Advent season.  Bureaucratic tax and census policies,  unexpected and unexplainable pregnacies, cosmic occurences with the star over Bethlehem, corrupt political rulers, overcrowded inns, visiting dignataries--smelling of camels and carrying exotic gifts, and angels disrupting the normally passive and despised lives of shepherds--all these and more tightly woven into texts that have exploded into a whole season of great celebrations, hymns, stories, and poems.

Since this is a book blog, it is fitting at this time of year to highlight some of the favored books or readings for the season.  The list to follow is not ranked according to highest to lowest or most favorite to also favored, but rather, simply listed because they came to mind.

But first this quote sets the post into context:

For some of us, reading is a required tradition during the Christmas season. I don't mean ordinary books that we catch up on during the holiday vacation. Rather, we long for an ambience that evokes that timeless sense of magic and holiness that is often called "the spirit of Christmas."  Of course we need to reread the nativity story to savor its pure essence. Yet we hunger for more. With nearly two thousand Christmases behind us, nostalgia must be satiated.

James S. Bell

1.  A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  How could I not mention this?  We read the story in its entirety in Humanities Class and we performed an adaptation of it in a school play. (I was Scrooge.)  And my family watches both the George C. Scott film version and The Muppets Christmas Carol, starring Michael Caine.  Dickens' classic is part of a group of five short novels that are commonly bound together under the loose title of Christmas Books.

2.  The Homecoming by Earl Hamner, Jr.    There are always comparisons between books and movies.  I watched movie years ago and fell in love with not only the movie, but the family.  I count the Walton kids as the first cousins of my imagination.  The tensions, the lyrical flavor, and the events of the Hamner novel and the Hamner movie script differ.  Both are delightful.  I could read The Homecoming in a short time, a sitting or two, but I prefer the slow savoring of the description, the sound of the Virginia accents, and the unfolding of the plot in segments.

3.  Christmas Spirit:  The Joyous Stories, Carols, Feasts, and Traditions of the Season by George Grant and Gregory Wilbur.  The two men who gathered the contents of this book are friends.  If I did not know them, I would still treasure their labors in this wonderful collection of quotes, poetry, and stories.  The quote above from James S. Bell came from this frequently perused book.

4.  In the Fullness of Time: A Historian Looks at Christmas, Easter, and the Early Church by Paul Maeir. I am not sure if I have ever read all this book, but I often used it particularly during the Advent season for sermon helps.  It is a useful reference for background information regarding Romans and Jews during the time of Christ's birth.

5.  Skipping Christmas by John Grisham.  Several years ago, I read this book and enjoyed it.  It doesn't reach the heights of Dickens and Hamner, but it was a fun read.  I've never watched the whole movie, Christmas with the Kranks, that was based on this book.  And, I am not normally a reader of Grisham's books.

6.  Shepherds Abiding (The Mitford Years Book 8) by Jan Karon.  I don't know how this book would be if one began with it. But if a person has read through the Mitford series and learned to love Father Tim, his wife, and the odd and loveable folks in the community, this book enhances the delightful community of characters.

7.  "Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus" from Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  The television show did a remarkable job of portraying this story, but it is still wonderful to read the actual story. 

I am always moved by how excited the children were over receiving a set of mittens, a tin cup, a penny, and a piece of candy.  What a rebuke to our overly grasping time. 

8.  "The Gifts of the Child Christ" by George MacDonald.  This is a dark and troubling story in some respects, but it is powerful.  MacDonald was one of the main influence on C. S. Lewis.  This story is a good introduction to an important author and a very different kind of Christmas story.  Redemptive stories are not always pretty and neat.

9.  "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry.  O. Henry was a powerful and gifted writer, and this may be his best story, or at least one of the most often anthologised.  It is lyrically beautiful to read and the ending can hardly be read through with dry eyes.  We have this story in several Christmas books, but the one I am looking at right is called Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book.  This is a coffee table collection of carols, stories, poems, and recollectins, along with Norman Rockwell art.  Both the O. Henry and Wilder stories are in this collection.

10.   A Foxfire Christmas: Appalachian Memories and Stories, edited by Eliot Wiggington.  The Foxfire series of books, compiled some years ago, were quite popular.  They grew out of student labors to talk to mountain folks about traditions, practices, beliefs, and folklore.  This collection includes memories of Christmas amonst mountain folks, usually during the Depression era.  Some of these stories are quite sad.  Lots of people never had much in the way of money or goods to celebrate Christmas, and many poor folks did not celebrate.  Even Laura Wilder's few Christmas gifts would have been a surprise to some of these people.  Still, this book is a moving work to read.

Christmas Shopping Experience

My boys were amused last Saturday when we heard a lady at Target ask the clerk if they had any CDs by Justin Beer.  "You mean Justin Bieber?" the clerk answered.  I actually felt something akin to sympathy for the woman. It is amazing how much trouble parents and grandparents go through to try to make their children and grandchildren happy.  The critiques of materialism and pop culture are abundant. I can nod in partial agreement to the critiques, yet I have to confess to liking material things and not totally despising pop culture (mainly because I am only vaguely aware of pop culture). I was moved by the love of the woman for her kids, leading her to ask--mistakenly--for Mr. Beer's music.

A few minutes later, I noticed that out of the plethora of books, music, and movies at Target that I care nothing for, Charles Dickens' classic A Tale of Two Cities was there on the shelf in a bright paperback cover, bound together with Great Expectations.  How did this happen?  The red and black seal in the top right hand corner of the book explains it all:  A Tale of Two Cities was a recent Oprah Pick.  I know very little (and am satisfied with the knowledge deficit) about Oprah Winfrey.  I remember seeing her in the movie The Color Purple years ago, but I don't think I have ever watched her show.  I know she endorsed Pres. Obama, but then so did Ralph Stanley.  At least she calls attention to some great books.  I wish she would endorse Punic Wars and Culture Wars.  A few hundred, or a few thousand, book sales would somewhat alter our lives.

Our children often want as gifts the current fads and trends of our culture. Years ago, I asked for and got a toy called Odd Ogg. ("Odd Ogg, Odd Ogg, Half Turtle and Half Frog") Funny thing was, Odd Ogg really wasn't fun to play with at all. Toy guns and toy animals were far more enjoyable. There is always the nagging question about Christmas gifts: How much of this will be the garage sale items of a year or so from now?

And all this takes us past Justin Beer and Odd Ogg and right back to Charles Dickens and Oprah. I mused outloud to the boys, "How would that kid feel if his mother/grandmother got him the Dickens book instead of Justin Beer?" I figure the kid would throw a real fit. Justin Beer is probably just another installment in a long line of cultural irrelevancies, momentarlily popular ephemera, and the material stuff of tomorrow's garage sales. "How much better if...?" I was asking, and the boys and I filled in the blanks. We mentioned Bach, the Beatles, Elvis, and Johnny Cash. We could have added Bing Crosby, Handel, Glenn Miller, or Patsy Cline. And the Dickens' book could be a life-time treasure, along with books by C.S. Lewis, Robert Frost, and Homer.

Christmas gifts can unlock the soul and mind. But the cultivating of those greater things must be a life-long task.

The Winner Is.....!

TARA please contact me through the e-mail address on the previous blog.  I will forward your address to Nathan and he will ship out your CD!

There are children out there who are going to have childhood memories of listening to Nathan Clark George's Christmas music, while drinking hot chocolate, and listening to Mom or Dad read from Punic Wars and Culture Wars.  Maybe, it won't happen exactly like that.

Thanks to all who have responded to Nathan's great offer.  Tonight, my daughter Caroline drew out the winning name.  And the winner is

TARA.  Congratulations.  Enjoy the Nathan Clark George concert at your church and enjoy the free CD.  I will contact Nathan tomorrow and you will need to get him the mailing information.  (Or can he personally give you the CD at the concert?)

Those of you who did not win, you better not pout and you better not cry, and I now going to tell you why:  You can go to the NCG web-site and order "Still," "Midwinter's Eve," and other CDs.  I recently ordered "Rise in the Darkness," but I'm going to wait until after Christmas to listen to it.  Avoid the crowds in the malls and Wal-Marts.  Support Christian artists.

And please keep checking in on Houseblog and on "Ben and Nick's Music Blog."  Our music blog is an eclectic discussion of all kinds of music.  Nick is an expert on Christian Rock (whose existence I still question), Rock, the Beatles, and more.  I focus on bluegrass music and music from the golden years of country music.  Nick and I come together with Johnny Cash and his current music partner Johnny Bach.

Win a Free Christmas CD

In conjunction with the Nathan Clark George Web-site, we are promoting a GIVE-AWAY of George's newest Christmas CD, Still. This collection consists of more traditional Christian celebrations of Christ's incarnation and birth, performed with acoustic guitar and mandolin. George is joined by Mark Stoffel and Ross Sermons on the collection.

If you want a small sample of the music on this CD, go to the web-site at

http://www.nathanclarkgeorge.com/


To register to WIN a copy of this CD, simply COMMENT on this blog OR e-mail me at Veritas@cableone.net

The drawing from our collection of commenters and e-mailers will be held next Wednesday, December 15. The CD will be mailed to the winner from the Nathan Clark George web-site and store.

Current Readings

With classroom assigned readings winding down with the end of the semester, I have a little more time to read WHATEVER I WANT TO READ. 

Even though this book corresponds with my classroom lectures, I am still able to read it for fun and delight. D'Aubigne was a gracious gift of God in the 1800s to the church for both his preaching and writing of history.  One who sat under his preaching and came to a full realization of God's grace was the Dutch political thinker and historian Groen van Prinsterer.  Many continue to benefit from D'Aubigne's historical writings on the Reformation.  

A man who has continued the Kingdom labors in the field of Christian history is Iain Murray.  He is, as can be seen from a post of a few months back, one of my heroes.  I always want to know who were the Heroes of my Heroes.  This book is a soul stirring account of Murray's heroes, such as Jonathan Edwards, John Newton, Charles Colcock Jones of Georgia, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, George Whitefield, and others.  Murray is ecumenical.  He loves to read and write about any and all who preached and evangelized the truths of God's Word.  Murray's book, and the D'Aubigne book above, are Banner of Truth publications. 

Dickens did not just write A Christmas Carol for the Christmas season.  He wrote and serialized five short novels related to the theme of Christmas.   Long before A Christmas Carol became his most popular work, The Cricket on the Hearth was a favorite.  I am currently trying to get into that book.  My daughter TaraJane read it recently and has written a review of it, which may be soon posted here.  Maybe I will get all five Dickens books read.

Christmas Favorites

I cannot wait until we have an evening free to watch a favorite movie from my high school years and the pilot episode that launched the greatest of television shows ever, "The Waltons."  The movie is The Homecoming.
I rank right up there with "A Christmas Carol" and "Christmas in Connecticut" for favorite Christmas movies.  I feel like I grew up with the Walton children.  I miss them and the joys of youth.  And while growing up in the 1970s was not the same as growing up in the 1930s, and my home life lacked many of the features of life on Walton's Mountain, the connections were and are still strong.

The movie is based on the short, overly short novel by Earl Hamner, Jr., also titled The Homecoming.  Hamner was the soft, Virginia accented, narrating voice at the beginning and ending of the Walton episodes.  There are many differences between the book and movie.  Both are great.  Some evening this month, I plan to re-read the book. 

Have a Theological Christmas...It's a Happy Time of Year

In the last blog, we began listing some wonderful choices for the theologian in your life.  One of the books we highlighted was the Festschrift to Dr. John Frame, titled Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John Frame.  Frame has been involved in many of the theological issues of the past decades that have involved Calvinist thinkers.  It is not as though Frame has always been right, but he has exhibited a generous heart and open mind to issues that have fractured Reformed unity repeatedly.  His series of 4 massive books, the Lordship series, is a gold mine of theological thinking.  And I like his approach to worship and music.  He is a dedicated student and follower of Cornelius Van Til, but he reaches beyond Van Til to include a wider range of approaches to apologetics.  He is one of my favorite Christian thinkers.  Speaking the Truth in Love and the Lordship series are all published by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing.

Frame studied at Westminster Theological Seminay and took classes under Dr. Van Til.  Westminster sprang to life during the late 1920s when the glories of Princeton Theological Seminary were traded for a mess of liberal pottage.  As J. Gresham Machen, the founder of Westminster, said to him mother in a letter, when Warfield's body was carried out at his funeral, Old Princeton was carried out with him.  Princeton may have died, but Warfield's theology did not.  Fred Zaspel has done a wonderful work of synthesizing and explaining the theology of Warfield in his monumental The Theology of B.B. Warfield: A Systematic Summary.  Covering issues such as Apologetics, Scripture, Christology, Theology Proper, and Soteriology, this book is both a tribute to a Calvinist theologian and a worthy study of theology itself.  Hopefully, it will cause me and others to pull out those overly-long neglected volumes of Warfield and enjoy the source again. This book is published by Crossway Books in Wheaton, Illinois. Crossway publishes an interesting range of theological and practical Christian books.

Warfield's acquaintances included the two Dutchmen Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck.  (Of course, he was also a friend and a colleague with Gerhardus Vos, a Dutch gift to America.)  The story of Calvinism in the Netherlands in the 19th and 20th centuries is an amazing story of Reformation in a small country.  We picture windmills and tulips when we think of Holland, but we should also think of worldview minded theologians and philosophers, such as Kuyper, Bavinck, Dooyeweerd, Schilder, Rookmaaker, and others.  I hope to say more about this new book on Bavinck as soon as I can get to it.  Bavinck's 4 volume Dogmatic Theology was featured last year on my Christmas suggestions. (The biography is published by Presbyterian and Reformed, and Bavinck's theological works--most only recently translated into English--are published by Baker Book House.)

Of course, one of the greatest common denominators of such men as Frame, Warfield, and Bavinck is their debt to and foundations laid by John Calvin.  2009 was the 500th year since Calvin's birth.  Quite a few books were published honoring the memory, influence, and theology of John Calvin.  It was surely fitting that Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company had its own Calvin500 series of books.  P&R has been one of the boldest and most faithful publishers of scholarly Reformed books for decades.  (My first serious Christian books to read--John Calvin: His Roots and Fruits & A Theological Interpretation of American History by Gregg Singer, This Independent Republic by R.J. Rushdoony, & Studies in Theology by Loraine Boettner--were all Presbyterian and Reformed Books.) 

David W. Hall is one of the greater Calvinist scholars in America today.  He has been the general editor and frequent contributor and occasional author of the books in this series.  The volumes pictured below are merely 3 of the 8 books in the series.  Some of the books include texts of lectures given at the great Calvin celebration in Geneva. The list of contributors are a who's who of Calvinist writers and thinkers of our time. 

Christmas Book Buying Suggestions

One of the least known facts about Santa Claus is the way he has changed in his interests during the past few decades.  Most of the toy production and distribution is now handled by elves. Yes, even the house to house distribution on Christmas night is not actually done by St. Nick, but by one of hundreds of mid-management delivery elves.  The change occurred somewhere in the 1990s. Santa, according to an inside report said, "I still love kids and the joys of seeing children at Christmas, but I don't care for modern toys."  As the years have gone by, kids want fewer and fewer dolls, toy guns, stuffed animals, and bicycles. Instead, they ask for electronic gadgets, movies, and sophisticated expensive stuff that they are bored with within 48 hours.

Santa Claus' more recent interest:  Books.  Again, according to the inside report of the 1990s, Santa said, "Book publishing is more thrilling than toy making now.  Of course, I have always included books in my bags of gifts, but today many kids don't want books.  I think the future lies in books for thinking folks."

According, Santa is interested in a wide range of books. His preferred titles include classics, histories, biographies, well bound hardback editions, cheaper versions, novels, poetry, and theology.  Concerning the latter, he said more recently, "If people read more and better theology, then some of the myths and misunderstandings of me would be solved. I don't know when children are sleeping and when they are wide awake. And my gifts are gifts of love, not based on some supposed goodness of kids or people."

Some of the titles and works that Santa really likes giving are given below.  More suggestions will follow.

Simon Shama's greater expertise is in art history and Dutch history.  But he is British (although employed at an American university) and he is the product of British training. His series, A History of Britain, was written and coordinated with an excellent DVD series of the same title.  My students in Humanities love watching Schama's historical documentaries.  He is a historian I have grown to really admire.

Not all that respected among the academic elites, Paul Johnson is yet another great British historian.  He is what I want to be when I grow up.  As he said repeatedly in a 3 hour interview last spring, he is getting rather old now (mid-80s) and so he is writing shorter books.  Churchill is short.  Many longer biographies could be found on Churchill (and I either have them or want them), but this short read is packed with information and application.  Whether just beginning to read about Churchill or needing a refresher course on this world changing man, Johnson's book is a gem.  (So are almost ALL of his other books.)

One of the most profound, most prolific, and most generous minded theologians around today is John M. Frame.  As a testimony to this man's teachings and writings, John J. Hughes assembled and edited one of the largest books ever published by P&R Publishers (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishers).  As can be seen on the cover, this study of John Frame's thinking includes Theology, Epistemology, Apologetics, The Church, Worship, Ethics, Culture, and Future Relevance.  The contributors include many of the best theologians, pastors, writers, and thinkers in the Reformed community today.  This 1000 plus page book is a virtual library of theology.  (I would love to stand up and sing a contemporary Christian song in thanksgiving to God for raising up Frame in our time.)  (Frame's newest book, the fourth and final installment in his Lordship series, is titled The Doctrine of the Word of God.  It is high on my want list.)

The Christian world is still enjoying the feast of Christian thought, evangelism, cultural engagement, and devotion brought out in the writings of Francis Schaeffer.  It may be possible to find better writers, deeper thinkers, more profound theologians than Schaeffer, but it is hardly possible to find anyone who has had the impact on so many as has Schaeffer.  Colin Duriez's biography, Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life, offers a good (but too short) coverage of the life of the man.  And it is always good to read Schaeffer's books again (or for the first time).  My favorite is How Should We Then Live?, but the gist of Schaeffer's apologetic and cultural engagement began with the three titles contained in the Francis Schaeffer trilogy.  Those 3 titles, The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, and He is There and He is not Silent, began the revolution ...make that Reformation---that is still impacting our world.

One writer who learned from Schaeffer and from that beginning has had a long and lasting impact on the Christian community is Os Guinness.  His books are food for the mind and soul.  I particularly enjoyed reading The Call this past summer and would highly recommend it to any Christian.  It is sub-titled, Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life.  It is already on my 2011 list for re-reading.

A year or so ago, Canon Press began reprinting a 19th century historian Jacob Abbott's Makers of History series.  These books are short (less than 200 pages) biographies of key historical figures.  So far, three volumes have been published in the series:  the biographies of Nero, Alexander the Great, and Hannibal.  Along with the text of the accounts, each book has a modern introduction written by ME.  I would hope that the introductions and the biographies would be fun and instructive readings for all.

A Mad Dash Across the Golden Age of English History

Beginning today, my Humanities class will follow up our study of Luther and Calvin by madly swimming across the English Channel and looking at what was going on in England during the reigns of the Tudor and Stuart Kings. This will be an insanely wild dash across some of the greatest figures, movements, events, and accomplishments ever achieved on that "scept'red isle...this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England" (from Richard II)-- so rich in historical, literary, and theological treasures. I don’t even have time to gather, much less peruse,  my books on things English during the 16th and 17th Centuries. But I am relying on memory and experience from having read and studied in the past.

Resources to be used in class:

Douglas Kelly, The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World: The Influence of Calvin on Five Governments from the 16th through the 18th Centuries. Chapter 4: Calvinism in England: The Puritan Struggle and Its Results.

Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, Volume II. Chapter 8, The Reformation in Great Britain, and Chapter 17, The Puritan Revolution.

John Milton, The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems. We will read selected poems, but will give close attention to reading Milton’s epic Paradise Lost, contained in this volume.

William Harmon, editor, 500 Poems.  Selections from some of the poetic geniuses of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Simon Schama, A History of Britain: The Complete Collection, DVD series. We will be viewing the segments titled “Burning Convictions” and “The Body of the Queen.” I have the companion books and hope to at least glance through portions of volume 2.

A Man for All Seasons. The classic movie, starring Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, and Orson Wells. The story of Thomas More, not one of my heroes.

Cromwell. The classic movie, staring Richard Harris as Cromwell and Alec Guinness as King Charles I. Cromwell, warts and all, is a hero, but a scary one.

Books on the Puritans I would not venture into this subject without:

John Adair, Founding Fathers: The Puritans in England and America. I read and loved this book many years ago. A favorite read.

J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life. This is a great topical study of the theology and culture of the Puritans. Packer longed for modern Christians to at least see the stature of the Puritans.

Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were. Similar to Packer’s book, this is a great introduction to the truth about the Puritans.

Otto Scott, The Great Christian Revolution. This is a delightful and colorful survey of Europe from the late Renaissance to the Restoration Era in England after Cromwell.

I.D.E. Thomas, The Golden Treasury of Puritan Quotations. Great collection of Puritan quotes.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors. Based on talks that one of the greatest of preachers gave over the course of years on his Puritan spiritual fathers.

Iain Murray, The Puritan Hope: Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy. A landmark study of Puritan theology, particularly their vision for the Kingdom of God.

Michael Walzer, The Revolution of the Saints: The Origin of Radical Politics. I have owned this book only long enough to have glanced at a few powerful paragraphs in it.

Robert Paul, Cromwell: The Lord Protector. This book got me through a major oral report in college.

Merle D’Aubigne, The Reformation in England. I have owned this beautiful set of Banner of Truth reprints for years and hope to at least handle the books some. D'Aubigne's biography of Cromwell was quite thrilling.

Christmas Readings and Viewings

Last night I finished reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  Someday, when I grow up, I hope to be well enough read in Dickens to hold an intelligent conversation about him.  I am currently in the awe-struck phase of my readings of him. I recently acquired a beautiful set of Dickens books (the 21 volume Oxford Illustrated Dickens) and this volume (seen above) is the first I've used from it.  I hope to read all of the Christmas stories in this work.  Dickens is generally recognized as being so good that we use the adjective Dickensian to describe certain types of writing, stories, names, and plots.

And some of my children and I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol.  I love this movie (without diminishing in the least my love of the great George C. Scott movie version of A Christmas Carol or the book itself).  I missed the muppets when they first came out.  I suppose I was too old and too serious (and too Scrooge like?) to watch them.  Since I did not have children until later in life (age 37 when the first of four arrived), I just bypassed these delightful characters.  In this show, my favorites are Gonzo, who plays the role of Charles Dickens, and Rizzo the Rat.  When Rizzo falls down the chimney and Gonzo says, "I knew you weren't cut out for serious literature," I roll in laughter every time.

More great movies ahead, and more great books, although most will not be about Advent or Christmas.

The Last of the Fall Poetry Fest--Robert Frost Again

Robert Frost (1874–1963).

A Boy’s Will. 1915.

My November Guest

MY Sorrow, when she’s here with me,

Thinks these dark days of autumn rain

Are beautiful as days can be;

She loves the bare, the withered tree;

She walks the sodden pasture lane. 5

Her pleasure will not let me stay.

She talks and I am fain to list:

She’s glad the birds are gone away,

She’s glad her simple worsted gray

Is silver now with clinging mist. 10

The desolate, deserted trees,

The faded earth, the heavy sky,

The beauties she so truly sees,

She thinks I have no eye for these,

And vexes me for reason why. 15

Not yesterday I learned to know

The love of bare November days

Before the coming of the snow,

But it were vain to tell her so,

And they are better for her praise.

[November here in the south is not quite like what Frost describes.  But the poem is still quite good.  I love the way he enjoys his wife's praise of the beauty of bare trees, yet stays quiet about it.  And I know the picture shows snow, while the poem speaks of the time before the coming of the snow.
This fall has been an autumn for poetry.  It has been almost as though the poetry drew out the colors of what was a late autumn. ]

November 22, 1963: C. S. Lewis Passes to Glory



I am a part of that generation that remembers November 22, 1963.  We all have our memories of the time and place where we first heard the news that President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas.  I was in second grade and we had a substitute teacher who told us the news.  Little did I know that the Kennedy assassination was a minor story about the tragic life, inconsequential political career, and shocking death of a failed politician.  The greater news story of the day was C.S. Lewis' entrance into glory.  Lewis died on this day in 1963, his passing being swept to the back pages of the newspapers due to the death of the American President.  (Also relegated to the back pages was the story of the death of author Aldous Huxley.)

I don't say these things to demean President Kennedy as a person or the office of the Presidency, but in the long run, Kennedy's impact on the world was symbolic and hollow.  He was supposedly youthful and idealistic. In reality, he was a physically sick man, a habitual adulterer, a profane man, and a politician (in the worst senses of that word.)  We grant that Kennedy's tax cuts were good policies and his anti-Communism was sound.  He was a type of Democrat that does not exist any more.  He was of a generation when even the liberals were not intent on destroying capitalism and freedom. 

Lewis' role in this world was and continues to be greater than that of Kennedy (and Huxley).  The Christian truths and the examples of how Christians should write, think, and live as exemplified by Lewis continue to impact this world for good.  Lewis still calls out to a lost and dying world to submit to Christ.  And to the Christian world, he calls out for believers to stand firm in the faith and to use their minds to advance God's kingdom. 

I am thankful to have not only vastly benefited from my late start at reading Lewis, but to have been able to see students of mine (when I was teaching in a public school) come to faith and understanding through copies of Mere Christianity that I gave them.  I often used that book to give to the reading and thinking type of students who needed more than a salvation tract.  At least two of my best students, Sean Mahaffey and David King, learned to love Lewis and better follow God through Mere Christianity.

I wish the picture above was from my shelves of Lewis books.  Alas, I have all too many paperbacks and reprints and some books pictured above, I don't have at all. (And yet the current President keeps saying his economic programs are bringing recovery.)  I will list some of my favorite Lewis reads with brief commentaries.

1.  Mere Christianity.  I first heard of this book when I read about Chuck Colson's testimony.  Someone gave the book to Colson and it led to his salvation.  I bought a nice hardback copy (like the one in the picture above; fifth book to the right on the top shelf) and read and loved the book. 

2.  Surprised by Joy.  Maybe this is my favorite Lewis book.  This autobiographical study is a walk through the mind and soul of this bookish boy, student, soldier, professor, who became one of the greatest Christian writers of his time. (I have a nice copy of this book like the one pictured above. I paid 75 cents for it at an estate sale!)

3.  The Screwtape Letters.  Lewis' friend, J.R.R. Tolkien, did not like this book, which Lewis dedicated to him.  Wow! I wish such a book were dedicated to me.

4.  The Chronicles of Narnia.  I read this series so late in life that I almost don't qualify for membership in the human race.  It was around when I was a kid, and I read lots of books, but I never heard of any of the books in this series.  (I had an impoverished childhood.)

5.  A Preface to Paradise Lost.  Great study about a great epic poem. Lewis's works on literature and literary criticism are all indispensible for literature teachers.

6.  The Great Divorce.  I wrote the chapter in the upcoming Omnibus V textbook (published by Veritas Press) on this book.  Short and profound.

7.  Christian Reflections.  This is one of several collections of essays by Lewis. 

8.  God in the Dock and Other Essays.  Among the gems in this collection is the essay "On Reading Old Books."  That alone is worth the price of the book.

9.   The Weight of Glory and Other Essays.  Yet another great collection of essays.

10. The Pilgrim's Regress.  This is one of the best surveys of modern (c. mid-twentieth century) thought to be found any where. Lewis couched the survey in an allegorical journey through modernity.  

There are more Lewis books that could be listed above. Thankfully, there are several Lewis books that I have yet to read.  And there are many biographical studies of this remarkable man.



Giants Stalked the Land

I have recently become aware of FOUR large books being published about FOUR great Christian thinkers of not-too-distant past.  Of course, I want all four of these books, meaning, that I want to understand or at least appreciate better how God has blessed modern day Christendom with great thinkers and warriors for the Christian mind.

As is stated by many of the blurbs promoting this book, Princeton theologian Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield wrote extensively and thought deeply, but he never produced a systematic theology of his own.  Warfield was content to use Charles Hodge's systematic theology and wrote instead on topics different topics related to the theological issues of his day.  Warfield was the epitome of the Princeton tradition in Calvinistic theology, and he was a warrior in the battles over the Bible in the theological wars of the first parts of the twentieth century.  Warfield was also a historian of theology. His writings on Calvin, Augustine, and the Westminster Assembly are valuable resources.  There are many Warfield books available.  P&R (Presbyterian and Reformed) published quite a few volumes in the past, while the more definitive set was the 10 volume collected works, originally published by Oxford Press, and then reprinted by Baker.  Dr. Zaspel has combed through Warfield's vast writings and has synthesized his theology in this work.  I started reading the biographical portions of the book last night.  This new book is published by Crossway Books. It is a hardcover book and retails for $40.

Herman Bavinck was a contemporary with Warfield. In fact, they corresponded and Bavinck came to the U.S. and presented a series of lectures at Princeton while Warfield was there.  In some ways, Bavinck lives under the shadow of his mentor, Abraham Kuyper.  Bavinck was not only a worthy successor to Kuyper, but was perhaps Kuyper's superior as a theologian.  (Kuyper was the epitome of a multi-tasker, a polymath, and Renaissance man.)  Bavinck's theological writings, 4 volumes of Dogmatic Theology, have become available in English only in recent years.  This book, Herman Bavinck:  Pastor, Churchman, Statesman, and Theologian, promises to be a worthy biographical study.  I have for several years been studying and marveling over the Dutch Reformation of the 19th and 20th centuries.  Such a small country, such gigantic minds.  (I ordered this book a few weeks ago and it is now on its way.) P&R publishes this book and it is available only in paperback (Why?).





In the progression of Dutch Christian thinkers, one could easily list them as Groen van Prinsterer, Abraham, Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, and then, Herman Dooyeweerd. (This listing leaves out many, many other key
Dutch Christian theologians, philosophers, and thinkers.)  Herman Dooyeweerd: Christian Philosopher of State and Civil Society, by Jonathan Chaplin, looks good. It will not be out until January and is quite pricey ($68...just send me the money for Christmas). This book promises to make Dooyeweerd known among Christians who are interested in philosophy and political thought.  Of course, in several circles, Dooeyeweerd's name and works have been making an impact for over half a century.  Dooyeweerd's system of thought is hard to navigate.  I am more of an appreciator than follower.  Dooyeweerd heavily influenced such men as Cornelius Van Til, R.J. Rushdoony, Francis Schaeffer, and Hans Rookmaaker.  Two of his more brilliant followers in our time are Roy Clouser and Danie Strauss.  Notre Dame Press, which publishes some amazing works by and about Protestant thought, will be publishing this book in January.

Dooyeweerd's brother-in-law, D. H. Th. Vollenhoven assisted him in formulating Christian (specifically Reformed) concepts of philosophy.  These two men are something of the Plato and Aristotle of  Reformed Christian philosophy.  Van Til gave great honor to the work of Dooyeweerd, Vollenhoven, and Stoker (a Calvinist philosopher from South Africa) and credited them with having all been his mentors.  Commonly, the ideas of Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven and their followers are labeled as Cosmonomic Philosophy or Reformational Philosophy.   If Dooyeweerd is difficult, Vollenhoven may be even more challenging.  In part, this is because several of Dooyeweerd's writings are quite readable (such as "The Secularization of Science" and "The Christian Idea of the State"), but fewer of Vollenhoven's writings are available in English.  A Vollenhoven Reader is being prepared by Dordt College Press which should acquaint more readers with the man.  The book shown above, Philosophy in the Making: D. H. Th. Vollenhoven and the Emergence of Reformed Philosophy, by Anthony Tol, is not exactly available yet.  The work is currently in the form of a dissertation, which includes portions in Dutch, but it will be published in a more reader friendly format next year.Dordt College Press will be publishing this book and has previously published several other key works by and about Vollenhoven.

Thank God for placing giants in our midst in the recent past.  May books like these increase our stature.