A Literary Game of Who Am I? – Partially Answered

I posted a “Who Am I?” segment a couple days ago. The characters are literary figures mentioned in the Christians and Literature series. The terms are: No online research!

Nick Steffen  was the first person to guess all but one of these characters correctly. Person B remains to be identified. Can you guess who it is?

Person A – Daniel Defoe (guessed by Nick Steffen)

  • I wrote a piece of satire. The people I was satirizing thought it was quite good and supported their cause, so they promoted it. Then when they found out it was making fun of them, they pilloried me.
  • I died hiding from my creditors.
  • Three of my novels were about pirates.

Person B (Who is this?)

  • T.S. Elliot described my novels as “supernatural thrillers”.
  • I published the first major English-language edition of the works of Søren Kierkegaard
  • I was a member of the Church of England.

Person C – Robert Heinlein (guessed by Nick Steffan)

  • I coined the term “grok”.
  • My childhood was spent in Missouri.
  • I served in the U.S. Navy.
  • I ran for the California State Assembly in 1938

Person D – George Eliot (Guessed by Nick Steffen)

  • I was a lady going under the name of a man in order to ensure my work was taken seriously.
  • I was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era.
  • I wrote 7 novels.

Out And About 1/16/2012

Theology

Music

  • Fans of Robbie Robertson of The Band will find this interview that Peter Mansbridge did with him interesting.

Reading and Writing

Literature

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#720

“According to Scripture, however, membership in the local church is not merely desirable, but necessary. In the New Testament, we see a recurring pattern: the Word is preached, people profess faith, and they gather locally into congregations ruled by Christ through a government He has appointed (Acts 2:47, 14:23; Titus 1:5). Believers are commanded to give due submission to the elders (1 Thessalonians 5:12,13), and the elders are charged with the oversight of believers’ souls (Hebrews 13:17). This set of commands assumes that believers and church leaders have an acknowledged relationship with one another. This relationship comes into existence when a believer commits to join the church. Therefore, when the Scripture calls Christians to delight in the church, it calls them to delight not only in the worldwide church, but also in the local church of which they are members.” – Guy Waters

A Literary Game of Who Am I?

Who Am I? (literary figures mentioned in the Christians and Literature series). No online research, please!

Person A

  • I wrote a piece of satire. The people I was satirizing thought it was quite good and supported their cause, so they promoted it. Then when they found out it was making fun of them, they pilloried me.
  • I died hiding from my creditors.
  • Three of my novels were about pirates.

Person B

  • T.S. Elliot described my novels as “supernatural thrillers”.
  • I published the first major English-language edition of the works of Søren Kierkegaard
  • I was a member of the Church of England.

Person C

  • I coined the term “grok”.
  • My childhood was spent in Missouri.
  • I served in the U.S. Navy.
  • I ran for the California State Assembly in 1938

Person D

  • I was a lady going under the name of a man in order to ensure my work was taken seriously.
  • I was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era.
  • I wrote 7 novels.

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#721

“Give yourself to the church. You that are members of the church have not found it perfect, and I hope that you feel almost glad that you have not. If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all; and the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it. Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us.” – Charles Spurgeon

 

How Could Anyone Vote For This Guy? (Rick Santorum)

I know, I know, I said I’d cease talking about the 2012 U.S. election until the primaries were over. But I just can’t resist commenting on something (then I will return to my hiatus).

Watch this video. I ask, in disbelief, how can anyone vote for this guy? This may sound a little harsh, but it’s just stunning. Honestly, I think that if he was wearing a military fatigue, represented another country, and said the exact same things…..the people (ie. those who are currently voting for him would) would call him a lunatic mad-man.

 

Mars Hill Audio Journal Returns

I used to be subscribed to the Mars Hill Audio Journal. I am not longer subscribed, but I still think very highly of this audio publication and would highly recommend it.

In November, Ken Myers, who puts together these journals, suffered from a heart attack. However, he has subsequently returned to full health and returned back to work and volume 110 has just been released. This volume looks particularly good, and so I decided I would highlight some of its contents in case anyone is interested.

Volume 110 – Part One:

  • Kevin Belmonte, on how G. K. Chesterton embraced a “defiant joy” in spite of the cynical pessimism of many of his contemporaries.
  • David Lyle Jeffrey & Gregory Maillet, on why Christians cannot afford to regard literature as a mere entertaining diversion.
  • Mark Noll, on what motivates anti-intellectualism among Christians and why it is a theologically indefensible prejudice

Volume 110 – Part Two

  • Alan Jacobs, on W. H. Auden’s understanding of the vocation of “poet” and on the spiritual and historical background to Auden’s 1947 book-length poem, The Age of Anxiety
  • Jonathan Chaplin, on the outlines and sources of the social and political thought of Herman Dooyeweerd and on his understanding of the relationship between theology and Christian philosophy

This looks like really good stuff! Every single one of these segments should be fantastic.

(Mars Hill Audio journal offers a gift subscription option, just in case any fanatical All Things Expounded readers just feel constrained to give…. I’m joking.)

Christians and Literature – Works/Authors Cited N-Z

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been posting interviews/surveys by 12 Christians who love literature (Mark Nenadov, Michael Plato, Olga Lukmanova, Ian Clary, Vincent Cancilla, Heather Weir, Bob WaltonSheila Kurian, Clint Humfrey, and Amanda Patchin, and John and Kara Dekker, and Darren Jansen).

The overlap in their answers (as well as the diversity) has been fascinating. Here is an index of works/authors cited from A to F.

Keep in mind, this cites all references in any context (with no indication as to whether they are positive or negative).

  • Novalis [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Ondaatje, Michael [Sheila Kurian]
    • The English Patient [Sheila Kurian]
  • Orwell, George [Ian Clary, Mark Nenadov, Clint Humfrey]
    • 1984 [Ian Clary, Mark Nenadov, Clint Humfrey]
    • Homage to Catalonia [Clint Humfrey]
  • Ovid [Vincent Cancilla]
  • Peterson, Eugene [Heather Weir]
    • Take and Read [Heather Weir]
  • Plass, Adrian [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Plato [Sheila Kurian, Darren Jansen]
    • Republic [Sheila Kurian]
    • The Symposium [Sheila Kurian]
  • Proust, Marcel [Michael Plato]
    • Remembrance of Things Past [Michael Plato ]
  • Reinke, Tony [Mark Nenadov]
  • Robinson, Marilynne [John Dekker]
    • Gilead [John Dekker]
  • Roth, Phillip [Mark Nenadov]
  • Russell, Bertrand [Darren Jansen]
  • Salinger, J.D. [Ian Clary]
  • Sartre, J.P. [Ian Clary, Michael Plato]
  • Sayers, Dorothy [Heather Weir, Kara Dekker, Sheila Kurian, Olga Lukmanova, Bob Walton]
    • Mind of the Maker [Heather Weir]
    • The Man Who Would Be King [Sheila Kurian]
    • Lord Peter Wimsey [Kara Dekker, Olga Lukmanova]
  • Selden, George [Sheila Kurian]
    • The Cricket in Times Square [Sheila Kurian]
  • Service, Robert [Mark Nenadov]
  • Schaeffer, Francis [Bob Walton, Darren Jansen]
  • Sheldon, Sidney [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Seuss, Dr [Kara Dekker]
  • Shakespeare, William [Mark Nenadov, Sheila Kurian, Bob Walton, Olga Lukmanova, Vincent Cancilla]
    • King Lear [Sheila Kurian]
  • Shelley, Mary [Sheila Kurian]
    • Frankenstein [Sheila Kurian]
  • Sire, James [Heather Weir]
    • How to Read Slowly [Heather Weir]
    • Habits of the Mind [Heather Weir]
  • Smith, Ralph [Mark Nenadov]
  • Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Sprockett, Kathryn [Olga Lukmanova]
    • The Help [Olga Lukmaova]
  • Stevenson, Robert Louis [Amanda Patchin, Sheila Kurian]
    • Treasure Island [Amanda Patchin]
    • Kidnapped [Sheila Kurian]
  • Stoker, Bram [Sheila Kurian]
    • Dracula [Sheila Kurian]
  • Swift, Johnathan [Sheila Kurian, Vincent Cancilla]
    • Gulliver’s Travels [Sheila Kurian]
  • Tasso, Torquato [Vincent Cancilla]
    • Jerusalem Liberated [Vincent Cancilla]
  • Tennyson, Alfred Lord [Clint Humfrey]
    • Ulysses [Clint Humfrey]
  • Thoreau, Henry David [Darren Jansen]
    • Walden [Darren Jansen]
  • Tolkien, J.R.R. [Ian Clary, Mark Nenadov , John Dekker, Amanda Patchin, Sheila Kurian, Bob Walton, Olga Lukmanova, Darren Jansen]
    • The Hobbit [Ian Clary, Mark Nenadov, Sheila Kurian]
    • Leaf by Niggle [Olga Lukmanova]
    • The Lord of the Rings [Ian Clary, John Dekker, Amanda Patchin, Darren Jansen]
    • The Silmarillion [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Tolstoy, Leo [Mark Nenadov, Heather Weir, Olga Lukmanova]
    • War and Peace [Heather Weir]
  • Towzer, A.W. [Darren Jansen]
  • Trollope [Bob Walton]
  • Turgenev, Ivan [Mark Nenadov]
  • Twain, Mark [Mark Nenadov]
    • Huckleberry Finn [Mark Nenadov]
  • Ulitskaya, Lyudmila [Olga Lukmanova]
    • Daniel Stein, Interpreter
  • Unknown Authorship
    • Beowolf [John Dekker, Darren Jansen]
  • Van Til, Cornelius [Bob Walton]
  • Vaughan, (Unclear whether its Henry or Richard) [Sheila Kurian]
  • Virgil [Sheila Kurian, Vincent Cancilla]
    • Aeneid [Sheila Kurian]
  • Wallace, Lew [Amanda Patchin]
    • Ben-Hur [Amanda Patchin]
  • Walsh, Jill Paton [John Dekker]
    • Knowledge of Angels [John Dekker]
  • Waugh, Evelyn [Ian Clary, Michael Plato, Bob Walton]
    • Brideshead Revisited [Ian Clar, Michael Plato]
  • Wiesel, Elie [Sheila Kurian]
    • Messengers of God [Sheila Kurian]
  • Wilder, Laura Ingalls [John Dekker, Kara Dekker]
  • Wilkins, Steve [John Dekker]
    • Face to Face: Meditations on Friendship and Hospitality [John Dekker]
  • Williams, Charles [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Wilson, Douglas [John Dekker, Kara Dekker, Amanda Patchin, Mark Nenadov]
  • Wodehouse, P.G. [Mark Nenadov, John Dekker]
  • Wolfe, Gene [Amanda Patchin]
  • Wordsworth, William [Sheila Kurian]
  • Wyss, Johann David [Sheila Kurian]
    • The Swiss Family Robinson [Sheila Kurian]
  • Yonge, Charlott [Heather Weir]
    • The Heir of Redcliffe [Heather Weir]

Christians and Literature – Works/Authors Cited G-M

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been posting interviews/surveys by 12 Christians who love literature (Mark Nenadov, Michael Plato, Olga Lukmanova, Ian Clary, Vincent Cancilla, Heather Weir, Bob WaltonSheila Kurian, Clint Humfrey, and Amanda Patchin, and John and Kara Dekker, and Darren Jansen).

The overlap in their answers (as well as the diversity) has been fascinating. Here is an index of works/authors cited from A to F.

Keep in mind, this cites all references in any context (with no indication as to whether they are positive or negative).

  • Gallico, Paul [Olga Lukmanova]
    • Mrs. ‘Arris Goes To Paris [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Gaskell, Elizabeth [Bob Walton]
  • Grahame, Kenneth [John Dekker]
    • The Wind In The Willows [John Dekker]
  • Guinness, OS [Mark Nenadov]
    • Gravedigger Files [Mark Nenadov]
  • Ginsberg, Allen [Ian Clary]
  • Godawa, Brian [Mark Nenadov]
  • Goldman, William [Sheila Kurian]
    • The Princess Bride [Sheila Kurian]
  • Goudge, Elizabeth [Kara Dekker]
  • Grant, George [Mark Nenadov]
  • Grisham, John [Bob Walton]
  • Greene, Graham [Ian Clary, Bob Walton]
  • Hardy, Thomas [Bob Walton]
  • Heinlein, Robert [Mark Nenadov]
  • Hemmingway, Ernest [Ian Clary]
    • The Old Man and the Sea [Ian Clary]
  • Herbert, George [Sheila Kurian]
  • Hitchens, Christopher [Ian Clary]
    • Hitch-22 [Ian Clary]
  • Homer [Michael Plato, Sheila Kurian, Vincent Cancilla]
    • Odyssey [Michael Plato, Sheila Kurian]
    • The Iliad [Sheila Kurian]
  • Hornby, Nick [Olga Lukmanova]
    • How To Be Good [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Horne, Mark [Mark Nenadov]
  • Clary, Ian [Mark Nenadov]
  • Jacobs, Alan [Mark Nenadov]
  • James, Henry [Michael Plato]
    • Portrait of a Lady [Michael Plato]
  • James, P.D. [Heather Weir, Bob Walton]
    • The Children of Men [Heather Weir]
  • (St.) John of the Cross [Sheila Kurian]
    • Dark Night of the Soul [Sheila Kurian]
  • Jones, Douglas [John Dekker]
  • Jordan, James [John Dekker]
    • Through New Eyes [John Dekker]
  • Jordan, Robert [Vincent Cancilla]
  • Joyce, James [Vincent Cancilla]
    • Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man [Vincent Cancilla]
  • Kant, Immanuel [Darren Jansen]
  • Kempis, Thomas a [Sheila Kurian]
    • Imitation of Christ [Sheila Kurian]
  • Kerouac, Jack [Ian Clary]
  • King, Cassandra [John Dekker]
    • The Sunday Wife [John Dekker]
  • L’Amour, Louis [Ian Clary]
  • Lawrence, D.H. [Amanda Patchin]
    • Sons and Lovers [Amanda Patchin]
  • Le Carre, John [Bob Walton]
  • L’Engle, Madeleine [John Dekker, Sheila Kurian]
    • A Live Coal in the Sea [John Dekker]
    • A Wrinkle In Time [Sheila Kurian]
  • Le Guin, Ursula [Sheila Kurian, Olga Lukmanova]
    • The Wizard of Earthsea [Sheila Kurian]
  • Likhachov, Dmitry [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Leithart, Peter [Kara Dekker, Mark Nenadov]
    • Deep Exegesis [Kara Dekker]
  • Lewis, C.S. [Ian Clary, Mark Nenadov, Olga Lukmanova, Heather Weir, Amanda Patchin, Sheila Kurian, Bob Walton]
    • Till We Have Faces [Ian Clary, Amanda Patchin, Olga Lukmanova]
    • Surprised By Joy [Heather Weir]
    • An Experiment in Criticism [Heather Weir, Sheila Kurian]
    • The Space Trilogy [Amanda Patchin]
    • The Great Divorce [Sheila Kurian]
    • This Hideous Strength [Olga Lukmanova]
    • The Last Battle [Sheila Kurian]
    • Screwtape Letters [Mark Nenadov]
    • The Chronicles of Narnia [Amanda Patchin, Sheila Kurian]
    • Seeds and Elephants Collection [Sheila Kurian]
  • Lucan [Vincent Cancilla]
    • Pharsalia [Vincent Cancilla]
  • MacDonald, George [Mark Nenadov, Olga Lukmanova]
    • The Dish of Orts [Olga Lukmanova]
    • The Fanastic Imagination [Olga Lukmanov]
    • Far Above Rubies [Mark Nenadov]
    • The Golden Sequence [Olga Lukmanova]
    • Imagination: Its Function and Culture [Olga Lukmanova]
    • Phanteses [Olga Lukmanova]
    • The Princess and the Cudie [Olga Lukmanova]
    • The Princess and the Goblin [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Machiavelli [Sheila Kurian]
    • The Prince [Sheila Kurian]
  • Mann, Thomas [Michael Plato]
    • Magic Mountain [Michael Plato]
  • Marlow, Christopher [Vincent Cancilla]
    • Dr. Faustus [Vincent Cancilla]
  • Massi, Jeri [John Dekker]
    • Secret Radio
  • Melville, Herman [Clint Humfrey, Olga Lukmanova, Vincent Cancilla]
    • Moby Dick [Clint Humfrey, Olga Lukmanova, Vincent Cancilla]
  • McCarthy, Cormac [Clint Humfrey]
    • All The Pretty Horses [Clint Humfrey]
    • The Crossing [Clint Humfrey]
    • Cities of the Plain [Clint Humfrey]
    • No Country for Old Men [Clint Humfrey]
  • McCloskey, Robert [Kara Dekker]
  • McMurtry, Larry [Ian Clary]
    • Lonesome Dove [Ian Clary]
  • Milton, John [Michael Plato, Vincent Cancilla, John Dekker, Sheila Kurian]
    • Paradise Lost [John Dekker , Sheila Kurian, Vincent Cancilla]
  • Mitchell, Maragret [Sheila Kurian]
    • Gone With The Wind [Sheila Kurian]
  • Montgomery, L.M. [John Dekker, Kara Dekker]
  • Morrison, Toni [Olga Lukmanova]
      • The Beloved [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Mother Goose [Clint Humfrey]
  • Multiple Authors
    • The Sound of Music [Sheila Kurian]
    • Mutiny on the Bounty [Sheila Kurian]

Christians and Literature – Works/Authors Cited A-F

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been posting interviews/surveys by 12 Christians who love literature (Mark Nenadov, Michael Plato, Olga Lukmanova, Ian Clary, Vincent Cancilla, Heather Weir, Bob WaltonSheila Kurian, Clint Humfrey, and Amanda Patchin, and John and Kara Dekker, and Darren Jansen).

The overlap in their answers (as well as the diversity) has been fascinating. Here is an index of works/authors cited from A to F.

Keep in mind, this cites all references in any context (with no indication as to whether they are positive or negative).

  • Adams, Richard [John Dekker]
    • Watership Down [John Dekker]
  • Alcott, Louisa May [Heather Weir, Kara Dekker]
    • Little Women [Heather Weir]
  • Alexander, Lloyd [Vincent Cancilla]
    • The Chronicles of Prydain [Vincent Cancilla]
  • Andrews, Lancelot [Sheila Kurian]
    • Sermons [Sheila Kurian]
  • Aquinas [Darren Jansen]
  • Aristotle [Darren Jansen]
  • Auden, W. H.  [Ian Clary]
  • Augustine [Heather Weir, Sheila Kurian, Amanda Patchin, Darren Jansen]
    • City of God [Heather Weir, Sheila Kurian, Darren Jansen]
  • Austen, Jane [Heather Weir, Amanda Patchin, Olga Lukmanova]
    • Pride and Prejudice [Heather Weir, Sheila Kurian]
    • Emma [Amanda Patchin]
    • Sense and Sensibility [Sheila Kurian]
  • Averintsev, Sergei [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Berry, Wendel [Mark Nenadov]
  • Bakhtin, Mikhail [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Banville, John [Sheila Kurian]
    • Dr. Copernicus [Sheila Kurian]
  • Barnes, Julian [Olga Lukmanova]
    • The Sense of An Ending [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Beckett, Samuel [Vincent Cancilla]
    • Waiting for Godot [Vincent Cancilla]
  • Bloom, Harold [Michael Plato, Mark Nenadov]
  • Bondi, Roberta [Sheila Kurian]
    • To Pray and to Love [Sheila Kurian]
  • Bonhoeffer, Dietrich [Olga Lukmanova]
    • Life Together [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Boswell, James [John Dekker]
    • Life of Johnson [John Dekker]
  • Bronte, Charlotte [Amanda Patchin]
    • Jane Eyre [Amanda Patchin]
  • Bronte Family [Michael Plato, Bob Walton]
  • Brown, Dan [Sheila Kurian, Olga Lukmanova]
    • The Davinci Code [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Bulgakov, Mikhail [Mark Nenadov]
    • Master and Margarita [Mark Nenadov]
  • Buechner, Fredrick [John Dekker]
    • Lion Country [John Dekker]
  • Bunyan, John [Mark Nenadov, Clint Humfrey]
    • The Pilgrim’s Progress [Clint Humfrey]
  • Burnett, Frances Hodgson [Sheila Kurian]
    • The Secret Garden [Sheila Kurian]
  • Byatt, A.S. [Heather Weir]
    • Possession [Heather Weir]
  • Calderon, Pedro [Vincent Cancilla]
    • Life Is a Dream [Vincent Cancilla]
  • Calvin, John [Darren Jansen]
  • Camus, Albert [Ian Clary, Michael Plato, Mark Nenadov]
  • Cavanaugh, William [Sheila Kurian]
    • Being Consumed [Sheila Kurian]
  • Cervantes, Miguel [Michael Plato]
    • Don Quixote [Michael Plato]
  • Chaucer [Vincent Cancilla]
  • Chekhov, Anton [Mark Nenadov, Olga Lukmanova]
  • Chesterton, G.K. [Ian Clary, Olga Lukmanova, Michael Plato, Mark Nenadov, John Dekker, Bob Walton]
    • Manalive! [Ian Clary, Olga Lukmanova]
    • Father Brown stories [John Dekker, Olga Lukmanova]
    • Orthodoxy [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Childs, Brevard [John Dekker]
    • Introduction to Old Testament as Scripture [John Dekker]
  • Christie, Agatha [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Cleave, Chris [Olga Lukmanova]
    • Little Bee [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Conrad, Joseph [Bob Walton, Vincent Cancilla]
  • Coren, Michael [Mark Nenadov]
  • Cummings, E. E. [Sheila Kurian]
  • Dante [Heather Weir, Olga Lukmanova, Vincent Cancilla]
    • The Divine Comedy [Heather Weir]
  • Davies, Robertson [Michael Plato]
  • Dawkins, Richard [Darren Jansen]
  • Defoe, Daniel [Mark Nenadov]
    • Robinson Crusoe [Mark Nenadov]
  • Dickens, Charles [Ian Clary, Michael Plato, Bob Walton, Vincent Cancilla]
  • Dillard, Annie [John Dekker]
    • An American Childhood [John Dekker]
  • Donne, John [Michael Plato, Sheila Kurian]
  • Dostoevsky, Fyodor [Ian Clary, Olga Lukmanova, Mark Nenadov, John Dekker]
    • Brothers Karamazov [Mark Nenadov, John Dekker]
    • Crime and Punishment [Ian Clary]
  • Doyle, A.C. [Mark Nenadov]
  • Dragojlovic, Goran [Mark Nenadov]
  • Durant, Will [Darren Jansen]
    • The Story of Philosophy
  • Durrell, Gerald [Sheila Kurian]
    • My Family and Other Animals [Sheila Kurian]
  • Dyachenko, Marina [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Dyachenko, Sergei [Olga Lukmanova]
  • Dylan, Bob [Sheila Kurian]
  • Eliot, George [Ian Clary, Michael Plato, Bob Walton]
    • Middlemarch [Michael Plato]
  • Elliot, T.S. [Sheila Kurian]
  • Endo, Shusaku [John Dekker]
    • Wonderful Fool [John Dekker]
  • Forster, E.M. [Sheila Kurian]
    • A Room With A View [Sheila Kurian]
  • Frost, Robert [Sheila Kurian]
  • Frye, Northrop [Michael Plato]

Christians and Literature – 10 Questions for Darren Jansen

Previously, Mark Nenadov, Michael Plato, Olga Lukmanova, Ian Clary, Vincent Cancilla, Heather Weir, Bob WaltonSheila Kurian, Clint Humfrey, and Amanda Patchin, and John and Kara Dekker’s answers on the topic of literature have been featured. Here is our final installment with Darren Jansen’s answers.


1. Can you give a brief summary of where you live, your educational background, what you do for a living, what church you attend, and the religious tradition you stand in?

I’ve been living in the northwest of China for almost eight years. I teach English and advertising there. In less than a year I plan to return to my hometown in South Carolina to do public relations. I belong to a Reformed-ish non-denominational church in my hometown, but in China, I meet each Sunday with a group of like-minded expats for worship. Though my church is kind of Reformed, the main religious influence on me in my youth came from the school I attended from fifth grade through college, Bob Jones University. This university is a Fundamentalist institution started in 1927 by a former Methodist during the midst of the Modernist controversy. As could be expected, it is theologically conservative and has an Arminian tone.


2. How has your early upbringing shaped your view and use of literature now?

My early thought was shaped by Fundamentalism. I grew up assuming that you were saved by grace, but then after that, it was up to you to stay on God’s good side. The message for the lost was “Trust in Christ for salvation,” but the message for the saved was “Ok, now that you’re saved, you need to work and work and work.” Challenges for moral transformation seemed to be the most important message there was.


3. Are there any people who, in your adult life, have encouraged you to encounter literature in a deeper or more passionate way. If so, who? (they can people you know personally or not)

There two people who influenced me the most in regards to reading: my father and Henry David Thoreau. My father, a soil science professor at the University of Illinois, died when I was only seven, so most of his literary influence on me came after he died. When I was still young, I would look through his large collection of books. At first I would just admire the pictures on the front of the books, but eventually I began to read some of them. I also began to read some of the philosophy lectures my father had given and other things he wrote that were saved on his old Macintosh. One of the books in his library that I actually read through first was a small selection of writings of Calvin; it really touched me and fascinated me. Eventually I began getting into philosophy since that was what my father loved. Augustine’s City of God was first. Then I read Durant’s Story of Philosophy. Finally, I fell in love with Aquinas. He had many other books I haven’t read yet–Kant, Russell, Schaeffer–but it was more than just the content inside of the books, it was his library that influenced me.

As for Henry David Thoreau goes, all throughout high school I was borrowing Walden from the library, but I read it here and there the way most people read the Bible, never actually starting at the beginning and reading it through. When I finally did buy a copy years later and read it from cover to cover, I was shocked to realize how much that book had shaped my thinking. Mostly what influenced me was his love of nature, his independence of thought, and his the-sun-also-rises skepticism toward all things that are much ballyhooed by the rest of the world. Probably he, more than anyone else, influenced me to leave Fundamentalism even though he never wrote about the topic. It’s just that Fundamentalism demands blind conformity, which Thoreau detested. (“The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler’s cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same.”) Fundamentalism, in addition to demanding conformity to man made rules, also taught several ideas that simply could not be found in the Bible, like for example, that alcohol was inherently bad or that God has a special will for your life that you need to find out somehow and follow or risk wasting your life. It was Thoreau’s independence of thought that influenced me to think for myself on these matters.


4. What authors/works would you re-read if you had a month-long sabbatical to dedicate to reading?

Hm, there’s my Plato and Aristotle paperbacks that have been calling for some attention. Also my friend who recently turned from fundamental Christianity to atheism, gave me a copy of Dawkins’ Greatest Show on Earth (the book that converted my friend). Dawkins is not great literature, but it is fun to read stuff by people you disagree with. I wish I could just always be reading Lord of the Rings.


5. Who are your favorite authors or characters portrayed in literature? (if any of them have substantially changed you, list how briefly)

Beowulf is cool. The book feels really primitive and masculine. It’s inspiring for a man.


6. Should Christians read more literature? What are the benefits to that? What are some cautions you would share

Usually when I have come across a pastor who reads only the Bible and never anything else, I’ve found a really odd person with tons of logical inconsistencies and indefensible beliefs. On the other hand, when I come across one who is well read, like my fellow Thoreau fan, A.W. Tozer, I find someone who has really deep insight and an ability to defend his beliefs. I’m not sure why that is. It’s probably especially useful for all Christians as well as pastors to get a good dose of reading from people they disagree with. People can often learn more about what they believe from reading books by people who don’t believe it than they can by reading books by people who do.

In the lives of everyday people, probably the main enemy to reading literature is the habit of doing something easier. If you read the newspaper, you will probably rather pick up the newspaper at any given time than the Institutes. If you watch TV, it will feel easier and more relaxing to turn on the TV rather than pick up the Iliad. If you play Angry Birds . . . The key to reading good literature is to just get yourself in the habit of doing it. Soon you will find that when you want to relax you will pick up something relaxing like Walden rather than surfing the net.


7. To what degree is reading communal for you? (ie. Are you more solitary? Do you share in any way with your friends? Are you in reading groups?)

It’s wonderful to find somebody who is reading about the same kind of things you are. I find it hard to be social with people unless we read about similar subjects.Truth is, I think I met you, Mark, just because your blog came up when I Googled Schaeffer. After reading the blog for a few months, I contacted you and we became friends.


8. What are some methods or principles you use to decide what you will and won’t read?

If it looks interesting, read it. It’s a good idea though to read to the end of the book unless the book turns out to be absolutely worthless.

9. What literary works or authors could be of the greatest value to the church if they were read more? Why?

The Holy Bible? Other than that, like I said before, read people you don’t agree with. I often hear Christians defending their views with pretty pathetic straw men. It often seems that they have never met a real non-Christian or a real Calvinist or whatever. It’s one thing to be spoon fed what you already believe. It’s another thing to think for yourself while encountering an opposing viewpoint.


10. Is there anything else you’d like to mention

[No answer given for this question.]

 

Out And About 1/11/2012

Literature

Foreign Policy

Parenting

Copyright

  • This article shows that if pre-1976 copyright laws were still in place great books such as C.S. Lewis’ The Magicians Nephew,  Evelyn Waugh’s Officers and Gentlemen, and Tolkien’s The Return of the King would be in the public domain by now.

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#722

“The Lord’s Supper demonstrates that Christ’s blood spilled and body broken on the cross are at the center of our fellowship. We are not united with one another unless we are first incorporated into Christ…Participating in one loaf makes us one people…We have one meal, the symbol of one table, going out to multiple people, but it is singularly the Lord’s table.” – Mark Dever

The FBI & Civil Service Commission Questions in the 1940′s

I’m quite interested in the Red Scare era and related events. It makes for interesting history. It can also be quite weird and sad! Here’s an interesting item…

Back in 1943, I.F. Stone, working for The Nation, helped to leak information about the criteria that was used for “character investigations” that were used to screen and evaluate workers for war agencies in the U.S.

A government executive who leaked to Stone posed “actual questions, written down as accurately as I can recall them, put to me and to people I know by Civil Service and FBI investigators”.

Examples were:

  • “Does he mix with Negroes?”
  • “Does he seem to have too many Jewish friends?”
  • “Does he own pro-labor or radicalistic books?”
  • “Does he think the colored races are as good as the white?”
  • “Why do you suppose he has hired so many Jews?”
  • “Did he ever say any other form of government is as good as ours?”
  • “Do you think he is excessive in opposing fascism or Nazism?”

Sadly, this comes as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with the era of J. Edgar Hoover’s leadership of the FBI. A bizarre mix of white supremacy, anti-semitism, american exceptionalism, and paranoia about communism came together to make for some very horrible stuff going on.