- Louis Markos. Literature: A Student’s Guide. Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012. 143 pp.
- Leland Ryken. Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective. 1991. Repr., Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2003. 230 pp.
Here are two lists that Ryken expounds in his introduction, “Reading the Classics for All They’re Worth” (pp. 1–21):
Five Fallacies about Literature
- We should read something true rather than something fictional.
- Everything in a work of literature is offered for our approval.
- We should read only literature with whose viewpoint we agree.
- A literary work written by a non-Christian cannot tell the truth.
- Old literature is irrelevant to us today.
How to Misread the Classics
- Be sure to read the classics for their ideas.
- Assume without question that the classics tell the truth.
- Look upon the classics as “improving literature.”
- Regard the classics as beyond criticism.
- Assume that moral considerations are irrelevant to the classics.
- Be sure that you do not see anything in the classics that the author and original audience did not see in it.
- Assume that all that matters is what a work says to you.
- View the classics as relics in the museum of the past.
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