Alright, folks. I said we should have one, so I’ve written one! Since our readership is more given to the oldies and the goodies than the latest and greatest, here are your questions for the Christian Antiquarian Book Nerd Survey!
1. A book that reminds you why you love old books so much
2. Your favorite book translated from a language that living human communities don’t speak conversationally anymore
3. A classic you won’t apologize for loving
4. A classic you still find yourself apologizing for loving
5. The best book to give an aspiring Christian Humanist
6. An old book that gets the answers wrong but asks very interesting questions
7. The book that most often leaves you saying, “People wouldn’t be so confused about this question if they’d only read…”
I know, I know–they’re idiosyncratic questions. Answer ’em anyway.
Leave your answers in the comments section–I’ll try to get mine in early!
1. A book that reminds you why you love old books so much: Plato’s Republic
2. Your favorite book translated from a language that living human communities don’t speak conversationally anymore: Seneca’s philosophical treatises and epistles
3. A classic you won’t apologize for loving: Augustine’s City of God
4. A classic you still find yourself apologizing for loving:
Erasmus’s On the Freedom of the Will
5. The best book to give an aspiring Christian Humanist: Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy
6. An old book that gets the answers wrong but asks very interesting questions: Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion
7. The book that most often leaves you saying, “People wouldn’t be so confused about this question if they’d only read…”: Thomas’s Compendium Theologica (most folks, perhaps me included, will likely never read the whole Summa, but this little 500-page gem is manageable in a summer)
Nate, if you’d just switch 4 & 6… 😉
1. A book that reminds you why you love old books so much
Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People
2. Your favorite book translated from a language that living human communities don’t speak conversationally anymore
Augustine’s Confessions
3. A classic you won’t apologize for loving
Calvin’s Institutes
4. A classic you still find yourself apologizing for loving
Julian of Norwich’s Revelation of Divine Love
5. The best book to give an aspiring Christian Humanist
Augustine’s City of God
6. An old book that gets the answers wrong but asks very interesting questions
Milton’s De Doctrina Christiana
7. The book that most often leaves you saying, “People wouldn’t be so confused about this question if they’d only read…”
Athanasius’s On the Incarnation
As the only one of us who studies contemporary works, I have to ask: How are you defining “old” here?
This is the Christian Humanist, Michial. If you can make a reasoned case for your selections, we’ll respond accordingly!
1. A book that reminds you why you love old books so much– The Iliad
2. Your favorite book translated from a language that living human communities don’t speak conversationally anymore — Iliad or Plato’s Symposium
3. A classic you won’t apologize for loving– Plato’s Symposium
4. A classic you still find yourself apologizing for loving
5. The best book to give an aspiring Christian Humanist
6. An old book that gets the answers wrong but asks very interesting questions — Baghavad Gita
7. The book that most often leaves you saying, “People wouldn’t be so confused about this question if they’d only read…”– G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy
Oops, my answer for number 5 is The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. haven’t got one for number 4:)
1. A book that reminds you why you love old books so much
The works of Shakespeare, oddly enough.
2. Your favorite book translated from a language that living human communities don’t speak conversationally anymore
Augustine’s “Confessions.”
3. A classic you won’t apologize for loving
Pascal’s “Pensees.” (Too recent?)
4. A classic you still find yourself apologizing for loving
John Owen’s “The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.”
5. The best book to give an aspiring Christian Humanist
Probably Augustine’s “City of God,” though I haven’t read the whole thing, so this is an uninformed opinion.
6. An old book that gets the answers wrong but asks very interesting questions
Plato’s “Phaedo.” (I’m actually sure I’ll enjoy Republic, but I am a bit late in the game on Plato.)
7. The book that most often leaves you saying, “People wouldn’t be so confused about this question if they’d only read…”
I agree with David, Athanasius’ “On the Incarnation.”
My answer for numbers 1-7 excluding question 6 would be Blaise Pascal’s Pensees.
I’d probably come up with different answers if I thought about this a bit longer, but here it is off the top of my head:
1. A book that reminds you why you love old books so much: Devotions upon emergent occasions – John Donne
2. Your favourite book translated from a language that living human communities don’t speak conversationally anymore: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus
3. A classic you won’t apologize for loving: The Book of Homilies (1547 edition) – ed. Thomas Cranmer
4. A classic you still find yourself apologizing for loving: The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan
5. The best book to give an aspiring Christian Humanist: Heretics and Orthodoxy – G.K. Chesterton
6. An old book that gets the answers wrong but asks very interesting questions: An Experiment in Criticism – C.S. Lewis (is a book fifty years old, old?)
7. The book that most often leaves you saying, “People wouldn’t be so confused about this question if they’d only read…”: The Babylonian Captivity of the Church – Martin Luther
1. A book that reminds you why you love old books so much
Xenophon’s Anabasis
2. Your favorite book translated from a language that living human communities don’t speak conversationally anymore
The Divine Comedy
3. A classic you won’t apologize for loving
Beowulf
4. A classic you still find yourself apologizing for loving
Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
5. The best book to give an aspiring Christian Humanist
Jonathan Edwards’ Freedom of the Will
6. An old book that gets the answers wrong but asks very interesting questions
Rousseau’s well, anything, but especially his First Discourse
7. The book that most often leaves you saying, “People wouldn’t be so confused about this question if they’d only read…”
Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism