Categories
The End of Many Books

The Aeneid

by Virgil

This is the third time I’ve read Virgil’s epic. I had to look up my previous reviews to see what I said, probably about how much I didn’t like it. This reading was different, not because I found a different translation, but because I had a different motivation. I’m giving a talk about it in a couple days, and preparing for the talk pushed me to pay attention to it more closely.

I don’t think I enjoyed it more, or liked it more, but I definitely do appreciate it more. In God’s prophecies and purposes (and I do mean the true God, not the so-called gods Virgil references), the river of Western civilization flowed to and through and from Rome, and the Aeneid provides the city’s origin story, which did seem to bring about a sort of peace within the Empire among those for whom Virgil’s poem provided good patriotic feels.

You definitely should read this at some point. It would be even better if you could read some of it in Latin, which, as it turns out, is actually much more colorful. You could also check out this (new to me) translation by C. S. Lewis, though he only finished a little more than two of the twelve total books in the story. And last, you could check back in a few days when I post the notes from my talk.


2018, March 28 – Read the whole epic thing this time around for our Tenebras class. The gods do not agree, Turnus is mad, and watch out for Camilla.

2013 – Read much of this poem, but not all, this time through with the Omnibus class. Shows the power of story, and the power of art to tell a story, for providing purpose to a people’s culture.

3 of 5 stars

Categories
The End of Many Books

Julius Caesar

by William Shakespeare

2019: Adding a star. There are some great gems in here, even though I’m still not convinced that assassination is the right way to solve national problems. 🙂

2013: Note, according to Goodreads, three stars doesn’t mean it was only half-good, it means “I liked it.” Okay, sure. I did.

This edition includes abundant and helpful notes for old English terms and idioms.

4 of 5 stars

Categories
The End of Many Books

The Screwtape Letters

by C. S. Lewis

This is some next level temptation insight. I don’t like demons, but I do like snark, so there is a lot to enjoy, even to learn from snarky Uncle Screwtape. Lewis is really good at nailing slippery sinful inner inclinations to the wall, and in this book he does so while also making our spiritual enemies look silly.

And one of my favorite quotes of all time:

“Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”

5 of 5 stars

Categories
The End of Many Books

The Bacchae and Other Plays

by Euripides

2015: We only read The Bacchae (not the “and Other Plays”) but I quite enjoyed it. My pleasure wasn’t in the idolatry, or the madness, or the savagery, but rather the opportunity to celebrate how the Triune God of the Bible is so much more glorious than Dionysius and how He provides true, everlasting joy. Our Lord gives rather than takes, He shares His glory rather than hoards it, He gives wine to gladden hearts rather than deaden hearts, and He forgives the repentant rather than punish all without mercy. This play also makes Lewis’ inclusion of Bacchus as a servant of Aslan in Prince Caspian no small coup.


2019: Read again for Omnibus Tenebras.

3 of 5 stars

Categories
The End of Many Books

The Last Battle

by C. S. Lewis

2019: I had to do it, I’m now giving 5 of 5 stars. I reread it because I’m talking about it at our upcoming Fiction Festival (update: see the notes from the talk I gave here), and enjoyed it more than ever.

5 of 5 stars


2018: (4 of 5 stars) There is one page in this book that is the worst. The rest of it creates the right kind of longing to fight, and if necessary die, for Aslan. There is a better home where we belong.


2010: Alright, again, I enjoyed the fiction. What is this world coming to?

Also, I choked up a couple times especially near the end.

Categories
The End of Many Books

The Last Days of Socrates

by Plato

I didn’t get to finish reading this in Omnibus I, but I was leading the discussion for Omnibus Tenebras a few weeks ago so I figured I should, you know, make it all the way through. I was…unimpressed, and increasingly annoyed by Socrates.

2 of 5 stars

Categories
The End of Many Books

The Theban Trilogy

by Sophocles

Sometimes in Greek tragedy you lose, and sometimes you lose big. Spoiler: Oedipus loses BIG.

3 of 5 stars

Categories
Lord's Day Liturgy

All a Pitter-pattering

Is love more science or more story? Is love an historical fact or a philosophical idea? Is love a Platonic ideal, an abstract quality existing Up There, or is love an Aristotelian reality, expressed Down Here in hands and lips and bodies? Where do you learn about love best? Reading the dictionary? Reading the Bible? Hearing a story? Getting a timely hug from your dad?

As much as I love a good dictionary, dictionaries don’t inspire. Definitions are helpful and even necessary, but statements of meaning distinguish between things more than they activate affection for things.

The Greek word agape means “the quality of warm regard for and interest in another.” The Oxford English Dictionary defines love as “intense feeling of affection and attachment.” I’m sure your heart is just all a pitter-pattering now.

Again, I like a good proposition and I think a well crafted sentence of explanation is like truth gold set in syntax silver. But what informs and impels our affections are not notions of love as much as narratives of love.

The gospel is the ultimate story. In our last Omnibus Tenebras class we talked about stories and “myths” and tales and legends. Whatever word you’re comfortable with, “in this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).

This is an eternal and true story that tells us who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. It is the ultimate, overarching story with chapters still being written by the Author of our salvation. We are not just fed our lines, we are fed bread and wine for living and participating in the saga together by God’s grace.

Categories
The End of Many Books

The Odyssey

by Homer

Read this again in 2018 with the Omnibus Tenebras group. I’m doubling my previous star rating, and adding that this time I grew in admiration for Odysseus and Penelope, for a story of glory in fighting for marriage and family rather than glory in circuitous fighting as in The Iliad. Good work, Homer.

4 of 5 stars


2012: 2 of 5 stars. I’m glad that I read it. Finally. However, I can’t say that (I’ve grown so much that I’m at the point where) epic Greek poetry suits me. That said, it wasn’t as bad as having Polyphemus bash my brains out on the floor, so I have much to be thankful for.

Categories
The End of Many Books

The Iliad

by Homer

Impressive. Tedious.
Creative. Exhausting.
Poetic. Painful.
Polytheistic. Godless.

Read again with the Omnibus Tenebras class in 2018. I’m increasing my rating from 3 stars to 4 because, even though it is looooooong, I can appreciate its status as a classic.

4 of 5 stars


2015: This is an impressive piece of work, whichever Homer wrote it.