Alan Jacobs’s Followers (543)

Alan Jacobs

Born

in Birmingham, Alabama, The United States

September 28, 1958

Website

https://ayjay.org/

Genre

Literature, Theology

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Alan Jacobs is a scholar of English literature, literary critic, and distinguished professor of the humanities at Baylor University. Previously, he held the Clyde S. Kilby Chair of English at Wheaton College until 2012. His academic career has been marked by a deep engagement with literature, theology, and intellectual history.
Jacobs has written extensively on reading, thinking, and culture, contributing to publications such as The Atlantic, First Things, and The New Atlantis. His books explore diverse topics, from the intellectual legacy of Christian humanism (The Year of Our Lord 1943) to the challenges of modern discourse (How to Think). He has also examined literary figures like C. S. Lewis (The Narnian) and W. H. Auden. His work ofte ...more

2717 posts
Alan Jacobs's Blog

Alan Jacobs isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

Gilgamesh: A Review

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In a famous episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Darmok” — an episode I previously wrote about here — Captain Picard finds himself trying to communicate with Dathon, the captain of an alien vessel whose mental framework is incomprehensible to that of Picard and, indeed, the entire Federation. Dathon’s people communicate solely through allusion to their inheritance of story. They say thi

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Alan Jacobs’s books

Average rating: 4.0 · 16,090 ratings · 2,762 reviews · 85 distinct works • Similar authors

	How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds 3.95 avg rating — 4,553 ratings — published 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis 4.15 avg rating — 3,349 ratings — published 2005 — 29 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction 3.94 avg rating — 3,016 ratings — published 2011 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind 3.92 avg rating — 2,128 ratings — published 2020 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis 4.02 avg rating — 611 ratings — published 2018 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography 4.22 avg rating — 564 ratings — published 2013 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Original Sin: A Cultural History 3.81 avg rating — 349 ratings — published 2008 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Gnostic Gospels: Including the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene (Sacred Texts Book 2) 3.96 avg rating — 278 ratings — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Theology Of Reading: The Hermeneutics Of Love 4.13 avg rating — 122 ratings — published 2001 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant 4.01 avg rating — 104 ratings — published 2010 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Alan Jacobs (?)

“Read what gives you delight—at least most of the time—and do so without shame. And even if you are that rare sort of person who is delighted chiefl y by what some people call Great Books, don’t make them your steady intellectual diet, any more than you would eat at the most elegant of restaurants every day. It would be too much. Great books are great in part because of what they ask of their readers: they are not readily encountered, easily assessed.”
― Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

tags: reading

42 likes

“Those who will never be fooled can never be delighted, because without self-forgetfulness there can be no delight, and this is a great and grievous loss.”
― Alan Jacobs, The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis

tags: delight, innocence

23 likes

“I would not be practicing love toward God OR my neighbour if I were to smile benignly on an unjust social order. It is not charitable to refrain from moral judgment: when Jesus says 'Judge not, lest ye be judged," he is forbidding condemnation, not discernment. There are times indeed when Christian charity demands that one speak forcibly.”
― Alan Jacobs, A Visit to Vanity Fair: Moral Essays on the Present Age

tags: ethics, jesus, judging-actions, morality

18 likes

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