Reading the Christian Spiritual Classics: A Guide for Evangelicals

by Jamin Goggin (Editor), Kyle C. Strobel (Editor)

Ever since Richard Foster wrote Celebration of Discipline in 1978, evangelicals have hungered for a deeper and more historic spirituality. Many have come to discover the wealth of spiritual insight available in the Desert Fathers, the medieval mystics, German Pietism and other traditions. While these classics have been a source of life-changing renewal for many, still others are wary of these texts and the foreign theological traditions from which they come. The essays in this volume provide a guide for evangelicals to read the Christian spiritual classics. The contributions fall into four sections. The first three answer the big questions: why should we read the spiritual classics, what are these classics and how should we read them? The last section brings these questions together into a brief reading guide for each of the major traditions. Each essay not only explores the historical and theological context, but also expounds the appropriate hermeneutical framework and the significance for the church today. Together these essays provide a comprehensive and charitable introduction to the spiritual classics, suitable for both those who already embrace them and those who remain concerned and cautious. Whether you are a newcomer to historic spirituality or a seasoned reader looking to go deeper, you will find this volume to be a reliable resource for years to come.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Christianity, Faith, Nonfiction

337 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2013

About the author

Jamin Goggin serves as Pastor of Spiritual Formation and Retreats at Saddleback Church. He holds an MA in Spiritual Formation and an MA in New Testament and is currently earning a PhD in Theology. He is the co-author of "Beloved Dust" and co-editor of "Reading the Christian Spiritual Classics". Jamin speaks and writes from the depths of his own journey, seeking to invite others into the beauty and goodness of life with God.

For more information on Jamin's ministry and writing visit www.metamorpha.com.

Reviews

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a few Christians have sought to explore the deeper resources of faith and spirituality from the Christian tradition in response to the rather sterile, highly rational faith legacy we have inherited of late.

It is good for Christians to be engaging in this kind of exploration; it is far better for them to consider the Christian faith tradition first over going out to explore the Eastern traditions which have become socially popular over the past half century.

Reading the Christian Spiritual Classics: A Guide For Evangelicals would become the Evangelical primer to exploring said Christian spiritual traditions.

The work is a compilation of essays of various authorities. Chapters feature explanations of why such classics should be read, their value to the spiritual life, but also temptations which might attend to them. The various traditions are then described, and guides to how to read the spiritual works in general and the Catholic and Orthodox traditions as Evangelicals are then given. The rest of the work is given over to introductions and recommendations regarding the various phases of spiritual classics: patristics, the desert fathers, medieval, reformation, and puritan/pietistic traditions.

This book is definitely by Evangelicals, for Evangelicals. That term gets thrown around a lot; for our purposes, Evangelicals are Protestants in mostly low-church traditions which highly prioritize biblicism, faith only and the conversion experience. Most Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and non-denominational groups are Evangelical; other groups in other associations might also identify as such. There are many who would consider Churches of Christ as Evangelical, and plenty of members of Churches of Christ who would love nothing more than to be Evangelical.

But Churches of Christ, while having some common themes along with Evangelicalism, have historically not been welcomed into Evangelicalism and should resist being absorbed by Evangelicalism. Books like these underscore why.

There is a lot of helpful information and explanation in this work for someone who has not heard or read much regarding spiritual works of the past. But throughout you can denote the concern/fear inherent in the Evangelical perspective and the need to disclaim and warn about the excesses and ideological differences inherent in the various aspects of the spiritual tradition.

It is not as if the concerns are unfounded. There are a lot of concerning aspects to the spiritual classics in terms of enthusiasm for asceticism and adherence to doctrines which are not according to the ways of God in Christ as revealed in Scripture. Yet the same concern can also be maintained regarding the Evangelical perspective, both in general and in its consideration of the Christian spiritual tradition.

The Restoration Movement has been mostly head and little heart, strongly emphasizing rationalism and looking suspiciously at anything resembling emotionalism and enthusiasms. And yet many have learned, especially in our present generations, that a mostly head-based rationalist faith provides thin gruel when it comes to developing and maintaining a robust faith in God in Christ through the Spirit which can endure. A lot of us have a lot of head knowledge; but how many of us have experienced the presence of God and maintain assurance regarding their relationship with God in the heart, not merely the head?

There are dangers in Christian spiritual traditions. There are even more in the Eastern spiritual traditions. But there are also dangers in the Evangelical spiritual traditions, and if we are willing to hear it, in our resistance to the experiential in the spiritual.

A glaring omission in this book involves the powers and principalities and the importance of discerning the spirits in that regard. The book maintains the modernist pretense that there’s not much there to concerns about the demonic, but any time one considers the spiritual realm and spiritual devotion, the possibility is always there that one is hearing from a demon and not an angel. The testing of the spirits is not merely about doctrinal fidelity, but above all, regarding whether the spirit is leading one toward God in Christ through the Spirit or away from Him.

And that becomes the challenge with creating any kind of guide that ostensibly is trying to help but also to keep up institutional boundaries and guidelines. Ultimately, there is no substitute for actually diving into spiritual resources. But we must always do so with a discerning spirit, not inherently based on what a bunch of self-assured authorities would tell us, but rooted in what God has made known in Christ through the Spirit and what truly manifests His fruit. Compare everything with the Scriptures. Find some mentors whom you can trust. Don’t go alone. Be open to the work of the Spirit of God, yet wary about the work of the Evil One and his minions.

But also know a sterile faith which wants to pretend there’s nothing out there in the spiritual realm is itself delusional.

[David Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this volume replete with a lot of good, sensible, spiritually mature and erudite insight. There is a value to periodically having recourse to books like these which can serve as guides into spiritual classics and excellent literature. These essays are careful and thoughtful and I think they do a lot to bridge walls of enmity and ignorance within the Christian traditions, at least for evangelicals, though certainly there is a lot of insight here for Christians and the curious of all traditions.
As I sit down to reflect on this book, I have just finished another entitled Alcuin and the rise of the Christian schools which, in contextualizing the educational work of Alcuin (who worked with Charles the Great as his educator and friend), traced an initial stance of antagonism by Christians to the liberal arts ("What has Jerusalem to do with Athens?" -Tertullian) to a shift with Augustine to an appreciation for the liberal arts as an aid to understanding the Scriptures, followed by Cassiodorus (I need to understand his contribution better), to eventually Alcuin, who finds affirmation of the liberal arts in the Scriptures themselves. This book seems to do a similar service to that of Augustine, Cassiodorus and Alcuin by opening access, in this case to fellow believers' great Christian spiritual classics, which are often remote due to ignorance and inherited walls of hostility. The writers do this, not by enjoining surrender of one's critical faculty and love of truth in the interest of a worldly ecumenism - on the contrary, they do not abstain from criticism from an evangelical standpoint, but they model a prudential and measured criticism which enables extraction of great benefit from works such as classics of Catholic spirituality while not sacrificing conviction and conscience. It is very impoverishing to be cut off from the treasure trove of history through blind prejudice.
I have found works like C.S. Lewis's essays "On the Reading of Old Books" very valuable as a spur and a guide to engaging with works of antiquity, and for clarification of the wisdom and value in doing so. This book contributes to the same endeavor and end. I think Lewis would approve of a lot that is in this book, if I may venture such a speculation. There is an essay on why we should read the spiritual classics, and also one on general pitfalls in reading them. The discussion of right and wrong ways to approach the study of the spiritual classics has excellent advice that draws on insights about virtues and vices. I feel some conviction when it discusses the danger of reading for curiositas and of reading in the place of living the Christian life. Perhaps I should feel a lot more hot and bothered than I do- no doubt. Lord, have mercy!

"Our cultural blindness is exposed by the voices of the classics over the years, and our cultural corporate sin is challenged." pg. 54

This is a central point of the aforementioned Lewis essay, and I wouldn't be surprised if the author, Betsy Barber, was influenced by that famous essay.
People are often attuned to the snobbery that tends to attend education but they are often ill-attuned to how old books can help serve to humble us and challenge our viewpoints. Truly great scholars have applied themselves in a life of rigorous devotion to the truth, and that takes humbling and willingness to be challenged in one's presuppositions over and over, and not to be satisfied with one's superficial, untried notions. Reading a book like this is helpful as a way to remind yourself how much you don't know and how ignorant you are, and how much there is out there while you may be wasting your leisure time on much lesser things.

"To a book, the spiritual classics assume daily time for meditation on the Scriptures and regular prayers. This is the standard of practice within the family of God through the ages." pg. 57

Does anyone want to dispute with that? Rather, let me say, "Amen."

"…every teacher of theology, says (Philipp Jakob) Spener, needs to show his students how the truth contained in theological articles 'is to be understood as practical.'" pg. 84

That is quite in line with Philippians 4:8-9, particularly with verse 9 which switches from the prior verse's emphasis on thinking to emphasis on putting into practice.

"Perhaps the greatest exponent of a spiritual theology of love whose works continue to exercise influence is Henri Nouwen (d. 1996)." pg. 92

That's quite a commendation, perhaps enough to goad me to revisit his works.

The description on pg. 102 of Athanasius's Letter to Masrcellinus is tantalizing: "It uniquely summarizes the bishop's use and appreciation of the Psalter as the lay Christian's 'miniature Bible,' much of which he doubtless learned from the desert fathers themselves, in their desert hermitages. It is a classic on the appreciation of the psalms as the Christian's prayer book." Dietrich Bonhoeffer also wrote a short classic on praying the Psalms. Let us remember the ancients' devotion to the Psalms and return to it.

I especially appreciated the discussion on pg. 138 in the chapter entitled "Reading Orthodox Spirituality," which discusses the differing ways that the two Christendoms speak of salvation. I take to heart Dallas Willard's very strong and plangent warning about the disconnect between faith and discipleship in the way that evangelical Protestants often present the gospel of Christ now. It goes so far as to strike dischord with Scripture and it's presentation of the gospel, for the sake of a theological tradition, in my view. There is a focus on the inception of the Christian life to such an extent that it swallows up Christian discipleship and understanding and expectation and provision for spiritual growth. It seems acquaintance with the Orthodox approach can provide a little much needed perspective.

"If evangelicalism were charged with being historically aware, there might not be enough evidence for a conviction...In striking contrast, Orthodoxy glories in its continuity with the church through the ages" -James R. Payton, Jr. pg. 139.

Ouch! But Its true. Historical disconnect seems to be a recurrent problem for Protestantism and many offshoots. In the Church of Christ, which I grew up in, there was a stress on some continuity going back to Alexander Campbell, a little mention of Luther, though not within the pale, and then an arc out of history back to the reconstruction of the early church practices as discerned from Scripture as the pattern for church organization and life together. All the history between that and the Stone-Campbell revival is swathed in darkness. The Mormons have a similar disconnect. There tends to be an insulation within various traditions but cross pollination of the one faith and facilitating of this seems quite good to me. Other churches are better tracing back history to the Reformation movement, but not passed that, except maybe leaping to Augustine.

The commendation of The Orthodox Faith by John of Damascus as the standard treatment of doctrine used by Orthodoxy through the centuries pg. 142

"It should be scarcely surprising that Orthodoxy welcomes mystery… For the Orthodox mystery is to be celebrated, not solved." pg. 143

This is something the West could benefit from in general. The rationalist fear to dwell with mystery and contingency and limit is in crying need of correction. This reminds me of 1 Corinthians 4:1: "This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." (ESV)

Regarding reading Maximus the Confessor's The Four Hundred Chapters on Love: "These chapters were not intended to be skimmed or to be read through in a hurry. Rather they were to be read carefully and meditatively with the hope that through God's grace these perceptive observations would reveal spiritual insight to the soul." pg. 190

It is needful to pay attention in our day to our "daily liturgies" and this includes how we approach texts, especially Christian spiritual classics. A.G. Sertillanges in The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Method, Conditions notes the danger of developing an approach to books that is just a perpetual agitation of the brain without a clear progress in learning, without a depth of comprehension. Our age especially has a dearth of depth and we need contemplative exemplars to lead the way into deeper, Christ-centered living. There is so much in these great works. What a shame to let it go down into obscurity, once aware of it, rather than raising it through due assiduity and attention and practice and dissemination, to the light of our day.

"…these spiritual classics are a 'history of the Holy Spirit.'" pg. 192

You can say that about the Psalms and, to a lesser extent, about the "spiritual classics."

"A final characteristic of the desert fathers is the regimentation of their daily life. It was highly structures, highly demanding, even highly legalistic. They believed that the discipleship requires serious training, and they could and did cite the New Testament for support. 'Train yourself for godliness,' Paul exhorted Timothy, one of the many texts they were fond of quoting (1 Tim4:7). Such regimentation flies in the face of religious consumerism that permeates much of Western Christianity today." pg. 201

We are saved by grace but are to "make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these in increasing order, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ." If our understanding of the gospel does not embrace the blood, sweat and tears of discipleship, there is something terribly wrong. Yes, we should avoid legalism, but suiting ourselves to the acedia of our times and the buying and selling of Babylon as our paradigm of judgment is going to ruin us. However, "If you see a young man climbing up to heaven by his own will, catch him by the foot and pull him down to earth: It is not good for him." It is to commercialism and liberalism's benefit that we not be too picky about our standards and demands, and that we not examine our desires with rigor to sort the good desire from the evil desire.

"For Bernard then, love is an activity of the will. Love is a properly ordered will toward God. In Bernard's thought, desire can be either good or bad, depending on its object. So, a desire for good things is good and a desire for evil is itself evil." pg. 236

Sometimes there are such stupid notions held as that all desires are good or unimpugnable.

It seems like I have Anabaptist tendencies. This book reminds me I ought to scrutinize these by reading the work of a fount of such a perspective, Menno Simmons.

The Desert Fathers movement teaches us that the church today needs to rediscover the necessity of spiritual apprenticeship and training. Also, they considered struggle a normal and necessary part of the Christian faith.

After reading this book, I want to read more deeply in "spiritual theology". I also want to study schools of Christian spirituality as schools, and not merely read uncontextualized the great works only.

[George P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel, eds., Reading the Christian Spiritual Classics: A Guide for Evangelicals (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013). $24.00, 336 pages.

In contemporary America, many people describe themselves as “spiritual, not religious.” They are interested in God, prayer, and spiritual disciplines, but not in dogma or denomination. They are critical of religious people who, to them, seem concerned only with the finer points of doctrine and weekly attendance at a specific type of Christian church.

Evangelical Christians—including Pentecostals—need to listen to this critique, even as they disagree with it. The disagreement part is easy: Spirituality and religion cannot be separated so easily because what we believe and how we live are inseparable. The listening part is harder, however, because it involves recognition that many American churches—including, too often, our own—are spiritually dead. This deadness, which often manifests as persnickety dogmatism and denominational pride, in turn feeds the desire for a spirituality decoupled from organized religion.

Authentic renewal requires us to recouple religion and spirituality, faith and life, and doctrine, ecclesial communion, and vibrant experience. The 1978 publication of Richard J. Foster’s The Celebration of Discipline signaled the desire of many evangelicals to do precisely that. But given how Foster drew on spiritual classics from across Christian history, it also signaled the need for evangelicals to pay ecumenical attention to the best of what Christians have said and written about spirituality across the ages.

This poses a dilemma for evangelicals, however. As a movement, we are part of the “Great Tradition” of Christianity, which affirms the Trinity, Incarnation, and Atonement, among a host of doctrines held in common. Within that tradition, however, we are critical of some of the doctrinal emphases and spiritual practices of our fellow traditioners. As Western Christians, aspects of our doctrine and spirituality are distinct from and stand in tension with those of Eastern, i.e., Orthodox, Christians. As Protestants, we are critical of aspects of Catholicism: e.g., papal authority, soteriology, Mariology, sacramentalism. As evangelical Protestants, we have our own disagreements with mainline Protestants. And within evangelicalism, we have running disagreements too: Arminianism vs. Calvinism, credobaptism vs. paedobaptism, Pentecostalism vs. cessationism.

How, then, can evangelical Christians appropriate the riches of the Christian tradition without compromising our own contributions to and critique of it?

Answering that question is the agenda of Reading the Christian Spiritual Classics: A Guide for Evangelicals, edited by Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel. As the editors note in their Introduction, they have organized authors’ contributions around four themes: “why should spiritual classics be read, how should spiritual classics be read, what are these spiritual classics and who are the people behind them” (p. 11).

I will not review each of the chapters in the book, lest I simply recapitulate the book’s contents and make this review too long to be useful. However, by way of evaluation, I will say that I learned something from each chapter, found the book as a whole to be quite excellent, and was motivated—by reading it—not merely to read further in the spiritual classics but also to love God more, which is the ultimate and unifying point of all Christian spiritual classics.

Having said that, however, I will focus on Fred Sanders’s contribution, “Reading Spiritual Classics as Evangelical Protestants” (pp. 149–166), which directly addresses the dilemma I raised above. Sanders counsels evangelicals to read Christian spiritual classics with an “open but cautious” attitude (p. 149), what he later terms “principled eclecticism” (p. 160). This is nothing new, for as Sanders notes, “The evangelical book-recommending network is as old as evangelicalism itself; the evangelical movement seems to have been born in a flurry of literary recommendations” (pp. 151–152). This included not only Protestant, Puritan, and Pietist spiritual classics, but also classics from other Christian communions, such as the Puritans’ recommendation of Bernard of Clairvaux’s works on the Song of Songs, or John Wesley’s recommendation of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis.

Sanders summarizes a specifically evangelical reading of Christian spiritual classics as being “for the gospel” (p. 150). Here’s his longer description:

We read widely in the classics, presupposing the gospel in the sense that we know what it is before we start reading, and we will recognize it when we come across it in a spiritual classic. We are guided by the gospel, so that we will immediately know when it is missing from what we are reading. We seek out the gospel, meaning that we read in such a way that can find the good news even when it is present in a fragmentary, disguised or distorted way. And we are jealous for the gospel, meaning that we cannot be satisfied by any disguised, distorted or otherwise deficient presentation of the gospel. If we are to go shopping in the spiritual classics with this kind of attitude of freedom and potential criticism, we had better be appropriately humble about how much we have to learn, but also appropriately bold about confessing that we know what an evangelical reading of the classics would look like (p. 160).

This humble-and-bold approach should characterize an evangelical reading not merely of Christian spiritual classics, but also our life as Christians more generally. We know what we know, but there is much that we don’t know and need to learn. Therefore we engage the Christian tradition—an the world more generally—in conversation, both listening and speaking, learning and teaching, so that the gospel may be experienced and lived out in ever-increasing measure.

Given the anti-historical stance of many of my fellow Pentecostals, who sometimes give the impression that the Spirit jumped over the centuries from the Day of Pentecost directly to Azusa Street, this humble boldness is a necessary lesson, even if hard to admit. But it must be learned if we are to affirm the truth of Scripture itself: “[the Father] will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth (John 14:16–17). As Pentecostals, to deny that we can learn from Christian spiritual classics is tantamount to denying that God kept his promise.

I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend Reading the Spiritual Classics: A Guide for Evangelicals. In addition to 14 topical essays, it includes an extensive list of suggested readings, both primary readings of spiritual classics and secondary readings about them. My only complaint is that the two-page subject and author index is too short and woefully incomplete.

P.S. If you found my review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon.com review page.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am an Evangelical Protestant. This book made me wish I wasn't.
This book also reminded me why I love reading the classics, and not in a good way.
To be fair, this is a collection, and there are some nice essays. Greg Peters' Medieval chapter is particularly interesting. The good, however, does make up for the absolute turds. The problem with this text is its unevenness of perspective, tone, and quality. There is also a good bit of repetition and overlap as well.
Apparently the difference between our (Evangelicals) relationship with the classics and a Catholic or Orthodox reading is that we have to be careful to make sure we only accept the content that accords with our Protestant convictions. I fear that this text sets the reader up to imbibe the very vices it warns against.
Honestly, just go read the classics. Pick up a volume with a decent introduction and dive in. Skip this book.

[Kyle Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There has been a renaissance in studying the history of spirituality and in bringing back some rigor to the study of the spiritual life. This is a good direction that needs to be sustained if the church is to provide an understanding of the spiritual life that is not only biblically grounded but historically informed and intellectually and experientially vital."

I was skeptical of this book when it was assigned at the beginning of a grad course on Christian spirituality and mysticism. I needn't have been skeptical. This is a wonderful introduction to the writings of Christian spirituality from many diverse eras and areas. It may be especially helpful for evangelicals or other Protestants less familiar by default with such writings, but anyone could glean much from this text.

[Dennis Podryadchikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

This foundational introduction into spiritual classics is easy to read and simple to understand. The authors did a great job of laying out the basics for approaching different classical texts about spiritual formation and disciplines. They answered why, what, and how. Moreover, they highlighted major texts of each historical period and provided helpful questions for evaluation of each text. The reader wishes that there would be a conclusion to the book as grandiose as the introduction but the book ends abruptly. Nevertheless, this is one of those books one immediately wants to reread.

[Norman Styers · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with most books with contributions from many authors, some chapters are quite good, and others came from people who seem anxious that someone might let slip something that can't be validated by Calvin. But the list of further readings is good.

[Chockletter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book and very helpful for understanding these hard-to-understand spiritual classics.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading the Christian Spiritual Classics: A Guide for Evangelicals by Jamin Goggin & Kyle Strobel

The following is an excerpt from TheBraveReviews.com. Read the entire review here: http://www.thebravereviews.com/2013/0...

Ever since Richard Foster wrote Celebration of Discipline in 1978, evangelicals have hungered for a deeper and more historic spirituality. Many have come to discover the wealth of spiritual insight available in the Desert Fathers, the medieval mystics, German Pietism and other traditions. While these classics have been a source of life-changing renewal for many, still others are wary of these texts and the foreign theological traditions from which they come. The essays in this volume provide a guide for evangelicals to read the Christian spiritual classics. The contributions fall into four sections. The first three answer the big questions: why should we read the spiritual classics, what are these classics and how should we read them? The last section brings these questions together into a brief reading guide for each of the major traditions. Each essay not only explores the historical and theological context, but also expounds the appropriate hermeneutical framework and the significance for the church today. Together these essays provide a comprehensive and charitable introduction to the spiritual classics, suitable for both those who already embrace them and those who remain concerned and cautious. Whether you are a newcomer to historic spirituality or a seasoned reader looking to go deeper, you will find this volume to be a reliable resource for years to come.

Summary:

Reading the Christian Spiritual Classics is a collection of essays providing a broad overview to the practice of reading various Christian classics. The book is a composed of fourteen essays broken up into four parts and a helpful list of suggested readings at the conclusion...

Read more at the following link: http://www.thebravereviews.com/2013/0...

Evaluation:

I am no stranger to Christian spiritual classics. I have read old books, or selections from old books, many times along my evangelical Christian journey. Yet this work was quite helpful for me even as I read it for the purposes of this review. It provides a framework for understanding classics regarding their individual purpose as well as how they fit together within all of church history. The format, moving from lesser to greater specificity, is helpful for the reader.

Read more at the following: http://www.thebravereviews.com/2013/0...

[Jobie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book 3 and a half stars, more because I wasn't always that interested in it and less because of a poorly written or compiled book.

It was good book of a survey of Christian writing. For that it was excellent. But it doesn't always cover how to read though it does some. It is a survey and it touches lightly on each subject but not in-depth on any one.

I have no complaints about this book other than sometimes some of the reading was dry.

It does a decent job of helping you decide what Christian Classics you might be interested to read or what might be most useful to you at such a point in your spiritual walk.

I would not read it a second time however I will probably keep it for future reference.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is great for those (especially evangelicals) who are skeptical about reading works from other traditions and streams of Christianity. As one who loves the Christian Classics, I found it to be tedious and frustrating. Nevertheless, it did bring up some issues that I will keep in mind when teaching the classics in my future ministries. It was good for me to have exposure to these ideas since I do not approach the classics with these reservations.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a requirement at Talbot, but I would have read this on my own. It is very thorough and I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Christianity, spirituality, or history. This is also a great resource if you would like to start reading the classics; without an overview like this it might be difficult to understand the context of the classic you are studying.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/201...