Humans have always been drawn to beauty. Of course, beauty standards change all the time. What one culture considers beautiful, another might consider ugly. What our own culture considered beautiful 200 years ago, or even 50, isn’t beautiful to us anymore. But that hasn’t changed the fact that we love to look at beautiful things, and even more than that, we wish to be beautiful ourselves.
Often in literature, Ahab is viewed as a manic, almost inhuman character, so far gone to his revenge that he is not even recognizable anymore. However, I would argue that we can all have Ahab in us from time to time. Not only can we get obsessive about things, but we tend to place all our hopes and dreams onto things that can’t make all our problems go away. But the more steady your ship is, the easier it will be to sail through turbulent waters.
Dostoyevsky says that self-deceit will lead to ruin. Peterson adds that virtue will strengthen you against despair when suffering strikes. Jesus has something even more profound to say about how the truth sets you free.
In one captivating, emblematic scene in War and Peace, Tolstoy embodies every ideal to which Well Read Christian aspires. Two childhood friends are reunited after several years to discover they have grown into very different people, with very different views of life. Andrei is skeptical and cynical, rejecting belief in God, objective meaning to the universe or objective morality. Pierre is idealistic, religious, perhaps naive, but filled with purpose and a reason to live honorably. The conversation that ensues is exactly the kind we hope to encourage and facilitate in our podcast and blog. From the porch to the river, under a sunset and then the night sky, these two characters engage in a respectful, passionate and intellectual conversation, with mutual respect, admiration and love. This is the goal of Well Read Christian, captured in beautiful and iconic prose.
Most people today live complex lives. Who has time to read? More than that, who has time to read old books? If such few people can be convinced to read any book at all, how could anybody be convinced to read Anna Karenina or The Grapes of Wrath? Let me offer you a brief overview of the reasons why Great Books are timeless classics that you ought to read and cherish today––from the very voices of C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) and Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586).