Tag: Leland Ryken

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The Soul in Paraphrase | Book Review

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The Soul in Paraphrase is “an anthology of the best devotional poetry in English” edited by Leland Ryken, a long-time professor of English at Wheaton College, now retired. It takes its title from a line in George Herbert’s “Prayer,” which describes praying as “The soul in paraphrase,” among other things.  The anthology presents 98 poems from “Caedmon’s Hymn” (the oldest extant English poem) to works by T. S. Eliot. Ryken’s scholarly remarks follow each poem. Ryken defines devotional poetry in both objective and subjective terms. Objectively, it “takes specifically spiritual experience for its subject matter,” which for Christian poets can include topics … Continue reading The Soul in Paraphrase | Book Review

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Review of ‘Augustine’s Confessions: Christian Guides to the Classics’ by Leland Ryken

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Leland Ryken, Augustine’s Confessions, Christian Guides to the Classics (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015). Paperback | Kindle Augustine’s Confessions is a spiritual and literary classic. He began to write it in A.D. 397, ten years after his conversion to Christianity, when he was bishop of Hippo in Roman North Africa, partly to respond to his critics. Books 1–9 are largely autobiographical, while Books 10–13 include meditations on memory, time, and the Book of Genesis. The book continues to fascinate and inspire readers, both scholars and laypeople, but it is not easy to read. Augustine mixes autobiographical reflections, biographical portraits of others, … Continue reading Review of ‘Augustine’s Confessions: Christian Guides to the Classics’ by Leland Ryken

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Review of ‘A Christian Guide to the Classics’ by Leland Ryken

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Leland Ryken, A Christian Guide to the Classics (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015). Paperback | Kindle The more I watch television, the more I like books. The reason is not that there are few good television shows these days. On the contrary, television is experiencing something of a Golden Age, especially if you have cable or a streaming service. The reason I like books more is because they have depth and require imagination. An actor must communicate in one take what an author can communicate over several pages. And the visual media makes decisions for you. Read Pride and Prejudice, and … Continue reading Review of ‘A Christian Guide to the Classics’ by Leland Ryken

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Review of ‘A Complete Handbook of Literary Forms in the Bible’ by Leland Ryken

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 Leland Ryken, A Complete Handbook of Literary Forms in the Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014). Paperback / Kindle In the introduction to this marvelous little book, Leland Ryken makes a distinction that helps explain why his book is necessary. Some people, he notes, argue that “the literary forms of the Bible are only the forms in which the content comes to us.” By contrast, he argues that the Bible’s literary forms are “the only form in which the content is expressed.” He concludes: “Without form, no content exists. Form is meaning. Meaning is embodied in form.” If Ryken is correct—and … Continue reading Review of ‘A Complete Handbook of Literary Forms in the Bible’ by Leland Ryken

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The Legacy of the King James Bible

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Leland Ryken, The Legacy of the King James Bible: Celebrating 400 Years of the Most Influential English Translation (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011). $15.99, 272 pages. The Committee on Bible Translation of the New International Version (NIV) recently released a revision of that bestselling Bible. In an explanation of changes made to the NIV, the committee made the following remark regarding its revised translation of 1 John 2:16: Has anyone really improved on the KJV [King James Version] rendering of these three expressions [i.e., lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life], to which the updated NIV returns? … Continue reading The Legacy of the King James Bible