Category Archives: Literature

Book Club with Dr. Barry Creamer

Criswell College is excited to announce an opportunity to join a book club with our own President and Professor of Humanities, Dr. Barry Creamer, from October 6 to November 17, 2014! Join the club by emailing your contact information to [email protected], and you will receive weekly reading assignments, reading observations, and questions. After the reading assignments have been completed, the book club will meet at the college on Monday evening, … Continue reading

“I should be glad of another death”

By Winston Hottman As we celebrate the Epiphany season, here is T. S. Eliots The Journey of the Magi as read by the author: A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter. And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. … Continue reading

Avoiding the Hermeneutical Whirlpool

*Posted by Barry Creamer Lets get the basics out of the way. Hermeneutics is about how to interpret texts. Interpreting texts is about finding (a deliberately ambiguous term) meaning in a text. For many people, the meaning of a text is exactly the intent of the author in constructing that text. Because of the nature of expressive errors, I dont agree that authorial intent and textual meaning are equivalent. I … Continue reading

Reach and Grasp, More or Less: A Quick Thought on Imperfection

*Posted by Barry Creamer Carl Lewis used to be the Usain Bolt of track and field. His sprint speed and long jump distances could embarrass the competition. It seems I remember a story he told back then of his commitment as a youth to the long jumphow he jumped a few feet, maybe 10 or 12; how he then marked off 30 feet as his goal; how far away that … Continue reading

Read Hard Things

*Posted by Joe Wooddell (Note: After reading this post I hope readers will give their own recommendations for hard things to read.) In 2008 two teenage authors (Alex and Bret Harris) published a book entitled Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations. The authors goal is to raise the cultural bar on teenage potential and to challenge young people to reach for their God-given best (from the Foreword). … Continue reading

Love Bade Me Welcome

*Posted by Winston Hottman The following was composed by the 17th century English poet George Herbert: LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back, Guilty of dust and sin. But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning If I lackd anything. A guest, I answerd, worthy to be here: Love said, You shall be he. I, the unkind, ungrateful? … Continue reading

Neo Quixote – Friend or Foe?

*Posted by Kirk Spencer For anger slays the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple; I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward. But as for me, I would seek God, and I would place my cause before God. Job … Continue reading

Donne on Death

Posted by Barry Creamer In other places I have mentioned that I favor John Donne among all Seventeenth Century poetsmore sophisticated and subtle than even slightly later luminaries like John Milton. His Tenth Holy or Divine Sonnet is one of his most famous, mainly for its first line. Regarding the content: I intend only to remind believers that the defeat of death through eternal life is a basic tenet of … Continue reading

Gregor the Prodigal

*Posted by Barry Creamer Franz Kafkas The Metamorphosis is the saddest piece of literature Ive ever readand one of the most powerful. I did not know when I read it as a young man how beautifully written it is, at least not by acquaintance. In contrast to all the commentators, I thought it unwieldy and philosophically forced. Having recently read it again, I see why it is so highly regarded, … Continue reading