The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great

I recently read Benjamin Merkle’s The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great (not the Ben Merkle at Southeastern Seminary). I have commented often here on the value of history reading for pastors (as well as others), and this book has much value in this realm as well. Alfred was an amazing man who accomplished much.

The first six chapters of the book primarily tell of the struggle of Alfred and his predecessors against the Viking invasions. There are compelling battle stories and reminders of the blessing of peace. Also the description of the “shield wall” formation used in battle provides a powerful picture of church unity.

The great strength of the book in my opinion, though, is chapter seven which describes Alfred’s effort to rejuvenate his country. They had resisted the foreign invader, but he realized they needed more to ensure domestic health. He believed the Vikings were only a symptom of the greater problem of his people’s turn away from Christianity and the resultant loss of learning and character. Here are a few quotes:

“The English church had grown complacent, indolent, and lethargic. Numbed by their prosperity, their love of learning grew cold, and their interest in Christian study died off altogether. . . . By neglecting the study of the great works of Christendom, the Bible in particular, the Anglo-Saxon people had lost not only the ability to read but more important, the ability to understand the wisdom of God. England, through her intellectual lethargy, was slowly devolving into a pagan nation, a people who neither knew nor served the Christian God.” (179)

“If Christian virtue were to return to England, then the Anglo-Saxons would need to return to Christian learning. With an eye toward restoring this learned piety to the people, Alfred orchestrated a tremendous revival of literacy, a revival that culminated in the greatest literary renaissance ever experienced in Anglo-Saxon Britain.” (184)

“Alfred truly was the great king of England, the one monarch who rightly understood the needs of the nation and unrelentingly gave all he had to supply those needs.
England, and the many nations descended from her, still have Alfred to thank for a substantial portion of the heritage and freedoms that they enjoy today. The title ‘Alfred the Great,’ so strangely offensive to the modern ear, was well deserved by the Anglo-Saxon warrior-king.” (233)

There is much to glean from Alfred on the work of restoring a culture, of the value of learning, and the renewal of the church.

Ortlund Encouragement to Read the Bible

Ray Ortlund has recently posted three items that are powerful encouragements in reading the Scriptures- not just today but over the decades. These thoughts have lingered with me, some over several days, challenging me deeply and encouraging me just as deeply. They have made me want to be more diligent, more consistent, more believing and hopeful, and a better parent.
Here they are:
- Reading the Greek NT over 4 decades
- Wesley on reading (Bible and other good books)
- Note in Bible given to Ray by his Dad on his 17th birthday

Summer Reading, A T Robertson

In light of recent posts here on reading and particularly on reading history and fiction, I thought this comment from A. T. Robertson was pertinent. Robertson was a giant in the land as a scholar and a preacher. This quote comes from an interview with Frank Leavell in “The Baptist Student” in 1932.

“ ‘For diversion I read History, Poetry, and Biography. When sick, or on vacation, I read novels. I love them – revel in a good novel. That does not mean this modern stuff. It is mighty easy for me to get a dose of this modern sex stuff! I read Dickens, Thackerary, Scott, or George Eliot. She is rather melancholy, George Eliot, but I like here despite that.’”

This is a good encouragement to us today to take in history, poetry, biography and fiction.

Reading Fiction

I have frequently at this blog commended broad reading including fiction and have defended and advocated the reading of fiction in other venues. I was pleased then to find (via Justin Wainscott) this article by Mary DeMuth titled, “Why Should Christ-Followers Read Fiction?” DeMuth deals with common arguments against “wasting” one’s time on fiction.
I also recommend Doug Bond’s lecture “Teaching Truth with Fiction.” Bond’s fiction is wonderful and I have commended it often at my other blog.

So this summer take up some good fiction and read. If you don’t have any ideas on where to start with your fiction reading I mentioned some last summer in a post of ideas for summer reading. Here are a few more fiction books that I have greatly enjoyed:
A Tale of Two Cities, C. Dickens
The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
John Buchan’s novels: The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast, Courts of the Morning, Huntingtower, etc.
In the Reign of Terror, G. A. Henty
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (a more profound book than movie representations suggest)
The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc., C. S. Lewis

The list could go on and on (feel free to suggest some in the comments). There are many good options. Take up and read!

Read with Humility

“If thou wilt receive profit, read with humility, simplicity, and faith; and seek not at any time the fame of being learned.”

- Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

Oxford Press Holiday Sale

Each year I look forward to the annual holiday sale from Oxford University Press. They regularly have exceptional deals on prominent books. This year the sale is even better because they teamed up with Amazon. See the sale homepage here.
There are not many things in their bible/theology section that I like. They are good for broader reading, which brings back a point I have mentioned before: Pastors need to read broadly.
Some of the categories I particularly like from Oxford are: American history, world history and reference works. Happy reading.

Jerome on Reading and Learning

Brian Denker sent me this quote from Jerome recently. It is a good exhortation to earnest study, and perhaps especially relevant as start of term approaches here.

“Read often, learn all you can. Let sleep overcome you, the roll still in your hands; when your head falls, let it be on the sacred page.”
- St. Jerome c.340-420 AD

Chrysostom on Reading not Just Possessing Books

I recently came across this quote while reading in Chrysostom’s sermons on John’s Gospel. I thought it was just as relevant today.

Furthermore, tell me who of you, when at home, ever takes the Christian Book in his hands and goes through what is contained therein, and studies Scripture? No one would be able to say he does. However, we shall find that games and dice are in most houses; but never books, except in a few. And the latter have the same attitude as those who do not possess books, since they tie them up and store them away in chests all the time, and their whole interest in them lies in the fineness of the parchment and the beauty of the writing, not in reading them. They have not bought them with a view to obtaining help and profit, but are eager to acquire them to make a display of wealth and ambition, so excessive is their vainglory. Actually, I hear no one priding himself because he knows their contents, but because he possesses one written in gold letters.

Now, what profit is there in this, pray? The Scriptures were not given merely that we might have them in books, but that we might engrave them on our hearts. The very possession of them was of itself, in truth, an object of Jewish ambition, since their laws were set down only in writing; yet from the very beginning the Law was not given thus to us but was set down in the bodily tablets of the heart. I am saying these things not to proscribe the possessing of books, since, on the contrary, I approve this and desire it very much, but I wish both the letter and the meaning of them to be borne about in our minds, that, upon acquiring the knowledge of these writings, our minds may in this way be purified.

Chrysostom, John Saint. Commentary on Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist: Homilies 1-47. Translated by Sister Thomas Aquinas Goggin. In The Fathers of the Church, ed. By Roy Joseph Deferrari. New York: Fathers of the Church, 1957. This link seems to be of a more recent reprint.

Reading Broadly

I am well behind in posting with other things that are going on, but I wanted to pass on these two quotes from an amazing book, David Larsen’s The Company of the Creative: A Christian Reader’s Guide to Great Literature and Its Themes. This is a great book which arose from one of Dr. Larsen’s preaching classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He surveys a broad sweep of literature and how each one aids the preacher. The first chapter, which is an argument for reading broadly, is a great read.

“You can learn more about a nation from reading yesterday’s novel than today’s newspaper.” –James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress (11)

God did not intend that we study our Bibles in a mental vacuum. John Nelson Darby and G. Campbell Morgan both decided that for an extended time they would read only the Bible. They soon discovered that this plan was a mistake. The danger of reading only the Bible is that we do not then really read the Bible. The Bible comes out of an ancient cultural setting. We need the bridges to our own culture that reading more broadly can supply. . . . Our thesis in this study is that all Christians –
especially Christian leaders and communicators – need to read broadly, deeply, and copiously. (11-12)