Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective (Leland Ryken, 1991)

In Realms of Gold, Dr. Ryken, a professor of English at Wheaton College, has written an introduction to the classics that is helpful to any reader who seeks to read Christianly. A teacher whose love of literature runs deep, writing Realms of Gold is Ryken’s kind invitation for those of us no longer in school to sit in on some of his classes. And here, from the table of contents, is the syllabus he provides:

Reading the Classics for All They’re Worth
Homer’s Odyssey and the Value of Myth
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and the Comic Spirit in Literature
Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the Tragic Spirit in Literature
Milton’s Paradise Lost and the Bible as Literary Influence
Poetry and the Christian Life
Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter: What is a Christian Classic?
Dicken’s Great Expectations and Literature as Recreation
Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych and the Truth of Fiction
Camus’ The Stranger and Modern Literature
Where Do We Go From Here?

Useful for every library, Realms of Gold could serve as a guide to your reading over the next months. We recommend it to you warmly.