Book Review - Wisdom and Eloquence

Before I put Wisdom and Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm for Classical Learning (by Robert Littlejohn & Charles T. Evans) on the shelf, I decided to sit down and do a quick review of it.

Wisdom and Eloquence is a description and defence of classical Christian education. It is written primarily to Christian school teachers and organizers and this audience would be the ones to benefit most by it. However, the description of classical education is useful for anyone, be they teachers, administrators or homeschool parents. Littlejohn and Evans cover the purpose of education, philosophy of classical education (including what it is not), worldview in light of the liberal arts, and curriculum. Curriculum choices do not include specific texts or authors but instead which subjects to include in a classical education.

The most helpful concept for me as a homeschool parent was the concept of 12-K. The authors recommend that instead of starting at Kindergarten and working up to grade 12, that those planning curriculum for a school begin at the end - what should an ideal grade 12 student look like? What end product are we looking for? Then work backwards throughout the years to ensure that what is taught is always working towards that goal.

One of the most difficult things I have found as a homeschooling parent trying to educate my children classically is to know where we are going. It's easy to say that students will follow a typical school curriculum. But part of the reason we homeschool is that we have a different ideal for our children. And because we haven't been through this process before sometimes I don't know where to turn or how to achieve the results that we are hoping for. I am greatly indebted to an online community of homeschooling classical educators - I could never have gotten this far without their support, help, ideas and recommendations. However, sometimes I still feel like I'm in a bit of a fog - not really knowing where we are going. Wisdom and Eloquence helped to clarify that it's better to start at the top and work backwards and that has helped greatly. It's still foggy sometimes but it encourages me to keep on going.

I recommend Wisdom and Eloquence to anyone interested in education - whether public, private or homeschool. If you are in a public school, I hope that you will catch a vision for Christian education. If you are in a private school, classical or not, I hope that you will also catch a vision for what classical education can be and how beneficial it is to students. And if you are a homeschool parent, I hope that the concepts in this book will be encouraging and help you to have a vision for classical Christian education if you don't already and if you do already have that vision to help you to know that you are not alone and it's worthwhile to keep striving in the education of your children.

The History of the Ancient World

We own all four volumes of The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer, which are history texts for children, told in a narrative form. When I heard that she was beginning a series for adults, I was thrilled. I got The History of the Ancient World: from the earliest accounts to the fall of Rome at the beginning of March and spent the next month or so reading it. All 777 pages, excluding notes, appendices & bibliography.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. Ms. Bauer has an engaging style, and my husband would hear me snorting over particular passages, especially in the notes. She traces the history of several different areas of the world, beginning in the Mesopotamian Valley, but also including the history of China and then the developments in India, Africa and Europe. I found it helpful to read about the various cultures concurrently; often history texts focus only on one area at a time and it becomes difficult to figure out how they are related at different time periods. This is a technique that she used in the Story of the World books as well and it is equally effective here. I also really appreciated the charts at the end of each chapter, showing the progression through different rulers & cultures. And the maps were extremely helpful as well, especially when I just couldn't quite remember where that particular tribe or king was from!

One thing that particularly caught my attention was her treatment of Old Testament history. She first includes the OT history, which is a major accomplishment in itself, but then she treats it in such a fashion as to take it seriously. We see how the kings of Israel relate to the various other rulers of world cultures, in both good and bad ways, and it really helps to put it all into context.

I have already required my 12 & 14 year olds to read some chapters that correspond with our history studies. I only wish that it had been published at the beginning of the year instead of near the end so it would fit better with our studies. But that is only quibbling.

Overall, the subject matter is suitable for young to mid-teens and I have no problems with most of the book. There is one small section at the end of one of the chapters about the Greeks that parents will probably want to preread and decide if it's suitable for their children to read.

My preference for non-fiction books is normally to have footnotes. The History has end notes, which I was a little disappointed to see. However, Ms. Bauer strikes a nice compromise with some annotations at the bottom (notes, rather than footnotes) of the pages which are not so scholarly, although have some scholarly sections (referring the reader to other works on the subject at hand); her notes add details or opinions that are very enjoyable to read.

There is a lot of material covered in the book. Even the number of years covered must be daunting. I found that near the end of the book, it seemed as though perhaps Ms. Bauer was either running out of steam or words allowed (I suspect the latter - it did finish at 777 pages). I was a little disappointed, after such a complete treatment of the Old Testament history, to have the New Testament history largely reduced. Included - yes. But I was looking forward to more detail and was a trifle disappointed. But again, that's quibbling.

Ms. Bauer is hard at work on her next volume and I, for one, am hoping that it will be released well within what I think is her deadline of Spring, 2008. I would highly recommend this first book in the series to have as a resource on your shelves. But not only that - treat it like a novel and read from beginning to end - it's fascinating stuff!

And now for something completely different....

Our whole family enjoys TLC's What Not to Wear, even the two men! I recently found Dress Your Best at our local library and read through it, when I could get it away from various children. Even my husband flipped through it and reported on his body style.

The book is divided into 6 different body types for women, all with subdivisions of petite, average & tall, and 8 body types for men. For each body type, a different outfit is shown, with comments, for weekday, weekend and evening wear. Each body type is represented by a real man or women, including Stacy and Clinton themselves, dressed in the clothing recommended.

There is also a suggested wardrobe list for men and women, as well as a glossary (with pictures) in the back.

I really enjoyed reading through this book. I read all of the commentary, even though the body types don't all apply because it's helpful to see the rationale for each outfit. Some of the styles aren't my favourite (the casual wear for the barrel-chested man, which happens to be the same as my husband, is downright laughable) but I learned a lot about what to look for in clothing.

We like the show, and the book, a lot because Stacy and Clinton are very good at just accepting each person as she is and encouraging her to dress not only for her body type but for her lifestyle as well. There's never any "just lose ten pounds and then you'll look great" attitude. Instead, they encourage people to accent the best parts of their bodies and "de-accent" the worst parts so each one does look her best.

They also tend to look for classic styles that won't go out of fashion instead of the latest trends.

As I'm out shopping now, I'm more likely to look at lines of clothing and think about the fit and style than I was before. For that, I am grateful and I recommend this book for a fun and helpful read for anyone who cares about clothing but who doesn't want to go all out in the "fashion world".

Book Review - A New Kind of Christian

Although I've been aware of Brian McLaren for a long time and I'm familiar with many of the ideas associated with the Emergent/Emerging church, I've never actually read any of his books. After discussing A New Kind of Christian with a lady at church one day (her daughter had to read the book at college), I decided maybe it was time to read some of his writings. Thankfully the public library has several selections by McLaren, so I requested a few and started reading. I realize that many other people have already reviewed and discussed the books much better than I will but I felt like writing out some of my thoughts anyway.

I finished A New Kind of Christian yesterday. It's a fairly easy read. Written in fictional form, McLaren presents his ideas regarding postmodernism and the problems with the modern evangelical church. I can definitely see why it's an appealing book to many Christians. The story draws the reader in and presents the issues in a way that the reader can identify with.

I found myself agreeing with the analysis of the modern evangelical church. There is no doubt there are problems that need to be addressed. Where we differ is in the answers.

For example, Christians can be judgemental. He uses the example of the woman caught in adultery. One of his characters, Neo, asks, "Who was the greater sinner, the woman caught in adultery or the Pharisee holding a stone ready to execute her?... How much energy do we modern Christians put into condemning sexual sins compared to avoiding the judgmental, Pharisaical attitude of those with rocks in their hands? Who killed Jesus, adulterers or Pharisees? I'm not trying to minimize adultery - believe me, I know how terrible it is. I'm just saying that our modern preoccupations don't seem very informed by the gospel." (p. 99)

Point taken. Whether it is sexual sin or backbiting and anger, it is sin and Christians need a much better understanding not only of their own sin before God but the magnitude of the grace given by God.

However, McLaren not only fails to define the gospel in terms of the Word of God but goes on to minimize the power of the gospel.

He recognizes the lack of community and caring for non-Christians in our world. He points out the moralism and legalism in so many churches - if you will only pray more, give more, be at church more, then you will be closer to God. But again, he runs away from the answer found in the gospel and instead looks to other means of grace.

One of the more dangerous elements of this book, that I think is explained more in the second & third books of the series (the library doesn't have the second book and I'm just starting the third), is the what McLaren sees as the problem of the exclusivity of Christ. At first glance, especially in this first book, his ideas do not seem to be that far off. However, how he carries them through and the logical trajectory will, I think, if it hasn't already, bring him into conflict with the truth of the gospel and of God's Word.

I do think that his books are valuable to read, if a person is sufficiently grounded in the truths of Scripture. He is a very persuasive writer and one must read carefully to fully grasp what he is actually saying. He says in the introduction to the third book that he heard of a large church where the pastoral staff was forbidden to read his books. If that is true, and not an urban legend, I think that is silly. It's important for adults, especially leaders, to read books like this and grapple with the ideas that are being presented because, like it or not, the postmodern world is the one that we are living in. However, the careful reader should always be aware of the underlying assumptions and always look to God's word for the final answers. The danger comes when younger Christians read books like this without guidance from older Christians and without careful discussion of what the problems are and what the answers are. Not that older Christians have all the answers but usually they have at least encountered some of the issues before and are more prepared to look at the issues from all angles, not just from McLaren's viewpoint.

I'm interested to get farther into the third book of the trilogy, which is mostly dealing with the doctrine of hell. Perhaps I will post a further review after I finish reading it.