Theologian Fred Sanders, who teaches a great books program at Biola ‘s Torrey Honors Institute , lists eight qualities that make a book a “great book” :
7. A great book is weird. It’s got angles, edges, textures, and stuff sticking out that you wouldn’t have predicted. Any editor would have smoothed those things out and made the book more normal. But if great books had editors, they were in on the conspiracy of oddity. Great books have idiosyncrasies; textbooks don’t. That’s why you learn from textbooks, but you don’t love them or quote them. In some fields, the most comprehensive textbooks are by entire teams of scholars, and are intentionally normed and edited to sound exactly like the way everybody talks. That kind of educational discourse has its place, but don’t try to run a Socratic discussion from it.
Read more . . .
While I have you, can I ask you something? I’ll be quick.
Twenty-five thousand people subscribe to First Things. Why can’t that be fifty thousand? Three million people read First Things online like you are right now. Why can’t that be four million?
Let’s stop saying “can’t.” Because it can. And your year-end gift of just $50, $100, or even $250 or more will make it possible.
How much would you give to introduce just one new person to First Things? What about ten people, or even a hundred? That’s the power of your charitable support.
Make your year-end gift now using this secure link or the button below.
