Ryken Leland

We've all heard about the classics and assume they're great. Some of us have even read them on our own. But for those of us who remain a bit intimidated or simply want to get more out of our reading, Crossway's Christian Guides to the Classics are here to help. In these short guidebooks, popular professor, author, and literary expert Leland Ryken takes you through some of the greatest literature in history while answering your questions along the way. Each book: Includes an introduction to the author and work Explains the cultural context Incorporates published criticism Defines key literary terms Contains discussion questions at the end of each unit of the text Lists resources for further study Evaluates the classic text from a Christian worldview This volume guides readers through Augustine's classic spiritual autobiography, the Confessions, exploring the book's historical context, key themes, and overarching message.

We know about the classics and we assume they're great, but many of us are too intimidated to read them on our own. Crossway's Christian Guides to the Classics series helps readers enjoy the greatest literature in history with the aid of a gifted teacher. Popular professor, author, and literary expert Leland Ryken situates each work in its cultural context, incorporates published criticism, includes brief bibliographies for further study, and evaluates these works through a Christian worldview. This volume will help readers understand and engage with William Shakespeare's greatest tragedy: Hamlet.

We hear about the classics and assume they're great, but many of us are too intimidated to read them on our own. Crossway's Christian Guides to the Classics series is designed to help readers enjoy the greatest literature in history with the aid of a gifted teacher to answer questions along the way. Popular professor, author, and literary expert Leland Ryken situates each work in its cultural context, incorporates published criticism, includes brief bibliographies for further study, and successfully evaluates the classic text from a Christian worldview through analytic commentary. In this volume, Ryken guides readers through Dickens's quintessential coming-of-age novel, Great Expectations. Exploring perennial themes such as love, justice, and heroism, this book stands as the preeminent example of Dickens's unrivaled ability to conjure realistic characters and palpable settings.

All of us hear about the classics and we assume they're great, but many of us are too intimidated to read them on our own. Crossway's Christian Guides to the Classics series is designed to help readers enjoy the greatest literature in history with the aid of a gifted teacher to answer questions along the way. Popular professor, author, and literary expert Leland Ryken situates each work in its cultural context, incorporates published criticism, includes brief bibliographies for further study, and successfully evaluates the classic text from a Christian worldview through analytic commentary. This particular volume guides readers through the signature book of American literature, Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and unpacks its universal themes of sin, knowledge, and the human condition.

All of us hear about the classics and we assume they're great, but many of us are too intimidated to read them on our own. Crossway's Christian Guides to the Classics series is designed to help readers enjoy the greatest literature in history with the aid of a gifted teacher to answer questions along the way. Popular professor, author, and literary expert Leland Ryken situates each work in its cultural context, incorporates published criticism, includes brief bibliographies for further study, and successfully evaluates the classic text from a Christian worldview through analytic commentary. This particular volume guides readers through the last of Shakespeare's magnificent tragedies, Macbeth, and explores the keys to virtuous behavior as well as the psychology of guilt.

Throughout the history of English literature, church ministers have figured prominently in novels, plays, morality tales, and even poetry. Pastors in the Classics is a unique, unprecedented collection of relevant literary masterpieces in which the pastor's experience is a major part of the story. Part 1 is a reader's guide to twelve important classics written over four centuries and covering seven different nationalities. Each chapter not only describes and interprets the work in question, it also highlights a specific feature of pastoral ministry explored in the work. Part 2 is a handbook that defines the canon of literary masterpieces that deal with the pastor's experience, offering reading suggestions for both ministers and lovers of literature.From the familiar (The Canterbury Tales; Cry, the Beloved Country; and The Scarlet Letter) to the lesser-known (Silence, Witch Wood) to the surprising (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), this collection uncovers the good, the bad, and the ugly ways in which pastors have been presented to the reading public for the past half millennium.

Originally published in 1611, the King James Bible (KJB) remains the most recognizable piece of literature in the English-speaking world today. For over three centuries, it served as the standard English Bible and has, as such, exerted unparalleled influence on English and American culture in nearly every sphere--including education, law, literature, government, art, science, and religion.The Legacy of the King James Bible honors the 400th anniversary of the KJB's publication by telling its story--a drama that starts with the pioneering work of William Tyndale and progresses through half a dozen other popular translations. Leland Ryken, an expert on the Bible as literature, explores the excellence of the King James Bible by examining its status as the climax of a century of English Bible translations, its impression on the subsequent history of Bible translation, its inherent literary excellence, and its overall impact on English and American literature and culture. The Legacy of the King James Bible will shed new light on the depth of the translation's merit and influence and offer insight as to what its role may be in the next 400 years.