Leland Ryken
Leland Ryken
Leland Ryken, is a professor of English at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. He has contributed a number of works to the study of classic literature from the Christian perspective, including editing the comprehensive volume on Christian writing on literature The Christian Imagination. He was the literary stylist for the English Standard Version of the Bible, published by Crossway Bibles in 2001. He is the author of How to Read the Bible as Literature and Words of Delight: A Literary...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
CountryUnited States of America
In Puritan thinking, the Christian life was a heroic venture, requiring a full quota of energy.
The secularization of Western culture was accompanied by the elevation of art to the position of a substitute religion to replace Christianity.
A Christian philosophy of literature begins with the same agenda of issues that any philosophy of literature addresses. Its distinctive feature is that it relates these issues to the Christian faith.
It is true that the Puritans banned all recreation on Sundays and all games of chance, gambling, bear baiting, horse racing, and bowling in or around taverns at all times. They did so, not because they were opposed to fun, but because they judged these activities to be inherently harmful or immoral.
The oldest theory of art belongs to the Greeks, who regarded art as an imitation (mimesis) of reality. The strength of that theory is that it explains the way in which art takes its materials from real life.
Puritanism was a youthful, vigorous movement.
The goal of Bible translation is be transparent to the original text - to see as clearly as possible what the biblical authors actually wrote.
The Bible is obviously a mixed book. Literary and nonliterary (expository, explanatory) writing exist side by side within the covers of this unique book.
The Puritans removed organs and paintings from churches, but bought them for private use in their homes.
With so many contradictory renditions of the biblical text, the public has lost confidence that we can actually know what the Bible says. It is an easy step from this skepticism to an indifference about what the Bible says.
Since God is the one who calls people to their work, the worker becomes a steward who serves God.
Writers themselves benefit from all helpful information about their task and methods. Readers, in turn, can have both their understanding and appreciation of literature enhanced by information about the writer's work.
The Puritans were obsessed with the dangers of wealth.
Literature incarnates its meanings as concretely as possible. The knowledge that literature gives of a subject is the kind of knowledge that is obtained by (vicariously) living through an experience.