This week's entry comes from Dwight Judy, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Formation, and Brent Waters, Stead Professor of Social Ethics and Director of the Stead Center of Ethics and Values.
Dr. Dwight Judy
Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Formation
In the midst of the present interest in Abraham Lincoln and the fine book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, I recommend Gore Vidal’s, Lincoln: A Novel. I read Vidal’s Lincoln before slogging through Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. I think that Vidal’s “novel” holds up well in comparison with the painstaking documentation of Team of Rivals. I found Team of Rivals rather ponderous, as Goodwin weaves concurrent biographies of the key players of the time. If you’re looking for just one book, I recommend Gore Vidal’s for ease of reading about this very fascinating and important period of our nation’s history.
Dr. Brent Waters
Stead Professor of Social Ethics
Director of the Stead Center for Ethics and Values
Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe, by Robert Gellately. The subtitle says it all.
The Inklings, by Humphrey Carpenter. It recounts the informal club consisting of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and circle of Oxford friends that met, most often in the Eagle and Child (aka Bird and Baby) to discuss a range of literary, philosophical, and religious themes. Rough drafts of The Chronicles of Narnia and the Rings trilogy were circulated and discussed by this group.
The Green Knight, by Iris Murdoch. Her next to last novel that winds together rich religious symbolism in a suspenseful and humorous manner. As usual, an insightful inquiry into the roles of good and evil, love and hate, friendship and betrayal, in the shadowy existence called human life.
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