English Literature Classics for Christians (Fourth Edition)

By: Jan Anderson and Laurel Hicks and Corinne Sawtelle and Calyn Ohman and Brian Jekel and John Ball

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis: The small island of England has produced some of the world's greatest literature. No other nation has given us the equal to Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, or Tennyson. Perhaps the reason for this is that the introduction of learning and English literature began with the introduction of Christianity to England. Likewise, the rebirth of learning in the Renaissance, after the darkness of the Middle Ages, coincided with the rediscovery of the Scriptures and the Reformation of the church in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Reading is one of the most important and delightful occupations of the human mind. Literature is the expression of life in words of truth and beauty; it is the written record of man's spirit, of his thoughts, emotions, and aspirations. It is the history of the human soul, the expression of spiritual truth by means of concrete imagery. Literature has artistic, symbolic, and permanent qualities and is characterized by universal interest and personal style. The object of reading good literature, aside from the delight it gives us, is to know man, that is, the soul of man rather than just his actions. Books preserve for the human race the ideals upon which all our civilization is founded. The literature of a nation comprises the entire body of its thoughts, discoveries, memories, fancies, imaginations, reasonings, and aspirations as these find permanent expression in letters.