Below is my reading list for this spring. Although overdue, it contains many of the books I read in my second to last semester of college. I’ve split the books up into two categories: Biblical and Theological Studies and Fiction and Philosophy.
Biblical and Theological Studies
My Bible classes this spring afforded me with the opportunity to do biblical and systematic theology alike. First, I took a class on John, a class on the Psalms, and a class on James, Peter, John, and Jude (called the General Letters or the Catholic Epistles). These classes helped me see a book for what it is, and not only in relation to other books. It is only through this close sort of study can one conclude that each of the gospel writers, for example, are saying a slightly different things in their gospels. A second endeavor in the spring semester was a project on the emphasis of the Holy Spirit in the protestant church. This question sprung from the readings of the Church creeds and was supplemented by a reading of Acts and Smith’s Evangelical, Sacramental, and Pentecostal.
- The Bible: John, Acts, Philippians, Revelation
- The Creeds of the Church: The Westminster Confession, The 39 Articles, The Schleitheim Confession, The Dordrecht Confession, Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Creed of the Council of Trent
- Augustine: On Christian Teaching
- David O. Taylor: Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life
- Gordon T. Smith: Evangelical, Sacramental, & Pentecostal: Why the Church Should Be All Three
- Darian Lockett: Letters for the Church: Reading James, Peter, John, and Jude as Canon
- Matt Williams: Overcoming: Encountering Jesus in the Gospel of John and Today
Fiction, Philosophy
The fiction and philosophy I read this spring were both adequately philosophical, with Brontë, Turgenev, and DuBois all concerned with human development and how it plays out through the medium of story. I also picked up on a return to the first things, with Arkady returning to his father in Fathers and Sons, Chesterton returning back to the simplicity, paradox, and jollity of Christianity in Orthodoxy, and Lewis returning to the ancient ideal of objective truth in The Abolition of Man.
- Immanuel Kant: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
- Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre
- Ivan Turgenev: Fathers and Sons
- John Henry Newman: The Idea of a University
- W.E.B. DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk
- G.K. Chesterton: Orthodoxy
- C.S. Lewis: The Abolition of Man
Crossing the Jordan 
Matthew: It appears you had the good sense of adopting my proposed title for your blog: Crossing the Jordan. You may wish to explain this choice to readers in a blog post.
What were you take-aways or impressions after reading Brontë’s Jane Eyre? Although I haven’t read the novel, I hear it’s one of the finest literary examples of “a moral education.” Also, how does Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons compare to other Russian storytellers like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy?
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Christopher, thanks for your comment!
I found Jane Eyre to be a great novel. It began in many ways Like Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, but then became its own book very soon. It’s definitely a fine book in terms of the strong development of the female protagonist as well as personal moral development. The plot of the book also draws a person. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and was glad to have stayed away from spoilers until then!
Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons does more per page than Dostoevsky and Tolstoy if you compare F&S with The Brothers Karamazov or Anna Karenina. Turgenev knows that he must have a narrow scope, and produces an accordingly concise book. The longer Russian novels have the luxury of building up and addressing a wide range of subjects. One can fit F&S in their vest pocket, but they’d better keep The Brothers Karamazov in their briefcase.
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