The most influential English book

Few books last.

Now the ink and paper of these books last as long as any other such materials, but the impression and impact of most books lasts little longer than their time on the new release shelf.

A few distinct exceptions last much longer. In Christian literature, the still-lasting effects and growing current impact of Augustine’s Confessions, Calvin’s Institutes and Edwards’ Religious Affections represent some of these exceptions. But no book – and certainly no other piece of media – has affected the world as has the Bible. And in terms of the English-speaking world, no translation of the Bible has provided a more far-reaching influence than the King James Bible.

In celebration of the now 400 year legacy of the KJB, Leland Ryken, professor of English at Wheaton College, has written a book outlining the background and historical and cultural impact of the Authorized Version: The Legacy of the King James Bible: Celebrating 400 Years of the Most Influential Translation.

“The publication of the Kind James Bible in 1611 was a landmark event in the English-speaking world,” Ryken writes. “In fact, I tell students in my English literature courses that is was the major event in English and American literature. Perhaps the importance is even greater than that: what has influenced the whole history of England and America more than the King James Bible?”

Ryken supports his thesis by organizing The legacy of the King James Bible into four areas. These areas address:

1. The KJB’s status as the climax of a century of English Bible translation

2. The influence of the King James Bible on all future English translations, and even English-speaking culture as a whole

3. The literary nature of the KJB itself – “excellence,” according to Ryken

4. The impact of the King James Bible on both English and American literature

Concluding, Ryken claims that the West’s diminished use of the King James Bible – rightly diminished in terms of making use of more recent manuscript findings – has led to the loss of a common Bible for Christianity, and this loss has led to an “eclipse” of the authority of the Bible. Biblical literacy largely declined when the KJB declined in use. Ryken affirms a colleague’s observation that since the “proliferation of modern translations, even Christian students became inept at seeing biblical references in literature.”

While Ryken’s assessment of the KJB is certainly positive and celebratory, he does admit that he is not primarily reader of the monumental work, preferring rather the updating English of more current translations. Further, readers who are not familiar with the Shakespearian-style English employed by the Authorized Version should use a Bible they can understand, Ryken suggests.

For anyone is unfamiliar with the history of the KJB, Ryken’s new volume is a good place to start. He combines interesting storytelling, balanced analysis and significant literary experience into an accessible book that is surely appropriate commemorating the 400^th anniversary of perhaps history’s the most influential Bible.

The Legacy of the King James Bible: Celebrating 400 Years of the Most Influential English Translation (Crossway 2011, $15.99), Leland Ryken

LL Cool J introduces essays about Christianity

LL Cool J?

Many quotes and phrases leave a large impact on history, so much so that such sayings need no citation. Without hesitation, most Americans recognize “four score and seven years ago” and the famous “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Around Christian circles, “Here I stand” represents a significant statement from history, the speaker of which few need reminding. And, of course, “It is finished” is perhaps one of the most recognizable statements in history – in several languages.

Now, the quotes above come from the mouths of Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther and Jesus respectively. The significance of these figures almost necessitates that their statements leave an enduring impact. But what about LL Cool J?

A new book edited by Kevin DeYoung, Don’t Call It a Comeback, poetically carries a title matching the opening line from LL Cool J’s 1990 song “Mama Said Knock You Out.” LL Cool J doesn’t want people calling it a comeback because, according to him, he’s been “here” for years. And accordingly, this collection of essays aimed at introducing a young generation of Christians to the “most important articles of [the Christian] faith and what it looks like to live out this faith in real life,” and reasserting the “theological nature of evangelicalism.”

“Our hope is that this book might be of some small use in reforming God’s church according to the Word of God and forming Christians in the truth of God’s Word,” DeYoung writes in the introduction.

Don’t Call It a Comeback features 18 chapters, each written by a young(er) pastor or teacher within the evangelical movement. Contributors include Southern Seminary’s Denny Burk, Russell D. Moore and Owen Strachan, along with writers such as Collin Hansen, Ted Kluck and Justin Taylor.

DeYoung organizes the essays into three sections: evangelical history, evangelical theology and evangelical practice. These essays address topic ranging from the history of evangelicalism, the unique nature of Scripture, the Kingdom and the place of Christianity in discussions about gender.

The breadth of topics in this brief book, its accessible writing and pastoral tone contribute to Don’t Call It a Comeback forming a helpful resource for a young generation of Christians who seek to think and live biblically. And for Christians looking for a theological home, this new book offers a case for the confessional nature of historical evangelicalism, even for 21^st-century believers.

So don’t call it a comeback; historic Christianity has been here for years – rocking its peers and putting suckas in fear.

Don’t Call It a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day (Crossway 2011, $16.99), Kevin DeYoung, ed.

a (whole) story of creation

During the past couple months I've posted five poems, each with the title "a story of creation." Below is a brief explanation and defense of my work.

The five poems I constructed function at a number of levels. Most straightforwardly, each poem, I hope, stands on its own as a piece of work. I tried to write each poem in such a way that someone who does not see the other four, can still understand and appreciate the message of the individual poem – and hopefully its presentation is artistic. Toward that end, I wrote each poem with intention of clearly communicating its topic.

Concerning the topics of the poems, I have written five poems, and if I succeeded, the poems together also make up a single work. I tried to write a series of poems about creation, fall and redemption, and further, I attempted a chiastic structure. So poems “A1” and “A2” both speak of God’s creative acts, the first about nature and the second about God’s creating man in his image. Poems “B1” and “B2” speak of the fall of earth and sin’s consequences for human kind, respectively. And then for “C,” the center of the chiasm,[1] I placed a poem about Christ. Diagrammatically, my poem(s) follow(s) this structure:

A1(creation of nature)

B1(fall of nature)

C (Christ)

B2 (fall of man)

A1(creation of man)

My framing set of poems (“A”) each follows the same structure of three lines followed by four lines. The two poems together communicate God’s creating act as both beautiful and as a gift from a gracious God. At a different, yet perhaps more important, level, the two “A” poems function as the beginning of a sort of chronological and even left-to-right arrow, buried within my chiastic structure; quite obviously, creation is the beginning of all things, and specifically, God’s meta-narrative.

The two “B” poems each laments the fall of creation due to sin, the fall of the natural order and humanity, respectively. And so, together these poems function as a lament of the fall as a unit. Each poem is only four lines long. I intentionally wrote these as shorter pieces, symbolic of sin’s brief career (from a cosmic perspective). Also just as the first set, the two poems about sin focus the chronological arrow pointing toward Christ further – fall followed creation.

Finally, the center poem of my series celebrates Christ. Symbolically longer than the other poems, alluding to Christ’s lasting reign as King of creation, this poem plays with the upside-down relationship between Adam and Christ. Adam sought life, but brought death; Christ sought death, but bought life (Rom 5). Although in a linear sense, the “C” poem sits in the middle of my collection (rightly so in a chiasm), when the poem takes an arrow shape (chiasm), the Christ poems takes its place as the final and concluding poem in a chronologically directional sense. Creation and fall point to Christ; Christ brings resolution to creation’s fall. Of course, there are many different ways placing Christ as the center can allude to other things: Christ is the focal point of good theology, Christ is the peak of the Bible’s narrative, people are called to center their lives on Christ, etc. The list could continue.

In summation, I hope each of my five poems communicates lament and celebration of creation, creation’s fall and creation’s savior. I also hope as a unit, the poems tell the story of the world’s existence and its restoration in Christ’s reversing Adam’s sin.

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[1] I am calling this series a chiasm, but usually chiasms are contained in a single piece of work. So in a sense, I deviated from traditional uses of the chiastic structure. But in another sense, I consider my five poems as a single work.