On Classics and the Moral Imagination

Peter Edman

One of my own areas of interest and study is what is sometimes called the “moral imagination.” Given the caricature of business leaders these days, people might be surprised at how many leaders I come across who are interested in this topic.

Many of you have asked for more resources on developing the moral imagination, which is a key component of becoming a “humane business” leader, in Russell Kirk’s term. It is related directly to our deepest human impulses and best ideals. A good introduction to the concept is an essay by my friend Vigen Guroian, “Why Should Businessmen Read Great Literature.” In answer to the rhetorical question of his title, he asserts:

The answer is simple: to be free, and in that freedom to grow into fuller, more complete, virtuous, and interesting human beings who share with each other a living and life-giving culture.

In the modern world, achieving this freedom often requires an active effort to escape—escaping from the prison of our all-consuming culture and its presuppositions, from the reductionist jailers who tell us that the world we can see is the only reality.

This is why much of the literature I am most concerned with is sometimes disparagingly called "escapist." Fantasy, fairy tales, science fiction, ghost stories—and increasingly, history and sometimes even biography, for they give you a glimpse, in Tolkien's words, “beyond the walls of the world,” a reminder of the reality outside the narrow confines of the quarterly report and the 24-hour news cycle.

One short essay that begins to capture this concept is “The Best Introduction to the Mountains” by engineer and science fiction grand master Gene Wolfe (author most recently of The Wizard Knight). In this eulogy of The Lord of the Rings, he suggests that Tolkien's accomplishment “was to plant in my consciousness and yours the truth that society need not be as we see it around us.” The autobiographical elements in his essay in particular illustrate at what I mean.

Here are some primary and secondary texts that will evoke the best of our imaginations, and give us words and images to long for and work toward in our quest to become more deeply human. I'll be updating this list regularly.

About the Moral Imagination

In his book Enemies of the Permanent Things (Sherwood Sugden 1969), Russell Kirk defines the moral imagination as

“man’s power to perceive ethical truth, abiding law, in the seeming chaos of many events. Without the moral imagination, man would live merely day to day, or rather moment to moment, as dogs do. It is the strange faculty — inexplicable if men are assumed to have an animal nature only — of discerning greatness, justice, and order, beyond the bars of appetite and self-interest.”

Vigen Guroian, Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination (Oxford University Press 2000). A good start. Evocative prose and a good introduction to the topic.
Vigen Guroian, Rallying The Really Human Things : Moral Imagination In Politics Literature & Everyday Life (ISI 2005). More detail and more generalized treatment. Several very helpful essays here.
Alan Jacobs, Shaming The Devil: Essays In Truthtelling (Eerdmans 2004). Excellent essays on literature as a means of expressing truth. Worth reading for his discussion of W. H. Auden if nothing else. And there's a lot else.
Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale (Harper San Francisco 1977). A moving sermon-meditation on the gospel and the role of the imagination in understanding the deepest truths of all. Intended for preachers and writers but accessible to all. Also makes a perfect gift for the new preacher.
C. S. Lewis, On Stories, and other essays on Literature (Harvest 2002). Contains several useful essays including his discussion “On Science Fiction,” which contains the famous quote from Tolkien about the category of people who least like escape—jailers.

George MacDonald

MacDonald was an important influence on Chesterton, Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis among many thousands of others. His fantasy writing is unique in the English language and has the power to stimulate the imagination like few other authors can. His many books are mostly available online as electronic texts. Below are links to a few books worth getting in paper.

The Princess and the Goblin (Puffin Classics)
The Princess and Curdie (Puffin Classics). This book has the potential to change your outlook on the world.
The Complete Fairy Tales (Penguin). Includes the essay “The Fantastic Imagination” as well as “The Wise Woman,” one of the most original fairy tales ever written.

Reading Guides

Louise Cowan and Os Guinness, editors, Invitation to the Classics: A Guide to Books You've Always Wanted to Read. Our own guide to the Classics has several helpful essays.

Vigen’s List for Leaders

The sidebar of Vigen Guroian’s essay linked above includes a reading list that's worth including here (with links):

Gilbert Meilaender, editor, Working: Its Meaning and Its Limits (Notre Dame), an excellent and eclectic anthology of brief readings.
Witold Rybczynski’s Waiting for the Weekend (Penguin) tracks leisure’s historical development and transformation by modern commercial culture.
Josef Pieper, Leisure the Basis of Culture (Liberty Fund), a recognized classic presenting an apologia for the practice of contemplation in the midst of activity.
Martin Gilbert’s Churchill: A Life (Henry Holt) is the best one-volume biography of one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century;
Lord Charnwood’s Abraham Lincoln: A Biography (Madison Books), of the nineteenth; and
David McCullough’s John Adams (Simon and Schuster), of the eighteenth [McCullough’s 1776 is also good].

And Vigen’s list of “novels of particular interest to those engaged in the active life”:

Walker Percy’s Moviegoer,
William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom,
William Shakespeare’s Tempest,
Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, [this translation is from Pevear and Volokhonsky, who did a superb job with Dostoevsky.]
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov.