Revelation
By Flannery O'Connor
Foreword by Louise S. Cowan
(2005)
“Revelation” is a very funny—and moving—story and a great introduction to the work of Flannery O’Connor, who is increasingly considered one of the best short story writers of the twentieth century.
This selection has a Foreword by Dr. Louise S. Cowan. A founder of the University of Dallas, former Trinity Forum Moderator, and co-editor of our Invitation to the Classics, she is a nationally recognized expert on O’Connor and the Southern literary tradition.
Dr. Cowan introduces O’Connor and her comedy of the grotesque and sets her in historical and literary context. “The true grotesque,” she writes, which O’Connor intended to be taken seriously, “sheds a strange light on ordinary reality and thus proves highly shocking to our secular sensibilities.”
Another insight that O’Connor developed and Dr. Cowan explains is that the grotesque “expresses the Christian’s paradoxical plight of being in the world but not of it. As O’Connor herself has commented, not only evil, but also the good, is grotesque, since the good is ‘under construction.’”
As for “Revelation,” the short story reprinted here, it is a masterpiece of comic literature. Ruby Turpin, the protagonist, is a good, respectable, self-satisfied, hard-working woman who loves Jesus. In the person of the ugly girl Mary Grace, Jesus hammers home a message to Mrs. Turpin—and us too—about virtue, self-identity, judgment, and grace.
Category: Readings (No. 40)
The Gospel of Wealth
By Andrew Carnegie
Foreword by Alonzo L. McDonald
(2005)Download a PDF version of this Reading (396K) (See note below)
Have a print copy? Download the PDF Group Discussion Guide here.
Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” offers his vision for philanthropy, opening a window into a turbulent time and raising questions still worth pondering by people of means and people of faith alike. The Foreword by Alonzo L. McDonald provides a comprehensive historical setting for this influential essay.
In the days of the “robber barons” before the U.S. income tax was instituted, one man stood out from his peers for adding to business savvy a real core of personal integrity and idealism. Andrew Carnegie, immigrant, self-made man, corporate tycoon, and pioneering philanthropist, had a clear vision for philanthropy that he carried out in his own life and with his own money. By the time he died, he had given away all his wealth—much of it personally, some of it to his foundations.
“The problem of our age,” Carnegie writes, “is the proper administration of wealth.” The mutual resentment between rich and poor, he suggests, can only be ameliorated if those who accumulate wealth also themselves distribute it to the benefit of society. It is a uniquely American vision that draws both on Carnegie’s Christian upbringing and his later Social Darwinist views and also bears the highly personal stamp of his rise from extreme poverty to the highest stratum of the ladder of worldly success.
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Joy Cometh in the Morning
By P. G. Wodehouse
Foreword by Joseph Bottum
(2005)
Read this one for some perspective on what’s important in life—or better, read it for sheer enjoyment.
This edition of The Trinity Forum Reading features “Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend,” a short story by P. G. Wodehouse with a Foreword by Joseph Bottum, editor of the journal First Things.
“Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend” gives us a taste of a world that never quite existed—but should have. Bottum, in his Foreword, suggests something about the power of Wodehouse’s light but perfectly crafted words, thrown in the teeth of the waste land that was the twentieth century, and claims that Wodehouse is Western civilization’s best answer to Friedrich Nietzsche.
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Psalms for People Under Pressure
By Jonathan Aitken
(Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004)
Jonathan Aitken discovered in the Psalms what he calls “deep gold seams of ancient wisdom for coping with the pressures of modern life.”
This is his account of the Psalms tried and tested in raw human emotion.
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The Rise of Evangelicalism
The Age of Edwards, Whitefield, and the Wesleys
By Mark A. Noll
(InterVarsity Press, 2004)
A multinational narrative of the origin, development and rapid diffusion of evangelical movements in their first two generations.
Theology, hymnody, gender, warfare, politics and science are all taken into consideration. But the focus is on the landmark individuals, events and organizations that shaped the story of the beginnings of this vibrant Christian movement.The revivals in Britain and North America in the mid-eighteenth century proved to be foundational in the development of the movement, its ethos, beliefs and subsequent direction. In these revivals, the core commitments of evangelicals were formed that continue to this day. In this volume you will find the fascinating story of their formation, their strengths and their weaknesses, but always their dynamism.
Hardcover: 320 pages
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Between Faith and Criticism
Evangelicals, Scholarship, and the Bible in America
Historian Mark Noll investigates the question: Have evangelicals grown to mature confidence in their views of God and Scripture so they may stand-alone if they must-between faith and higher critical skepticism?By Mark A. Noll
(Regent College Publishing, 2004)
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The End of Illusions
Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm
In The End of Illusions, Joseph Loconte brings together pieces from the most significant religious thinkers of the day about the responsibilities of America and Europe in the face of Nazi agressions.By Joseph Loconte
(Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004)
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Liberty and Power
A Dialogue on Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy in an Unjust World
A collection of essays examining the role religion should play in American foreign policy.By Jean Bethke Elshtain, et al, eds.
(Brookings Institution Press, 2004)
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Just War Against Terror
The Burden of American Power in a Violent World
Jean Bethke Elshtain advocates "just war" in times of crisis and mounts a reasoned attack against the anti-war contingent in American intellectual life.By Jean Bethke Elshtain
(Basic Books, 2004)
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Truth In All Its Glory
Commending the Reformed Faith
By William Edgar
(P & R Publishing, 2004)
This guided tour of the Reformed tradition of the Christian faith highlights the glory of God’s truth and grace.
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A Third Mission to the West
Challenges and Opportunities in Winning Back Our Own Civilization
By Os Guinness
(2004)
In November 2003 a weekend event in California focused on assessing the state of America and the West as well as the continuing vision of The Trinity Forum.
In this talk, Os Guinness discusses our challenges and opportunities at this critical point in history. Under seven broad headings, he addresses the decline of faith in the West and looks at prospects for followers of Christ to win back their own culture over the next hundred years.
This talk covers (1) contemporary prejudices against faith, (2) distortions of religion in the modern world, (3) the oddity of communicating today, (4) the nature of ideas in the public square, (5) options for the global public square, (6) and openings for faith in public life. Guinness concludes by suggesting (7) three necessary emphases for the next phase in the work of The Trinity Forum as a strategic resource for leaders who want to be faithful to the call of Christ in every area of their lives. (CD Audio, 43 minutes.)
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Lessons from History
By Will and Ariel Durant
Foreword by Alonzo L. McDonald
(2004)
This Reading features selections from the Durants’ famous short book with an introduction and commentary by Senior Fellow and founding Chairman Alonzo L. McDonald.
In the face of contemporary society’s overwhelming barrage of information and “spin,” it is helpful—and often necessary—to step back and look at current events in the light of the past and to consider what we can learn from history that can guide us moving forward.
This Reading will be a catalyst and inspiration in that task. As Mr. McDonald notes, “It is particularly crucial for us to recognize that with all the changes the world has undergone during the several millennia of recorded history, the one constant seems to be human nature with its ever-present positive and negative tendencies.”
The Lessons of History is a short book that summarizes the Durants’ findings in their popular multi-volume history, The Story of Civilization. Mr. McDonald has selected portions from each chapter and follows each with comments drawn from his life experience in business, politics, journalism, and academia as a way of inviting you to a similar course of reflection on your own life.
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On Friendship
By Marcus Tullius Cicero
Foreword by J. Douglas Holladay
(2004)
In an age of instant communication, today’s leaders often feel isolated and lonely. In response, Doug Holladay points us to some timeless human lessons from Cicero.
Cicero, a philosopher and politician from the Roman Republic, argues for the mutual importance of friendship and virtue in forming people—and especially leaders—who both enjoy life and contribute to the common good. Doug’s foreword shares insights from his own experience that reveal spiritual elements in friendship. Together they make an inspiring and practical treatment of true friendship as opposed to mere companionship. Includes suggestions for further reading.
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The Lost Tools of Learning
By Dorothy L. Sayers
Foreword by Dan Russ
(2004)Discussion Guide Included
“The person who is denied or declines the opportunity to be a student of life is destined to a diminished existence,” says Dan Russ in the Foreword to this interesting Reading.
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) was an English scholar, essayist, translator, mystery writer, and Christian apologist. This lecture turned essay was first presented in Oxford in 1947 and is a brilliant treatise on the foundational elements of a classical Christian education. More important, it helps raise questions—and offers answers—about the role of education in a democratic society. In attempting to recover the classical liberal arts model of education for our times, says Dr. Russ, “she reminds us that learning is essential to human nature, to the joy of living, and essential to human culture, to the vision of a good life for all.”
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But Not Through Me
Seven Steps to Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil and Suffering
By Edited by Os Guinness with Peter Edman
(2004)
Evil and suffering are the very deepest challenges in life, but many in the modern, comfortable West have found it easy to downplay the problem. Even though we have just come through the most evil and destructive century ever, commercial, technological, and intellectual developments can make the problem of evil seem dull, remote, and abstract. September 11 brutally shattered such illusions and more and more of us are again confronting such hard questions as “why bad things happen to good people.”
A Trinity Forum seminar curriculum directed by Dr. Os Guinness, But Not Through Me takes us through classic and contemporary readings and sets out seven steps to help us honestly address the challenges posed by evil and suffering—and to consider our own responsibility. The readings are selected to open conversation on the deepest questions and issues we face as human beings.
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