[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Greatest Books of the 20th Century<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”rgba(160,106,132,0.06)” custom_padding=”25px|25px|25px|25px|true|true” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
I<\/span>t takes time for a text to become \u201cgreat\u201d and we’re willing to wait. But we can take a guess.<\/p>\n Mortimer Adler included several 20th-century authors in his \u201cGreat Books\u201d collection\u2014Dewey, Nietzsche, James, Hemmingway, Freud\u2014because the sweeping current of their ideas helped carry us to where we are today. We asked classical Christian educators around the country, \u201cWhich 20th-century authors do you believe should join the canon of \u2018Great Books\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n What we received was a list of great counter-voices to the 20th-century tide\u2014the underappreciated authors whose ideas we hope will take hold of our culture in the future, and help bring to fullness what the classical Christian movement works to restore.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”1-Tolkien” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n I\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 J.R.R. TOLKIEN<\/p>\n THE LORD OF THE RINGS<\/p>\n [LotR is] the greatest story of the 20th century. It checks all the boxes when it comes to the great ideas.<\/em> \u2014Ken Hosier<\/p>\n \u201cWhy should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and <\/em>go home?\u201d (Tolkien) Almost seventy <\/em>years ago, \u201clike lightning from a clear <\/em>sky\u201d (C. S. Lewis), Tolkien offered his readers an escape from the 20th century\u2019s Darwinist-Marxist-Freudian \u201crealist\u201d literary jailers. That was \u201cgood news, <\/em>good beyond hope\u201d (Lewis, again). Today Tolkien continues to offer us a way home … . LotR is the greatest text of the 20th century because it shows us that balrogs and Lothl\u00f3rien are forever more \u201creal\u201d than the NFL, Hollywood, the stock market, <\/em>and every photo that\u2019s ever been posted <\/em>on Instagram. (I would add that as both <\/em>a sub-creation and a story, it makes the Marvel universe seem like the scribbles of a fifth-grader.)<\/em> \u2014William \u201cBill\u201d Bryant<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”2-Lewis” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”2-Lewis” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n II\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 C.S. LEWIS<\/p>\n THE ABOLITION OF MAN [The Abolition of Man is] perhaps the most prophetic book of the century; a must read for all who care about education and the nature of goodness, truth, and beauty.<\/em> [That Hideous Strength] cements Lewis\u2019 vision as a prophet and understanding of anthropology, and recaptures the vision of the medieval cosmos. \u2014Austin Hoffman<\/em><\/p>\n Owen Barfield said, \u201cWhat [Lewis] thought about everything was secretly present in what he wrote about anything.\u201d … He is the prime example of a classical education that has been baptized into the Christian faith and dynamically employed into the service of God.<\/em> \u2014Devin O\u2019Donnell<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”3-Huxley” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n III\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ALDUS HUXLEY<\/p>\n BRAVE NEW WORLD<\/p>\n Among 20th-century dystopias, this one stands alone as the most prescient. From Neil Postman:<\/em> IV\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 G. K. CHESTERTON<\/p>\n ORTHODOXY These two books make theology and his- tory come alive in a dynamic, life-chang- ing way. Few books possess their degree of intellectual insight combined with razor-sharp wit!<\/em> \u2014Louis Markos<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”5-Solz” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n V \u00a0 \u00a0 ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN<\/p>\n THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO<\/p>\n Solzhenitsyn wrote with a moral force unequaled in the 20th century. Many in the West cozied up to communism and Stalin\u2019s totalitarianism in the first half of the century, but after \u201cGulag\u201d was published, the lid was off, the truth was told, and there was no turning back\u2014at least for those with eyes to see. Eerily hopeful, brutal, and beautiful, one is stunned by the juxtaposition of absolute cruelty and tender compassion in these true stories. Gulags and secret police, or something like them, is what you get with governments that reject the transcendent and do not comprehend human nature.<\/em> \u2014Scott Taylor<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”6-Schaeffer” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n VI\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 FRANCIS SCHAEFFER<\/p>\n THE GOD WHO IS THERE<\/p>\n An astute analysis of cultural decline.<\/em> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”7-Barzun” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n VII\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 JAQUES BARZUN<\/p>\n FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE<\/p>\n A most impressive sweep of cultural history from the early Renaissance to the modern world.<\/em> \u2014Robert Woods<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”7-Kirk” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n VIII\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RUSSELL KIRK<\/p>\n ROOTS OF AMERICAN ORDER This excerpt from the foreward of The Roots of American Order says it best: \u201cHis work has a peculiar quality of being simultaneously timeless and ever timely, at once transcendent and relevant.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Anonymous<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”9-Eliot” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n IX\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 T. S. ELIOT<\/p>\n COLLECTED POEMS<\/p>\n \u201cThe Waste Land\u201d and \u201cFour Quartets\u201d both capture the spirit of modernity so well and in the mode proper to modernity. The latter poem brings Christian truth to bear [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”10-Steinbeck” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n X JOHN STEINBECK<\/p>\n EAST OF EDEN<\/p>\n A modern Cain and Abel story that exemplifies the human condition.<\/em> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Honorable Mention” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Honorable Mention<\/p>\n MORTIMER ADLER<\/p>\n THE SYNTOPICON<\/p>\n The gateway to the Great Books of the Western World, it captures the major ideas, stories, and discoveries that helped shape Western culture.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,1_3,1_3″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n What makes a “Great Book”?<\/strong>
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
THE SPACE TRILOGY
TILL WE HAVE FACES<\/p>\n
\u2014Louis Markos<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOrwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley\u2019s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity, and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture … . In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Joe Gerber[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”4-Chesterton” _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
THE EVERLASTING MAN<\/p>\n
\u2014Travis Koch<\/p>\n
EDMUND BURKE: A GENIUS RECONSIDERED<\/p>\n
on that reality. Eliot also engages in a rich conversation with many literary texts from the Western canon.<\/em> \u2014Andrew Selby<\/p>\n
\u2014Travis Koch<\/p>\n
Mortimer Adler and his team of scholars dedicated themselves to the pursuit of preserving the greatest of our ideas. Find out more: Great Books… Great to whom? And why it matters.<\/a><\/p>\n