MY CHOICE OF BOOKS
Martin Marty sifts the books that have had a lasting effect.
Martin Marty
January 1, 1983
Most honest Christian adults would have to list some children's books among those that have shaped them most. I have vivid memories, for example, of the geography book used in elementary school. From it came images of "young, rugged mountains" and "old, worn-down mountains," of city and country and shining sea. Having traveled more than I liked or should have, I still carry images from its maps. Similarly, who could or would purge from mind the illustrations of Bible storybooks? Next come landmark books along the adult path; here classics are privileged. I define a classic as "a book behind which one cannot get," a book that defines and determines a culture or tradition. Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton . . . My faith has been shaped as much by the Large Catechism of Martin Luther as by any other book after the Bible. We all need guides for divining the Bible, for discerning what in it should have most access to our minds and hearts. How to sort past Ezra and 2 Kings to Romans and John? As a Lutheran, dedicated, fanatic, but also ecumenical and open-minded, I have resorted constantly to this catechism and used it for instructing congregations. The proportion of space devoted to the Ten Commandments suggests that Luther was anything but antinomian or uninterested in care of the neighbor. The clues to God's continuing creation, the divine act of constantly bringing cosmos out of chaos, or the "gathered" and congregating character of faith prior to hearing and feeding on the Word, at the breast of the Church, has done its shaping. And, of course, so has its sacramental teaching. Behind Luther, there is Augustine. The Confessions reminded me that God's risks occur in the lives of very mortal mortals, that divine activity comes ...
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