New Generation at Worship Winter 1997

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Each issue we ask an RQ editorial board member to comment on works that have been formative in their Christian faith.

I've always been a bookworm, and my tastes have gone in some interesting directions as I've progressed on my spiritual journey. Still, certain books have stood the test of time, like C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity and Knowing God by J. I. Packer.

As I advanced from an agnostic to a "born-again Christian" in college, and now to a liturgy-loving Orthodox Christian, quite a variety of books have accumulated on my bookshelf (not to mention under my bed).

Any single person knows the pain of frequent moving. On my last big move I grew extremely frustrated every time I looked at the big mound of books I had to haul with me. In the end I threw out or gave away any book I didn't consider a classic or at least worth a second read. So when contemplating which books have been formative in my Christian faith I need only glance at my shrunken bookshelf and my bedside table.

Believe it or not, the first books that helped lead me to the truth were Nancy Drew murder mysteries. I think I owned every single one. As an unconscious truth-seeker, I loved mystery novels of every sort. This grew eventually into a search for a larger truth than that of the latest "whodunit." To this day my heavy theological reading is always balanced by mysteries. Have you ever read any G. K. Chesterton? I also enjoy P. D. James, Martha Grimes, and any English mystery novel I can get my hands on.

Classic literature plays an important part in my life as well. I ponder the characters in Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov more than almost any other book. Their depth and complexity give me tremendous opportunity to dwell on the mystery of the human personality ...

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