Ó 1994 Don W

A version of this review first appeared in The Christian Scholars' Review 24, no. 1 (September 1994): 82-83.

Leland Ryken, Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective. Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, 1991.

Leland Ryken's Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective attempts to explain his passion for literature by reflecting on selected "classics" from the Odyssey through The Stranger. At a time when the canon is clearly under siege, if not attack, Ryken's effort may be met by some with wry bemusement and by others with angry polemic. However, I believe his tour of the museum is worthy.

Ryken's purpose is to justify a careful reading of great literature especially by Christians. In the process he chooses "treasures that [he] cannot live without" (p. ix) and uses them as touchstones to debunk often-heard Christian judgments about literature. He begins by defining a literary classic and proceeds to discuss myth, comedy, and tragedy. About the latter, he notes that "contrary to the prevailing modern view of the person as an amoral set of conditioned reflexes, tragedy presupposes that people have a power of choice, with accompanying moral responsibility" (p. 71). Indeed, implicit throughout is the value of literature for the Christian: "The classics matter because literature itself matters. They offer the rewards of all great literature-pleasure, recreation, heightened awareness of human experience, involvement with life, expanding viewpoint, and the occasion to focus our own thinking about the great issues of life" (pp. 226-27).

In a chapter I was pleased to see, Ryken writes about poetry and the Christian life. Using Psalm 23 as a model, he articulates both the form and function of poetry and makes is accessible to the non-aesthete. Even more helpful is his exploration of the artistry of poetry where the image takes on special importance. Ryken does a great service when he reminds us that "the need to unpackage the meaning of individual words and images makes reading poetry a meditative and contemplative act in a way that reading a story is not" (p. 110). Given the shallowness of popular culture and the writing that reflects it, Ryken's urge to read poetry is a welcomed antidote.

His discussions of Paradise Lost, The Death of Ivan Ilych, and especially The Scarlet Letter, are very good. He moves easily within each work, making useful observations along the way. For example, he says that "in its sheer grandeur, Paradise Lost is to English literature what Handel's Messiah is to music: it gives us the grand themes in the grand style" (p. 82). The Scarlet Letter "is a story of the consciousness of sin" (p. 134), while Tolstoy's is a "work that accurately and from a Christian perspective tells us how to live . . .by showing us how not to live" (p. 179). He is weaker on The Canterbury Tales and Great Expectations; in the former case because he does not adequately explain the way Chaucerian comedy speaks to the Christian experience and in the latter case because he places his discussion in the context of how Dickens' work is recreational rather than contrasting his worldview with that of the Christian. Another weakness throughout is the sense that we are reading expanded versions of Ryken's classnotes. While this makes his book helpful for teachers approaching these works for the first time as they prepare class lectures and discussions, I was left frustrated by his rather broad strokes on the canvas.

The book is very readable and contains only an occasional typographical error ("Poems contains . . ." p. 121). Although I was disappointed in what I had hoped for in the book ("Why I love literature and why these are my favorite classics"), Ryken has written a practical text for the general Christian reader. What the book lacks in depth is made up for in winsomeness, enthusiasm, and insight. Ryken's tour of the museum is enjoyable if limited to rooms where only the classics hang.