“There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the
ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and
that the amateur should content himself with the modern
books…. [Students are directed not to Plato but to books on
Plato]— all about ‘isms’ and influences and only once in
twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said…. But if
he only knew,the great man, just because of his greatness, is
much more intelligible than his modern commentator….
Now this seems to me topsy-turvy. Naturally, since I
myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to
read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or
only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I
would give him this advice precisely because he is an ama-
teur and therefore much less protected than the expert
against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A
new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a
position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great
body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hid-
den implications (often unsuspected by the author himself)
have to be brought to light….

It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to
allow yourself another new one till you have read an old
one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at
least read one old one to every three new ones….
We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the
characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means
the old books. . . . We may be sure that the characteristic
blindness of the twentieth century—the blindness about
which posterity will ask, “But how could they have
thought that?”—lies where we have never suspected it, and
concerns something about which there is untroubled
agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or
between Mr. H. G. Wells and Karl Barth. None of us can
fully escape this blindness…. The only palliative is to keep
the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our
minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.”

-Contending For Our All by John Piper, page 11

God bless,

Chris Zodrow

Andrew, you are out of control! Hope you are doing well.

Rebecca, if you like Pascal, you’ll like Augustine! Andrew has pointed you in the right direction! Happy reading.

2. Being “trampled by a herd of evangelicals on their way to the Augustine section of the local bookstore” is certainly one of the more hilarious things I have read in a recent while.

3. My life is surrounded by, as you say, ‘chronological snobbery.’

I’m hoping a lot of younger guys take this post to heart.