Anne Bradstreet/////Nathaniel Hawthorne/////Flannery O'Connor

I decided to do my History of Christianity in America paper on these three authors and their contribution to and critique of the church in their distinct time periods. I think I may have been a little ambitious to try to do this. It would have been easier to write a biography paper on Jonathan Edwards who must have a thousand books written about him (although I find him incredibly boring) but wanted to do something I found a little more exciting. This is taking a lot of time but I'm enjoying it tremendously.

I didn't know much about Anne Bradstreet before I read her poetry and biography. Fascinating and unbelievably difficult life as a Puritan coming to Massachusetts from Northampton England. Not only is she the first published American woman poet, but she is an inspiration to all Christ-followers in the way she handled sickness, suffering, and loss. She was perpetually ill, has small-pox as a child, lost four grandchildren, lost her home and all her possessions in a fire and managed to raise 8 children! I would encourage you to read some of her poetry, especially:

Verses Upon the Burning of Our House

The Flesh and the Spirit

Upon a Fit of Sickness

The Vanity of All Worldly Things

Her work is a great reminder of our own mortality and the temporariness of everything that we hold so close to us. Very inspiring woman!

I also read Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood over the weekend. Wow! What a story! Disturbing, odd, and I can't seem to get it out of my head. I highly recommend it. I enjoyed it more than The Violent Bear it Away. Everything that Rises Must Converge is a great set of short stories as well. I look forward to reading A Good Man is Hard to Find. I have heard great things about that one.

On a blog recently I read of a man's reading habits and how he selects books and his first rule of selecting a book is "No Fiction". I couldn't believe it! The more I read classic fiction the more I realize how much I gain from it and how much more I understand the human race through stories and the brilliant minds that have come before my usually dull one. I can't even begin to tell this man how much he is missing out on! What a waste! This is more than just entertainment, there is depth in these books that you can't find anywhere in our shallow culture. That is a whole discussion for another time though I guess. Anyway, 13 pages down, 7 to go!