Leland Ryken - Pastors in the Classics: Timeless Lessons on Life and Ministry from World Literature

This book was conceived when the two authors who are pastors independently envisioned a book that explores the image of the pastor and issues of ministry in literary masterpieces. Both would-be authors also independently requested the literary scholar on the authorial team to serve as coauthor. The convergence of these ingredients was sufficient to launch the project.

What Kind of Book Is This?

This book is a road map to literary masterpieces in which the pastors experience is a major part of the story. In fact, this book contains nearly everything that a reader or discussion leader needs in order to get started on an exploration of the pastor in literature.

The first part of the book is a readers guide to twelve important literary classics in which pastors are the mainspring of the action. These masterworks were written in four centuries and cover seven nationalities. The analyses of these works go beyond description to interpretation. Furthermore, each chapter highlights a specific feature of pastoral ministry that the literary work itself puts before us. Reflection/discussion questions are part of these chapters.

The second part of the book is a handbooka reference book that defines the canon of literary masterpieces that deal with the pastors experience. The entries in this section give all the information a reader needs when selecting literary works that deal with pastors.

In summary, this book is both a readers guide to major works and a reference book containing information about the field as a whole.

Aims and Goals of This Book

The first goal of this book is to facilitate the reading of some great works of literature. We hope the works covered in this book will emerge in readers imaginations as literary delights. They are works of literature first of all and works providing insight into the pastors life within that parameter. It is important to note additionally that the works surveyed are not narrowly concerned with issues of ministry but actually cover all of life. For example, T. S. Eliots play Murder in the Cathedral portrays not only the final days in the life of a saint but also the life of the common citizens of Canterbury in their daily routine of hopes and fears.

Literature has a unique ability to speak to the whole person, and the books surveyed in this volume can teach and move readers in a way that nonliterary books about ministry do not. This is partly a difference between showing and telling. A contemporary book on issues in ministry might tell a minister not to enter into sexual relations with a woman in the congregation, while Nathaniel Hawthornes famous story shows why a minister should not do so.

Second, we chose works in which the pastors life is a major ingredient. Accordingly, the commentary focuses chiefly on the ways in which the works portray and clarify issues in the ministers life and vocation. The table of contents of this book shows at a glance the issues the respective literary works addressscandalous clergy, hidden sin in a preachers life, the dilemma of the unworthiness of ministers to do Gods work, and so forth. The books chosen for this volume can help to shape the spiritual life of people in ministry.

Third, most of the works covered in this book place the ministers life within a broader Christian context. The works thus incline toward the broad category known as Christian literatureliterature that portrays experiences that are important to Christians and that endorses Christian doctrines. For most of the works, therefore, the usual rewards of reading Christian literature will be present, including reflection on the Christian life, affirmation of a Christian worldview, and nurture of the soul. John Milton said that one of the effects of reading Christian literature is that it sets the affections [the old word for emotions] in right tune. The works discussed in this book generally make the grade and can legitimately be called devotional reading. Thus, The Scarlet Letter is a Christian classic in its portrayal of salvation, quite apart from the fact that it deals with ministerial issues.