A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth

As a refreshing contrast to the sickly, modern, pseudo-Christian culture outlined in the last article to which I linked, I recommend to you a little book called Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth, by Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson.

Therein, the authors propose a vision for how one lives out the Gospel, and they call it "Protestant medievalism". It's a broad vision, and one whose main feature is that it is unabashedly and fiercely anti-modern. Not postmodern, which is simply a reaction to modernity and so can't escape the modernist project--it's non-modern. They note that the Middle Ages, from Augustine to the Renaissance, though a much-maligned period by moderns, was in fact a remarkable period of Christian piety and faithfulness, with a concern for truth, beauty, and goodness that has not been seen since. Jones and Wilson propose a cultural return to medievalism, led by Christians informed by the doctrinal advances of the Reformation. This medievalism they flesh out in several ways--renewed understanding of the beauty of God's holiness, a culture of celebration that manifests itself in feasting and lovemaking, a transformed love for the Church, wife, children, education, agrarian virtues, and much, much more.

I recommend this book to you because it is the most worthwhile reading I've found in a long time, and because it squarely addresses many of the topics I've thought about and discussed with other PHC students recently: beauty and aesthetics, laughter, poetry, and the Gospel as the only possible means of real social change. This book has, among other things, changed my view of the Church and possibly put me on the road away from being a Baptist (I think); sharpened my antipathy toward modernity; killed any desire I once had for political power; given me true hope for cultural renewal; and, I hope, made me a more joyful person. Not bad for 160 pages.

If this sounds interesting, read the foreword and introduction here. It's worth your time.