This is so cool! I went to the bookstore this morning to get my books, and even though I was by myself and could hardly carry them all, I didn't mind. Look what my Renaissance Literature class is reading, and tell me if you can think of anything better.

Vita Nuova - Dante (description of his love for Beatrice and its progression)
Sonnets - Petrarch
Poems by Donne and Herbert
Sonnets - Shakespeare
The Old Arcadia - Sidney
Sonnets, Astroyphyl and Stella - Sidney
Faerie Queen - Spenser
Confessions - Augustine
On Christian Teaching - Augustine (involving a discussion of how Christian doctrine, Christian rhetoric, and how far Christians can use pagan learning)

And add to that I'm also in British Lit I this semester with a professor who's all but obsessed with Malory and the Arthurian legends. Beowulf . . . Chaucer . . . more Spenser and Sidney . . . Malory . . . can you get any better?

I'm going to enjoy this semester so much more than last semester, I can already tell. I like my music better, my classes better, and my books better. Even though I'm going to end up with around 18 hours, I won't mind working, because I'll be in such good company - magnificent authors and mighty composers. I will concede that everybody should have at least one semester of postmodern literature in his lifetime, but I ask no more. If you never open another postmodern work in your life, you won't suffer (unless postmodern lit suddenly takes a major turn for the better).

I have to ask it. Peter said "sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you." Why do Christians need to labor to portray the world's misery? I can't believe the world doesn't already have a mighty good idea already that it's miserable. If effectiveness is what we're looking at, I think HOPE would startle the world a good bit more. Peter doesn't say "always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks a reason for your remarkable understanding of misery." So why do Christian novelists obsess over misery? Tell it like it is. Proclaim the law. But we were sent to proclaim the gospel - the good news, weren't we? Our efforts should be towards wisdom, beauty, order, and delight. They're all the result of our HOPE. What other reason is there for striving for or enjoying the true, the good, the lovely, the noble?

The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.