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Words of Delight

September 2005

 

One of my favorite writers is a professor of English out of Wheaton College named Leland Ryken. My good friend, Dave White, introduced me to his works in the mid-to-late Ô80Õs by loaning me a copy of a book the professor had co-authored with Jim Wilhoit, Effective Bible Teaching. I ate that book up.


Later, I was browsing a Bible bookstore in town and serendipitously found two other books authored by Professor Ryken titled, Words of Delight, and its sequel, Words of LifeÑliterary introductions of the Old and New Testaments (now in one volume). In these two books the Professor plies the tools of his trade to the Bible and offers the reader some of the most useful insights on how to effectively study the Bible. I decided to use them as textbooks in hermeneutics at the Southern California School of Evangelism.

I also found these delightful works:

  • The Christian Imagination: Essays on Literature and the Arts (A Reader)
  • A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible (co-edited with Tremper Longman III)
  • Culture in Christian Perspective: A Door to Understanding and Enjoying the Arts
  • Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (An encyclopedic exploration of the images, symbols, motifs, metaphors, figures of speech and literary patterns of the Bible, co-edited with Jim Wilhoit and Tremper Longmann III)
  • The Discerning Reader: Christian persectives on literature and theory (co-edited with David Barratt and Roger Pooley)
  • Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective
  • Triumphs of the Imagination: Literature in Christian Perspective
  • Windows to the World: Literature in Christian Perspective

Go to www.amazon.com and type his name in their search engine for a complete list of books written, co-authored, and co-edited by him.


I am currently reading his introduction to C. S. LewisÕ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and am waiting for the post office to deliver his most recent work, RykenÕs Bible Handbook, a book that provides a literary introduction to every book in the Bible, co-authored with Jim Wilhoit, and Philip Ryken, his son.


I havenÕt the space to list the articles he has written that have aided me in my work. Consider that your homework assignment.

 

Steven Lloyd