This is a list of recommended resources I prepared for our Virginia Beach Fellows program. VB Fellows is a leadership development program for recent college grads, which I co-direct. Happy browsing! Feel free to leave your thoughts and questions in the comment section.
Short Reads, Watches, & Listens:
- On Justice: “Justice” by George MacDonald (a sermon that challenges what we mean when we say “God is just” and “Jesus died for our sins”): http://www.online-literature.com/george-macdonald/unspoken-sermons/31/
- On Love: “The Consuming Fire” by George MacDonald and Ross Byrd (a sermon that challenges what we mean when we say “God is love”): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-consuming-fire/id1514279395?i=1000475129327;
- On What We Can Know: “Light” by George MacDonald: http://www.online-literature.com/george-macdonald/3674/
- On What Christianity Is: “The Light Princess” by George MacDonald & Ross Byrd: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-light-princess/id1514279395?i=1000476189743
- On Sanity: “The Maniac” from G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy: https://archive.org/stream/orthodoxy16769gut/16769.txt
- On Tradition: “In Defense of Everything Else” from G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy: https://archive.org/stream/orthodoxy16769gut/16769.txt
- On Fairy Tales: “The Ethics of Elfland” from G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy: https://archive.org/stream/orthodoxy16769gut/16769.txt
- On The Holy Spirit: “Transposition” by C. S. Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXwJk8WtpUY
- On What Christianity Is: “Myth Became Fact” by C. S. Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4ETDN0XxSc
- On The Death Penalty: “On The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment” by C. S. Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxwnHVr192A
- On Christianity & Politics: “Dangers of National Repentance” by C. S. Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dangers+of+national+repentance
- On Identity: “Membership” by C. S. Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlHu_bmDFeA
- On Heaven & Hell: “The Weight of Glory” by C. S. Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVzecmgFPq0
- On Christianity & Politics: “Meditations on the Third Commandment” by C. S. Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FXGflU-2lQ
- On Tradition: “On the Reading of Old Books” by C. S. Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSFBdJgdrFw
- On COVID: “On Living in an Atomic Age” by C. S. Lewis (especially poignant in the pandemic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgSJ-FnGEnY&list=PLBsdQVyQoDTGJS-bkFHPEq4htvuV36mGk&index=48
- On Distrusting God: “God in the Dock” by C. S. Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj36Oc7PTog
- On What Christianity Is: “Is Theology Poetry?” by C. S. Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9RJ-Nf1zF4
- On Meaning: “Bluspels & Flalansferes: A Semantic Nightmare” by C. S. Lewis: https://pseudepigraph.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CSL-Bluspels-and-Flalansferes.pdf
- On Ethics: “The Abolition of Man” by C. S. Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX5e6eSkaMc
- On Forgiveness: “On Forgiveness” by C. S. Lewis (on forgiving vs. excusing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y3vE9bT9L8
- On Pacifism: “Why I’m Not A Pacifist” by C. S. Lewis (on how to do morality and how to trust tradition): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCMMNMb3ysI
- On Objectivity: “Meditation in a Toolshed” by C. S. Lewis (on the lie of strictly ‘objective’ knowledge): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXAWMd-h96k
- On Obedience: “A Slip of the Tongue” by C. S. Lewis (treating God and goodness like the taxman rather than the source of all joy): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAVw0Zh5bQY
- On Spiritual Dryness: “The Law of Undulation” from C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters Chapter 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcXMwlZi8hk&list=PLA8BAC9375345E6C7&index=8
- On Racial Justice: “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATPSht6318o
- On Scripture: “Death in the Psalms” from C. S. Lewis’s Reflections on the Psalms http://ltfmc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/reflections-on-the-psalms.pdf
- On Scripture: “Sweeter than Honey” from C. S. Lewis’s Reflections on the Psalms http://ltfmc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/reflections-on-the-psalms.pdf
- On Our Purpose: “A Word About Praising” from C. S. Lewis’s Reflections on the Psalms http://ltfmc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/reflections-on-the-psalms.pdf
- On Scripture: “Second Meanings” & “Scripture” from C. S. Lewis’s Reflections on the Psalms http://ltfmc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/reflections-on-the-psalms.pdf
- An Argument Against God: “The Grand Inquisitor” by Fyodor Dostoevsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UduOywQZvZM&t=82s
- A Debate About God: The Vancouver Debates on Religion (Sam Harris & Jordan Peterson) https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&feature=share&v=jey_CzIOfYE; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEf6X-FueMo
- What Is Truth? “Ideology, Logos, & Belief” (Jordan Peterson): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC1pvjyKYr4
- What Is Truth? Waking Up Podcast #62: “What Is True?” (Sam Harris & Jordan Peterson): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-sense-with-sam-harris/id733163012?i=1000380235965
- On The Gifts of the Spirit: “Charisms” & “The Cosmic Dance”: Podcasts by Peter Kreeft
- On Scripture: Watch these three quick Youtube videos of Tim Keller talking about the Bible. They’re nice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUisUZ42HLA&t=6s + https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J67U2oTj5g + https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZAPFKXMy_Y
- On Heaven & Hell: The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis: Chapter 8 (“Hell”) and Chapter 10 (“Heaven”) http://www.samizdat.qc.ca/cosmos/philo/PDFs/ProblemofPain_CSL.pdf
- On Heaven & Hell: Tim Keller sermon: “Hell: Isn’t the God of Christianity an Angry Judge” (audio file)
- On Hesed: Russell Moore Podcast on the Meaning of Hesed: https://www.russellmoore.com/2019/10/17/a-conversation-with-michael-card/.
- On Ritual: Theologian James K.A. Smith arguing that, for better or worse, we are WAY more shaped by “ritual” than we think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5R2m221wMw
- On Personal Discipline: Podcasts on Personal Disciplines: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-manliness/id332516054?i=1000449995782; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lead-to-win-with-michael-hyatt/id1294885433?i=1000417345336
- On Pornography: https://eppc.org/publications/a-science-based-case-for-ending-the-porn-epidemic/
- On Politics: Two videos by author/professor Jonathan Haidt on how the “Right” and “Left” struggle to understand one another. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs41JrnGaxc; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMRpzblD8VE
Non-fiction Books (in no particular order):
- Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity
- Lewis, C. S. The Four Loves
- Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters
- Lewis, C. S. Miracles
- Lewis, C. S. Reflections on the Psalms
- Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain
- Lewis, C. S. A Grief Observed
- Lewis, C. S. George MacDonald (an anthology)
- Lewis, C. S. Letters to Malcolm (Chiefly On Prayer)
- Lewis, C. S. The Discarded Image (on medieval literature)
- Chesterton, G. K. Orthodoxy
- Chesterton, G. K. The Everlasting Man
- Chesterton, G. K. Heretics
- Chesterton, G. K. What’s Wrong With the World
- Chesterton, G. K. A Short History of England
- Chesterton, G. K. Saint Thomas Aquinas
- MacDonald, George Unspoken Sermons
- Tolkien, J. R. R. On Fairy Stories
- Smith, James K.A. How (Not) To Be Secular
- Taleb, Nassim Antifragile
- Taleb, Nassim Skin in the Game
- Holland, Tom Dominion
- Boswell, James A Life of Johnson
- King, Stephen On Writing
- Durant, Will The Story of Philosophy
- Thiel, Peter Zero to One
- Crouch, Andy Culture Making
- Keller, Timothy The Meaning of Marriage
- Augustine, Confessions
- Comer, John Mark The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
- Zaleski, Phillip The Fellowship (a biography of the Inklings)
- Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
- Wright, N. T. Jesus and the Victory of God
- Nietzsche, Friedrich Beyond Good & Evil
Fiction (in no particular order):
- Dostoevsky, Fyodor The Brothers Karamazov
- Dostoevsky, Fyodor Crime and Punishment
- Dostoevsky, Fyodor The Idiot
- Dostoevsky, Fyodor Notes From Underground
- Dostoevsky, Fyodor The Gambler
- Tolstoy, Leo Resurrection
- Lewis, C. S. The Chronicles of Narnia Series
- Lewis, C. S. The Space Trilogy
- Lewis, C. S. Til We Have Faces
- Lewis, C. S. The Great Divorce
- Lewis, C. S. The Dark Tower (unfinished but a gem)
- Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings
- Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit
- MacDonald, George The Princess and the Goblin
- MacDonald, George The Princess and Curdie
- MacDonald, George Lilith
- MacDonald, George The Light Princess
- MacDonald, George The Golden Key
- MacDonald, George At the Back of the North Wind
- MacDonald, George Phantastes
- Chesterton, G. K. The Man Who Was Thursday
- Chesterton, G. K. The Ball and the Cross
- Percy, Walker The Moviegoer
- Pears, Iain Arcadia
- Brown, Pierce The Red Rising Series
- Enger, Leif Peace Like A River
- Shakespeare, William Macbeth
- Shakespeare, William King Lear
- Shakespeare, William Othello
- Shakespeare, William The Tempest
- Orwell, George Animal Farm
- Rand, Ayn Atlas Shrugged
- Rand, Ayn The Fountainhead
- Adams, Richard Watership Down
- Doerr, Anthony All The Light We Cannot See
- Herbert, Frank Dune
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby
- Mitchell, David Cloud Atlas
- O’Connor, Flannery Wise Blood
- O’Connor, Flannery A Good Man Is Hard To Find
- Dickens, Charles Great Expectations
- Faulkner, William The Sound & The Fury
- Melville, Herman Moby Dick
- Twain, Mark A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court
- Young, William P. The Shack
- Rowling, J. K. The Harry Potter Series
- McCarthy, Cormac Blood Meridian
- McCarthy, Cormac The Road
- McCarthy, Cormac All The Pretty Horses
- Huxley, Brave New World