Forgotten books for inspirational reading

During this time of personal and social distancing I suspect that many of you readers may be seeking readings of a more inspirational nature. So I’m reprising portions of an article I wrote over a decade ago to offer up a suggestion of two books that I have labeled “forgotten” because their authors lived in a past century. Just a few years ago it was difficult to find vintage books not already housed within a family library, but in todays internet world I would like to hope that great publications from an earlier age will find a new, younger audience.

For many years, around Easter, I would pull out for re-reading Giovanni Papini’s “Life of Christ” (1923),and John Keble’s “The Christian Year” (1827). These are the two books that I recommend you seek out for reading.

Giovanni’s book was a fixture in our family library, having been the very first book ever published by The Book-of-the Month Club, in l923. In the l980’s the book became missing from our library, and I spent the next twenty years trying to either locate our copy, or to search for a replacement. I became obsessed with the mystery, to the point of driving everyone to distraction, until, finally, my younger brother Brownie Andrew found a first edition and presented it to me on my birthday. I felt that an old friend had returned, and when it was placed in the bookshelf, along-side our Family Bible, I felt that my journey to find it was well worth the time.

“The Life of Christ” is a must-read for any religious scholar or for anyone who wishes to go beyond what is always available in bookstores on the life of Christ, although the Bible is naturally the best source. The King James English version has been followed in the Bible quotations of this translation, except in a few cases where an alteration in the Revised Version was evidently the result of a better understanding of the original Greek or Hebrew text.

The book is a vivid paraphrase of the Biblical accounts of the life of Christ and was an Italian and French best-seller before it was translated into English by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. It sold more than 200,000 copies in the United States and was widely distributed to newspapers by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.

Some critics believe that “The Life of Christ” is one of the great biographies of all time. The book reads very much like a scholarly novel (if there is such a thing), but since translators into English often omit passages they feel will displease too-narrow Anglo-Saxon readers, there are excisions of paragraphs here and there in a few chapters, but there is no sense of expurgation. Giovanni’s research has been hailed as one of the most extensive researches ever done on the life of Christ.

It is impossible to draw a long, free breath when reading this book. I first read it at the age of seventeen, but readings in later years made me realize that there is a great deal that a young, unobstructed mind may not fully comprehend. Later in life, when we better understand that the diverse parts of the universe exhibit unity, we see intelligence and life in everything, and that the human soul is a gift to us as the greatest of all achievements. I must add however that this book is not reading for the squeamish. It is written as thought the reader is actually there.
Papini weaves this thought through this powerful and magnificent book on Christ by declaring that many say that he was/is the prophet of the weak; where, on the contrary, He came to give strength to the languishing and to raise up those trodden under foot to be higher than king, because he believed that life as in everything, no matter how small or how large.

When Giovanni published his controversial book, “ll Diavolo” (The Devil), the Catholic Church banned the book in Rome because of its defense of the Devil and its thesis that even Hell itself will come to an end. Giovanni believed that even the Devil was not beyond Divine redemption.

John Keble’s extraordinary book of poetry “The Christian Year” has been an enormously popular book since its publication, for its influence on readers who happen to have a rare copy. There is an anecdote that is attributed to Wordsworth, which is widely quoted: “The book is so good that if it were mine, I would rewrite it.” These pious poems, as written by Keble, were to him simply religious poems in their purest forms. On every single page the reader cannot help but feel that Keble was not only a great scholar, but also a saint. Keble’s poems are filled with a soft quietness and calmness unlike any poetry ever written on the love of nature. An example: “Which of us is not sometimes affected, almost to despair by the splendid vision of earth and sky?”
The sad thing about this scholar’s work is that most people have never heard of him, not even some nature lovers who profess to know any writer who has been able to write with such power and conviction. Keble was born in l795 and died in l812, and his name has been lost in most of the important books on “green spirituality.” Keble believed that faith could not be found without a great respect for nature.

A recommended book, if Keble cannot be found, is “Meditations on the Earth”, which was compiled by Holly Hughes and illustrated by Mark Weakley. This book comes from the Nature Company, whose motto states that nature provides the inspiration for this eloquent collection of thoughts from naturalists, writers, philosophers, and scientists. Highly recommended by this writer.

“When you find yourself overpowered, as it were, by melancholy, the best way is to go out and do something.” (John Keble)