Friday, February 04, 2005

Reading books for the long-haul



Currently, I'm reading Groen van Prinster's Lectures on Belief and Revolutionby Dr Harry Van Dyke, professor of history at Redeemer University College, who has contributed several chapters of background to the figure of Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer (1801-1876). The lectures embedded in this book and enititled in the original Dutch Ongeloof en Revolutie constitute Groen's most important book; the tag on his name "van Prinsterer" means ruffly "of the Prince's Household," as Groen was a secretary and then official archivist of the Royal House of Orange of the reconstituted Kingdom of the Netherlands, after the Napoleanic régime was finally kicked out. He wrote facing and responding to the same European zeitgeist that produced Marx; but Groen was restorationist of the earlier monarchial tradition of Christian rootage, which he sawt to renew and update. My digifriend Harry has done a wonderful job in creating this 1989 volume (disclosure: I received my copy as a Christmas present from him this year). Thanks, Harry!

I have two further books on my Reading To-Do list: Dr James Skillen's In Pursuit of Justice: Christian-Democratic Explorations (2004). Also, Dr David Koyzis' Politics: Visions and Illusions: A Survey & Christian Critique of Contemporary Ideologies (1998).

No comments: