The Lost Art of True Beauty by Leslie Ludy

The subtitle of The Lost Art of True Beauty is The Set-Apart Girl’s Guide to Feminine Grace, which implies the spiritual aspect of beauty. Ludy strongly urges her readers to find true beauty as they separate themselves from the values of the world and draw closer to Christ. The thoughts I’ve woven together below are taken from the author’s own words.

She rightly points out that we live in a culture that lifts up a standard of beauty impossible to achieve in real life. “We are constantly assaulted by a world that insists we aren’t alluring enough – we need to change our bodies, our clothes, and our personality in order to be more appealing.”(p. 26)

“Love yourself, take care of yourself, transform yourself” are our mantras. But as Ludy points out, these are totally contrary to scripture. Christ said, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”(Mark 8:34) The word “deny” here literally translates: to forget one’s self, lose sight of one’s self and one’s own interests… The secret to becoming radiant and beautiful is to forget about self and become completely consumed with only one thing – Jesus Christ…. (p.30)

The first step to discovering true feminine beauty is exchanging all that we are for all the He is. If we rely on something that we possess to make us beautiful, we cannot receive the supernatural, transforming beauty of Christ. True beauty is impossible outside of Him. (p.22)

God’s pattern is the very opposite of the “bad girl” image so applauded in our modern times… Somewhere along the way, as the culture became more cavalier toward sin and selfishness, the idea of being dignified, refined, ladylike, gracious, and socially selfless faded into the background. Now young women seem to get far more respect if they are loud, boisterous, rebellious, obnoxious, and sexually aggressive than if they are sweet, polite, graceful, refined, modest and thoughtful… (p.44)

[But] true beauty, in a nutshell, is found in a soul completely surrendered to Jesus Christ, a heart consumed by Him alone, and a life eagerly poured out for His sake. (p.168)

(I wish someone had given me this book as a teenager.)

Silence by Shusaku Endo

If I have to pick between a Protestant novelist or a Catholic one, I almost always choose the latter. That probably sounds funny coming from a Methodist, but experience has shown that fiction written by Catholic authors manages to deal with theological issues while at the same time avoiding simplistic, pat answers. Shusako Endo’s Silence is no exception.

The story takes place in Japan in the 1600’s. Though all missionaries have been expelled, several priests enter the country secretly to give pastoral care to the Catholic converts. Father Sebastian Rodrigues has an additional motive for making the trip: One of his favorite seminary teachers had been in Japan as a missionary and was rumored to have denied the faith while under torture. Rodrigues' quest to discover the truth makes up the bulk of the novel's second half.

The book deals with the issues of suffering, persecution, forgiveness, and the efficacy of prayer. (The title refers to God’s seeming indifference to the suffering Christians’ prayers.) Powerful stuff! This is not a light read, nor does it have a nice, neat ending. But if you like to grapple with real-life questions in a well-written book, you’ll appreciate Silence.

C.S. Lewis on The Great Books

Few have equaled C.S. Lewis in their ability to distill complicated truths into understandable sentences. He wrote the introduction to a book I am reading now. And his thoughts alone are worth the price of the book. In the intro he writes that novice readers prefer reading modern, "simplified" versions of classic theology and philosophy books because they feel inadequate to understand the original documents. Here is Lewis' response:

This seems topsy-turvy to me... If the ordinary reader must read only the new or the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it...

There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books.... If the average student wants to find out about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read it. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about "isms" and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error is rather an amiable one, for its springs from humility. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavors as a teacher to persuade the young that first-hand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than second-hand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.

From intro to On The Incarnation by Athanasius

Worthwhile Movie #3 - Behind the Mask

I can’t remember where I heard about Behind the Mask, but it must have been one of those “If you like this, then you’ll like that…” lists. Frankly, it is one of the best recommendations I’ve ever received.

Behind the Mask is a true story of a doctor who works in a center for the developmentally disabled. Although Dr. Shushan started out his career as a caring physician, he is now nothing more than a paper pusher who has lost sight of his purpose for living and is out of touch with his wife and son. A heart attack at work and subsequent rescue by one of the troubled young employees begins a series of events that turns his life around.

This made-for-TV movie will amaze and delight you. The script is excellent (and surprisingly clean). The acting is stellar. Robert Shushan is played by Donald Sutherland (who endeared himself to me with his role in the 2006 Pride and Prejudice). Matthew Fox is the custodial worker, James Jones (who has endeared himself to many in his role on the TV show “Lost”.) It’s a movie that manages to be both serious (though not depressing), and satisfying without being sticky sweet. The footage of the actual people involved in the story added to its impact.

Netflix has it, but you can buy it used at Amazon for less than the price of a movie ticket. Make sure you get the right one because there is an R-rated movie by the same name. When we finished watching the DVD, my college-age son asked if he could keep it to show to all of his friends. You’ll probably want to do the same.

They Loved to Laugh by Kathryn Worth

        They Loved to Laugh was recommended by another book blogger (forgive me for not remembering who), but it was a while before I could get my hands on it. Now I’m glad I made the effort.

        At first it had the feel of an Anne of Green Gables book: orphan comes to live with family and endears herself to their hearts. But that is where the resemblance ends. Sixteen year old Martitia Howland loses her parents to yellow fever and is adopted by the Quaker doctor who was with them when they died. The book details her next two years in Dr. Gardner’s home as she gets used to his five boisterous sons and one unfriendly daughter. The title refers to the mischief-loving Gardner sons. Yet as the book progresses, we see that under their boyish exteriors, they are kind and thoughtful young men.

        There are many things to love about this book. First, religion is mentioned as a matter-of-fact part of their lives, but the book is never preachy. Second, the Quaker “thees” and “thous” are not overdone and give poignancy to several conversations in the story. Third, I admired Martitia’s hard work to earn her place as new daughter. While she learns new skills, the reader also gains insight into how to weave cloth, sheer sheep, churn butter, etc. I learned a lot about farm life in the 1830’s.

        You’ll love the Gardner family and you’ll love this book.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

     Because it’s been a long time since I read this book, I decided to revisit it via Librivox audiobooks. One of the first novels to be written in the mystery genre, it’s the tale of two sisters and their art teacher and how their lives become intertwined. Like other sensationalist novels of the Victorian period it includes thwarted love, marital embezzlement, false identities and multiple twists and turns. It sounds tawdry, but I promise, The Woman in White is no fluffy soap opera.

     The novel is long (nineteen hours) yet worth the effort. And though the story line is interesting, it is not what I liked most about the book. First, I loved the solid, honorable character of the tutor, Walter Hartright, whose actions and reactions are always those of a perfect gentleman. Many times he goes against his own personal wishes to protect or help others. Second, I was impressed with the quality of the readers. Some Librivox books are excruciating to the ears, but this particular production has three of the best voices I’ve ever heard: Ruth Golding, Tim Bulkely, and David Barnes. Barnes' depiction of the despicable Uncle Frederick (in chapter 21) is spine-tingling in its accuracy. I plan to listen to additional books by these outstanding readers.

Save the Males by Kathleen Parker

My world view includes the idea that men and women were created differently to complement each other. Obviously, I worry about the push in our culture to emasculate our men and de-feminize our women. In the name of equality we seem to be losing our unique identities.

It’s no wonder that the book Save the Males by Kathleen Parker caught my attention. Frankly, it’s a book I’d recommend only to those who are concerned with the de-gendering of America because it is both profane and sexually explicit – things I abhor in books. Nevertheless, Parker is right on target in many of her assertions and I managed to skim the less savory passages to get to the main ideas. Chapter Seven on women in combat is worth the price of the book. I have never read so many clear cut reasons for not allowing it. One example is the ambivalent attitude of Radical Feminists concerning violence towards women:

“Feminists recognize the vulnerability of women when they are concerned with the plight of women who are victims of domestic abuse…. [yet] their position on integrating combat ranks puts them in the position of saying that violence against women is a terrible thing unless it is at the hands of the enemy, in which case it’s a welcome tribute to women’s equality.” (p. 183)

She concludes the chapter with, “Women historically have been excluded from combat for civilized reasons – not because they were deemed unworthy, but because they were deemed too worthy to be sacrificed to grisly men from hostile nations. The combat exclusion wasn’t an act of sex discrimination, but an act of decency.” (p. 184)

My conclusion: Everyone understood these things not too long ago and it’s astonishing how muddled we’ve become in our thinking. I recommend this insightful book to those who are troubled about the blurring of gender distinctions in our present day world.