That's No Bookstore...

It's A Metaphor

This past Saturday my lovely wife and I went forth in defiance of, and in scorn against, all of the Valentine’s Day haters everywhere and quested for an enjoyable evening. Well, we managed to achieve it, though the circumstances proved to be against us! That’s the great thing about Susan Allee, I don’t really care all that much where we go or what we do as long as I get to be with her. We enjoyed a nice dinner in the quaint little district of downtown Gilbert, AZ and afterwards took a little stroll together. We were just heading back to where we had parked the car when we saw a new bookstore and, being the sort of people we are, decided we’d better just check it out.

I want to give credit where I can, so here is all I can give. It was a nice spot for a bookstore. The interior of the shop, the lighting, the general decor of the place, the smell of coffee, etc., was all very pleasant. Had I entered this location as someone who wanted to start a little independent book shop and saw the place laid out as it was and with bookshelves waiting to be filled with books I would have said to myself, “Self, this could be a great little book shop!” All the potentiality was in its favor! There was just one problem…this wasn’t a real bookstore…

Oh, don’t get me wrong, it contained many objects which some might deign to call “books.” There were papery things with ink printed on the pages and covers which a set of pastels had evidently become violently sick upon, but books…real books? No, those seemed absent altogether.

There was an overwhelming number of sexually explicit romantic “fantasy” trash being offered to the public for consumption, but there didn’t seem to be much that might actually enrich one’s mind or direct one’s heart towards truth, goodness, or beauty. I have a hard time imagining that there was even anything here which could be called “well-written” let alone containing a meaningful or edifying story.

However, as my wife and I lingered for a moment in a kind of awed disgust, we did notice something. Feeling a bit like the apostle Paul in Athens, “People of Gilbert, as I passed along observing the various objects of your worship” this I observed also…

…there actually were some real books in this “bookstore” after all. But the thing was, none of those real books were for sale. They were being used to display the garbage the store was selling.¹ The Harvard Classics, like Cervantes’ Don Quixote here, were mere props for the wares of this werewolfish pseudo-bookstore. The Great Books were present, but only for the purpose of displaying necklaces or lesbian (or transgendered) elicit fantasies. Most jarring of all, however, was that even The Psalter Hymnal could be found underneath one of the heaps of garbage that was for sale.

As my wife and I left the shop I couldn’t help but reflect upon the experience. The shop had actually been pretty busy, too. The more I dwelt upon it the more I couldn’t help but see that this place wasn’t so much a bookstore as it was a metaphor for civilizational decay. Our society has reached a kind of revolting decadence where all of the freedoms we enjoy, all the privileges of plenty, have led us to a rejection of the very things which gave us our prosperity. The Christians faith and the great Western Tradition of history and literature, with all of the riches there are to gain from their treasure-hoards, have been reduced to mere decor, mere props, upon which we now set our nihilistic feet and revel in our own depravity.

Indeed, that is what we have largely become as Americans (and Westerners in general). We are still enjoying a great many of the benefits which were reaped by those who came before and who thought deeply about life, its meaning, and how we were to live for something more than our own pursuit of pleasure. Men and women, for centuries, built a civilization and produced incredible works of art, architecture, music, science, literature, etc. and we are standing at the end of all their efforts and living off of their capital and what do we do? We despise their gifts and show our utter contempt toward them. Too few people today read anything at all beyond stop signs and menus, and far too many of those who do read books read the kind of garbage that this busy little “bookstore” sells.

But we cannot hope, as a people, to rest forever upon past intellectual, moral, or productive capital of our forefathers. Things which are not maintained, preserved, and intentionally passed on to our children will inevitably vanish altogether. What today we stand upon may tomorrow be nothing but air underneath our feet and then all of this comes toppling down. It’s happened before, the Roman Empire tells the story…but then again we’d have to read something of quality to know about it.

Study The Great Books is not just a curriculum house, nor a mere for-profit business, rather, it is a bulwark against civilizational collapse. Our mission is to connect this generation, and the ones to come, to the truth, goodness, and beauty of what came before. We are working to show our fellow travellers, midway on the journey of this life, that the blessings we enjoy are not guaranteed nor imperishable, but that they must be fought for and preserved in both mind and deed. If we want our own children and grandchildren to enjoy freedom and prosperity, we must labor to pass on to other faithful men what those before us were faithful to pass on to us. We cannot scorn the gifts of knowledge and wisdom, we cannot pursue mere carnal lust and unbridled pleasure, without rushing headlong into disaster. What took centuries to build can be leveled flat in a single generation and that is, indeed, the barrel of the gun we find ourselves looking down right now.

But all is not lost. Hope yet shines and, as is always true, the light is always brightest when its surroundings are at their darkest. Right now there are networks across this country (and indeed beyond) of classical Christian schools and devoted homeschooling families who are cutting down the Asherah Poles of this present darkness, lopping off the heads of modern Dagons, and lifting high the cross of Christ in their place. They are standing on God’s word and delving into the curated treasures of the West, not as mere societal props, but as steadfast footholds to endure the present storm. What’s more, they are not merely refusing to be driven back, they are pushing forward and they are repairing what has begun to crumble, renovating what is old and making it new again, and they are building new institutions upon these precious gifts so that our inheritance is not lost forever and so that our people may not utterly fail.

Too many of this present generation only stand on the shoulders of the great men and women who came before us so as to have a better place to spit on their heads, but we stand upon their shoulders with gratitude so that we might reach places we could never go on our own. To each of us is given this choice, will we be prodigals who squander our inheritance on lavish living and prostitutes or will we reinvest the capital we’ve been given by our fathers (and indeed our Father) so that we might give it back to our Master when he returns from the far off country with far more than he gave us to begin with? I suggest that in the latter option you will find something far more befitting your dignity as an image bearer of God than in the former.

Come and join us as we push back the darkness until the light of Christ shines over the whole world.

We are celebrating God’s faithfulness this week as STGB has exceeded 10,000 subscribers! From now through Sunday, February 22, paid subscriptions to Study The Great Books are only $4 a month. Gain access to an ever-growing library of Great Books study guides and other classical Christian humanities curriculum in convenient PDFs. You also will gain access to other benefits like live-online book clubs!

1. Okay, okay, the necklaces weren’t particularly revolting. Trying to be fair where I can.