For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1st Corinthians 2:2).
At some point one must ask, “what is enough?”
The reader, the classicist, the student or teacher is no less prone to covetousness and curiosity, to the idea that this set of books is necessary to become worthy, accomplished, or sufficient.
Is not insecurity, fear, and a belief that much is better than little done well.
But what is that all these books have said, have tried to instruct me in, other than the sufficiency of God, the endless and hopeless promise of “the next good thing.”
If a teacher has no home in which he rests, he has nothing to teach.
If a student studies only from anxiety and insecurity, he learns little, and what he learns is soon forgotten. As if I might ever attain to an expertise which would relieve me from the burden and humility of being a student of this world and its Master.
May I, Oh God, forget what is next on my list, if what is next crowds out what is first. May I find that you, Oh Lord, are ever my true Instructor, and your Word, the true book in which my heart rests and delights.
Many colleges display the vast numbers of books their students read, and by association, the number of books and ideas their professors have comprehended.
May we at New College Franklin, and may our professors ever boast in the smallness of our purview, that is, may we ever proclaim that the book we read is Christ, and the texts we choose, if not accidental, are chosen not for numerosity, but because they too somehow make much of Christ or help us to do so.
Same & Other 