OF THE MAKING OF BOOKS….

The King James Bible translated Ecclesiastes 12:12 as “The making of books is endless”. But the New English Bible has it as “The use of books is endless.” Of course, the one, (use) depends on the other (making), but in any case, while the King James version translated the author’s title as “The Preacher”, most modern versions seem to prefer the title “The Speaker”, probably not a name but rather an honorific title. Yet, the fact remains that humans continue to produce books, “ad infinitum”. I apologize in advance for contributing to this endless flow of words, but I hope my readers will find the following account interesting, even humorous.

1. Getting Started

My own contribution to this endless flow of words began back in 1960 when as a brand-new young professor I submitted a reduced version of my Philosophy Master’s thesis on the thought of Reinhold Niebuhr to the prestigious theological journal Theology Today for publication consideration. Lo and behold, it was accepted and published a year later. I did not realize it at the time, but this meant that I had been bitten by the writer’s bug. I straightway followed this submission with a few more somewhat similar type manuscripts to a couple of other theological journals. They also agreed to publish my initial efforts. I was off and running as a budding author.

            Over the next few years, I continued to submit essays to scholarly journals after I returned to graduate school to finish my Ph.D. degree. Most of these were in fact versions of some of my graduate school term papers on various thinkers’ thoughts, and several of these found their way into print by the time I graduated. On the one hand, I was very pleased to have been so successful so early in my career, but at the same time I was still eager to write and publish a book. I did put together a volume of scholarly “Essays on the Thought of Soren Kierkegaard” by this very title, but I only included one of my own essays in this volume.

            About that time as well (early 1970s) I persuaded Macmillan Publishers to print a series of small volumes containing important essays by well-known scholars under the title “Philosophy Today.” By then I was beginning to feel that I was becoming something of a scholar, but I still had not written a book in which I developed my own thought. The “Philosophy Today” series became a real success and I was asked to give papers at several national philosophy conferences. Slowly my ideas for my first full book began to come together. Over the years my interest in the philosophy of religion began to dominate my thoughts and I decided to write a book on my own ideas about the relation between faith and reason. So, in the summer of 1968 I sat down and wrote my first book entitled On Knowing God, which was published by Westminster Press a couple of years later.

            Things began to roll faster from then on. A British publishing company, Allen and Unwin, published my dissertation on the thought of Ian Ramsey, the Professor I had studied with while doing a short stint at Oxford University. It was titled To Speak Responsibly of God. I was teaching at Eckerd College at that time. During my eight years there I became more productive with scholarly journal articles and wrote several well-received books. In a way learned journal articles are a better sign of a scholar’s productivity and creativity than are published books. I wrote any number of philosophical articles for the International Philosophical Quarterly, Mind, The Journal of Aesthetics, and Philosophy Today on various subjects such as the thought of Merleau-Ponty, Peter Berger, Plato, Suzanne Langer, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, as well as a good number of theological articles on Kierkegaard,  Ingmar Bergman, Heidegger, and Christian Ethics, in Encounter, Theology Today, Christian Scholar’s Review, and Religious Studies.

                                                            

 

   2.                                                                     

It is ironic to me that writing, scholarly essays or otherwise, had never been a priority or even on my radar screen before about 1980. When I began to take scholarly writing seriously, I was helped a great deal by my good friend and English faculty colleague at Seattle Pacific College in the 1960s, Leon Arksey. He pre-read many of my early efforts and always had helpful things to say. My years at Duke also gave me ample opportunity to develop skills, especially because I did not have to work or teach during those years. I grew to love writing philosophical and theological papers and books. It became my main hobby during those early years.

      I have always sought to get clearer and deeper with respect to the really interesting and/or important conceptual issues. It’s so odd because as I said, there was absolutely no indication that I would be able to do this sort of thing. I was a straight “C” student all the way through my school days. In college I advanced to being a “B” most of the time. During my first term in graduate school one professor called me in and said about my first short paper: “Frankly, I have absolutely no idea what you are trying to say here.”

            Indeed, almost a year later when I was struggling to write my Master’s thesis my advisor barely submitted to pressure from the Department Head to allow it to pass. Somehow, as I continued my graduate studies in theological school, as a continued to read and think about the key issues involved, I seemed to evolve into an acceptable thinker and writer. As I kept at it during my early years as a college professor I seemed to progress rather rapidly, and the above list of publications witnesses to this growth. For the past thirty years I have absolutely loved the challenge of trying to express my ideas clearly and interestingly. In addition, I have grown to love challenging my students to think and write clearly on their papers.

            As I think back on it, I am aware that my initial impetus for getting started with writing scholarly material that is still readable to beginners came from a friend and colleague at the Stony Brook School on Long Island, Bruce Lockerbie. We were about the same age, and he had a Master’s degree English from NYU. He encouraged me to get writing and set a fast pace with his own early publications. We are still friends after all these 70 years and we both are still publishing. Bruce’s example of enthusiasm and stiving for clarity still has its effect on my own work. Along with Leon Arksey mentioned above, Bruce was my earliest mentor. I have always tried to emulate their advice and examples in the way I speak to students about their own work.

            Perhaps my greatest publishing success came when I was asked to edit a fresh version of The Enduring Questions, the introduction to philosophy text originally published by one of my University of Washington professors, Melvin Rader. He had seen it through four editions since its first publican in 1955 before he died. I got to edit three more editions before the publisher put it to rest. It is a first-rate introductory text consisting of dozens of readings from all the great Western thinkers together with my own editorial comments. In a way I consider this book to be my most significant effort professionally speaking. Its last publication was in 2002 by the Wadsworth Company.                                                                   

3.                                                

One of the most rewarding aspects of the teaching profession is that of being able to work with college students toward their becoming responsible thinkers. Very soon after my start as a professor I realized that this would be one of my major goals as a teacher. After teaching for a few years, I decided that the regular lecture-exam pattern was not good enough. I switched to a more radical approach of small rotating discussion teams leading the conversation based on their individual two-page analysis of the assigned material. The team that was up for the day and I shared the exploration of the day’s assigned reading by exploring their focusing and evaluating of the main thrust of the reading.

            As the students shared their analyses and thoughts I kept some notes on the chalkboard for further reference, trying to keep track of the main points of the discussion. This approach allowed for us to cover the material by sharing the students’ ideas while maximizing their participation. At the close of each major unit in the course the students would write a three to five-page take-home paper responding to my assigned focus question aimed at a summary conclusion about the major issues involved in the reading. This new approach allowed for a focused consideration of the material as well as the opportunity for each student to take part. I really think this approach greatly enhanced the overall learning experience.

            In short, I really think overall my students learned from this approach to the material, both how to think and how to express their ideas in writing. In addition, there was a life to the class sessions that had not existed before. Moreover, over the years several of my students went on to do graduate work with distinction. Many of them shared with me that the way we learned together how to think and write really made all the difference in their overall education. Indeed, over the years a good many of them actually earned doctorate degrees, became professors themselves, and several wrote books of their own.     

            I usually had between 20 and 30 in these classes, but once there were 100 and it was a real challenge. We had ten groups of ten and insisted on quiet while the group that was up front that day discussed the assignment. It went OK but I saw to it that I never had such high numbers again. When I reflect on my own education, I realize that almost none of my professors had given much if any thought to how best conduct a real learning experience with a group of students. However, my major professor in seminary did combine general assignments and in-class discussions by a rotation method. His name was Robert Traina and he was by far the best teacher I have ever had.

   4.                                                                      

I feel constrained to add that it was this “seminar” method of running undergraduate classes that regularly led to numerous student friendships over the years. I always sought to learn my student’s names in each class as the years went bye. Over the years this has resulted in numerous long-term friendships many of which are still alive today. Although I have now been “retired” for a number of years I still have a couple of weekly Zoom classes with a half a dozen or so faithful students from yester-years joining me in working on the thought of such thinkers as Kierkegaard, Whitehead, Polanyi, and Marx. No fees, no grades, just lively, deep, and honest discussion of the “Great Ideas”. These folks keep me and my mind alive. They are my current “family.” To paraphrase Joe DiMaggio, who titled his autobiography “Lucky to Be a Yankee”, I’m lucky to be a teacher. And it was writing essays and books that taught me how to express myself clearly. I am so grateful!!!