Monday, February 16, 2026

It is the 16th of February 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Happy Monday- I’m still in Minnesota- I wanted to fit in a few more mailbag questions, and so here we go… Your emails and questions are so helpful in helping me think through things- so…

 

A regular emailer and friend of the show- My man Richard- a real doctor in Ladysmith, Wisconsin… I’m the kind of doctor that can give you book recommendations, he’s the kind that makes you not die…

Richard asked for my “top” list of books from various categories…

A truly terrifying question in some ways- I’m a book guy. If I come to your house or office, it’s the first thing I’m looking at. Oh, your profile picture is you in front of a bookcase? I’m not seeing you, but I can identify what books I can.

Richard asked the question in the context of me saying “East of Eden” is my favorite novel- that’s Steinbeck- that’s California. I really like Steinbeck and could go Grapes of Wrath and Travels with Charley.

It’s not terribly unique- but the Steinbeck/Hemingway/Fitzgerald trio of 20th-century American authors has long been my go-to. Hemingway’s short stories- especially those in the collection “Men without Women” and Fitzgerald’s “This Side of Paradise”.

Candide was the first “old book” I read as a teenager, and I loved it. If you read it first, and then Gulliver’s Travels, you can get a better sense of what Swift was doing.

Dante wasn’t as much fun as it was a treasure of names, ideas, and weird images.

When it comes to modern fiction, I’ll read most anything written by Nick Hornby- How To Be Good, About A Boy, A Long Way Down, and “Fever Pitch”, one of the best novels about sports fandom.

I read a lot of sports stuff- and sports entertainment stuff… I need to turnoff the almanac brain sometimes, and the history of Professional wrestling, like David Shoemaker’s “The Squared Circle- Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling” is so good. David Halberstam’s The Breaks of the Game on the Portland Trailblazers in the 70s was a foundational book for me. I grew up collecting anthologies of sports writing- from Grantland Rice to Jim Murray out here in LA.

I love biography and autobiography, and my go-to favorites are Be My Baby by Ronnie Spector and Cash by Johnny Cash.

I probably have a 2-3 year cycle in which I read some things and love them and then figure out which things I take and which I discard. I have, in my head, a kind of tiered hall of fame- there’s an anteroom that modern stuff gets put in, but then tends to fall out…

And so I’ve found that as I get older, I am re-reading more than I thought I would. I’m finding that the books haven’t changed- but I have- and these books can serve as mirrors for me. I can also find new things- I can also appreciate the cadence and language of a familiar author, just as I put on an old album.

I’ve gone back to books- both theological and novels and the like and found that I’ve changed! I went back to the Catcher in the Rye and thought… that was a different guy who was really into that… or with certain theologians- usually modern.

My “starter” pack for theological works is going to be a collection of Augustine, Luther, and C.S. Lewis. I’ll put Aquinas and Calvin on the list for reference, and I’ll say if you want to go deep, I’ll give you some Kierkegaard, and we can try to wrestle with and digest that. It’s cliché- but you also can’t always agree with all of them all the time- you have to be discerning.

I’m also a many-many-many books simultaneously guy… Currently I’ve got Chuck Klosterman’s new book on Football- C.S. Lewis Space Trilogy (this is my hard copy book- the world could collapse, but I could still read the next page)… I’m re-reading “How To Read the Bible for All Its Worth” by Gordon Fee in preparation for some teaching. If Dave Zahl writes something, I read it- I’ve got the Big Relief on Kindle. 1517 has a publishing house, and I read everything from there 3 times, after I purchase the text itself at full price 3 times…

Thanks Richard in Ladysmith- I appreciate the questions… also, I thought of you the other day as I said to myself “someone needs to translate more of Hugh of St. Victor” and think you may have asked about untranslated Latin stuff….

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and is part of Stephen’s retelling of the Exodus from Acts 7:

30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 16th of February 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose favorite book, The Shack, he will be turning into a one-man play- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who made a joke about the Neverending Story that was cut, but referenced here- so it was cut too- Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.