The Truth and Beauty

How the Lives and Works of England's Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus

By: Andrew Klavan

Narrated by: Andrew Klavan

Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Read by the author.

Follow Andrew Klavan to a deeper, richer understanding of the words of Jesus.

Andrew Klavan believed what he read in the Gospels, but he often struggled to understand what Jesus really meant. So he began a journey of wrestling with the beautiful and often strange words of Jesus.

He learned Greek in order to read the Gospels in their original languages, and he vowed to set aside any preconceptions about what the Scriptures say. But it wasn't until he began exploring how some of history's greatest writers wrestled with the same issues we confront today—political upheaval, rejection of social norms, growing disbelief in God—that he found a new way of understanding what Jesus meant.

In The Truth and Beauty, Klavan combines a decades-long writing career with a lifetime of reading to discover a fresh understanding of the Gospels. By reading the words of Jesus through the life and work of writers such as William Wordsworth and John Keats, Mary Shelley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge—the English romantics—Klavan discovered a way to encounter Jesus in a deeper and more profound way than ever before.

For people seeking to find renewed meaning in the words of Jesus—and for those who are striving for belief in a materialistic world—The Truth and Beauty offers an intimate account of one man's struggle to understand the Gospels in all their strangeness, and so find his way to a life that is, as he says, "the most creative, the most joyful, and surely the most true."

©2022 Andrew Klavan (P)2022 Zondervan

A Prism to See Truth in Beauty

Mr. Klavan brings forth engaging stories of the poets and their works and connects the profound meaning they were grasping for in depicting Beauty, and shows how Truth both undergirds and anchors reality in and through the person of Jesus Christ. I am enriched for having heard Mr. Klavan share this excellent presentation of his personal experience in knowing God through Christ and how all truth and beauty points to the Reality we all share in.

Deep and insightful

Beautifully and well written. Now I need to brush up on my English poets and scripture!

A wondrous work of art!

I've lived much of my adult life as an agnostic, neither believing nor disbelieving the stories of the Bible. God's miracles in the old testament could be explained away as natural phenomenon the people of the day couldn't explain other than to say it was supernatural. What was the moon, sun, stars, earthquakes or tornados other than the mystical hand of God to them? If God is all knowing - what is in our hearts and minds, the present, past and future - then what is the point of testing our will and resolve? Do we really have choice if the outcome is known in advance? I always found it difficult to believe that the earth is the only planet in the vast and endless universe that God would put all his energy into, answering the prayers of believers while controlling the rotation of the earth, keeping the universe in harmony, and knowing every hair on the population of the earth from inception to the end of time. And speaking of prayer, what is the point, if it's God's will then we aren't going to change his mind, why pray over the sick, isn't everything in God's hands? Does God answer prayers? I've knelt down in prayer in the past but stood up feeling disenchanted and unfulfilled having never heard his voice. Suffice it to say, I've had my doubts. But having listened to Andrew Klavan's thought processes expressed in this book, through the stories told from poets of old to modern films and the way he's intertwined the gospels in this unique exploration, has opened my eyes to the possibility that God does exist and Christ's teachings can be as important to our lives today as it was two millennium ago. It provoked emotions in me I cannot explain and even brought me to tears in the end. Perhaps prayers are answered in ways that may not seem obvious at the time, an action, book, movie or event could lead to the answer you are looking for and that makes sense to me. I highly recommend this inspiring work of art.

A perfect explanation of man’s obsession with the earth’s beauty and his relationship with its maker.

I only wish I could teach this book to my high school students without immediately being fired. Atheist and zealots alike can learn much from this book. The Truth and Beauty not only speaks the truth, it was beautifully written.

Marvelous, deep, inspiring

I’m on my second reading (listening), and will certainly give it several more. The unusual juxtaposition of Jesus’ message and the circumstances of the English Romantic poets resonates deeply with today’s culture. Love hearing it read by the author. Another Gift for Humanity by Andrew Klavan.

Great for people with questions

I truly enjoyed this book and it’s logical format. By the time Klavan got to the beatitudes I was wishing we could sit and talk about all the things he had learned researching this book. I’m definitely going to read this again.

enlightening

This was a good look at religion and what it means with it the preaching and secret language.

The Word of Jesus as embodied in the Romantic Poets

A great book full of religious and moral insights that are beyond the earthly quotidian life. One reading and listening is not enough to grasp its ultimate meaning of life and death as the Life of Jesus is given poetic meaning beyond the mere physical realm of being. An enjoyable listen and well read. If you love the Romantic Poets, especially Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats you will surely like this wonderful Audible book.

Beyond know the philosophy of the Jesus, knowing Jesus the man

This is an excellent book. Like every other book written by Andrew Klavan this book is beautiful and captivating. Klavan explains the gospels from the perspective of art and poetry in an attempt to relate to and understand who Jesus is and not just what Jesus’ philosophy is. Klavan helped to put together some of the more complex and confusing aspects of Christianity. Essentially, Andrew Klavan has taken C.S. Lewis’s concept of “mere Christianity” and gone deeper and more personal with Christ, allowing the reader to see the perfect and logical beauty of God.

Excellent

Klavan’s angle of getting to know Christ and who he was as a person illuminated many of the teachings of Christ by putting them in a new perspective. I really enjoyed the comparison of Christ’s teachings and the meaning behind them to the way every life has meaning through its existence. We are all co-creators in life through our words and actions.

The reason we strive to live like Christ is because his life was the example.

Klavan’s reading was also really well done.

Thanks for writing and reading this book!