There is an important difference between the Great Books and the Great Conversation. The former are those seminal tomes of western civilization that shaped the world in which we live. Their authors are rightly celebrated as giants on whose shoulders civilization stands. They enable us to see beyond the limited horizons of our own age to the permanent things that have shaped every age. The giants include Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Augustine, Aquinas, Dante and Shakespeare. The Great Conversation, on the other hand, is the catalytic exchange of ideas that the great books inspire. Those who know the great books and understand them are filled with the wisdom they convey; those who can communicate this wisdom to others are the great conversationalists.

Thomas Howard (1935-2020), author of the posthumously published collection of essays Pondering the Permanent Things: Reflections on Faith, Art, and Culture, was one of his generation’s great conversationalists. When an evangelical, he was widely read and highly respected as the author of Christian apologetics’ modern classics, such as Christ the Tiger and Chance or the Dance?, which prompted many to see him as C.S. Lewis’ heir. His book Evangelical is Not Enough, published in 1984, prophesied his reception into the Catholic Church the following year. Thereafter, he was a formidable and indomitable defender of the faith. This in itself would be enough. But much more can be said about the brilliance of this erudite man of letters who united eloquence and elegance to a truly unique degree: The eloquence of his reasoning is matched by the elegance of his expression, making him one of the most readable—and enjoyably readable—of writers.

Nowhere is this more evident than in his essays, the best of which are collected in this priceless volume recently published by Ignatius Press. As the subtitle indicates, it contains Howard’s reflections on faith, art and culture, all perceived in the light of the permanent things; those things which are not subject to change, because they simply are.

Some essays’ titles speak for themselves: “Art as Incarnation,” “Manners and Holiness,” “On Evil in Art,” “Sacramental Imagination” and “The Uses of Myth.” And some speak of other great conversationalists with whom Howard is in colloquy: Homer, the Desert Fathers, Dante, Shakespeare, William Cowper, Mozart, Newman, T. S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis,
J.R.R. Tolkien, Billy Graham and Russel Kirk.

In his foreword to this truly splendid volume, Peter Kreeft, another great conversationalist of our time, wrote, “Howard loved and embodied great charm and grace and gentlemanliness, but he also embodied something of another order: great faith, hope, and charity.” A friend of Howard, Kreeft speaks from firsthand experience. I was also blessed to know Howard and testify that Kreeft has encapsulated the spirit and genius of our mutual and greatly missed friend. Those not blessed to know Thomas Howard in the flesh will find the spirit of the man enfleshed in the pages of this book.

Joseph Pearce is Visiting Professor of Literature at Ave Maria University and Visiting Chair of Catholic Studies at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (Merrimack, NH). His many books include, Literature: What Every Catholic Should Know.

Thomas Howard, Pondering the Permanent Things: Reflections on Faith, Art, and Culture (Ignatius Press, 2023). $19.95; 336 pages.