Steve Turley's top five book recommendations

Steve Turley is a teacher, and like any good teacher, he has a reading list for you. Here are his top five recommended books:

1. The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. “It’s wonderful,” Steve says, “short, only 80 pages. It captures so profoundly the fundamental difference between what we might call a classical Christian world and the modern secular world.” Steve’s own book based on The Abolition of Man is Classical vs. Modern Education: A Vision from C.S. Lewis available here.
2. Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton. Steve cites the chapter titled “The Ethics of Elfland” in particular, saying it “introduces us to sort of a classical Christian way of knowing the world.” “He has this wonderful thesis: the modern world is marked by skepticism and doubt, that’s their basic orientation towards knowledge, whereas the Christian world was marked by astonishment and wonder.”
3. On the Incarnation by Athanasius. “It’s classical theology, a nice little Christmas read,” Steve says. “It is profoundly cosmic in its nature. Since I read it, I have never looked at the incarnation the same way again.” The Face of Infinite Love: Athanasius on the Incarnation, Steve’s own study of Athanasius’s work, is available for free download at turleytalks.com/books.
4. Beauty for Truth’s Sake by Stratford Caldecott. Steve calls it a “wonderful primer on classical education.”
5. The Fragrance of God by Vigen Guroian. Focusing on a “theology of gardening,” the book is “another lovely little book that could be read in a day. It’s really a primer on redeeming the senses: encountering paradise, being redeemed in Christ, and seeing the garden as sort of an icon or emblem of that redemption. It’s absolutely beautiful.”