Books by Lou Markos

On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis (Moody Publishers)
The world of J. R. R. Tolkien is filled with strange creatures, elaborately crafted lore, ancient tongues, and magic that exists only in fantasy; yet the lessons taught by hobbits and wizards speak powerfully and practically to our real lives. Courage, valor, trust, pride, greed, and jealousy–these are not fictional virtues. This is the stuff of real life, the Christian life. Professor and author Louis Markos takes us on the road with Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, with looks at selected classic works of literature as well, to show how great stories bring us so much more than entertainment. They inspire and convict, imparting truth in unforgettable ways. Rediscover the virtue of great storytelling and the power of fantasy to transform our reality.

Other books by Lou Markos include:

From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics (InterVarsity Press)
In this book, I explore how the faith and discernment of both secular and Christian readers can be strengthened and enhanced by a vigorous interaction with the central literary masterpieces of the ancient world: Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Greek Tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and Virgil’s great Roman epic, the Aeneid. These timeless classics will be brought alive both as literary works possessing their own separate integrity within the context of the cultures and the poets that produced them and as “proto-Christian” works of almost prophetic power that point the way toward Christ and that glimmer with a faint but True Light. Read more information on From Achilles to Christ and to order online.

Pressing Forward: Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the Victorian Age (Sapientia Press)
In this book, I offer a close reading of all the major poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, together with the work of six Victorian “sages”: Matthew Arnold, T. H. Huxley, Cardinal Newman, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle, and John Ruskin. My central thesis is that the Victorians were the first people to face directly the challenges, confusions, and upheavals of the modern world. It is their struggles–especially their struggles with faith, science, consumerism, and progress–that are most like our own, and it is therefore their solutions that most demand our attention. Read more information on Pressing Forward and to order online.

Below are the titles of my four published and three forthcoming books; if you click the title, it will open up a description of the contents of the book.