Deserted Island with Derek Thomas, Part 1

From thick theology tomes to biographies of opera composers, what books would Dr. Derek Thomas want to have with him on a deserted island? On this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History, he joins Dr. Stephen Nichols to share some of his selections.

Steve Nichols: Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. Once again, it's a real pleasure to have Dr. Derek Thomas with us. Dr. Thomas?

Dr. Derek Thomas: Hello. Wonderful to see you, Steve.

SN: Nice to see you. We're going to give you a treat here. We're going to relieve you of your pastoral duties and all the Ligonier duties we have for you, and we're just going to send you off to a deserted island for a while, with whatever five books you'd like to take with you. So what would those five books be?

DT: Right. Well, of course, let's start seriously. I assume I've got a Bible.

SN: You do have a Bible, a Reformation Study Bible.

DT: I would want Calvin's Institutes because they have been seminal for me for forty years. I've taught courses on Calvin's Institutes, just walking through page by page. And I probably taught that course multiple times and I'm still only in the shallows; I'm just dipping my toes in. And for a man in his mid-to-late twenties to put together the first edition in 1536, that already shows a mind on a par with Augustine.

SN: And he was a young convert.

DT: Yes.

SN: He had just been a Christian for a little over a year.

DT: He had studied law, but he had never been to seminary. And so where did all this come from? Just absolutely breathtaking. And then the rest of his life expanding and expanding and expanding. And it's a book that you'd never grow tired of.

SN: So, we have Calvin's Institutes. What would be next?

DT: Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, because it's been important to me. And again, if I can have both volumes, because Volume Two is in fact the better of the two, in my opinion. I think the first volume is an autobiography and all the problems people have with, "Why did Christian take so long to lose his burden?" And the answer is because it's a biography of Bunyan, it's describing his experience of conversion. But the use of allegory is just absolutely breathtaking. And I think that Bunyan was a nice man. He really was a really nice man. Twelve years in prison, and then when he comes out, he's not bitter, he's not angry. I think he was someone that you genuinely have fun being in his presence. He enjoyed life and food, and pictures of Bunyan that you see are typically towards the end of his life and he's rather portly. I think he's making up for 12 years of prison food.

SN: A little bit Luther-like.

DT: Yes.

SN: So, we have a theological book and we have this wonderful piece of literature with Pilgrim's Progress. What's the third book?

DT: Well, I need a biography and I'm torn because, do I go super religious and please R.C. and have Roland Benton's biography of Luther? Which is fun to read, and it would be fun to read again and again and again, I don't think you'd get tired of it. But, and this is where I would not please R.C., I really want a biography of Wagner.

SN: Ah, yes. Can I tell you a secret? I do believe one of the last books that Dr. Sproul read was the biography of Frank Sinatra. So I think he would be more than happy that you had Wagner.

DT: Okay, well, he can keep that one.

I've loved opera since I was two and a half. My grandfather died when I was five, and I vividly remember sitting on his knee, listening to Puccini's “La Boheme,” and I've had a love for opera and classic music ever since, and Wagner especially. The Ring Cycle is something that I could live with forever.

SN: Are you a Ring nut?

DT: Yes...I could be.

SN: Would you like to explain that?

DT: Well, there are people who go all over the world, wherever the Ring... We're talking of 17 hours' worth, four nights of opera. It's a story very much like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, much of the background is the same.

SN: So, Dr. Thomas, we are so much enjoying this conversation, I'm going to have to bring you back next week.

DT: So, we should have the “Ride of the Valkyries” now, as the music to exit on.

SN: So, we will return next week and find out the remaining books that Dr. Thomas takes with him on his deserted island. I'm Steve Nichols. Thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.