Professor of English, Renaissance, and Reformation
Founder & Director of the Master’s University in Italy
Director, Classical Liberal Arts Program
Alcuin Fellow in the Society for Classical Learning
Professor Grant Horner’s academic specialty is the literature, theology, and philosophy of the Renaissance and Reformation, with a primary concentration in Milton, Shakespeare, Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, and late sixteenth and seventeenth-century intellectual and cultural history. His research and writing have focused on Christian Humanism in the Reformation, particularly the complex relationship between developing Reformed thought and Classical Graeco-Roman pagan mythology and philosophy. At Duke University, he was taught and mentored by Stanley Fish, America’s leading literary theorist. He has worked on citing classical Greek and Latin authorities by Renaissance writers, published on theology and the arts, and recently completed a full-length work on John Milton and John Calvin. His first book, “Meaning at the Movies,” on film and theology (Crossway, 2010), was an Amazon bestseller nominated for Book of the Year in Christianity and Culture by the Book Retailers Association. His second book, “John Milton, Classical Learning, and the Progress of Virtue,” was published by Classical Academic Press in 2015. Two shorter books include one on Dracula and another on Paradise Lost.
Professor Horner is the Founder and Director of The Master’s University in Italy Program, a six-week summer intensive study abroad semester. Students live in an ancient villa in the city that was the birthplace of the modern world in the Renaissance: beautiful Florence. We also spend time in Rome and Venice. A variety of Humanities courses revolve around the Renaissance Humanist’s question ‘quid est homo?’—‘what is man?’ We examine the basis for studying the Humanities and explore what it means to be human.
Horner was named “Professor of the Year” in May 2001, his second year at The Master’s University, and again in 2007. He has taught at the University of Alabama and UNC-Chapel Hill and was appointed Hudson Strode Scholar in Renaissance Studies (1994-96) at UA. At Master’s, Professor Horner teaches courses on Medieval and Renaissance literature, Film Studies, Shakespeare, Milton, John Calvin, Poetry and Poetics, Comedy, Critical Theory, Western Art History, Epic, Classical Christian Humanism, and Classical Latin. He is an Alcuin Fellow in the Society for Classical Learning. He holds an appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor of Latin at Fuller Seminary and works in early printed books and rare manuscripts at The Huntington Library. Horner designed the original Humanities program in the Rhetoric School at Trinity Classical Academy, the fastest-growing classical school in the nation, and served as Chair for several years. He continues to mentor the teachers at Trinity.
Prof. Horner speaks regularly in several venues, including national radio, particularly on current theological trends, philosophy, and popular culture. He has spoken to Berkeley students on Christianity and popular culture, was invited to give the endowed Kegel Lecture at Caltech on representations of human consciousness in philosophy and art, and speaks regularly on the radio and television with over 100 appearances to date. He and his wife, Joanne, have three children, Seth, Josiah, and Rachel, and several grandchildren, and they live in Santa Clarita, California. They love to watch and discuss movies! Grant has been involved heavily in rock climbing, ice climbing, and mountaineering since 1979, rock climbing at a world-class level through the 1980s and 1990s, and he has made five one-day speed-climbing ascents of Yosemite Valley’s 3000’ El Capitan – the largest vertical granite cliff in the world, and famously difficult. He is one of a handful of climbers who have done the “Nose” route on El Cap in less than 24 hours (usual ascents are 3-6 days; his record time is 12:52), and he is the only climber in the world to make such a speed-ascent on a first attempt and first visit to Yosemite. He spends much of the summer in the High Sierra on massive, high-altitude rock and ice walls, making numerous speed ascents of what usually are multi-day alpine peaks, often in a matter of hours, and sometimes solo-climbing two peaks as high as 14,000 feet in a single day. He has also recently rekindled a longtime passion for sailing around the Channel Islands off Southern California’s Pacific coast.
PDF (including printable bookmarks) of this document
“I have more wisdom than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation.” Psalm 119:99, right-hand page, left-hand column, dead center of page.
Many people ask me how it is that I know precisely where virtually everything is in my Bible.
The answer: this system.
I began in 1983 (adapting and tweaking the basic design of another system) as a brand-new convert; within 3 years, I knew the text of my Bible very well. Twenty-five years later, it is essentially imprinted on my mind and heart. I have been all over the country and have taught this system in many churches. I have done open-microphone Q&As on Bible and theology – with 1200 people in the audience – as well as cultural-analysis live radio shows where you have to think fast – and it has been the “imprinting” value of this system that has helped me provide quick, clear, heavily contextualized scriptural answers.
I have no Seminary degrees, no Bible-college or Christian school education – hey, I never even went to Sunday school. All I did have was a chair, a lamp … and my Bible.
This is not merely a speed-reading program, nor is it a ‘study’ system. Read the description provided here to see how it works. DO NOT be intimidated! I was a college dropout, ex-heavy-druggie when I started it. If I can do it – so can you!
TRY IT FOR A MONTH. Then tell me what is happening!
But one more note before we start. I remember very clearly in 1983, when my soon-to-be father-in-law handed me his old but unused 1967 Scofield Study Bible as an off-the-cuff gift. I had never seen a good study Bible before, and was just starting to listen to MacArthur and Swindoll and Stanley on the radio. I was determined as a new believer to get to know the Bible. So I adapted the present system and have tweaked it many times since.
Its present form dates from the mid-1990s when I was in doctoral work at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke and wanted to keep my head screwed on somewhat straight. at old Sco eld was literally read to tatters by then — covers absolutely gone, spine vanished away, glue-backing visible and all curled up, stitching coming apart, the prefatory material destroyed all the way up to Genesis 1 and the concordance vanished past the entry for “sin.” But as a poor grad student, I had no money for a quality re-bind.
Sometime later, I was flown out by Masters College for a 3-day interview/grilling process. The culmination was, of course, being ushered in to Dr. MacArthur’s private study, which is where he asked me his one question: “Can I see your Bible?”
I thought he would be horrifed, because it looked like it had been through a typhoon — it looked unloved and neglected.
Something from a dumpster. It was unbound, with stringy mess and paper debris hanging out. I was so embarrassed. I thought he would chastise me and recommend I get a new study Bible if I was serious about the Word.
However he flipped through it and handed it to his wife and said, “If your Bible is falling apart, you probably aren’t.” And I was basically hired on the spot.
I have done the system sometimes doubling up (2 sets per day, or 20 chapters), and other times by alternating days (5 chapters per day). The key is to get into a habit for a month. en you’ll see you’ve probably been starving yourself.
The very best effect it has is rapid, broad-scale contextualizing across both testaments and all the different biblical genres. Did you know about all the similarities between Ecclesiastes and 2 Corinthians? How about the relationship between Deuteronomy and Matthew? It is like no other system that way, and it provides constant variety (which humans love) as well as consistent conviction (which humans hate). I’d love to hear any thoughts you may have on facing up to the challenge, how you are doing in your first days, first week, first month….
The System
Each day you will read one chapter from each of ten lists. That’s right — ten chapters per day!!! Use ten bookmarks or sticky notes with the individual lists on them to keep track of your locations. Or use the set of bookmarks provided below.
On day one, you read Matthew 1, Genesis 1, Romans 1, and so forth. On day 2, read Matthew 2, Genesis 2, etc. On day 29, you will have just finished Ma hew, so go to Mark 1 on the Gospel list; you’ll also be almost to the end of 2nd Corinthians and Proverbs, you’ll be reading Psalm 29 and Genesis 29, and so forth. When you reach the last chapter of the last book in a list – start over again. Rotate all the way through all the Scriptures constantly.
Since the lists vary in length, the readings begin interweaving in constantly changing ways. You will NEVER read the same set of ten chapters together again! Every year you’ll read through all the Gospels four times, the Pentateuch twice, Paul’s letters 4-5 times each, the OT wisdom literature six times, all the Psalms at least twice, all the Proverbs as well as Acts a dozen times, and all the way through the OT History and Prophetic books about 1 ½ times. Since the interweaving is constantly changing, you will experience the Bible commenting on itself in constantly changing ways — the Reformer’s principle of ‘scriptura interpretans scripturam’ — ‘scripture interpreting scripture’ IN ACTION!
After you’ve read any particular book once or twice, your speed in that book usually doubles or triples because you’re familiar with it and can move quickly and confidently — because you are no longer merely decoding the text but thinking it through in the context of all of the scripture!
Even an ‘average’ reader, if focusing on moving through the text, rather than trying to figure everything out, can usually do this in about an hour a day – 5-6 minutes per chapter. Many people report moving confidently through the ten chapters in 35-40 minutes. If it is taking you longer, then you are ‘reading wrong’ – stay relaxed, focus, and just keep it moving. Moderate but consistent speed is the key. This is “gross anatomy” — looking at the whole body; you’re not closely studying organs or systems or tissues or cells — it is not microbiology. BUT — microbiology and the study of organs makes more sense when you know what the whole structure of the human body is like, and how all the parts, large and small, relate in perfect interdependence.
After just a few days the reading gets much easier; in a month it will be a habit, and in six months you’ll wonder how you ever survived before on such a slim diet of the WORD. And then — you’ll tell others to start the system!
I began in 1983 as a new Christian and have now read (most of) the Bible hundreds and hundreds of times. You also need to get ONE Bible, keep it, and do all your reading in it, so you learn where everything is. I’ve had the same Bible since 1983 and I know it intimately. If you keep switching Bibles, you ‘lose’ this intimacy with the text. Find a translation and format you like and stick with it. THIS IS CRUCIAL.
Your Bible is the only thing on Earth that, as you wear it out, will actually work better and better.
Please share this Bible-reading system with all the Christians you know, as well as anyone who is thinking about reading a Bible, even for the first time.
Put these instructions in your Bible and review them from time to time.
The Ten Lists
Secrets to Success
SOLI DEO GLORIA
The Master’s University and Seminary admit students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.
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