Merry Christmas! I wanted to offer to you what treasures I can.
Skip ahead to: Accolades, Books, Configurator for Swiss Army Knives, Geekware T-Shirt
I am a sinful, imperfect, and very unworthy layman of the Orthodox Church, seeking to enter monasticism to repent of my sins for the rest of my life. (However, I've written some pretty good stuff, and if you buy something you might help me along my way.)
What people are saying about this collection
"A collection of joyful, challenging, insightful, intelligent, mirthful, and jarring essays written by an Eastern Orthodox author who is much too wise for his years."
—Joseph Donovan, Amazon
"Each piece is a delight: partially because each 'speaks' using a different voice and partially because a diversity of topics and cross-connections between theology and everyday living makes the entire collection a delight to read, packed with unexpected twists, turns, and intellectual challenges.
Fans of C.S. Lewis and similar Christian thinkers will find The Best of Jonathan's Corner an absolute delight."
—Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review
"When I read C. S. Lewis, A. W. Tozer, or G. K. Chesterton, there is a deep ache for both the times and the men that made honor, wisdom, and clarity a thing of such beauty and strength. We wonder what they would say of our time, and why, with so many more people and better communication, we don't see more of them.
Hayward is such a person of wisdom and depth. I do not say this lightly or flatteringly. He and I don't agree on everything, but when we contrast, it will never be his side of the issue that is lacking in depth, beauty, or elegance. He's Orthodox, yes (I'm not). But I suspect all sides will claim him as they do Lewis and Chesterton."
—Kent Nebergall, Amazon
"The Sign of the Grail is a unique, scholarly, and thorough examination of the Grail mythos, granting it a top recommendation for academia and the non-specialist reader with an interest in these subjects. Also very highly recommended for personal, academic, and community library collections are CJS Hayward's other deftly written and original literary works, essays, and commentaries, compilations and anthologies: Yonder, Firestorm 2034, A Cord of Seven Strands, The Steel Orb, The Christmas Tales, and Hayward's Unabridged Dictionary [the other six Hayward titles then in print]."
—John Burroughs, Midwest Book Review
"Divinely inspired for our day and age's spiritually thirsty fellows."
—Colleen Woods, Amazon
"The work that stands out most among the creative pieces, perhaps among all of them, is that which opens the book, The Angelic Letters. I have had the pleasure of reading nearly all of Hayward's writings, and I was delighted that he undertook to write such a work. Readers who are familiar with C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters will recognize at once that it is the very book which that author desired, but felt unable, to write in order to balance the demonic correspondence. It is a mark of Hayward's skill, knowledge, and spiritual insight that he has successfully written something that such a theologian as Lewis did not wish to attempt. He has of course accomplished this work with God's help, but one must realize the spiritual struggle, mental effort, careful study, and deep prayer that has gone into every piece in this anthology... This author has gathered pearls for us, and may we gladly look upon them. They hold glimmers that can reflect our lives."
—Sydney "Nicoletta" Freedman, in the Foreword to The Best of Jonathan's Corner.
An author's bookshelf
I have dozens of works on my shelf; the "Complete Works" collection spans eight paperback volumes (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, plus Profoundly Gifted Survival Guide and The Seraphinians), and are available in Kindle. Several much shorter collections are also available. Some top sellers include:
The inner sanctum of my library:
- The Best of Jonathan's Corner: An Anthology of Orthodox Christian Mystical Theology
- This is the piece of which the Midwest Book Review wrote, "Each piece is a delight: partially because each 'speaks' using a different voice and partially because a diversity of topics and cross-connections between theology and everyday living makes the entire collection a delight to read, packed with unexpected twists, turns, and intellectual challenges.
In other words, it enchants as a Swiss Army Knife enchants, and individual works are as distinctive as blades on a Swiss Army Knife..
This is the flagship of my works, both in theology and writing as a whole, and there's a lot there. (If you are wondering what is the most expensive book I sell, this is it.)
- A Pilgrimage From Narnia: The Story of One Man's Journey into Orthodoxy
- One question many who are Orthodox are asked is how they came into the Orthodox Church. This is an account of what I saw journeying into Orthodoxy, a process that is still not complete.
- The Luddite's Guide to Technology: The Past Writes Back to Humane Tech!
- Among the critiques I've made, The Seraphinians: "Blessed Seraphim Rose" and His Axe-Wielding Western Converts has had a pretty broad and effective reach, in particular for a work that has numerous vitriolic one star reviews. This title, by contrast, contains another significant critique. The "Humane Tech" movement achieves some things, but I would recall a common misquote allegedly from Einstein: "Our problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them." Humane Tech looks at how technology experts can work within today's technical paradigms to soften some of technology's rough spots. The Luddite's Guide to Technology is written across ages to step much further outside the box, and the light adaptation of Plato in Plato: The Allegory of the... Flickering Screen? has been called deep, perhaps because it was a light touch to a masterpiece.
- "Do We Have Rights?" and Other Homilies
- I mentioned in conversation with a previous parish priest that I would jump at an opportunity to do a homily, and when I asked for him to do a homily on something briefly touched on in previous opportunities, he invited me to give such a homily myself. I did, and it was the one time in my life that people burst out clapping after a homily. He was a great encourager, and it is my loss that he has moved to another state.
- As It Were in Ye Olden Dayes
- This is a collection with works containing Elizabethan or medieval English. It includes prayers.
- A Small Taste of Jonathan's Corner
- This is a sampler meant to let people taste my writing and see if they might like it.
The outer court of my porch:
- Subtle Humor: A Jokebook in the Shadow of The Onion Dome, The Onion, and rec.humor.funny
- I haven't written for The Onion; I have multiple submissions published in The Onion Dome and rec.humor.funny.
- The Spectacles: A Collection of Short Stories
- This collection holds fifteen short stories, no two of which are alike. The title chapter is in particular worth reading.
- Merlin's Well
- This is a twist on Arthurian legends written by a medievalist storyteller.
- Profoundly Gifted Survival Guide
- One of my top-selling works. It offers a glimpse into worlds.
A configurator for Swiss Army Knives
If you do not have a live option to buy a foot-thick Wenger Giant, have you considered that my foot-thick print selection (with volumes one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, plus Profoundly Gifted Survival Guide and The Seraphinians) is much the same thing?
It's not just that they're both about a foot thick. The thickness comes from a numerous and varied set of tools: 87 implements with 141 functions for the Wenger Giant, compared with 230 separate works (as of the time of this writing) in the Kindle collection. Furthermore, if you search Amazon for my dozens of titles
If you love Swiss Army Knives, you may love my book collection and author homepage even more. It's a whole lot cheaper, and it might also be even better than the classic Wenger Giant.
A geeky "clue-by-four" T-shirt
