The Loose Canon

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Hildegarde of Bingen: Scivias (1141 - 1151). The mystical visions of a Christian seer who was also the enemy of ecclesiastical and political corruption. Elaine Pagels: The Gnostic Gospels (1979). An insightful exploration of the spiritual fluidity of New Testament times and the various forms of Christianity that existed then -- including doctrines of God the Mother.

Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi: The Divan of Shams-i-Tabriz (13th century). Passionate poems by the greatest Sufi master. In Rumi, earthly love, including sexual desire, always joins the great river of love that flows to God. Margaret Smith: Râbi`a (1994). A biography of the greatest female saint in Islam, an eighth-century Sufi teacher whose spiritual passion recalls the great women mystics of the West.

Fran*ois Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532 - 1546). In this baggy monster of a book, giants cavort, defecate, fornicate, and celebrate the forces that the Renaissance unleashed: human power and passion. Wu Ch'eng-en: Monkey (or, Journey to the West) (1592). Buddhism goes Rabelaisian in this Chinese tale of a monkey with superpowers and his mind-blowing adventures with gods, demons, and the King of Death.

William Shakespeare: Coriolanus (1608). This story about the fall of a Roman general isn't the Big Bard's most famous tragedy, but it is unmatched as a study of what happens to heroism when it's forced to confront political reality. Akira Kurosawa: The Seven Samurai (1954). Out-of-work samurai defend a village against bandits in the greatest action movie ever made, resonant with the noblest themes: justice, loyalty, love, memory, and the resilience of the downtrodden.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Suites for Solo Cello (1720). Bach's magnificent genius shines no matter who's performing -- Pablo Casals, Yo-Yo Ma, or (our favorite) Mstislav Rostropovich. Arvo Part: Te Deum (1993). Spiritual wonder at the immensity of existence still lives in our age, as seen in the majestic work of this Estonian composer.

Samuel Johnson: Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler Essays (1750 - 1760). None of the mundane emotions of daily life -- boredom, embarrassment, daydreams, vague dissatisfaction -- was too trivial for Johnson to take on and ennoble with his rolling ocean of prose. Freya Stark: The Journey's Echo (1920s - 1960s). Excerpts culled from the many books of an extraordinary Englishwoman who camped with desert nomads, explored forbidden cities, and crafted one of the 20th century's finest writing styles.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Don Giovanni (1787). Breaking musical rules, flaunting moral conventions, Mozart's opera was hailed as a masterpiece opening night -- and ever since. Alban Berg: Wozzeck (1922). Berg translated opera for the 20th-century sensibility: a hapless soldier in place of romantic heroes, flourishes of dissonance and atonality on top of arias.

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