Atlas Shrugged Fifty Years Later

Atlas Shrugged Fifty Years Later :: Desiring God

John Piper writes about Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. His response is basically exactly mine:

"I admired and cried. I was blown away with powerful statements of what I believed, and angered that she shut herself up in what Jonathan Edwards called the infinite provincialism of atheism. Her brand of hedonism was so close to my Christian Hedonism and yet so far—like a satellite that comes close to the gravitational pull of truth and then flings off into the darkness of outer space."

Ayn Rand is just another among the many atheist philosophers who frustrate me by coming so very close to an understanding of the truth, but in the end never see the glory of Christ.

Still, Ayn Rand played a very important role in my growth and led me directly to the place where I could hear and understand John Piper's claim that we honor God most when we seek Him as our greatest treasure. And Atlas Shrugged will always hold a special place in my library—really, how many other 1,200 page books will I ever read 7 times?

You can find Piper's extended essay on Ayn Rand (which is well worth the read) here.