LV Life

Cook writes ‘Psalms for the 21st Century’

William Cook, University of La Verne professor of English, released his new book "Psalms for the 21st Century" in March. The book received press in "The American Poetry Review." Cook is also the author of the article "U.S. vs. Iraq: the Tale of the Tape." / photo by Sylvia Castellanos
William Cook, University of La Verne professor of English, released his new book “Psalms for the 21st Century” in March. The book received press in “The American Poetry Review.” Cook is also the author of the article “U.S. vs. Iraq: the Tale of the Tape.” / photo by Sylvia Castellanos

by Chrissy Zehrbach
Assistant Editor

University of La Verne Professor of English William Cook recently published a book titled “Psalms for the 21st Century,” a book of modern religious poetry.

In February 2001, Cook took a sabbatical and was giving lectures on American studies at the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham, England.

Cook used some of that time to reread portions of the Bible, focusing especially on the psalms.

“The inappropriateness of (the psalms) to the 21st century struck me, and I decided I’d recreate the psalms to fit this century,” Cook said.

The book consists of 33 new psalms. According to Cook, the first 25 psalms parallel many of the 150 originals in the Bible, not in a structural or contextual sense, but in imagery and length.

“I was trying to keep a relative pattern to the new psalms of this century and the original psalms,” he said.

The remaining eight psalms, however, do not parallel the originals.

These psalms negate the original meanings and put more of a focus on the sacredness of humanity, Cook said.

“After all we’re the only ones who really make what’s out there, there,” he said.

“So that is our life, our heaven, our paradise, and if we go through without living it, we’ve wasted our existence,” Cook said.

Unlike the originals, there is no glorious God in Cook’s psalms.

The themes of the psalms include love, compassion and friendship.

Faith, equality of people and our existence are also major themes in the book.

“The concern here is to bring you to a point where your perception is able to grapple with what you can see, what you know, what you can touch, everything that is relative to you,” Cook said.

“Because if you don’t, if you take someone else’s perception, or live by someone else’s beliefs then you’re not there,” he said.

Cook believes the original psalms present validity in using religion toward a destructive end, and he has removed those negative aspects from his psalms.

“In the 21st century it seems to me that we have to look for values that are not the values that have been destructive in the past,” Cook said.

“(But), rather those that can sustain us and sustain the world so that our children and our children’s children can come into it with something here,” Cook said.

With his psalms, Cook brings a new philosophy that challenges the myths we have been living with in the original psalms.

“Psalms for the 21st Century” provides great reading material.

The elegant, music-like poetry includes thoughts and ideas many people can relate to, and are truly appropriate for this century.

“It’s an expression of my beliefs at this point in time… an understanding of where I see a necessity of human kind progressing, although I am cynical enough not to expect it to happen,” Cook said.

Two other ULV professors also contributed to the book.

Associate Professor of English David Werner wrote the introduction, and Professor of Religion Jonathan Reed wrote the preface.

“Psalms for the 21st Century” is Cook’s first book of poetry, but is his fourth published book. He also wrote the book “A Time to Know” in 2000.

Cook earned his bachelors degree from King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Penn. He received his master’s degree and doctorate from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn.

Chrissy Zehrbach, Editor in Chief
Chrissy Zehrbach
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Sylvia Castellanos
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