“Until very recent years, civilized folk took it for granted that literature exists to form the normative consciousness: that is, to teach human beings their true nature, their dignity, and their rightful place in the scheme of things. Such has been the end of poetry—in the larger sense of that word—ever since Job and Homer.”
Since Russell Kirk wrote these words in 1977, matters have drifted further from this ideal.
Jessica Hooten Wilson is disturbed by the state of reading, particularly among Christians. Why? Because, she argues in Reading for the Love of God: How to Read as a Spiritual Practice, God is disturbed by the lack of attention to books.
The problem is not illiteracy; the people for whom Wilson writes obviously know how to read. The problem is that people do not know how to read well. “Why and how we read matters as much as what we read. If we are poor readers, an encounter with the Word will not do much to make us his people.” It is more than just poor reading of the Bible, though. Christians don’t know how to read books outside the Bible; they lack appreciation for the Great Literature she so clearly loves.
Read the Rest at The University Bookman
Related Posts:
Hitz, Zena, Lost in Thought “Lost in Thought”
Lewis, C. S. The Reading Life “C. S. Lewis and the Reading Life”
Leave a Reply