Neither idle nor idol

When I first went back to study after having children I knew I would have to be wise. No longer with the luxury of only having to care for myself and my husband (who, quite frankly, takes better care of me than I do him), but with two small boys to fill my days I knew that study would prove challenging. Unfortunately, challenges to my time are weighed against my love of study, and particularly, my love of studying literature. In order to maintain equilibrium I would (and still do!) remind myself: that study is neither idle nor idol.

I desire to work hard, be diligent but I know that God has blessed me with real characters (with real feelings and real needs) that are my responsibility, he has placed me in a real setting, and has given a plot and narrative which places Christ at the centre, and not my study.

It seems to me that this is the crux of what Reinke is arguing when he is looking at the practicalities of reading. It is both hard work, which requires focus and perseverance if we are to keep at it, but it also not our raison d’être, we are not to let reading so dominate our lives.

Reinke’s book is a great book to start the year. His own avid reading habits are apparent in the constant and delightful nuggets of wisdom he has extracted from a variety of sources.

I’m interested in thinking further about a range of things Reinke has raised in Lit! through EQUIP book club this year. I’m excited to be reading literature, in the form of Dostoyevksy’s The Idiot during the rest of February. After spending time immersing ourselves in Luke’s Gospel in the lead-up to EQUIP13 we’ll be taking some time to think through the questions raised in chapter 11 of Lit! by reading Challies’ The Next Story. We will also accept the challenge that we should be reading meaty theology by delving into Carson’s Jesus The Son Of God: A Christological Title Often Overlooked, Sometimes Misunderstood, And Currently Disputed. At the end of the year we will continue our ‘December Classics Month’ tradition with Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. There are other books as well, but these reflect the range of books which Reinke challenges the reader to engage with. Not just easy and new.

And we’ll do this together.

I’ll finish this entry with another nugget, which Reinke has mined for us:

Reading broadly together will keep me from always being on a new crusade to the bewilderment of Christian friends. The Christian purpose of all this reading is to glorify God. Reading alone may do this, but when we become passionate about an issue it is nice to have company. When we have missed the mark, they can correct us. It is gratifying, however, when the new viewpoint which seemed so exciting to me is adopted by others. When I make a new discovery it will seem implausible for the simple fact that no one around me sees what I now see. If friends travel the same road, all is different. (Reinke, quoting Rick Ritchie, 158)

What are we doing as a book club? We’re (hopefully) doing just this. It is also a reminder that our first love (in reading terms) is the Bible.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

'A difficult pleasure'

We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough people profoundly enough, that we need to know ourselves better; that we require knowledge, not just of self and others, but of the way things are. Yet the strongest, most authentic motive for deep reading…is the search for a difficult pleasure. Reinke quoting Harold Bloom (104).

In the final chapter in his theology of reading Reinke outlines two types of imagination- primary and secondary: “The primary sense of imagination (seeing in our minds what we’ve seen before) is a skill that we probably share with other creatures. The secondary sense of imagination (seeing in our minds what we’ve never experienced) is a distinctly human skill.” (82) Reinke argues in this chapter that we need this second type of imagination for “our pursuit of godliness” (82), looking primarily at the use of our secondary imagination in understanding the book of Revelation.

Reinke talks honestly of his previous neglect of “cultivating” his imagination. Do we perhaps shy away from reading Revelation or other “difficult” passages in the Bible (like Daniel 7)? Do we look merely to propositional statements or straightforward history for our understanding of God and His world? I am enjoying reading to my children A Dangerous Journey, which is a picturebook edition of Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, mainly because the allegory provides rich imaginative fodder. Reinke provokes with, “The lesson I have learned is that a failure to cultivate the imagination leads to an unintended neglect of the imaginative literature of Scripture, and this in turn leads to some degree of spiritual atrophy. “(89)

This theology for reading and, in particular, his argument on reading which involves the imagination segues neatly into the practical guide on reading which forms the second part of the book. Reinke is really here just opening up for the reader his thinking and approach to reading, offering it as a starting point for their own approach. The two things that I really benefitted from in this section were his explicit accounting of his priorities for reading and thinking about reading in terms of stewarding his time wisely.

I have a sense of my priorities for reading but haven't really taken time to put them onto paper. Aside from the Bible my reading priorities are: spiritual matters, general non-fiction- topic or interest (e.g. parenting, theory of photography), and reading for pleasure. I will generally be reading three books (or so) at any one time, from each of these categories. During semester time a fourth (and generally more pressing) priority of reading for study appears and will dominate how much time I spend reading books in my other priorities.

So, school is back (in NSW, at least) and so homework time begins again. Why not, as a way to start the year, make a list of your reading priorities? Set some goals (and maybe some parameters). Write them down and start compiling a list of books that you would like to read. Why not use the EQUIP book club (books coming up) list located just underneath this blog as a starting point?

Reading, deep reading is a difficult pleasure. Generally I have found that the more I read (particularly, but not only, books on spiritual matters) the more excited and inspired I have been to read the Bible. I catch the author's enthusiasm for Scripture, or an idea will spark and lead me back to the Bible and it is like those first fat drops of rain or rumble in the distance that tells me a summer storm is coming. And it is delightful. As I turn to Scripture and stand with my feet in the prickly grass and feel the heat rise about me, as the earth is washed cool by the rain, I am refreshed.

Virtuous Reading

In the fourth and fifth chapters which round out the theology of reading in Lit! Reinke establishes the importance of approaching non-Christian literature with eyes wide open and ears tuned to note the blemishes and the discordances between the biblical worldview and the worldview presented by non-Christian authors. He cites truth, goodness and beauty, as virtues which can be apparent, or seen as a longing in non-Christian literature. He quotes Calvin from his Institutes, “Therefore, in reading profane authors, the admirable light of truth displayed in them should remind us that the human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator…In despising the gifts, we insult the Giver.” However, as Reinke rightly says there are limits to their wisdom, “…we can discover that non-Christian authors occasionally articulate genuine spiritual desires that we know can be satisfied nowhere else but in the living original, in the essence, in Christ himself.” (p. 75)

Alongside reading Reinke’s Lit! I have been reading Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others, which is an extended essay on whether images of suffering (in particular, images of suffering in war) can change opinions on war. Sontag offers wisdom and speaks to our culture of things which Christians (particularly those in the West or developed nations) need to think about. In her writing there is a search for truth, a desire for goodness (she speaks of morality) and a consideration of beauty (or, in the case of this particular book, aberrations).

Sontag looks at the influence of images and technology on our culture, writing in one part on the so-called “death of reality” (and I will quote at length so that you can get a better sense of her argument): “To speak of reality becoming a spectacle is a breathtaking provincialism. It universalizes the viewing habits of a small, educated population living in the rich part of the world, where news has been converted into entertainment- that mature style of viewing which is a prime acquisition of ‘the modern’, and a prerequisite for dismantling traditional forms of party-based politics that offer real disagreement and debate. It assumes that everyone is a spectator. It suggests perversely, unseriously, that there is no real suffering in the world. But it is absurd to identify the world with those zones in the well-off countries where people have the dubious privilege of being spectators, or of declining to be spectators, of other people’s pain, just as it is absurd to generalize about the ability to respond to the sufferings of others on the basis of the mind-set of those consumers of news who know nothing at first hand about war and massive injustice and terror. There are hundreds of millions of television watchers who are far from inured to what they see on television. They do not have the luxury of patronizing reality.” (p. 98-99)

Here is someone who speaks wisely and winsomely. While I may not agree with everything Sontag says, she does express things that I can agree with. The Bible tells us that evil comes from the heart (Matthew 15:19); we understand people do awful things to each other because we understand sin (Romans 1). Sontag writes, “…it seems a good in itself to acknowledge, to have enlarged, one’s sense of how much suffering caused by human wickedness there is in the world we share with others. Someone who is perennially surprised that depravity exists, who continues to feel disillusioned (even incredulous) when confronted with evidence of what humans are capable of inflicting in the way of gruesome, hands-on cruelties upon other humans, has not reached moral or psychological adulthood.” (p. 102)

Reinke spends some time at the end of each of these chapters examining the decisions we need to make about the sorts of books we should avoid reading. I would venture that in chapter five he tends towards unnecessary restrictions in telling people to avoid a “majority” of non-Christian literature until they have “a functional biblical worldview”, (do we then close our eyes to television, or even to newspapers which have an editorial bent that is often less based on reportage of facts but providing an opinion on them? close our ears to all but Christian music? This speaks to me of a mindset of retreat, something which Reinke counters earlier in the chapter. Alas, the problem of pith!) but he does have a point, and a conscience and heart for his reader. He warns and that is good in a culture of permissiveness. His points made in chapter four are far better, emphasising that for many books it is a matter of not yes or no, but a question of now or later that will govern our choices. He also speaks of “avoiding” books which glorify evil and particular books for our own conscience. He is not asking us to burn books, or to ban books, but to avoid them. He is calling us to engage critically, “As book readers, we are mistaken when we categorically reject non-Christian books. And we are mistaken when we read non-Christian literature uncritically.” (p. 77)

There is great freedom in Christ.

Reading words (not just pictures)

What is the impact of words, of literature, in an image-soaked, 150-characters-or-less culture? Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr. Social networking is geared towards images and bite-sized comments. This makes sense: we can only cope with so much in our perceptual memory at any one time (a boon to marketers). We aren’t born reading words, it is something we learn over time. We are born reading the world, for most of us our eyes are open from birth.

In his third chapter of Lit! Reinke argues for the need to be mindful of what the written word can achieve over the visual in an image saturated world, specifically how words are “better suited” to convey precise meaning. This includes how language: captures the meaning of visible realities, communicates invisible realities, informs our eternal hope and makes worldview possible. He is not denying the power and potency of the visual. He is making us aware of the difference between the two and of the significance of the written word. Words, when used well, allow for greater philosophical abstraction and at the same time coherency than visual images. There is a need for words to explain the visual.

I have just spent a week looking at the book of Daniel at a mission conference in the Blue Mountains. The apocalyptic imagery in the second half of the book is quite confronting. If depicted for us visually (say a photograph or a film) it would render it in such a way that there can be no sense of it as something which has elements of allegory, of multiple fulfilments, of looking to the future. Daniel interpreted the dreams of King Nebuchadnezzar in words and through words his own visions were explained to him. The visions as written in the book of Daniel mean that not only were they a source of very specific hope for those in exile, but also a source of hope for us as we await the coming of the son of man (Daniel 7:13-14).

So, I’m happy for this blog to not include photos but words, to be around 500 words rather than 150 characters, and to hopefully inspire people to read deeply and meaningfully the books which we point you to. Fundamentally, words remind us that, “Faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1). That which the ancients were commended for I commend you to.

Reading in the Light

This book was made for us, reader. It is about reading. Specifically, it is a theology of reading. And so we begin book club for 2013 with Tony Reinke’s Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading, and my hope is that this book will be a useful way to begin your reading this year and will shape your thinking about reading for years to come.

Reinke splits his book into two parts: theology and practicality. In his Introduction he lists questions which form the basis for the book. The questions create a wide brief which Reinke will aim to answer in the book (such a small book!). He even offers a caveat on the second-half of the book, asking the reader to, “Please remember whenever I give advice in this book, it is nothing more than that- advice. It’s not a law or a command. Please listen to the advice, try it out, learn from it, improve it, or simply drop kick what doesn’t work for you.” (p. 18) Good, let’s focus on the theology then.

In the first chapter, Reinke establishes the primacy of the written Word of God at Mount Sinai. Of course, God speaks and establishes his covenant long before the Ten Commandments are given to Moses on Mount Sinai. But the point Reinke is making is this, “Mount Sinai demands that we distinguish between temporary books and the eternal Book, between a decomposing paperback from the pen of a sinner and a smoking stone tablet from the finger of God. If we fail to make this distinction, if we fail to prioritize the eternal Word over temporary books, our reading will never be distinctly Christian.” (p. 28) Reinke’s focus is unashamedly on the written word and our reading and response to it as shaped by the written Word. There is, of course, much more that can be said about Scripture as revelation, and if you are interested Peter Jensen’s The Revelation of God is a good place to begin.

In establishing this basis for the primacy of the Word of God in our lives Reinke raises important ideas about the nature and authority of Scripture. Following this he looks at our personal need for the Gospel, reading the Word of God is different to having a personal faith in the Word made flesh. This is an important distinction to make and Reinke shows how our faith, which necessarily shapes our worldview, will then impact on how we read. If we live sincerely as Christians, if our public and private selves are the same then what we read and how we read will be impacted by our life in Christ.

T. S. Eliot wrote in Four Quartets,

                                    The only wisdom we can hope to acquire

                                    Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.

My interpretation of this is shaped by my understanding of the humility of Christ and my need to follow after Him, to be like Him. The Word incarnate will not only shape my reading of Scripture but my reading of all words.

The questions Reinke raises in his Introduction are important questions for those who read. This is a good book; it is also a pithy book. Turn off the television. Silence your phone. Read.

About our Contributor: Siân Lim enjoys reading, whether in silence or aloud, alone or with others. She has trouble understanding why some people don’t like to read, and became a high school English teacher, in part, to rectify this in a small section of the population. Currently she is completing a MA which gives her the opportunity to read widely and deeply. Her current interests include Heidegger and his impact on modern literature and life, and in dinosaurs, diggers and traffic lights, thanks to her two young sons, whom she enjoys reading to.