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Jessica Hooten Wilson, a professor at Pepperdine University, has given Christians a wonderful gift. It’s her new book: Reading for the Love of God: How to Read as a Spiritual Practice.
Wilson is a Christian and a literature scholar at Pepperdine University. She convincingly makes the case that while the Bible is the greatest book of all time, we can become close to Christ by allowing great literature and spiritual writing to form our souls.
The Centrality of the Written Word
Wilson does not have to contort herself to try and make this point. A graceful and easily understood writer, she simply lays out how central the written word is to Christianity itself. “Perhaps it is our digital culture,” she writes, “but we have forgotten our identity as word creatures. God creates the world by word: ‘Let there be light.’ And with a word, God pronounces creation good. He converses with human beings in Genesis through words….When God enters creation in the incarnation, John describes him as the Word that ‘became flesh.’”
There’s more. Paul studies Greek myths, St. Augustine wrote a book on how to read, and monks saved civilization from the barbarians by transcribing manuscripts. Indeed, for centuries it was Christians who were considered people of the word.
How Do You Read?
Wilson compares two different ways of reading — the Thomas Jefferson way and the C.S. Lewis way. Jefferson famously created his own version of the Bible by cutting out everything he didn’t like from the real Bible. This is one way of being a reader — arrogant, “enlightened,” filled with ego and secular will. Then there is C.S. Lewis, who compared reading to traveling to another country and being willing to mingle with the locals. You come home not full of your own subjective prejudices, but a different person: “You come home modified, thinking and feeling as you did not think and feel before. So with the old literature.” Wilson adds this: “If we are poor readers, an encounter with the Word will not do much to make us his people.”
Reading is Transformative
Continued below.
stream.org
Wilson is a Christian and a literature scholar at Pepperdine University. She convincingly makes the case that while the Bible is the greatest book of all time, we can become close to Christ by allowing great literature and spiritual writing to form our souls.
The Centrality of the Written Word
Wilson does not have to contort herself to try and make this point. A graceful and easily understood writer, she simply lays out how central the written word is to Christianity itself. “Perhaps it is our digital culture,” she writes, “but we have forgotten our identity as word creatures. God creates the world by word: ‘Let there be light.’ And with a word, God pronounces creation good. He converses with human beings in Genesis through words….When God enters creation in the incarnation, John describes him as the Word that ‘became flesh.’”
There’s more. Paul studies Greek myths, St. Augustine wrote a book on how to read, and monks saved civilization from the barbarians by transcribing manuscripts. Indeed, for centuries it was Christians who were considered people of the word.
How Do You Read?
Wilson compares two different ways of reading — the Thomas Jefferson way and the C.S. Lewis way. Jefferson famously created his own version of the Bible by cutting out everything he didn’t like from the real Bible. This is one way of being a reader — arrogant, “enlightened,” filled with ego and secular will. Then there is C.S. Lewis, who compared reading to traveling to another country and being willing to mingle with the locals. You come home not full of your own subjective prejudices, but a different person: “You come home modified, thinking and feeling as you did not think and feel before. So with the old literature.” Wilson adds this: “If we are poor readers, an encounter with the Word will not do much to make us his people.”
Reading is Transformative
Continued below.
Reading for the Love of God — Why Christians Should be Good Readers - The Stream
While the Bible is the greatest book of all time, Christians should allow great literature and spiritual writing to form our souls.
stream.org
