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Books & Culture
Karen Swallow Prior
Lit! Why & How We Read
It starts with our theology.
Editor's Note: Many years ago, I taught English at a large state university in California. A lot of the students had jobs; a lot were immigrants. Most of the classes I taught were "composition." I discovered that one of my primary tasks in the span of ten weeks (we were on the quarter system) was to offer a crash course in how to read. Even though they were in college, most of my students hadn't learned reading beyond the most basic level.
Tony Reinke's Lit! A Christian Guide to Books (Crossway) speaks to the need that quickly became apparent in those classes, and it does so from a distinctively Christian perspective. This need isn't limited to college students. Hence we are featuring a conversation between Reinke and Karen Swallow Prior (whose Twitter handle, by the way is @LoveLifeLitGod). Karen leads off today, Tony responds on Wednesday, Karen returns on Thursday, and Tony concludes the conversation on Friday. We hope you'll join in as well.
—John Wilson
My initial response to a Christian how-to book on reading books is dismay: do we really need a book addressing such basic questions as why we should read books and how to do so well?
Since the answer to that question, unfortunately, is yes, my second response to Tony Reinke's Lit: A Christian Guide to Reading Books is thank you—followed by a mental list of all the people I know who need this book. Because I'm an English professor (and because I recently taught a literature survey to a class of 100 general education students), that list is depressingly long.
But I'm a realist, so I go with what we've got. And what we've got, by most accounts, is what Marshall McLuhan described fifty years ago in The Gutenberg Galaxy as a postliterate culture. Not only the population at large, but even we putative "People of the Book," need a book that addresses questions like the ones that Reinke raises in Lit:
- "What do I lose if I don't read books?"
- "Does the gospel really shape how I read books? How so?"
- "What books should I read?"
- "Where do I find all the time I need to read books?"
Reinke answers these and many other questions in readable, practical prose, interweaving theology, personal experience, and helpful tips to make the case for books.
The way we read (or don't) is rooted, like all human activity, in our theology. And this is where Reinke begins, reminding us that publishing didn't begin in 15th-century Germany. There was that day on Mt. Sinai, when God carved his words into stone. Hence for Christians, "scripture is the ultimate grid by which we read every book." The removal of spiritual blinders that occurs at regeneration gives us "spiritual eyes" not only for biblical truth but for the truth that can be found in other books, too. Less important than what we read, in most cases, is how we read it. In another book on the same topic, Why Read?, University of Virginia professor Mark Edmundson answers the question in the classic humanist mode—we read to live better—a reason with which I won't disagree. But Reinke's approach—notably, that of a non-professional reader—offers more. In the chapter "Reading is Believing," Reinke connects the language-centered nature of Christianity to the ways in which language by its very nature gets beyond visible, superficial realities to the invisible world of meaning. This is why reading is inherently hard work, not only when reading for knowledge, but even when reading for pleasure, since some of the greatest pleasures gained from reading comes through great effort.
In devaluing the mere pleasure of reading, many Christians create unhelpful categories of reading material, prioritizing some books (biblical commentary, say, or self-help) and disdaining others (such as fiction). Reinke, wisely and helpfully, divides books into just two categories: the Bible and all other books. Later, he addresses how one might subdivide the latter category in ways tailored to individual needs and interests, but these two categories cut to the chase: the Bible is a category unto itself; the rest can be approached in a way that paraphrases Augustine: "Love God, and read what you will."
And there's the rub: for many, the will is lacking.
Karen Swallow Prior is chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages at Liberty University.
Copyright © 2011 Books & Culture. Click for reprint information.
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Shaunie Friday
As a 48 year old freshman English major (starting in January), I think this book might be a good prerequisite for me to study before I get started. I love to read and to read Christianly, but I have always been in control of the books I've chosen--over the course of my education I am going to have to read a lot of things chosen for me, and I know some of it will be tough to swallow. It sounds like a book like this will be invaluable in helping me read a wide variety of literature with my theology intact and guiding my handling of it. Looking forward to this!!
a mind for reading
Adam, I don't know if we ought to halt our theological discourses in order to entice people to read, but as Karen said, the will to read must exist--and the will is lacking. (We must pray for it.) I think a God-centered reason explaining why reading is good (and glorifying to the Creator who gave us minds) would have made reading purposeful for me, had I not already been a reader. When so many things are important, what is the point of spending an hour in a book? But, maybe Reinke explains /why/ the "wasted" time is important, motivating us beyond our previous understanding. I like knowing, as much as possible, that what I am doing is meaningful and part of God's will for me. Do reluctant readers need comic-book simplicity in order to entice them, or literature simplified to the point of dull easiness in order to get them to read? There needs to a will to read and read well, which, as Reinke mentions, takes discipline. And, Reinke was writing for a mixed audience.
Tony R
... Recommending the book to a friend is very important. Walking through the book with them is even better, a teamwork that provides the initial buoyancy that frees me to then begin to build critical theological pillars that undergird lifelong reading habits. But it does go back to the spreaders in the church -- the competent readers -- and the incredible role they have in encouraging non-readers to take up and read. It appears that a good number of readers see the vision behind Lit! They have become the spreaders. I am grateful for the way they bring purpose and value to the entire project.
Tony R
C.S. Lewis once wrote that in order to learn to swim one must be buoyant in the water, and in order to be buoyant in the water one must swim. Learning to read books is much like this. One must know how to read in order to learn to read. To learn to read well, we need others early on to help us make discoveries as readers (see Adler's point about aided and unaided discoveries). As the author, this is why I focus so much of Lit! on inspiring capable readers in the church to find and help struggling readers. My first and primary audience for Lit! is the competent reader. A few readers have suggested that I wrote the book to directly reach isolated non-readers who live disconnected from the local church. That's not the case, as I seek to explain in chapters 13 and 14. This book is a tool for parents, pastors, and lit professors, and for any Christian who wants to reach out to non-readers they love. Karen's impulse to spread copies of Lit! to those she knows and loves is exactly the purpose
Adam Shields(Registered User)
John, clearly we have different needs and desires. So I think Reinke's book is good and useful to read and if he started with the assumption that he was writing for people that need to think more Christianly about reading, but are already readers, then I think he would have accomplished his task. Or if he rearranged the book to start more about why you should read and move the heavier theology to the end then he might have better accomplished the moving non-readers to readers. But I was not the editor, so...
Rachael Starke
Earlier in the week, the Desiring God blog posted an exhortation from John Piper about how much could be accomplished reading something "theologically rich" for only 15 minutes a day. I noted on Twitter that I had a lot of dear sister friends who would struggle with even that much. But, if I got them to commit to 15 minutes of Tony's book first, maybe that would be a start? Like Karen says, the issue is often one of will. And, I'd argue, for women, it's also one of of lack of aspiration. Women in particular think that as long as they're reading something, it counts. So they pick up Twilight and think that's literature. I'll stop before I really start ranting. But I have Tony's book at the top of my Christmas wish list, and am really looking forward to the rest of the discussion.
John Wilson(Registered User)
One size never fits all, Adam. A lot of what Tony is trying to do (as I see it) is to encourage people to think Christianly about reading. You are certainly right that many "reluctant readers" would never pick up such a book in the first place. But others, especially those who have a sadly truncated conception of reading, or who feel a tension between reading and their faith commitments, might very well be drawn to this book. And then there will be others who have long been committed to reading, but who will be interested to see how Tony makes his case--and will no doubt argue with this or that point.
Adam Shields(Registered User)
I am all for encouraging people to read. I am just not sure that this book is doing what it thinks it is doing. The first 25-30 percent is primarily theology, good theology, but if you are trying to encourage people to read, this is not going to do it. There are some really good thoughts in the book, but it seems to be written for people that are already reading, not those that are reluctant readers.
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