An article on the relationship of Christians to novels (CC)

[Aubrey]

I heard this on the radio tonight, & I"m linking you to the text version. It's the first thing I've heard in a long time that made me actually want to stand up & cheer.

 

http://www.breakpoint.org/commentaries/14792-literary-witness

 

Dr. Cowan was the head of the English dept at my alma mater, & she attended my presentation of my senior project, so she's almost like a saint in my book, if there could be such things as saints of literature. :001_smile:

[Jean in Newcastle]

Interesting. I knew that my addiction to fiction was good!

[eaglei]

Thanks for posting this!:)

[newbie]

:thumbup::thumbup:

[Aubrey]

I see so much good in fiction. I really think that's what Plato was getting at in The Republic, & I love connecting philosophy & literature to faith. I mean...the pursuit of Truth, from any path, should converge at some point, don't you think?

 

But it seems too often people want us to choose philosophy OR religion, not both.

[joannqn]

I cannot agree more. Novels often have me reevaluating how I respond to people, events, and ideas by helping me to understand what the Bible meant.

[Harriet Vane]

Wonderful article. I agree 100%.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I heard this on the radio tonight, & I"m linking you to the text version. It's the first thing I've heard in a long time that made me actually want to stand up & cheer.

 

http://www.breakpoint.org/commentaries/14792-literary-witness

 

Dr. Cowan was the head of the English dept at my alma mater, & she attended my presentation of my senior project, so she's almost like a saint in my book, if there could be such things as saints of literature. :001_smile:

 

I'm trying to think of how my kids' literature instructor put it. Every book that reflects the human condition reflects in some way man's relationship with God. And also that just because Christianity represents the truth doesn't mean that everything else contains no truth.

 

I also think that you are often able to represent things better in fiction than in non-fiction, because you are able to crystalize the situations that you present down to just what relates to the topic at hand.

[eaglei]

I cannot agree more. Novels often have me reevaluating how I respond to people, events, and ideas by helping me to understand what the Bible meant.

 

:iagree:

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

Thanks for the link to the article.

 

My favorite quotes on the subject:

 

"Why Read? Reading is a sage way to bump up against life. Reading may be an escape, but it is not escape from my own life and problems. It is escape from the narrow boundaries of being only me. Reading in some wonderful way helps me find out who I am. When she was a young girl Patricia MacLachlan's mother urged her to "read a book and find out who you are." And it is true that in some way reading defines me as it refines me. Reading enlarges my vision of the world; it helps me understand someone who is different from me. It makes me bigger on the inside. We tend to see the world from our own perspective; it is good to see it from the eyes of others. Good literature helps me understand who I am in relation to what others experience. Far from being an escape from reality, good literature is a window into reality. I read to feel life." ~Gladys Hunt, Honey for a Woman's Soul

 

If you haven't read Honey for a Woman's Soul, I highly recommend it. The author presents reading from a Biblical perspective in a similar way that the article you linked approaches it. Here is another quote from her book:

 

"Books primarily tell stories. There is really only one Great Story in the universe. All other stories come from that one story. Our lives are stories; we tell stories, using our imagination to create narratives about people and events. Jesus was a master storyteller, he put his stamp of approval on fiction by doing this.

 

Stories tell us truths about the way the world is -- about human longing, fears, and choices. We get inside the lives of others and contemplate the consequence of their actions and decisions. Stories are great teachers; we learn best from them because truth takes us unaware, sneaking up on us through our involvement in the story's characters and actions."

 

And one from C.S. Lewis:

 

"Literature enlarges our being by admitting us to experiences not our own. They may be beautiful, terrible, awe-inspiring, exhilarating, pathetic, comic, or merely piquant. Literature gives the entree to them all. Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom realize the enormous extension of our being that we owe to authors. We realize it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should feel suffocated. My own eyes are not enough for me. Even the eyes of all humanity are not enough. Very gladly would I learn what face things present to a mouse or bee.

 

In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in a Greek poem, I see with a thousand eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself: and am never more myself than when I do." ~ C.S. Lewis, quoted in Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis by George Sayer

[Aubrey]

In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in a Greek poem, I see with a thousand eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself: and am never more myself than when I do." ~ C.S. Lewis, quoted in Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis by George Sayer

 

These boards have a similar effect on me.

 

And I've totally got Cowan's book in my Amazon cart now. I'm wondering if she's still teaching...she was pretty old when I was there, & that was nearly 10 yrs ago. But I think I need an autographed copy. I went over & looked at the table of contents, & oh! be still my heart.

 

That school was the best choice I ever made!:001_smile:

[TravelingChris]

I read things that many people would have a problem with, mainly mysteries. I am a Christian and even non Christian stories make me think about how would this story be different if person A was a believer, etc. For example, I have been reading some slightly more suggestive books lately but what it has done is make me think about messages we send by our actions, safety concerns, how I miss California, etc, etc, which are not bad thoughts at all. Just because I see a person on tv wearing less clothing than I think is appropriate doesn't mean I follow their example. Same with novels. Often they are an anti-example.

[Aubrey]

I read things that many people would have a problem with, mainly mysteries. I am a Christian and even non Christian stories make me think about how would this story be different if person A was a believer, etc. For example, I have been reading some slightly more suggestive books lately but what it has done is make me think about messages we send by our actions, safety concerns, how I miss California, etc, etc, which are not bad thoughts at all. Just because I see a person on tv wearing less clothing than I think is appropriate doesn't mean I follow their example. Same with novels. Often they are an anti-example.

 

Well, I think this goes beyond just thinking about how a person would respond if they were a Christian & even beyond their example. I don't know how much it applies outside of great literature...I'd have to think about it all over again for that, lol.

 

I do think that braod principles of truth can apply, though, through the greats, for sure. I mean...what happens in a distopian society? What is the pull toward the light?

 

My favorite is Oedipus Rex. He's cursed; a prophecy says he's going to kill his father & sleep w/ his mother, so his parents send him off to be raised by someone else, he finds out about the prophecy & in order to protect the people who've raised him, who he thinks are his parents, he runs off, & accidentally kills his father, & marries his mother w/out knowing who she is.

 

That "inescapable fate" was something the Greeks were familiar w/, & the word they used for it was "hamartia," the same word the Bible uses for "sin." Imagine if we thought of sin not only as a willfully committed act but also the bad fate that follows us around, that crushes us even as we try to flee it, that's inescapable. Sometimes it's our fault, but sometimes it's just our curse.

 

And then there comes into the world the Logos, the Answer, the Word, who will take our hamartia away, who will save us from this bad fate from which we can't save ourselves.

 

That, to me, is the Gospel. THAT is the good news. Not, "You're going to hell, dude, but if you'll just do what I tell you, whew! you can be saved from this mysterious scary thing I'm telling you about." (That's bad news.) Hamartia is more like a version of hell here and now.