First, I must start out by saying I've been grumpy and moody lately--and I'm sorry you've had to read it. Blame it on hormones. (I am woman! Hear me...wimper!) Today, unlike the past few days, has been simply lovely. Still stressed out of my mind, but I'm finding that denial is actually working for me. I'll pretend that I don't have to have 46 correspondence course revisions completed and approved and online in eClass accounts that I haven't set up yet--all by April 14. I'll pretend that I don't have a Pneumatology paper due April 13. I'll pretend that I don't have ePortfolio students and church commitments and Hebrew verses to continually translate. Ah.... Pretending is nice.
So is running, which honestly is helping me cope with all this better than denial. And more healthily, too.
In class tonight, one of the speakers said something about prioritizing time. Generally, what she said was good; however, I was a little disturbed by one part. She said to make time to read--not storybooks, but books that "feed your spirit." And I know what she meant, and I know she meant well in saying it, but it still irked me because it represents something I see so often in people (and most often, people in the ministry). They don't allow for the possibility that art can "speak to the spirit" as well as scriptural teachings. Now obviously, as my friend Weltha likes to say, you should not go to literature for your theology. But in it you can find truth, and beauty, and ideas that latch onto your mind better because of the manner in which they are told. Case in point: Peace Like A River by Leif Enger. A "storybook" published by a "secular" publishing house...a novel that has God all over it in ways I have hardly seen in most "Christian" books I've read...and much better written. Maybe it's just me and the way my mind works, but I get more spiritually out of something like that than I often do from the latest, greatest Christian self-help book (case in point: The Purpose Driven Life, which I'm not knocking because it's good for what it is, but I still didn't get a whole lot from it).
I just get so frustrated at people's closed-mindedness sometimes.
2 comments:
I personally have never been able to finish "Purpose Driven Life". I have tried to read it, but to be honest, I must say I've learned more about God from studying "secular" literature under our favorite prof, than I ever learned in some of the Christian literature I've read.
Do you think that it is because in Christian literature, whether fiction or non-fiction, that perhaps the message is so obvious that to our more complex "literary" minds, it seems too easy and maybe a bit ridiculous? While in the study of secular literature, we must do more than scratch the surface in order to find the deeper meaning that ultimately points us to our Creator. I find it much more rewarding when I do find a solid Biblical message in something that is secular, because in some way it reinforces the idea that God truly can be found in every aspect of life.
I don't think the difference lies in Christian vs. secular. I think it is in good writing vs. mediocre writing. Anyone can get published if he tries long enough. I think there are Christian books (both fiction and non-fiction) that are amazing, just as there are secular books that are amazing. And on the flip side of that, there are Christian books that are sadly less than mediocre, just as there are secular books that are sadly less than mediocre.
But I think you have a point in what you said. People who have studied literature know what good writing is. It takes more to impress us. We aren't usually satisfied with good ideas--there must be good presentation as well. And many pop Christian writers have good ideas that they are not skilled enough to present in a way that is meaningful to us.
And a lot of Christian writers (particularly those with a ministerial bent) don't believe that fiction can illuminate truth. They think that if something isn't spelled out in black and white, with i's dotted and t's crossed and all hermeneutical exercises in place, it isn't going to edify a believer. I'm all for hermeneutical study, but I think a more abstract presentation helps the process of discovering the truth to be more personal.
I remember once when Becky was writing her first senior paper on gifted children (and maybe you'll want to speak to this yourself, Becky), she said one of the interesting things she learned was that gifted children responded better to abstract stories and ideas where they had to "figure out" the meaning/message on their own. If things were always just spelled out for them, they got bored and didn't want to learn it.
I know I'm that way.
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