Why Study Literature?

Christ's incarnation teaches us that God hallows the material and cultural world. Because God created the world and loved it enough to enter it, Christians too should love it and seek to understand it.

Human beings have free will, an openness to the future, with significant real moral choices to make. According to Christianity, they have a specific telos, purpose and end--"to glorify God and enjoy him forever," as the Westminister Confession says. The human self cannot be conceived without an awareness of a dependence upon and ultimate union with God. We are beings in the process of change and formation. Humans are relational beings created for mutuality and joint service (Gen 1:28, Gen 2). One can see this pattern of relationality beginning in the very nature of God, ala' the Trinity. It can also be seen in the biblical practice of covenant, as well as in the community of Israel and the Church. We are individuals, but never conceived of as existing alone or for ourselves alone. To read is to enter into the process of formation through community. We find similar messages, insights, and lessons. We read about closely related experiences.  We also find similar mistakes.

To read literature is also a lesson in worldview.  Thus, we often learn how different others are in circumstances and approaches to life, as well as encounter the diverse differences in what humans believe.

As we compare and contrast, not only various authors' views but also our own views and those of others, we deepen our sense of human reactions and our own self-responses. We have the possibility of becoming deeper, more self-aware people. We are also fallen beings with a capacity for self-interest and self-deception. We cannot ignore the impact of sin on our total person, both within ourselves and within the larger social system where we reside. Therefore, we need a balance between self-awareness and honest, self-discovery.

Yet being deeper and more self-aware requires certain virtues, in particular, a sense of respect and humility. Good dialogue requires faith, hope, and love: faith that communication can actually take place between people; hope that something may come of our efforts; and love for our fellow human beings in all their diversity, complexity, and variety.

For instance, what exactly would a Christian perspective on the growth, building, and decay of cities look like?  What unique insights might Christianity have to offer in this area? There seems to be in scripture a progression from the Garden of Eden to the great New Jerusalem of Revelation, but does this suggest that Christians should automatically approve of how human cities have evolved in the twentieth century?

Wisdom can be defined as skill in living.  By examining literary texts, their stories and their messages, we can increase in our understanding of how to live life.  We learn how to discern what is healthy and destructive in the world, and we are challenged with injustice and its consequences.  Literature may even challenge us to ask what we will do to help end the problems it pictures.

As a Christian, I believe that not only is God the final source of all truth and all goodness, but that God is also the final source of all beauty. Part of being fully human under God is rejoicing in the wonder and joy that songs and stories and language can bring to our lives.

Our use of our leisure is an extension of God's sabbath principle.  God rested on the seventh day, not because he needed to, but in order to teach us the value of existence.  God has created us to enjoy things.  Times of rest and pleasure are not laziness but times of celebration.

1. The classics not only exhibit distinguished style, fine artistry, and keen intellect but create whole universes of imagination and thought.
2. They portray life as complex and many-sided, depicting both negative and positive aspects of human character in the process of discovering and testing enduring virtues.
3. They have a transforming effect on the reader's self-understanding.
4. They invite and survive frequent rereadings.
5. They adapt themselves to various times and places and provide a sense of the shared life of humanity.
6. They are considered classics by a sufficiently large number of people, establishing themselves with common readers as well as qualified authorities.
7. And, finally, their appeal endures over wide reaches of time. (21-22)

12. Literature can open us to our own latent interests and talents; we may even discover part of our vocation from God.

Frederick Buechner has noted that "the place God calls you to is where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." Our vocations in life--parent/child, student/teacher, lawyer, doctor, cook, preacher, etc.-- are terrible important to our self-identity and more so, to our vision of life's purpose. Lee Hardy recognizes that the work that each of us is called to is based in the doctrine of creation:

Through work we respond to God's mandate to humanity to continue the work of creation by subduing the earth; through work we realize ourselves as image-bearers of God; through work we follow Christ in his example of redemptive suffering as we serve those with whom he identifies. [. . .] Although in working we become like God, giving further shape and form to the earth for the good of humanity, we remain subordinate and responsible to God as stewards of creation. (76)

For some of us, the study of literature plays a part in this calling. Literature can challenge us to grow as individuals and as communities, and for that, it is worth spending time with.