New
On Reading Well pt.III - The Benefit of Reading New Books
Before we get started with this week’s article, congratulations to Yugi for winning the recent competition, enjoy the book and let me know how you find it!
On Reading Well III - The Benefit of Reading New Books
Last week I announced a year-long series on why we as Protestants should read books from before the Reformation. We’ll be looking at twelve books from the period between Augustine’s confessions and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s progress, which makes up a 1200-year period largely unexplored by those in the reformed camp. If you missed it you can read the introduction to the series here:
While I believe it’s important to read books from previous generations of Christians, it’s never my intention to disparage or discourage the reading of newer books. So often when talking about the benefit of older books, C.S. Lewis is quoted in defence of the practice:
It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between…
C.S. Lewis
There are two parts to that quote though, not just the old but also the new. Not only that, but it’s perfectly balanced. 50% New, 50% Old. Yet, we seem to either veer one way or the other, without much attention to our blind spots. Perhaps more telling is that it’s often quoted incomplete, as Lewis follows up by saying:
…If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.
This article is for anyone asking any of the following questions:
Is it okay to read newer books?
Why should I read books which haven’t stood the test of time?
What is the benefit of newer books over older ones?
Native
Cultural Cartography
Before we get started with this week’s article, congratulations to Yugi for winning the recent competition, enjoy the book and let me know how you find it!
The Benefit of Reading New Books
Last week I announced a year-long series on why we as Protestants should read books from before the Reformation. We’ll be looking at twelve books from the period between Augustine’s confessions and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s progress, which makes up a 1200-year period largely unexplored by those in the reformed camp. If you missed it you can read the introduction to the series here:
While I believe it’s important to read books from previous generations of Christians, it’s never my intention to disparage or discourage the reading of newer books. So often when talking about the benefit of older books, C.S. Lewis is quoted in defence of the practice¹:
It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between…
There are two parts to that quote though, not just the old but also the new. Not only that, but it’s perfectly balanced. 50% New, 50% Old. Yet, we seem to either veer one way or the other, without much attention to our blind spots. To put an even finer point on it, the quote is usually left incomplete, as Lewis follows up by saying:
…If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.
It seems that while Lewis is intent on encouraging the reading of older books—a mission I’m happy to join in on—he bears little animosity towards newer ones, in fact, if he’d had some profound opposition to them it would have been curious indeed for him to write a great deal of them during his lifetime.
This article is for those asking any of the following questions:
Is it okay to read newer books?
Why should I read books which haven’t stood the test of time?
What is the benefit of newer books over older ones?
This article will not include an exhaustive list of the many reasons to read newer books, rather I’ll focus on two I think are important. If you have other reasons you think I should add, or follow up on in future articles, please let me know in the comments.
Native
“Mark you this…the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart: O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”
Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Shakespeare was one of my first great literary loves, his words spoke to me in a way I’d never experienced before, and still to this day hearing Shakespeare recited or performed brings me joy. In secondary school, a drama group had gotten together to perform Romeo & Juliet—my least favourite of his plays—but had run into some issues. The roles had been doled out, and the costumes and set pieces were on their way to being completed, but for most of the cast, every word felt empty.
Nathan, who was playing Mercutio, came to me during break time one day and asked me for a favour. He ask whether I could transcribe each of the scenes he was performing into modern English, that way he could learn both the words and the meaning. Even though Shakespeare was British and wrote in English, 500 years have battered and broken the language so that what’s left today is very different to the way in which he wrote. Though not all historical literature is written so archaically, the reality is that some readers, like Nathan, will find it very difficult to get used to older incarnations of our language especially if reading doesn’t come easy. Perhaps that’s you, if that’s the case please don’t be discouraged. If you asked me as a German speaker to read Dutch or even Swiss German, I could do so with some time, but it would be crazy to assume that it would come naturally.
The great thing about new books is that they’re already in modern English!—Who’da thunk it eh? This is especially helpful for newer readers, but also for anyone who’s in a rut or has been reading older literature for a long time, reading in one’s native language—as in 20-21st century English—might be necessary for getting used to, back into the swing of, or renewing a love for reading. I will never stop advocating for older literature, just as I will never lose my love for German fiction, but just as I would not expect most people to have read Stefan Zweig off of the back of my mentioning him a few weeks ago, nor do I expect everyone to gravitate towards or gain a great deal from Augustine, Chrysostom, or Shakespeare. I will even go as far as to say that without first reading within one’s own comfort zone, going back and reading older literature will never be helpful or edifying.
When I first moved to Germany I spent a couple of months reading children’s books, then I moved on to comics—you can use everything in a comic book as it’s mostly speech. After comics I read YA, then modern books or translations of books into modern German, only then did I begin to read Zwieg, Goethe, and Schiller. This took almost a year and a half, which is a significant amount of time. I know from speaking with readers of this newsletter that some of you only read articles right now, which I hope continues, but why not pick up something by Tim Keller, C.S. Lewis, or Drew Dyck? Though reading new—and perhaps simpler—books will help on the road to reading more in-depth ones, this does not mean that new books can’t be incredibly deep, nor does it make older literature irrelevant, the quote I began this section with from the Merchant of Venice is still as true today as it was when it was written, but for most readers, saying it like this would be far more relevant and readable:
“Remember this, the devil can quote Scripture for his own purposes. Believing an evil soul which professes to be holy is like expecting to hear joy in wicked laughter. Like a perfect looking apple with a rotten core: How often sin and lies are dressed up as though they are good!”
To be clear, I am not the only one advocating for the updating of older literature to appeal to a broader readership. Speaking of a new updated version of Charnock’s Divine Providence, Joel Beeke, a prominent scholar of Puritan works and theology said:
“Carolyn Whiting has updated the quaint prose of Charnock’s early modern English to communicate more easily with today’s reader, but the thoughts remain deep, brilliant, and timeless. Formatted in short chapters with study questions, this edition will prove very useful for personal study and small groups.”
Joel Beeke
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Cultural Cartography
I spent yesterday exploring the Hughenden National Trust Park in High Wycombe which had been owned by one of our former Prime Ministers Benjamin Disraeli. We were also able to catch a talk by one of the resident historians who told us all about the Cartographers who worked there during WWII. It was their job to use the photographs which had been taken over Germany and update any maps they had in order to better equip the British and American bombers for air raids. Using old maps was vital to this endeavour, they formed the basis for the work because the land, natural landmarks, and major population centres were still largely the same, if not exactly the same. What had changed were military bases, new settlements, freshly built housing and infrastructure, all of which had to be documented and mapped out from scratch.
Old books likewise form the basis for our understanding of Theology, starting with the Bible. We will never outgrow or outlearn the Bible, it is the basis of our cultural Cartography. Likewise, Theological doctrines which have always been true, codified—for instance—in historic creeds and expounded on in the works of the Church’s past theologians, make up the physical Landmarks, finally, denominational differences, cultural phenomenon, and tertiary Theological matters make up the major population centres around which new ideas, groups, and settlements have grown. In the past, I’ve discussed why Klaas Schilder is so important for us, because his time was so similar to the one in which we now find ourselves. With that said, what was freshly mapped out during his time has since been dismantled, and though the new distinctives of our societies may look similar to his, they are not identical. Using his books—his maps—will be helpful as it will give us poignant strategic wisdom which we can use in our own time, but we need to pay heed to the books being written today if we are to fully understand the world we presently live in.
A good example I’ve mentioned before is the book Simply Trinity, a book which takes on the lofty goal of examining the state of the modern Church’s understanding of the Trinity and contrasting and comparing it to theological orthodoxy. It explains some of the finer points we’ve largely ignored or forgotten, retrieves some things which are necessary though perhaps widely believed, and vehemently fights again missteps in the theology of our time when contrary to the Bible and historic understanding. It is, I believe, one of the most important books of the past decade and could not have been written prior to the 20th century in the way that in was. Books could have been written on the subject but would have fought against different foes and argued more stringently for other truths depending on what had been forgotten/lost in that specific time period—I’m thinking particularly of the Quranic understanding of the Trinity, or Dualism in earlier times periods for instance.
We need new books because at its core Theology is that which helps us to glorify God, to continually find our joy in him in this life, until one day we know him unveiled and can enjoy him forever.
We must continue to survey the land, understand what is taking place in our culture and our churches, and then write for the glory of God and the good of his people. We writers will do that until Christ comes again, even after the ink has long dried, there are no pens left to write with, and the paper has run out. We will always find a way.
In with the old, in with the new
I have said in the past that I have a predisposition to trust books written before the 20th Century more readily than those of recent times, and that is still true. The truth is that the reason some books have survived and others haven’t is that great and important works have been preserved due to a concerted effort to preserve the Theological legacy of the Church’s best theologians, pastors, and philosophers. That isn’t to say that some rubbish hasn’t made its way through, but that there is a canon or largely accepted literature which is trustworthy and usually readily available. There are books which have slipped through the cracks, I am—as I mentioned before—writing a whole series on that subject, and the time period in which lots of these were written, but even still, as a rule, old books = good books.
With that clearly stated, a new book ≠ a bad book. There are bad books being written, but these will hopefully go the way of the poodle and go extinct—I know poodles aren’t extinct but with enough prayer, it won’t be long. I have been sent books for review in past and declined to write a review, even after reading through the whole book meticulously because I couldn’t in good conscience recommend anyone pick the book up, but for the most part, what I recommend isn’t omitting all awful books from your reading list, but rather that you would grow in discernment, learn to read well, and then take from each book either what’s good or learn from what isn’t.
To find out more about how I recommend you learn to read well, here’s a link to the whole series on reading well.
Grace and Peace,
Adsum Try Ravenhill
So true, what a great reminder!