Reading

Reading is the process by which we arrive at meaning in response to the stimulus of print. But confined to this definition, we may miss the wonder of reading, which is, quite simply, the miracle of mind meeting mind in a conversation that transcends time. Reading can be a lifelong source of information, instruction and delight.

Reading and Literacy

Because the Christian faith is grounded in and sustained by a body of sacred literature in the form of the Old and New Testaments, literacy has been linked to the proclamation of the good news concerning Jesus. In England literacy was the great gift of the Reformation and the printing press. William Tyndale’s wish that the Bible would be available to every plowboy and milkmaid in England became increasingly realized throughout the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, so that by the mid-seventeenth century even a poor man’s son like John Bunyan could read the Scriptures and write his response to them for an eager audience of readers from the same social class. Reading historian Harvey J. Graff says, “Puritan strongholds were among the most education-conscious and literate centers in England. In their intense piety and concern about individual access to the Word, Puritans expected their adherents to learn to read” (p. 162). This emphasis on education for literacy helped form a word-centered society, which existed for several centuries before being challenged by the visual media.

The many kinds of reading we do may be roughly categorized under three headings. The first, reading to learn, is the approach we take to informative texts. In this kind of reading we usually preview the material, formulating questions that will guide our reading; we then read, review the material in terms of recalling answers to the questions we had shaped and reread where necessary to complete our understanding. The second, reading to function, is the approach we take to utilitarian materials like labels and manuals and do-it-yourself instructions. In this kind of reading we test our understanding by action. The third, reading to satisfy personal interests, is the approach we take to literary works. Reading to satisfy our hunger to hear God’s voice and know God personally is a special aspect of this last category of reading and sustains our spiritual life.

Reading the Bible

Since the Bible is a compendium of different kinds of literature, we might at various times take any of a number of approaches to it. We might read Leviticus, for example, to learn the nature of Jewish ritual law, to arrive at general guidelines for responsible moral choices in view of accountability to a holy God or to understand the nature of Hebrew legal literature. Or we might read the Pauline epistles for information about the early church and its attitudes, to learn how to function as God’s people living in the period between Jesus’ incarnation and return, to examine the literary form of informal letters or to satisfy our inner hunger to hear and know God’s voice. As literature the Bible can be read as many particular stories describing encounters with God or as one great story that demonstrates God’s gracious interaction with humankind (Frye). But the Bible is far more than a literary experience. When illumined by the Spirit of God, the “holy Scriptures . . . are able to make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15).

The Bible can be read by believers individually with an openness to hearing the Word of God; this is the practice of many in their quiet time or private devotions (Bockmuehl). But the Bible needs also to be read corporately by small groups of Christians in community and as they gather in larger groups for worship, for remembrance of Christ’s death and for the preaching of the Word. It needs also to be read corporately in an ongoing discussion between theologians, scholars, pastors and the laity, as the church searches for an ever fuller understanding of the Bible to guide its beliefs, doctrines and practice.

In modern literary criticism there is an increasing awareness that every reading act comprises an interaction of what the reader brings to the text and what the text brings to the reader. Attention is being paid to the way in which we reconfigure what is configured in the text (to use the terminology of hermeneutist Paul Ricoeur), taking into account the personal and cultural lenses through which we view textual materials.

But there is something more involved in the process of reading than reader interaction. The Holy Spirit is present when believers read the Scripture and will continue to be present in the church until the end of the age. Because of the Spirit’s guiding presence within the Christian community, we can have confidence that the Scriptures will continue to instruct and challenge the church in its faith and practice, with new light breaking forth (for historical examples of this process, see Swartley).

Reading Other Works

While the Bible will form the core of the Christian’s understanding of God and of life, there is a wide domain of good books beyond the Bible to enjoy and be nurtured by. Christians are sometimes afraid to encounter ideas that do not reinforce their own or are taught to think of time spent reading fiction as frivolous. But we should explore our ideas and others’ ideas through reading and thoughtfully weighing them against the Scriptures. One purpose of doing this is to have our own vision of life enlarged or challenged by the visions conveyed by excellent writers of fiction and drama. Guides to good literature might be used to begin such a pilgrimage into literature; the Great Books approach will lead the reader into the basic texts of Western civilization; more simply and flexibly, course descriptions from university or college courses can be used to guide explorations of specific fields or areas of interest.

Literature can be approached in a number of ways: by time period (you might want to read medieval poetry and prose or novels of the eighteenth century), by author or by theme. As an example of theme, one might consider death and dying from the point of view of the yearnings expressed in ancient literature (The Epic of Gilgamesh; the biblical books of Job and Ecclesiastes); in descriptions in classic and contemporary literature (Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess; Bunyan’s conclusions in both parts of The Pilgrim’s Progress; William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying; Rudy Wiebe’s My Lovely Enemy); in discussions in contemporary psychotherapy (Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s On Death and Dying); in readings from Christian experience (David Watson’s Fear No Evil); in resources for Christian pastoral care (David K. Switzer’s The Dynamics of Grief); and finally in the riches of Christian theology (Jürgen Moltmann’s The Crucified God; John R. W. Stott’s The Cross of Christ). Accompanied by meditation on such biblical passages as Psalm 23, Psalm 90, the passion and resurrection narratives in the Gospels, their expositions in Acts and Pauline passages like 1 Cor. 15 and Phil. 1, such an exploration through reading would open up a wide perspective and equip one to think clearly and Christianly about the “unthinkable”—that is, death.

Making a practice of always reading one or more books is probably the best way to keep reading. Many people enjoy being part of a readers’ circle, in which members of the group take turns suggesting a book to read and the group meets to discuss the books as they are read. Regular reading of book-review sections in several respected magazines will keep you alert to new publications.

Encouraging Young Readers

With the visual media taking over many hours of children’s lives, Christian parents should be serious and intentional about helping their children form the habit of reading. Reading encourages a use of the mind and imagination that is not required in television viewing. Reading also extends the period of “charm, malleability, innocence and curiosity of children” which the visual media transform into “pseudo-adulthood,” according to Neil Postman (p. xiii). Habits of lifelong reading are most likely to be developed in a home in which the adults read for enjoyment, information and personal growth themselves. If books are present in the home and read and discussed in the view and hearing of the children, reading will be seen as a natural part of everyday life. Good reading habits begin with an association between books, reading and loving care; the child snuggled into a parental lap, enjoying the total experience of love and story, pictures and voice, is a child on the way to becoming a reader.

Parents are often highly anxious about their children’s learning to read and try to promote it by means of phonics workbooks and other aids. Most reading experts agree that putting pressure on children in this way is more likely to turn off developing readers than to help them (on this, see Elkind). Since reading requires an array of skills and experiences, the home that provides rich visual and tactile learning experiences and creates opportunities for storytelling and conversation lays the foundation on which more formal instruction can be based.

In a television-dominated age is it possible to instill a love for the Scriptures? Certainly it is, but it is not easy. Some form of regular Bible reading with children, kept short and made an integral part of mealtime or bedtime rituals, provides the best basis for a lifetime love for and knowledge of the Scriptures. Families could begin with simplified, sequential Bible stories and move on to participatory shared readings at levels appropriate to children’s abilities. Or, very simply, families could include a brief reading of a few verses of Scripture as part of the blessing at the beginning or conclusion of a meal. Still, the best pattern of instruction is the one laid out in Deuteronomy: “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds. . . . Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deut. 11:18-19). The Scriptures wholly integrated into life and thought will be passed on lovingly from one generation to another.

Conclusion

Reading is of great importance throughout the Bible. Christians, like Jews, are people of the Book. The writing of the New Testament documents presupposes that many among those who were first called Christians were literate and that others would listen to the oral readings of the stories of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Although Jesus himself left no written records, his many citations from the Old Testament show his deep biblical literacy. He opened his earthly ministry with a reading of the Hebrew Bible within the congregation at Nazareth. In this scene all the elements of reading sacred text are delineated: a congregation or body of people who hold the text to be sacred and the public reading and discussion of that text, in which the current readers take their place in succession with previous generations who have read and commented on the text. It is in the context of these elements that Jesus offers a radical rereading of the text, declaring, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).

One of the early conversion narratives, the story of the Ethiopian official, is the story of an evangelist’s offering a rereading of an Old Testament text so that the reader can see Jesus in it (Acts 8:26-40). And the book of Revelation not only sees future events as written on a sealed scroll (Rev. 5) but is itself self-consciously a book that is to be read by the church until the return of Christ (Rev. 1:3; Rev. 22:7-21). We would do well to cultivate ourselves as readers as we whisper or cry, with the readers of all ages, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

» See also: Family Goals

» See also: Parenting

» See also: Spiritual Disciplines

» See also: Spiritual Growth

References and Resources

M. J. Adler and C. Van Doren, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972); K. Bockmuehl, Listening to the God Who Speaks (Colorado Springs: Helmers & Howard, 1990); D. Elkind, The Hurried Child (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1981); N. Frye, The Great Code: The Bible and Literature (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982); H. J. Graff, The Legacies of Literacy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987); J. Lindskoog and K. Lindskoog, How to Grow a Young Reader (Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, 1989); N. Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood (New York: Dell, 1982); J. W. Sire, How to Read Slowly: Reading for Comprehension (Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, 1989) W. Swartley, Slavery, Sabbath, War and Women: Case Studies in Biblical Interpretation (Scottdale, Penn.: Herald, 1983).

—Maxine Hancock