Reading the Spiritual Classics
Solid food for junk-food junkies.
But it takes time to develop a hearty appetite.
A classic is something everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read... a book people praise and don’t read. Mark Twain
I understand why so many evangelicals are frustrated with church, with faith, with their own jourey as a follower of Jesus.
The fact is that our culture (North American especially, but not uniquely) is characterized by narcissism and pragmatism. We are a quick-fix-it culture. We prefer simplistic over substantial. We prefer entertainment over learning. We like the popular and appealing, more than the thoughtful and meaningful. We are "suckers" for the latest fad.
What Happened:
In his wonderful book, Monk Habits for Everyday People, Dennis Okholm says, "We are consumers of religion rather than cultivators of a spirutal life. We have spawned an entire industry... full of spiritual junk food that leaves us sated and flabby."
The Result:
Theologian J. I. Packer (pictured to the left) has said it best: "North American Christianity is 3000 miles wide and 1/2 inch deep" (The Quest for Godliness).
The Need:
Richard Foster, surveying our contemporary scene believes, "The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people or gifted people, but for deep people."
We are frustrated for good reason. But we must also be honest. We have made our way and then our way made us. We chose narcissism, pragmatism, the simplistic, entertainment, popular, appealing, faddish - and we reaped what we sowed (Galatians 6:7).
Richard Foster suggests the way forward (and the way do deepness) is through a re-engaging with the spiritual wisdom of the past. Through a reading of the great classics of Christian spirituality.
Foster introduced me to many of the classics of Christian spirituality through his two primers, Spiritual Classics organized around the thirteen spiritual disciplines described in Celebration of Discipline, and Devotional Classics organized around the six streams of Christian spirituality laid out in Streams of Living Water.
While I had sampled a few of the spiritual classics, Foster was an introduction and a guide that opened a wide world of spiritual treasures that I have been working with ever since. Plus, he modeled a way of reflective engagement with these classics of spirituality.
Mark Twain said, “A classic is something everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.” He also said a classic is, “a book people praise and don’t read.” These words described me when it came to the spiritual classics. Before I read Foster, I only dipped my toes into the spiritual classics, feeling vaguely guilty about ignoring these treasures of the faith.
What is it that makes a spiritual classic – a classic? Classics are books that have stood the test of time and demonstrated they have an enduring value of wisdom for many generations and cultures. “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say” (Italo Calvino).
I have found the words of William Styron to be true of these books: “A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it!”
I have been exhausted and exhilarated from these readings. I have been moved to sorrow and stirred with joy through the pages of these classics.
“What is so wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it toward the condition of the man who wrote it” (E.M. Forster).
This great literature, in part, is great because of the autobiographical imprint it leaves on the reader. An imitation begins to occur as the heart and wisdom of the author is imparted to the reader.
Ezra Pound said, “Men do not understand BOOKS until they have had a certain amount of life.”
We evangelicals have now had a certain amount of life. It has left a bitter taste in our mouth. We are ready for a cleansing of the palette and a nourishing of the soul.
"When the student is ready,the master will appear" (Zorro, sorry about the pop culture refrence, it isn't always a total loss).
If you are a ready student, having had a certain amount of life, then I encourage you to dip your toes in the streams of living water by sampling them through the classics. The easiest way to do that is to read:
Spiritual Classics and Devotional Classics by Richard Foster.
Start there. Get the sweeping introduction and sampling of the great traditions.
Later you can selectively explore those authors and writings that were of most appeal.
Wishing you great joy on the journey . . .
Brian K. Rice
Evangelicals on the Ignatian Way
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com
Comments