Reading Broadly

I am well behind in posting with other things that are going on, but I wanted to pass on these two quotes from an amazing book, David Larsen’s The Company of the Creative: A Christian Reader’s Guide to Great Literature and Its Themes. This is a great book which arose from one of Dr. Larsen’s preaching classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He surveys a broad sweep of literature and how each one aids the preacher. The first chapter, which is an argument for reading broadly, is a great read.

“You can learn more about a nation from reading yesterday’s novel than today’s newspaper.” –James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress (11)

God did not intend that we study our Bibles in a mental vacuum. John Nelson Darby and G. Campbell Morgan both decided that for an extended time they would read only the Bible. They soon discovered that this plan was a mistake. The danger of reading only the Bible is that we do not then really read the Bible. The Bible comes out of an ancient cultural setting. We need the bridges to our own culture that reading more broadly can supply. . . . Our thesis in this study is that all Christians –
especially Christian leaders and communicators – need to read broadly, deeply, and copiously. (11-12)