Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books

by Tony Reinke

A wide gap separates a reader who simply consumes books from a reader who diligently seeks wisdom. Book consumers view books as “things to get read.” Wisdom seekers view books as fuel for slow and deliberate meditation. The differences between the two can be seen in how they treat books. A book consumer will read a great book and then treat it like “a burnt-out match, an old railway ticket, or yesterday’s paper,” wrote C. S. Lewis.2 On the other hand, a wisdom seeker will read a great book, savor it, and reread it in the future. Readers who cherish wisdom will reread great books five or ten or even twenty times. The point is that if you cannot read a lot of books, don’t sweat it. Find a few books, read them well, cherish the wisdom they provide, and apply that wisdom to your life. Then repeat. Always beware of an approach to reading books that fails to delight in wisdom. The consumer approach to reading is exhausting and dangerous to your health.

As Christians we cannot make literature our religion. We do not value literature for itself. We do not worship classics. We treasure values and priorities that far exceed the sum worth of the greatest library. Our end is not literature, no matter how true, good, and beautiful it is. Our end is God, the One from whom all truth, goodness, and beauty originates and finds its perfection. Beauty originates in God, but beautiful literature makes for a puny, lousy god. Rather, we seek God, the gospel of his Son, and the salvation of souls. We are willing to sacrifice the time that we could use to read

literature in order to serve our neighbors, pray for one another, fellowship with believers, and serve in our churches. We may not study literature as deeply as the world because we treasure souls seriously. Christian readers will learn to keep literature in its proper place, and it’s a lesson I am still learning.