Reading Between the Lines Quotes

“The habit of reading is absolutely critical today, particularly for Christians. As television turns our society into an increasingly image dominated culture, Christians must continue to be people of the Word. When we read, we cultivate a sustained attention span, an active imagination, a capacity for logical analysis and critical thinking, and a rich inner life. Each of these qualities, which have proven themselves the essential to a free people is under assault in a TV dominated culture.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“The Sermon on the Mount proves that sin is a condition of our inmost being; although our sinful nature is atoned for in the cross and our failures freely forgiven, we must never willingly cultivate habits that Scripture condemns.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“What Darwin did to nature, Sigmund Freud did to the self.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

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Such is the perversity of human nature that what we have in abundance-our work, our possessions, and the beauty of our surroundings-we take for granted and learn to ignore, so that we are often paralyzed by boredom, indifference, and ingratitude.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“An easily manipulated population that cares mostly for its own amusement may be more ready for tyranny (which can keep the masses happy with "bread and circuses") than for the arduous responsibilities of self-government.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“Modern Christians should not mistake our post-Victorian sense of propriety for moral purity.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“Original Sin has great marketing potential.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“our age in its honest moments admits its lostness.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“parallelism may be the only poetic device that can be fully translated from one language to another.? Thus the Bible, translated into hundreds of languages, maintains its original poetic form and effects in every tongue, a linguistic curiosity that is clearly God's design.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“As Emerson observes, "The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry."4”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“some readers are tempted to ignore the challenges of their own lives and to live completely in the alternative reality of books. This can be dangerous and sinful, a rejection of the real world in which God has placed us.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“Misunderstanding literary form can result in misunderstanding Scripture.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“Just as physical laws apply to Christians and non-Christians alike (Matthew 5:45), the laws of art apply universally. Aesthetic principles, no less than scientific principles, are grounded in the created order and are a manifestation of God's design.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“The word obscene can be thought of as meaning "out of the scene" or "offstage."7”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“In studying the Bible as a young man, I found intimations of the idea that forms of media favor particular kinds of content and therefore are capable of taking command of a culture.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“Universal literacy, taken for granted today, was a direct result of the Reformation's reemphasis upon the centrality of Bible reading,”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“The habit of reading is absolutely critical today, particularly for Christians. As television turns our society into an increasingly image-dominated culture, Christians must continue to be people of the Word.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“The author relates that the word "OBSCENE" springs from the concept in Greek drama that certain actions would be performed outside the scene or off the stage. He clarifies that the Greeks did not shy away from shocking actions, but they knew that portraying them in the audience's view would drown out the emotional subtlety of the character development and ethical dilemmas.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“Empathy is a special application of the imagination. The ability to imagine what it would be like to experience what someone else is experiencing can be crucial to moral sensitivity.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“The popular culture gives us books that offer entertainment but no ideas. High culture gives us books that offer ideas but no entertainment. The best books manage to do both.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature

“Reading can break us out of the tunnel vision of the narrow specialty and lead us into many intriguing and important avenues of thought.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature