Pt 1: A Theology of Books and Reading Tony Reinke The class content is based on the forthcoming book: Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books. Course Goals: I have 5 goals for our 3- hours together: 1. Explain the relationship between Scripture and all other books. 2. Explore the Gospel s influence on Christian literacy. 3. Evaluate different reading genres. 4. Help you determine what books to read and why. 5. Explore various tips for effective book reading. The Bible, a Dusty Wedding, and Barnes & Noble Egypt à Sinai: Exodus 3:1 12 Exodus 12:29 42 Exodus 19:1 5 Exodus 19:16 20 Exodus 20:1 17 (Ten Commandments) Deuteronomy 9:9 12 The Character of Scripture The Bible is inspired. God is the ultimate and final author of those two tablets, and every other word of Scripture has been breathed out from the mouth of God. The Bible is the product of God s will (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20 21). The Bible is inerrant. It is true in everything it teaches. God s Word is like silver that has been smelted sevenfold and is free of all impurities (Ps. 12:6). God s words are always true, because God s words are self- validating. God speaks, and his words shape and resolve what is true and good (see Gen. 1:1 31 and John 17:17). 1
The Bible is sufficient. It provides everything necessary for faith, salvation, and godly living (2 Tim. 3:15 16). The Bible is living and active. The Bible is composed of living and active words that revive dead hearts, rejoice broken hearts, and feed hungry souls (Matt. 4:4; 1 Cor. 1:21 24; Heb. 4:12; James 1:21). The Bible is supreme. It contains the highest expressions of truth. Combine every book from every culture in human history and pile all those volumes into one vast library, and it cannot trump the supremacy of the life- giving truth in Scripture (1 Cor. 15:3 5). The Bible offers us a coherent worldview. The Bible explains where we came from, where we are going, our biggest problems, and our greatest need. The Bible interprets the realities that affect us both physical realities that we can see and spiritual realities that we cannot see (see Rom. 4:23 25 and Eph. 6:12). Scripture is unique. It is eternal. It never contradicts itself. It needs no editing or revision. It is perfect (Ps. 19:7). When all else has disappeared, God s word remains (Isa. 40:7 8). It lacks nothing. The main point: The Bible is the only book that we must read. All other books are supplemental. And if we choose to read books other than Scripture a practice I highly commend then we must read all of those books in light of Scripture. All books beside Scripture, to some degree, are imperfect, deficient, and temporary. That means that when we pick books off bookstore shelves, we read the imperfect books in light of the perfect Book, the deficient books in light of the sufficient Book, and the temporary books in light of the eternal Book. Apart from Scripture we may find books that are inspiring, but those books are not divinely inspired not in the way Scripture is inspired. Man- made literature may be empowered by the Holy Spirit to embody biblical truth, but it is not breathed out by God. Man- made literature may contain divine truth, goodness, and beauty, but it is also fallible, imperfect, and of temporary value. Before we step into a bookstore, we must be determined to read the imperfect in light of the perfect, the deficient in light of the sufficient, the temporary in light of the eternal, the groveling in light of the transcendent. God s arrival on Mount Sinai and his penning of the 10 Commandments require that we distinguish between temporary books and the eternal Book, between a decomposing paperback from the pen of a sinner and a smoking stone tablet from the finger of God. And if we fail to make this distinction, if we fail to prioritize the eternal Word over all other books, our reading will never be distinctly Christian. 2
The Gospel, Glory, and Literacy Scripture: Exodus 34:29 35 2 Corinthians 3:4 4:6 The main point: When you believe in the gospel or rather when the radiant face of Christ breaks into your life literacy is altered. From that point on, you are given the mind of Christ. Our entire outlook on life is shaped by an awareness of Christ and all of our thinking is now beginning to be calibrated by the person and work of the Savior (1 Cor. 2:14 16, Phil. 2:5). We encounter the gospel, and that encounter reshapes how we read the Bible. In Christ we see the law for what it is a tutor revealing our sinfulness and leading us to see the glory of the perfect righteousness of Christ. When we see Christ, his glory becomes brilliant to our hearts. He becomes the functioning center of our lives and the functioning center of everything that we read whether we read Moses writings, the Ten Commandments, the New Testament, or a new book release at Barnes & Noble. The founders of Harvard College, Rules and Precepts Observed at Harvard College, published Sept. 26, 1642: Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternall life, John xvii. 3, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdome, let every one seriously set himselfe by prayer in secret to seeke it of him. (Prov. ii. 3) Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith (Eerdmans, 1956), pages 36 38, 44: It is not the sparkling firmament, nor mighty nature, nor any prince or genius of the earth, nor any philosopher or artist, but the Son of man that is the highest revelation of God. Christ is the Word become flesh, which in the beginning was with God and which was God, the Only- Begotten of the Father, the Image of God, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person; who has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14:9). In that faith the Christian stands. He has learned to know God in the person of Jesus Christ whom God has sent. God Himself, who said that the light should shine out of the darkness, is the One who 3
has shined in His heart in order to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). But from this high vantage point the Christian looks around him, forwards, backwards, and to all sides. And if, in doing so, in the light of the knowledge of God, which he owes to Christ, he lets his eyes linger on nature and on history, on heaven and on earth, then he discovers traces everywhere of that same God whom he has learned to know and to worship in Christ as his Father. The Sun of righteousness opens up a wonderful vista to him which stretches out to the ends of the earth. By its light he sees backwards into the night of past times, and by it he penetrates through to the future of all things. Ahead of him and behind the horizon is clear, even though the sky is often obscured by clouds. The Christian, who sees everything in the light of the Word of God, is anything but narrow in his view. He is generous in heart and mind. He looks over the whole earth and reckons it all his own, because he is Christ's and Christ is God's (1 Cor. 3:21 23). He cannot let go his belief that the revelation of God in Christ, to which he owes his life and salvation, has a special character. This belief does not exclude him from the world, but rather puts him in position to trace out the revelation of God in nature and history, and puts the means at his disposal by which he can recognize the true and the good and the beautiful and separate them from the false and sinful alloys of men. So it is that he makes a distinction between a general and a special revelation of God. In the general revelation God makes use of the usual run of phenomena and the usual course of events; in the special revelation He often employs unusual means, appearances, prophecy, and miracles to make Himself known to man. The contents of the first kind are especially the attributes of power, wisdom, and goodness; those of the second kind are especially God's holiness and righteousness, compassion and grace. The first is directed to all men and, by means of common grace, serves to restrain the eruption of sin; the second comes to all those who live under the Gospel and has as its glory, by special grace, the forgiveness of sins and the renewal of life. But, however essentially the two are to be distinguished, they are also intimately connected with each other. Both have their origin in God, in His sovereign goodness and favor. The general revelation is owing to the Word which was with God in the beginning, which made all things, which shone as a light in the darkness and lighteth every man that cometh into the world (John 1:1 9). The special revelation is owing to that same Word, as it was made flesh in Christ, and is now full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Grace is the content of both revelations, common in the first, special in the second, but in such a way that the one is indispensable for the other. In determining the value of general revelation, one runs the great danger either of over- estimating or of under- estimating it. When we have our attention fixed upon the richness of the grace which God has given in His special revelation, we sometimes become so enamored of it that the general revelation loses its whole significance and worth for us. And when, at another time, we reflect on the good, and true, and beautiful that is to be found by virtue of God's general revelation in nature and in the human world [e.g. on the shelves at Barnes & Noble], then it can happen that the special grace, manifested to us in the person and work of Christ, loses its glory and appeal for the eye of our soul. This danger, to stray off either to the right or to the left, has always existed in the Christian church, and, each in turn, the general and the special revelation, have been ignored or denied. Each in turn has been denied in theory and no less strongly in practice.... We must be on guard against both of these one- sidednesses; and we shall be best advised if, in the 4
light of Holy Scripture, we take a look at the history of mankind and let it teach us what people owe to general revelation. Homework: This week make a list of 50 book titles. Includes your favorite books, the books you have read during the past few years, the books you own and want to read but haven t read yet, and those books you d like to read in the future. If necessary, browse Amazon to look for appealing titles to fill out your list of 50. Once you have your list of 50 books, place them in different categories like: biographies, history, business/leadership, Christian living, modern Christian novels, classic literature, poetry, etc. Try to use as many different genres as possible. Bring your categorized list of book titles to class next week. 5