Abraham Piper writes:

“If we read fiction or poetry and we look for ‘the point’ instead of immersing ourselves in the experience, we ruin our faculty for truly enjoying it. We will see or read or listen to great art and only think of it as a cipher to be broken. The pleasure of the art will be replaced by the pleasure of ‘figuring it out.’ Sure, there is sometimes deciphering to be done, but that is not the point of a story or a poem.”

Read the full post here.

Let me know what you think about his article. What if the fiction author actually has a point that he intends for the reader to figure out? How much good fiction is written “without a point”?

(HT: MouseNaround)

John Piper’s newest book, God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself, is coming to stores on September 2o. Here’s the promotional blurb:

“Most people, when they ponder what it means to be loved by God, think of the things that God does for us. John Piper writes that what is most loving about God is not his making much of us, but his enabling us, at great cost to himself, to enjoy making much of him forever.”

You can read an on-line copy of it here.

This is the suggested reading list for our BBC faculty discussion group.

Joseph Mazur’s Euclid in the Rainforest
Edwards’ Dissertation on Virtue [aesthetics and ethics]
Milton On Education
John Locke’ Some Thoughts Concerning Education
E.F. Schumacher’ Small is Beautiful [economics, technology, ethics and education]
Nicholas Wolterstorff’ Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic
Lewis’ Til We Have Faces
Lewis’ The Weight of Glory
Shakespeare’s King Lear
Paulo Friere Pedagogy of the Oppressed
J.J. Rousseau. Politics and the Arts: Letter to M. D’Alembert on the Theatre

Here are the suggested options for proceeding this semester:

Option A
Milton
Euclid
Lear
Rousseau

Option B
Edwards
Euclid
Lewis’s Faces
Rousseau

Option C
Lewis’ Weight of Glory
Euclid
Lear
Rousseau

What would you choose?

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (a New York Times Bestseller by Peter Hessler)
A House for My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament (by Peter J. Leithart)
Paul: An Outline of His Theology (by Herman Ridderbos)
The Art of Reading Scripture (Edited by Ellen F. Davis & Richard B. Hays)
The Faith of Jesus Christ: The Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1-4:11 (by Richard B. Hays)
God Crucified: Monotheism & Christology in the New Testament (by Richard Bauckham)

My year of teaching is almost over. Even though it has been a great year I am eager for its completion. One of the reasons for my eagerness is the books I get to read over the summer months. I can’t remember a time when I looked forward to reading more than I am right now. The prospect of “mastering” a few well-chosen books rather excites me at the moment. I’ve spent quite a few minutes trying to narrow my summer-reading book list down. It is always a painful process, but while I was doing the agonizing work of eliminating prospective reads, I stumbled upon a very helpful article about reading less in order to master. So before you jump into your summer reading list you might want to read it.

Why Settle for Merely Reading a Book When You Can Master It?

How to Read Less More, and Twice as Fast

May/June, 1998

Dear Friend,

If you’re like me, you really want to read more effectively, but you don’t know how and can’t find the time. Solomon wrote, “The writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.”* I agree. The stacks of unopened volumes in my own library weary me just looking at them.

To make matters worse, even the good books we read teach us nothing. We forget the details almost immediately because our goal is to finish the book, not master the material.

I have a plan to change that. I want to show you how you can read less, more. It’s based on one simple idea: It’s better to thoroughly read one or two good books than “finish” ten or twenty by reading them cover to cover and then moving on.

The idea raises two practical problems. First, how do we know if a book is worth investing time in? Second, what techniques will allow us to read thoroughly, yet quickly, leading to mastery?

Four Pages a Day

Don’t think you’ve got to read 50, 25, or even 10 books a year to stay educated, informed, and equipped. Instead, I want you to think about carefully reading just six books during the next twelve months. Read the rest of this entry »