reprinted from my article in our Church newsletter...
I have many, many times seen... that
someone is led from their experiences with
good (and it’s got to be good) imaginative
fiction to an encounter with Christ.
(Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick)
Some people read old books because they
have grown to cherish them. Others read the
classics because they know they should love
them, but don’t, and want to try. St. John
Chrysostom reminds us that the
“primary goal in the education of children is to
teach, and to give examples, of a virtuous life.”
Many adults are returning to the classics
because they realize that their own childhood
education lacked this primary ingredient of
virtue, and they want to explore more
examples of a virtuous life.
There happen to be a handful of members of
our St. Nicholas family who love literature and
plan to gather together to help each other
learn from great works. We will meet about
every six weeks for a discussion, with optional
weekly meetings to listen to expert lectures or
read aloud from difficult passages. Classical
works of literature, also known as “Great
Books,” are said to be a part of a “Great
Conversation.” The authors talk to each other
over the centuries, they struggle with the big
questions of their time and place, the big
questions of humanity, and they invite us to
understand them and contribute to the
conversation by talking back to them and to
each other.
Do these books replace reading the Lives of
the Saints, the Scriptures, or the Fathers? Of
course not, but God often uses them to
cultivate something in the soil of our soul that
helps us to better understand the more
spiritual writers. Fr. Seraphim Rose often had
his novice monks listen to a symphony or read
Dickens, because he knew those things would
enrich the young men and help them better
receive more direct spiritual teaching. He had
sense enough – as well as personal
experience as a student at UCBerkley - to
realize what a different way of seeing the world
our modern secular culture has engrained in
us through our music, our art, our TV, our
stories. When I taught at Ruston High, I had
many students tell me, “The only thing that I
know I can believe in is what I can see, taste,
touch, smell, or hear. Otherwise, it doesn’t
exist!” They were actually just repeating a
mantra common to our age – material things
are what matter.
The folks in the Middle Ages thought much
differently. They believed that there existed a
spiritual realm, every bit as real and effectual
in their daily lives as the material realm. When
we read their works we are refreshed with a
basic, normal way of seeing the world – a way
that we could easily forget, or at least have
smudged, by our own age that has
purposefully tried to remove all talk of
religious, spiritual truths from the public
square. Even claiming that one Truth exists
could earn disdain. How can we learn virtue
when we swim in a fishbowl of a society that
often calls vice a virtue and looks down on true
virtue? We walk around in it, read it, breath it,
hear it every day.
So we read the old books to remind us of old
truths. St. Basil explains this connection with
reading “profane” writings and understanding
Scripture:
"Into the life eternal the Holy Scriptures lead us,
which teach us through divine words. But so
long as our immaturity forbids our
understanding their deep thought, we exercise
our spiritual perceptions upon profane writings,
which are not altogether different, and in which
we perceive the truth as it were in shadows
and in mirrors. Thus we imitate those who
perform the exercises of military practice, for
they acquire skill in gymnastics and in dancing,
and then in battle reap the reward of their
training. We must needs believe that the
greatest of all battles lies before us, in
preparation for which we must do and suffer all
things to gain power. Consequently we must
be conversant with poets, with historians,
with orators, indeed with all men who may
further our soul’s salvation. Just as dyers
prepare the cloth before they apply the dye, be
it purple or any other color, so indeed must we
also, if we would preserve indelible the idea of
the true virtue, become first initiated in the
pagan lore, then at length give special heed to
the sacred and divine teachings, even as we
first accustom ourselves to the sun’s reflection
in the water, and then become able to turn our
eyes upon the very sun itself. (St. Basil the
Great, Address to Young Men on the Right
Use of Greek Literature, IV, emphasis added)
That is what our little book club is about –
becoming conversant, joining the Great
Conversation, with poets, historians, and all
men who may further our soul’s salvation."
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick confirms the
value of this endeavor, “All truth is God’s truth,
wherever it is found...Why do we need to limit
our search for God only to ‘official’ Church
sources? He is everywhere. That does not
mean that we accept everything we read
uncritically, but like the bee (as per St. Basil)
we take whatever is good from each flower.”
What flowers will we be exploring this year?
The Consolation of Philosophy
Beowulf
Sir Gawain & the Green Knight
The Inferno
Hamlet
The Tempest
It just so happens that many of these books
explore the question of how to be a good ruler,
and particularly, how to rule oneself. Of
course, that is just one of many themes and
questions we will discuss. Anyone interested in
reading these works (high school & above) is
welcome to join us, either for the whole year,
or just for one book. Be on the lookout for the
final schedule.
