C.S. Lewis diagnoses a clear tendency towards the reading of modern, secondary texts over the reading of older, primary ones. If given the option of reading Aristotle or reading a book about Aristotle, Lewis says, the modern reader will choose to read about Aristotle. This Lewis finds difficult to understand for at least four reasons.
First, primary texts are often more accessible than the doorstop volumes produced by the modern commentator about the primary text. Secondary texts are littered with a great deal of information surrounding the original work, but often so much information is spewed about the surrounding issues that the work itself—its voice, its message—are lost, as Lewis cheekily puts it, in the “isms”.
Second, “…first hand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than second-hand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.”[1] Like a game of Broken Telephone, where the original message slowly loses something as it is manhandled down the line from one person to the next, something is also lost from the power of the original work as secondary resources comment on the original work. Why not hear the message in its full force and clarity, rather than accept a (potentially) muddled form that is the commentator’s comments on a previous commentary about the primary work!
Third, a new book is not old enough to determine its true worth. Lewis writes, “A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it.”[2] In other words, there is a sort of testing period that any writing must undergo. The best writing endures the test of time, such that it retains its strength despite the many eyes that have fallen upon it and the brightest minds that have sifted through it.
Fourth, and perhaps most helpful, new books are still blind to the mistakes of their own age. Olds books have the benefit—not of being without error or blind spot—but not having the same error.
For these reasons, Lewis suggests a reading rule of thumb: read one old book for every modern one; or, if you cannot help yourself, read one old book for every three new ones.[3]
Today there is a continued resistance to reading primary materials that still exists nearly seventy years after Lewis wrote his apology for reading old books. In Lewis’ introduction, he suggests that the preference for modern texts is due to a certain humility on the part of readers. Is this the same reason for the modern-preference today? Is it because of a modern distrust of the past, a sort of “chronological snobbery” (to steal another phrase from Lewis)? Is it ignorance? Or, is it now a matter of contemporary laziness that simply cannot be bothered doing the work of interpreting older works in light of their specific contexts?
If humility, as Lewis suggested, is no longer the excuse (and I’m inclined to believe it is not the sole reason), how might pastors, professors, and church leaders promote the reading of older, primary texts to Christians under their charge for their the edification? Several initial suggestions come to mind.
- Create and promote reading groups that utilize old, classic works. While studying for my undergraduate degree, a professor gathered with a group of male students in his office on Wednesday mornings at 7:00am to pray, fellowship, and read Augustine’s Confessions and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. This put classic, primary material before us.
- Be familiar with the primary materials as leaders. Know them and appreciate them before you commend them.
- Preach sermons that are full of history. Make reference to the titans of the Christian faith throughout the course of a preaching ministry. Create a familiarity with the names, personalities, and challenges faced by key figures in the history of the Church.
- Educate fellow Christians on the historical contexts through preaching, church education programs and catechism programs, and other means. Equip the congregation for better understanding the importance of specific historical periods to the Church and to the world.
- Be selective and judicious in assigning or promoting passages from primary materials. Give only the best. To whet appetites, give tasty morsels, don’t slop 700 pages of City of God onto a poor sister’s plate and tell her to talk to you next week.
- Leaders must do the heavy work of showing how historical authors speak to our call to be faithful disciples of Christ. In my own life, this has manifested itself in a love for the Puritans because of the encouragement they are to holy living and courage in the face of death and suffering. I see great reward in reading these primary texts as I seek to live out Christ’s call. I believe leaders must do this in increasing measure for their people.
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