A number of years ago, I came across an essay by C. S. Lewis (the author most widely known for writing the Chronicles of Narnia series). In it, he writes about the need for Christians to read not just what is new, popular, or bestselling, but rather what is old. What has been tested by time. What has proven valuable across the years. His reasoning behind this is that every era has particular assumptions they make that aren’t necessary true, yet hinder us with blindspots that are very hard to get around without “outside” help. In the case of reading something from an era different than our own, “outside” means writers who lived before us. Readers of this blog will be familiar with how I read J. C. Ryle in this way, though there are certainly many other faithful writers to choose from.
If you have never read any Lewis, or if you have only read his fiction stories, I’d encourage you to spend a few minutes with his argument about reading old books – which, by the way, is written as an introduction to a work by Athanasius who was himself writing around ~319 AD. Lewis’ introduction isn’t long, but it is profound, and calls for Christians like us to not just think carefully about what we read, but also to be more aware of how our own particular time has both its things that we are especially aware of as well as our blindspots that we need to be humble about.
You can read a summary of Lewis here on Tolle Lege (which is a website dedicated to thought-provoking quotes from many Christian writers, both living and dead). If that whets your appetite for more, the entire essay can be read as a PDF here:
