Interacting with literature

I'm looking forward to a series of posts by Carolyn Weber, entitled I Read Dead People, that she describes as such:

In this upcoming series, I would like to examine a handful of examples from literary greats, and consider how they challenge and inform our faith walk. The list need not be limited to Christian writers, or overtly Christian topics. I have found that to be irrelevant in the long run, as everything I have ever read, and continue to read, regardless of cultural or spiritual context or background, still speaks to me in some way of the human condition, our need for redemption, and most powerfully, the glory of God.

 You can follow this series by visiting her site regularly: Pressing Save: Reading, Writing, and Living the Word Eternal. She can also be found on Twitter: @CarolynWeber and @PressingSave .


In light of anticipating Weber's series on interacting with literature, I thought I would collect and present my blog posts in which I have reflected on classic literature that I was reading. The posts are listed under the author who's literature I interacted with.




Dumas:
http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/10/we-believe-were-much-mre-unhappy.html


 
Dostoyevsky:
http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/11/grotesque.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/11/all-ways-are-thine.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/11/pre-piperian-christian-hedonism.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/11/dostoyevsky-on-repentance.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/07/engage-to-read.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/06/packer-on-dostoyevsky.html


 
Shelley:
http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/05/despair-guilt-and-remorse-in.html


 
Goethe:
http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2010/01/from-faust-by-goethe.html


 
Donne:
http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2009/11/john-donne-holy-sonnets-xv.html


 
Steinbeck:
http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/06/perfect-among-mornings.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/06/detatchment-of-god.html


 
Tolstoy:
http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/07/loss-of-our-wealth.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-never-regretted-anything.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/06/packer-on-dostoyevsky.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2010/10/from-leo-tolstoys-short-story-death-of.html


 
Shakespeare:
http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/06/macbeth-and-preacher.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/01/shakespeare-on-stuff_16.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-will-these-hands-neer-be-clean.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2010/04/shakespeare-and-burroughs.html

http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2011/05/shakespeare-and-psalm-46.html


 
Solzhenitsyn:
http://quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com/2009/05/quoting-solzhenitsyn.html

Engage them to read!

Richard Baxter, in his classic work on pastoral work, The Reformed Pastor, gives a clear endorsement to reading outside of the Bible:

See that in every family there are some useful moving books, beside the Bible. If they have none, persuade them to buy some: if they be not able to buy them, give them some if you can. If you are not able yourself, get some gentlemen, or other rich persons, that are ready to good works, to do it. And engage them to read them at night, when they have leisure, and especially on the Lord’s day.

It would be interesting to learn what types of 'useful moving' books he had in mind. Was he speaking of classic works of fiction? Did he have in mind spiritually directed books of the non-fiction variety? The descriptor 'useful' seems to point to non-fiction, but perhaps the term 'moving' points back to fictional stories. Then, again, to read when one has leisure might point towards fictional works whereas reading on the Lord's Day seems to indicate religious works.

I'm not sure what Baxter had in mind, but my suggestion is that you read both as often as you can. I have been focusing on Russian fiction this year having read from Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekov. I have some Solzhenitsyn that is in the cue as well. I also enjoy non-fiction and read more of that than I do of fiction. But I encourage you; READ!

The loss of our wealth

From Leo Tolstoy's short story Ilyas:

“Why, in this,” she replied, “when we were rich my husband and I had so many cares that we had no time to talk to one another, or to think of our souls, or to pray to God. Now we had visitors, and had to consider what food to set before them, and what presents to give them, lest they should speak ill of us. When they left, we had to look after our laborers who were always trying to shirk work and get the best food, while we wanted to get all we could out of them. So we sinned. Then we were in fear lest a wolf should kill a foal or a calf, or thieves steal our horses. We lay awake at night, worrying lest the ewes should overlie their lambs, and we got up again and again to see that all was well. One thing attended to, another care would spring up: how, for instance, to get enough fodder for the winter. And besides that, my old man and I used to disagree. He would say we must do so and so, and I would differ from him; and then we disputed – sinning again. So we passed from one trouble to another, from one sin to another, and found no happiness.”

“Well, and now?”

“Now, when my husband and I wake in the morning, we always have a loving word for one another and we live peacefully, having nothing to quarrel about. We have no care but how best to serve our master. We work as much as our strength allows and do it with a will, that our master may not lose but profit by us. When we come in, dinner or supper is ready and there is kumiss to drink. We have fuel to burn when it is cold and we have our fur cloak. And we have time to talk, time to think of our souls, and time to pray. For fifty years we sought happiness, but only now at last have we found it.”

The guests laughed.

But Ilyas said:

“Do not laugh, friends. It is not a matter for jesting – it is the truth of life. We also were foolish at first, and wept at the loss of our wealth; but now God has shown us the truth, and we tell it, not for our own consolation, but for your good.”

And the Mullah said:

“That is a wise speech. Ilyas has spoken the exact truth. The same is said in Holy Writ.”
And the guests ceased laughing and became thoughtful.

From The Bible:

And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:23; Matthew 19:24 ESV)

I never regretted anything

From Leo Tolstoy's short story Two Old Men:

Efím became thoughtful.

'I've spent a lot of money on this building,' he said 'and one can't start on the journey with empty pockets. We shall want a hundred roubles apiece -- and it's no small sum.'

Elisha laughed. 'Now, come, come, old friend!' he said, 'you have ten times as much as I, and yet you talk about money. Only say when we are to start, and though I have nothing now I shall have enough by then.'

Efím also smiled.

'Dear me, I did not know you were so rich!' said he. 'Why, where will you get it from?'

'I can scrape some together at home, and if that's not enough, I'll sell half a score of hives to my neighbour. He's long been wanting to buy them.'

'If they swarm well this year, you'll regret it.'

'Regret it! Not I, neighbour! I never regretted anything in my life, except my sins. There's nothing more precious than the soul.'

'That's so; still it's not right to neglect things at home.'

'But what if our souls are neglected? That's worse. We took the vow, so let us go! Now, seriously, let us go!'

I found the following line very engrossing: 'Regret it! Not I, neighbour! I never regretted anything in my life, except my sins. There's nothing more precious than the soul.'. What is their to regret outside of sin and its consequences in us and on this planet? Sin is our separation from God; it is the bar that pried us from our Creator. It is the wedge that separated us from our Father. It is the match that ignites God's wrath towards us. And it is the subduing and slaying of sin which required the sacrifice of our Saviour. I also appreciate the focus it puts on what is of real consequence: For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:35-36 ESV)

Packer on Dostoyevsky

I have been reading more fiction this year than in years passed. It has been an area of reading that I mostly left the last while. I have enjoyed picking this discipline up and thought I might encourage you to do likewise. I made an intentional attempt to read some Russian literature which resulted in my venturing into some of Anton Chekhov's plays, some of Leo Tolstoy's short stories and some nevels and novellas by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Yesterday, while searching for free epub books for my Kobo ereader, I came across The Gospel in Dostoyevsky which I quickly downloaded and began reading.

The book has a word from J. I Packer which I thought I would share so that you might consider reading some Russian fiction:

Dostoyevsky is to me both the greatest novelist, as such, and the greatest Christian storyteller, in particular, of all time. His plots and characters pinpoint the sublimity, perversity, meanness, and misery of fallen human adulthood in an archetypal way matched only by Aeschylus and Shakespeare, while his dramatic vision of God’s amazing grace and of the agonies, Christ’s and ours, that accompany salvation, has a range and depth that only Dante and Bunyan come anywhere near. Dostoyevsky’s immediate frame of reference is Eastern Orthodoxy and the cultural turmoil of nineteenth-century Russia, but his constant theme is the nightmare quality of unredeemed existence and the heartbreaking glory of the incarnation, whereby all human hurts came to find their place in the living and dying of Christ the risen Redeemer. In the passages selected here, a supersensitive giant of the imagination projects a uniquely poignant vision of the plight of man and the power of God. If it makes you weep and worship, you will be the better for it. If it does not, that will show that you have not yet seen what you are looking at, and you will be wise to read the book again.

Tolstoy and futility

From Leo Tolstoy's short story The Death of Ivan Ilyich:

It was true, as the doctor said, that Ivan Ilych's physical sufferings were terrible, but worse than the physical sufferings were his mental sufferings which were his chief torture.

His mental sufferings were due to the fact that that night, as he looked at Gerasim's sleepy, good-natured face with it prominent cheek-bones, the question suddenly occurred to him: "What if my whole life has been wrong?"

It occurred to him that what had appeared perfectly impossible before, namely that he had not spent his life as he should have done, might after all be true. It occurred to him that his scarcely perceptible attempts to struggle against what was considered good by the most highly placed people, those scarcely noticeable impulses which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the real thing, and all the rest false. And his professional duties and the whole arrangement of his life and of his family, and all his social and official interests, might all have been false. He tried to defend all those things to himself and suddenly felt the weakness of what he was defending. There was nothing to defend.

I'm grateful this morning that God the Father, through God the Son and by God the Holy Spirit, has not only saved me from sin, death, and Satan, but He has also saved me from a futile life. "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." (Romans 8:20-21 ESV) And, "Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds." (Ephesians 4:17 ESV) Though my life has been far from perfect and my living of it has been equally marred by my own sin, at the end I am confident I will not wonder if my life has 'all been wrong'. The potential for that thought was removed when a gracious God regenerated this dead man and justified and adopted me. Futility has been defeated.