Re-reading great books
July 30th, 2009 by Dan
I am presently re-reading a classic book that helped form my understanding of God when I was a young Christian. It is Knowing God by J.I. Packer, and I am loving it. There are few writers as clear as Packer, whom I found out about from my first theology teacher, Rod Rosenbladt. Rod, no mean writer in his own right, said this of Packer: ‘He is constitutionally incapable of writing an unclear sentence.’
Knowing God will inform you, edify you, stir you to worship, challenge you to think more deeply and biblically about God – in short, it will do a work of sanctification in you. His chapter “God Incarnate” is, by itself, worth the price of the book, and some of the simplest, clearest writing on the incarnation of Jesus in the English speaking literature.
This experience reminds me of an old truth that needs to be dusted off. We need to read, and re-read, great books. Our generation is the poorer for our a-literacy. We miss out on great gold from the giants of the faith, upon whose shoulders we are standing. Great books, like the books of the Bible, have staying power, have fresh power every time you read them. They don’t have the same power, of course, because they don’t have the same Author. Yet He guides the writers of the best books just as surely as He guided the writers of Scripture. And he uses them to guide us into deeper, stronger, more thirst-quenching waters than the wading pools we regularly churn out today.
So put away the books of the week that have caught the culture’s eye, and drink deeply from those whose knowledge of God surpasses our own.
One Response to “Re-reading great books”
Leave a Reply
Thanks, Dan, for the reminder of all that I can learn from great Christians who have gone before us, walked with Jesus, and seen His faithfulness. I am encouraged to take time to quiet my soul in the midst of this busy city to read some of these greats whose wisdom has stood the test of time.