Reading Classics

I asked you guys on the facebook page to list some of the examples of Christian classic literature that you were interested in reading.
 
The most common answer was "something by C.S. Lewis."  

I think that that answer is a good one, because C.S. Lewis does an interesting thing. He stands across a bridge of time, sharing with us thoughts and ideas that were explored in the centuries before his time and ours. However, he has only been gone from this earth 51 years, and he would not like us to consider any such writings as new as his to be considered "classics".

I discovered the quote in this picture in college when I was diving in to all of these wonderful, and old books. He wrote this quote in a preface to a book from the fourth century called, On the Incarnation of the Word, by St. Athanasius.

He was urging us, future Christians, to avoid something he called "Chronological Snobbery." He wanted us to avoid thinking that everything newer is better simply because it is new.

Those of us who spend time reading Scripture have probably discovered ourselves thinking the opposite way. We see the truth of God's Word, and the pattern that he calls for us to live, and we shake our head and say, "have we learned anything since the days of Joseph and Potiphar's wife?" or "are we any better than the sex-crazed people in the region of Turkey that the Apostle Paul evangelized to?"

I really appreciate the way that Scripture's truth is timeless. Even though the events in the history of the Bible are written about a specific time, the truth stands on its own, whether I am making the same mistakes as the people in the Bible story or not.

Something similar can happen when I read something that is more than a hundred years old. The way of thinking back then is different enough from the way of thinking that I am surrounded by, so that I can see my own errors all the more clearly.

One thing C.S. Lewis does well for me, is that he serves as a guide about which Christian classics are worth reading. I have a book called, From the Library of C.S. Lewis. This book goes through and shares some of the books from his library that he had claimed were most influential in his thinking and writing, and in his becoming a Christian. It is fun to imagine people pouring over his books and taking note of which passages were highlighted or which pages had notes written in the margins. I appreciate getting to look through a window into his library and getting to peek at what he thought was worth reading.
 

Something else that I think I already knew before I read Lewis, was that there is a power in a fantasy story. It is a power that is not only exciting for the very young, but also contains the ability to show the wise something special about our own real world.
 
So this week, I want to share with you guys a bit of both things.

We are going to read together a fairy tale, by one of C.S. Lewis's favorite authors, George MacDonald. about ninety years before C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald was writing serious works about life and faith, as well as fairy tales.

The fairy tale is called The Light Princess, and it is a humorous adaptation of princess tales, link Sleeping Beauty.

You can find all sorts of wonderful Christian classics on a website called the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Because the books on here are old enough, there are in the public domain. So you can freely read them online, download the pdf, print them off, and in some cases listen to them as well.

Here is the website of the Light Princess. I hope you find it a fun read. It is certainly a fun, and though-provoking story.

The pdf is here. 

Next week, I will post some thoughts about the story, and ask some reflections questions.


 
God's Blessings,

Joel