Part one in a series on a Christian view of literature, based on my undergraduate dissertation on that subject.
Why do we need a Christian view of literature?
Over forty years ago, literary critic Harry Blamires lamented in his book The Christian Mind,“There is no longer a Christian mind”. By this, he did not mean that there were no longer any Christian thinkers or academics, but that there is not a Christian mind in the sense of “a collectively accepted set of notions or attitudes”. Rather, “as a thinking being, the modern Christian has succumbed to secularisation”. The situation has arguably not changed much by today. But what does it mean to have a Christian mind? Is there any need for a distinctively Christian perspective on literature?
In this post, I’ll answer the question with a Christian audience in mind, assuming an audience that agrees with the basic tenets of Christianity. Why bother with studying when you can get on with evangelism, for example? Why get bogged down in academic questions when there are souls to save?
The need to communicate the Gospel message to people is an urgent one, but we are called not just to redeem souls, but all creation. God’s purpose is to “reconcile to himself all things, whether things in heaven or things on Earth, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:20). The nature of Christian commitment is not one of merely private belief or morality, but of living out “the Lordship of Christ in the wholeness of life”, to borrow a phrase from Francis Schaeffer.
As a result of being personally reconciled to God, we should seek to work out that reconciliation practically in our world, in every sphere of life, bringing healing and extending the influence of the Kingdom of God. Hence a Christian literary criticism is needed for Christians to have intellectual and personal integrity between their faith and studies, and to be faithful to the claims of Jesus Christ on the totality of life and existence.
But what does this mean in practice? Is it just having a Christian work ethic, studying hard and doing our best at it? That’s certainly necessary, but is there more to it than that? If everything is under the Lordship of Christ, then does that mean we need a Christian cookery as well, or a Christian perspective on road-sweeping?
Some activities are comparatively neutral in their content. There isn’t really a specifically Christian method of roadsweeping – you don’t need to sweep cross-shaped patterns in the dust, for example. But living for Jesus may have implications for even apparently mundane activities. When it comes to cooking, a Christian has particular reason to be concerned that the ingredients that they use are from sources where the workers are treated fairly, for example, and to make sure that they look after their body because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
What’s more, in any activity involving assumptions about the nature of the world and humanity, and so on, the Christian has a responsibility to make sure that they are working from a worldview faithful to what is revealed in Scripture. There aren’t usually any deep-rooted philosophical assumptions about the meaning of life involved in sweeping the road, but there probably will be at some stage in any serious academic study. Christians are called to serve God with all their minds, and so need to think consistently with Christianity as well as act with a Christian ethic.
It also isn’t possible to separate intellectual content from practical ethic. You can think in a way that is proud or humble, for example, and that will change the answers you come up with. Seeking truth involves a moral obligation as well as an intellectual one. Thinking Christianly is a matter of intellectual virtue.
All this means that faithfulness to God in one’s studies means not only acting Christianly in one’s personal behaviour, such as being honest and conscientious, but also being faithful in the life of the mind and in one’s professional activity, in a way that is consistent with a Christian understanding of the world and patterns of thought.
In the next installment, I’ll ask whether a Christian perspective on literature can be justified as a legitimate activity to non-Christians, to the secular world of academia.
Some futher reading:
– The Christian Mind – Harry Blamires
– Total Truth – Nancy Pearcey