I did not learn how to read until I was in college. Granted, I knew how to read various forms of fiction, history, my Bible, and devotional books, among others. But those were different types of reading. What I did not know how to read was a book that made an argument. It is a skill I was not taught in public high school, which is likely true for most K-12 students. Public K-12 schools usually teach students to read fiction and not a whole nonfiction book with an extended argument.
Fortunately, one thing I learned from my Christian group leader at a secular university through Mortimer Adler was how to read that kind of book. It really should be one of the first steps to Christ-Animated Learning, because I find most students do not realize how self-centered they are in their reading habits and what redemptive reading entails.
Self-Centered Reading
Even though I was a Christian, as a first-year student in college, I read selfishly. What do I mean? I will use the approach I took when reading Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill in my introductory ethics course during my freshman year. Like I approached the Bible and devotional books, I tended to underline those passages that resonated with me or stood out to me. As a result, I would pick up on bits and pieces of the author’s arguments, but this approach did not help me put the pieces together. The not-surprising result is that I received a B+ in the class simply because I did not understand their arguments very well (granted, hoping first-year students understand Kant is a tough ask). That’s also why I tended to stay quiet in class.
Of course, that is not my problem alone. Most students have a misunderstanding of what it takes to succeed. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently noted regarding a Harvard report on grading, “One of the report’s most compelling findings is that Harvard students almost universally speak about grades in terms of how much effort they put in. If they spend a lot of time studying and do all of the work asked of them, they believe they should get an A.” The problem is that you can spend lots of time reading in a self-centered way and not understand a text’s argument.
Others’ Centered Reading
What helped change my approach to reading was being mentored by a Christian group staff member, Rick Hove. During the time that Rick was leading Bible study, he was also reading How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren. I thought it was odd that he was reading a book about how to read a book, but when he explained the argument to me, a light switch went off. Suddenly, I realized my whole problem. I, too, then started to read How to Read a Book.
What I realized through Rick and the book was that I was reading selfishly and needed to engage in other-focused reading. I started to learn how to read the book summary on the back cover and table of contents first to learn the direction of the argument. I also started to outline the book’s argument, a practice I still use today when reading through a book, especially one that I plan to use in class or for which I write a book review.
The results were transformative. Suddenly, when the professors started asking questions about a book, I became the person in class who could answer them. My grades went up, but most importantly, I gained the ability to understand an extended argument made by someone else on its own terms and not on my own pre-determined thinking or agenda. I had learned others-focused reading—a skill that is helpful in truly understanding and thus loving people.
Redemptive Reading: Reading for Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
Yet, we want our students and ourselves to do more than just understand other people’s arguments charitably. We also want to read them with Christian critical thinking and ends in mind. We need to ask of any argument whether it is true. Depending on the reading, we may also need to ask whether it is good or beautiful (e.g., fiction or poetry). Of course, I find students often want to jump to this part without engaging in a charitable reading of others’ texts. So, I usually want them to first understand an argument when they write a book review.
Still, when they get to this point, they need to have some kind of critical thinking framework. Now there is no such thing as critical thinking in the abstract. You always think critically based upon a set of assumptions grounded in a narrative or worldview. That means the term “critical thinking” usually needs an adjective in front of it: Christian critical thinking, secular Christian thinking, Marxist critical thinking, etc. Christians need critical thinking rooted in an understanding of God’s story and God’s creative purposes as mentioned in my posts from last month). To do that, you do not merely focus on a particular fallen problem. We need to think about truth/reality both theologically and teleologically (taking into account ends).
Compassionate Christian Reading
There is also a fourth level of reading that remains the most difficult and takes into account the whole Christian story. Often, as Christians, we are content to have formed a certain opinion or been inspired, etc., by reading. Yet, as we see with Jesus’ life, truth, goodness, and beauty are not simply meant to be pondered or observed. As Christ demonstrated, true compassion is acting upon the knowledge one encounters.
It might involve prayer, as in Matthew 9:26-38: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’” Or it might involve teaching, as in Mark 6:34, “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” Or it might involve meeting needs such as feeding the five thousand (Mt. 15:32-39). What it does not involve is simply storing up bags of information.
In fact, it is a compassionate reading of another person’s argument that is the highest form of other-focused reading. Not surprisingly, one of my students’ favorite book chapters that I give to read is David I. Smith’s essay on that subject, “Reading Practices and Christian Pedagogy: Enacting Charity with Texts.”1
Smith argues that charitable reading “is repeated and ongoing, revisiting texts multiple times. It seeks to be slow and attentive, drinking in the details of the text …The reader comes to the text expecting it to make moral demands, and is willing to submit and be changed” (p. 44).
I have found an interesting parallel to what Smith describes to peer review. I usually undertake a quick reading of the critique and find that I am not willing to be changed by a peer review. Thus, I instantly reject them on my first quick reading as uninformed, lacking insight, and failing to appreciate my nuanced argument. I only achieve a charitable reading when I reread it through the second, third, or fourth time. At that point, I do find myself willing to submit to the critique and therefore go about changing the paper.
Of course, peer reviewers are fallen as well, so sometimes their suggestions do have problems. I certainly do not treat them with one other component Smith mentions that I purposely left out of the above quote, “approaching it reverentially.” Still, it “involves avoiding quick dismissal and cheap disdain, resisting the ego satisfaction of allowing a text to only conform to one’s prejudices, and seeking the good in a text, choosing the good over its defects” (p. 45). One can imagine the same when it comes to reading people, such as our students or colleagues. That’s bearing God’s image by enacting the virtues of God.
