How important is reading in becoming an educated, wise, and thoughtful person? Many educators identify reading as the foundational discipline to all fields of study. For example, leading American educator E. D. Hirsch says, “We all know that reading is the most important academic skill.”1 Distinguished philosopher and educator Mortimer J. Adler summed it up as “reading is learning.”2 To illustrate how reading…
Only human beings read. The act of reading involves blending the sounds of letters to form words that symbolize ideas, objects, or entities (abstract or concrete). Interestingly, both religious and secular scientists in various disciplines today think that human exceptionalism—the idea that humans differ from animals in kind, not mere degree—is evidenced in part by our unique ability to think, speak, listen,…
On my Facebook and Twitter pages I have implemented a weekly segment called #WednesdayWisdom, where I provide quotes from significant scholars from various disciplines. Education is a subject that I return to often because I think evangelical Christians need help in learning how to love God with their minds. One of my favorite educational change agents and political philosophers is…
This current blog series on Reflections is intended to encourage Christians to read more vigorously by providing a beginner’s guide to some of the Christian classics in such fields as theology, philosophy, and apologetics. Hopefully a very brief introduction to these important Christian texts will motivate today’s believers, as St. Augustine was called to in his dramatic conversion to Christianity, to “take…
I have a new book coming out in early 2017 titled God among Sages: Why Jesus Is Not Just Another Religious Leader (Baker Books). In this new volume, I compare Jesus with Buddha, Krishna, Confucius, and Muhammad. In preparation for writing my new book, I read close to 100 books about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and about…
Is it better to read paper books or electronic books? E-books have their benefits: They are convenient, especially when traveling, and they are often significantly less expensive than physical books. They are also becoming more like physical books as developers continue to improve the technology. Also, I think all reading is good, so I don’t oppose the reading of…
For the last 35 years of my life I have made it my goal to try to read at least three hours a day. It’s an ambitious objective, and there have certainly been many days that I haven’t achieved it. But overall I’ve been successful in pursuing this intellectual discipline. I even got in trouble with my wife for bringing…
The motto for the United Negro College Fund sends chills up my spine whenever I hear it: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” This simple sentence is foreboding—yet it offers a worthy challenge. From a Christian worldview the stakes are even higher. The Bible teaches that humans are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27). Thus, we…
In a conversation on the accomplishments to be desired in the ideal woman, Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy comments, “And to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.” It seems that, for both genders, “extensive reading” of literary classics invigorates the brain-mind. Stanford researchers used brain-imaging technology to investigate what…
My 18-year-old son, Michael, recently told me that he does almost all of his reading on electronic devices. As his dinosaur-era father, I read almost exclusively from physical books. All three of my adult children have grown up in the amazing time of the Internet. Certainly there are benefits—such as convenience—to reading books and articles in electronic formats (my church…
Reflections 