The Lost Art of Reading: Creating a Spiritual Practice

by Erick DuPree, Director of Religious Education

This summer, I would like to invite you to take a moment for yourself and consider reading as a spiritual practice. I know that many are chained to our desks, staring at computer screens all day long.  Some even make a living reading and writing. I am no exception. However, be it a book, a Kindle, iPad, or Nook; reading has never been easier and more accessible. I have been reminded by my former academic advisor, Harold Bloom, in his recently published, The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life, that a truth universally acknowledged is that knowledge is found in books.

But for me it is more than knowledge; because reading calms my over productive mind. Like meditation it slows my breathing, focuses my attention, and forces me to reach deep. In part it is because I have to make time to read, and in doing so, I take the first steps to take time for myself, and that creates a spiritual practice. Also, I choose books that compel me to challenge myself. This summer it is The Selected Works of Goethe,  sprinkled with a little Jane Austen. However I might be the exception?

I have a reading ritual, from the process of scouting the book either online, at the bookseller, or at the library, to brewing the perfect pot of tea, to positioning myself in my favorite chair. The process is often as engaging as the book itself. By creating a reading ritual, even if the book fails to capture me, I still have the experience of creating a moment for myself.

The books on my shelf have informed my soul as much as my mind, and they make me smile. Books transport me, and when the author is engaging, I find myself inspired to seek answers to great questions. As an English teacher turned religious professional, this summer I endeavor for you to remember the joy and also the lesson found in reading.

The series of books below are, in my opinion, well written, engage the reader, and probe us through story to reflect on belief with out expressly being about “God.”

Fiction:

Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, takes the reader on a journey that is reminiscent of C.S.  Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles.

Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, invites the reader to reflect on individualism in the face of socialistic philosophy.

Edith Wharton’s  The Custom of the Country, endeavors the reader to ask the value we place on wealth.