A Reading List for the Committed Christian Seeker

One of the special gifts that Dallas gave me was the space to ask him questions. The first time I asked whether I could raise some questions with him, he responded with his typical generosity. We set one whole evening aside and sat together in our living room. I had with me a yellow pad to write down his responses to my long list of prepared questions. These ranged from theological issues that had come up for me, ethical dilemmas around some of the political issues facing us in South Africa at that dark time in our history, and the more practical concerns of what it meant to follow Jesus in the nitty-gritty of daily life.

Looking back on that evening now, I realize that my opening question was designed to impress him a bit. I asked him if he would provide me with a reading list of the most formative books that he had read. I recall how the conversation unfolded.

“I suggest you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John” was his reply.

Somewhat disappointed by this response, I told him, “Okay, I have got that down. Are there any other books you can recommend that I read?”

This time he was more emphatic in his response. “My suggestion is that you take the next twenty years or so to read and meditate on these four Gospels. Read them repeatedly, immerse yourself in the words and deeds of Jesus, and commit to memory as much as you are able.”
Trevor Hudson, Seeking God: Finding Another Kind of Life with St. Ignatius and Dallas Willard, p. 118-119

This is simple advice for the Christian journey. Many of us think that the truly transformative literature is found outside the Bible. There is much to be gained from reading broadly within the Christian tradition, its theology, history, and spiritual writings. But there is no substitute for the Bible itself, and particularly the accounts of Jesus found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Read them. Study them. Meditate on them. Invite Jesus to meet you through them. The writings will teach you. But look for more than information. The writings will move you. But look for more than inspiration. Open yourself to God as you read. It’s intimacy and encounter that you want. That’s what brings the possibility of change and transformation.

The Power of the Living Word

Our gracious and loving God, we thank you that you have been touching our lives: illuminating us; opening us at deep levels of our being; stretching us at points of our narrowness; confronting us where we are distorted; challenging us to become the word you speak us forth to be; but in every way working in it all for your good purposes in our lives. As we begin to consider ways of coming to Scripture that will enable it to become your living Word in our lives, help us, God, to remain open to the guidance of your Holy Spirit. Amen.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., Shaped by the Word: The Power of Scripture in Spiritual Formation

This prayer merges helpfully our role in taking up the Scriptures and reading while simultaneously developing a deep, abiding trust that it is God’s work through the living Word within us to transform us and make us new, to grant us new insight, to grow and expand our souls, to correct and rebuke us when we are wayward, and to challenge and invite us in the taking of our next step–all for our good–through the sustained openness to the work of the Holy Spirit through prayer.

It is possible to know the Bible inside and out, and yet somehow miss the presence and activity of God. Consider the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, who knew the Scriptures, but did not recognize the Christ.

If you have a daily Scripture reading habit, wonderful! Take one more step in marrying that habit to prayer. Ask God to speak again through the Word, to use the written Word to conform you more fully to the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, so that you might more fully mature in him and more faithfully testify to the transforming power of his grace.

Disciplined Reading

Do not say…that one or two books is sufficient for instructing the soul. After all, even the bee collects honey not from one or two flowers only, but from many. Thus also he who reads the books of the Holy Fathers is instructed by one in faith or in right thinking, by another in silence and prayer, by another in obedience and humility and patience, by another in self-reproach and in love for God and neighbor; and, to speak briefly, from many books of the Holy Fathers a man is instructed in life according to the Gospel.

– Paisius Velichkovsky

Paisius Velichkovsky was an Eastern Orthodox monk and theologian. His observation is a rather simple one: we must learn wisdom from the bee, gathering wisdom diligently, broadly, and with great discipline. He exhorts us to read from the Holy Fathers, from the saints of old, who can instruct us in the Gospel and in Christian living. Our souls, being great things, need great nourishment. Like the bee, the gathering should take place daily, not from a paltry collection of sources, but from a diversity of literary riches.

I like to read and study. Not everyone is like me. Thank God. But if I could offer one bit of encouragement to others who, like me, are following Jesus, it would be to read a little more often than you do now. Begin with the Bible, particularly if Scripture is something you neglect. Scripture is a dietary staple. But then add to that a work of theology, or a historical work about a person who has been important to the Christian tradition.

Pay particular mind to your denominational heritage, if you have one (if you are a Methodist, read Wesley, if you are a Presbyterian, read Calvin, etc., etc.). I’d like the Baptists I know to be better Baptists, the Methodists I know to exemplify the best of their tradition, and on and on. Consider doing as Velichkovsky recommends: read the Church Fathers. Read Augustine. Read Athanasius. Read the Desert Fathers and Mothers. The old stuff is profoundly rich.

Choose one or two or three great theologians or renowned saints. Get to know them well, even if a little bit at a time. Pick up their work. Buy a book and learn about their lives. Read each day. Choose wisely. Stick with it. Observe. Learn. Apply. Grow.

The Need for Silence

So often we try to convey or communicate the character and work of God to others by stepping up the noise and the activity; and yet for God to communicate who and what God is, God needs our silence.

– Rowan Williams, Being Human: Bodies, Minds, Persons, 98

The spiritual life involves speaking and not speaking.

In speaking, we issue invitations. We draw attention and take action. We converse, convince, and persuade. We do.

In not speaking, we stop. We become silent. We are still. We listen, contemplate, and consider. We be.

The church has always needed heralds. Romans 10:17 says, “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” In Romans 10:13 we find, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” In Romans 10:14-15, Paul asks, “But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

The logic is easy to follow. The person who hears and responds in faith does so following a proclamation of the message of and about Jesus, brought by another person who has been called and sent forth for that task.

The best gospel ministry marries proclamation to demonstration. We are told what the kingdom of God is like, but then we see it, it is put on display. In Matthew 4:23, we read that “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” There is not only speaking, but activity.

And yet to plumb the depths of God, to know who God is and what God is doing, there comes a time for silence. Psalm 46:10 says, ““Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.” In Psalm 62:5, we read, “For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.” Lamentations 3:26 reads, “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

Even Jesus withdrew to lonely places to pray. Jesus surely spoke. But he also surely took time to listen, away from the noise, the activity, and the constant demands.

Ecclesiastes 3:7 reminds us, there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” Observe each in its own time, do not neglect either. There is speaking and not speaking. There is action and stillness. There is doing and being.

God call us to both.