Our responsibilities to God, to the cultivation and enhancement of his creation, and to the love and care of human beings give focus to our lives. Our reading of literature is part of the way we fulfill these responsibilities and carry out our unique vocation.
From Literature Through the Eyes of Faith
This quotation from Gallagher and Lundin sums up our responsibility to delight in and glorify God through reading.
- We are charged with doing everything to the glory of God (I Cor. 10:31). This includes reading as much as it does eating and drinking.
- We are called to participate in Christ’s progressive redemption of the world. Literature allows us, on the one hand, to see how that world is broken and needs redemption and, on the other, to imagine what that redemption might look like.
- We are called to love God and our neighbor. When Jesus wanted to demonstrate that truth, he told a story: the parable of the Good Samaritan. The vehicle for that truth is as powerful as the content.