From “World of Wonders: A Spirituality of Reading” by Jeff Crosby
What I am suggesting in these pages is to approach our reading life with the same spirit of joy, expectation, and discipline that we do others that Scripture is quite clear about, such as prayer, fasting, solitude, and confession, among others.
Reading as a spiritual discipline requires the same posture that other disciplines ask of us: an open heart, attentiveness, repetition, intentionality, and an invitation to God for God to speak into our life as we practice the discipline – and an expectation that in God’s grace and mercy and goodness, God will speak, and our lives will be transformed. It’s reading between the lines of the text in what we read, as the late Eugene Peterson suggests in his book Take and Read. And importantly, reading as a spiritual discipline is wisely understood, like fasting, meditation, prayer, solitude, and silence, to be life-giving and not yet another “should on ourselves,” in the words of the late spirituality writer Brennan Manning.
In this book, you will be met wherever you are on the spectrum of readership – whether prolific or only the occasional as time permits, whether a long-term practitioner or merely an aspiring one – and you’ll be invited on a journey to see the ways in which reading deepens, sharpens, and widens our faith, our awareness of the needs around us, and our connection to God. You will glean practical suggestions for finding the world of wonders waiting for you through the practice of reading as a spiritual discipline.
Our journey will take us through a variety of genres including fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. We will consider the reasons that drinking water from not only deep but also diverse wells serves us well in our spiritual journey and our understanding of the experiences and perspectives of others. We’ll discover ways to read Scripture as part of this spiritual discipline. And we will look at reading through the seasons of our lives.
Additionally, at the end of each chapter you’ll find short vignettes from well-established authors and dedicated readers who illuminate that chapter’s content with their own insights. It’s my hope that you will find these voices to be additional light upon your path of spiritual reading.