Discerning What We Read

Why choose one book over another?

Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash

With summer on its way, many of us will be considering what to pick up for fun in this season. A light beach read? A classic we’ve been meaning to get to for years? A children’s book we remember fondly? With the vast number of good books out there, it’s hard to know what to choose. 

Stories have the power to shape our imagination for good or ill - for that reason, sometimes choosing a book for ourselves or someone else, especially a child, can feel like a weighty decision. 

Some people adopt strategies for finding good books: relying on booklists from people or organizations they trust; sticking to books written before a certain year; pre-reading books for their children; or limiting themselves to authors who share their worldview. All of these strategies come with pros and cons, including the challenge of missing out on good new books or a beautiful story written from a wildly different perspective. 

On top of that, each of us is an individual, so what might be “too much” (too scary, too romantic, too sad) for one person, might be fine for another. And what might be fine in one season of our lives might not be fine in another!

This is where the art and practice of discernment comes in, especially for the Christian. 

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After announcing her summer book club pick, Christian author

Joy Marie Clarkson ☀️

shared that in previous years, she’s been criticized for choosing books that are not explicitly Christian. In response, she pointed out that in the history of the faith, it was normal to engage with pagan and other non-Christian thinkers: even St. Paul does this in the book of Acts.

“Indeed, to refuse to engage any non-Christian literature is the exception not the norm in Christian history.

Of course, the question of what things we choose to dwell on, what things we discern to be “honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy” (Philippians 4:8) is one that must be approached carefully and personally. There are certainly things which would fall well outside those categories in popular culture, but so too would portions of scripture. What sorts of cultural productions and literary works we are able to engage without damage to our consciences is not, I think, an exact science but a practice of discernment.”

How do we practice that discernment?

What to Ask When Choosing a Book

The words of another Christian author (and sister to the above),

Sarah Clarkson

are helpful here: 

“First, let us briefly consider the cultivation of discernment, the means by which we nourish our inner capacity to love what is good and hate what is evil, to know when evil is presented to us in whatever form… Discernment has far less to do with creating an outward legalism than it does with cultivating our innermost hearts. Real discernment, I believe, springs from a heart so nourished by the true, the good, and the beautiful that what is evil simply cannot find room to root.”¹

So the first question we might ask about ourselves or the children and others we’re choosing books for, is: am I helping to cultivate a love of what is true, good, and beautiful? That disposition comes from many things: environment, peers, family, conversations with strangers and the thoughts we entertain in silence. Books are only one part of that larger cultivation.