Christians and Literature – 10 Questions for Bob Walton

Previously, Mark Nenadov, Michael Plato, Olga Lukmanova, Ian Clary, Vincent Cancilla, and Heather Weir’s answers on the topic of literature have been featured. Here are Bob Walton’s answers.

1. Can you give a brief summary of where you live, your educational background, what you do for a living, what church you attend, and the religious tradition you stand in?

I live in the Philadelphia suburbs, and have been teaching in Christian high schools for 37 years.  I have a B.S. in Physics and an M.Div. from Westminster Seminary, and have been a Reformed Baptist elder for over 25 years.  One of the things I love about teaching high school is the opportunity it has provided to teach a variety of subjects – everything from physics and upper-level math courses to history (Church History is a special area of interest), English, and of course a number of Bible courses.

2. How has your early upbringing shaped your view and use of literature now?

I have been a reader for as long as I can remember.  I wouldn’t say that my childhood was shaped by great literature; I read for pleasure constantly, but I tended to suffer through reading assignments like most high school students.  The major exception was Shakespeare, whose works I have loved since I first encountered them in junior high school

3. Are there any people who, in your adult life, have encouraged you to encounter literature in a deeper or more passionate way. If so, who? (they can people you know personally or not)

Circumstances more than people have played a significant role here.  My appreciation for great literature was limited until I was asked to teach Advanced Placement English at school despite my lack of background in the subject.  I quickly dug into the classics and found a level of reading pleasure I had never quite experienced before.  On another level, devouring the works of Cornelius Van Til (one of my seminary professors) and Francis Schaeffer taught me to critique literature, and indeed all forms of thought, from the perspective of a Christian worldview.  To this day this is the most important aspect of my appreciation of literature.

4. What authors/works would you re-read if you had a month-long sabbatical to dedicate to reading?

I would read more books rather than rereading.  I have a long list of works I would like to digest and add to the literature website I’ve compiled to help Christian high school teachers guide their students through some of the world’s greatest writings.

5. Who are your favorite authors or characters portrayed in literature? (if any of them have substantially changed you, list how briefly)

My favorites, in addition to Sheakespeare, are the nineteenth-century British novelists – Austen, the Bronte sisters (Charlotte more than Emily), Dickens, Eliot, Gaskell, Trollope, and others.  Late Victorians like Conrad and Hardy are thought-provoking, though I can hardly say I admire their worldviews.  Christian writers like Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton are also favorites.  I also enjoy good plays, having directed school drama productions for more than 30 years.

6. Should Christians read more literature? What are the benefits to that? What are some cautions you would share?

The greatest value of literature is to give insight into the human experience.  In this regard, much can be learned from non-Christian writers. By common grace, unbelievers often understand the world in which they live in profound ways, though for the most part they perceive the human dilemma of endemic evil and hopelessness without being able to provide any solutions.  Contemporary literature in particular enables Christians to gain a better understanding of how modern man views the apparent absurdity of his own predicament – with a hopelessness that is hard for us to imagine.Christians can also gain insight into how the world views us.  It doesn’t take much exposure to literature and the popular media to figure out that they do a bad job of portraying the reality of Christianity.  This should not be surprising, since “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing” (I Corinthians 1:18). Two major tendencies appear in literature that attempts to portray Christianity.  Such works as Sinclair Lewis’ Elmer Gantry, Lawrence and Lee’s Inherit the Wind, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and John Osborne’s Luther give very unflattering pictures of Christianity. Such critical pictures are painful, but make it easier for Christians to understand the low regard in which we are held by the world around us. Even this can have value, since it equips the believer to respond to the caricatures and misperceptions that dominate the surrounding world.  Even when Christianity is pictured in a positive way in secular works, it is often the Social Gospel kind of religion. After all, unbelievers think that religion ought to be more concerned with this world than the next, and think the best Christians are those who care little about what people believe, are non-judgmental about their actions, and are willing to accept everyone. This is the kind of pastor that tends to appear favorably in movies as well as in well-known works of literature.Reading good literature can also help a Christian’s witness, since it enables him to understand how unbelievers think and to gain a window into their world that can be useful in preaching the Gospel. The common ground that good literature creates can often open the door for discussing the serious ideas found in that literature, and thus to a conversation about the answer the Gospel provides for the big questions being addressed.Reading good literature can also cause us to praise God for the reality of the common grace that He gives, enabling even those who hate Him to create works of great power and beauty. We can thank God for these things even if the authors themselves refuse to acknowledge the source of their talents.

7. To what degree is reading communal for you? (ie. Are you more solitary? Do you share in any way with your friends? Are you in reading groups?)

The communal aspect of reading for me happens when I teach literature.  Discussions with students, forcing them to think and write about the ideas raised by great authors, and analyzing the worldviews of the writers provided as much enjoyment as I have found in my teaching career.  Especially pleasurable was the Humanities program I taught for six years, which blended the study of history with an examination of the literature written during the era under consideration.  We did try to put together a faculty book discussion group for a while, but sadly it died out after a few years for lack of interest.

8. What are some methods or principles you use to decide what you will and won’t read?

I have a tendency to divide books into two categories – those I read for pleasure (popular fiction at bedtime like Grisham, Le Carre, P.D. James and others) and books I read for the literature website.  In the former, I mostly enjoy plot complexity; in the latter, I appreciate the level of thought they induce about important ideas.

9. What literary works or authors could be of the greatest value to the church if they were read more? Why?

This one’s hard to answer.  I would certainly include great Christian writers such as those mentioned above (adding others like Dorothy Sayers, Graham Greene, and Evelyn Waugh), but any great wrirter can be beneficial if he stimulates the reader to think biblically about what he is reading..

10. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts.