C.S. Lewis On Using a Book vs. Receiving It
Writing in “An Experiment in Criticism,” C.S. Lewis claims a work of art can be either ‘received’ or ‘used’. What’s the difference? “When we ‘use’ it we treat it as assistance for our own activities.” ‘Using’ a text means that we have already decided what we want from it. We have an agenda. We come to the text already looking for something, expecting to find it. It is a position of mastery. We are standing over the text, telling it what we want it for. It is a position of impatience. We don’t have time to learn what a text is about on its own terms.
Literary type? An academic exercise.
Historical setting? Not relevant to me and my current needs.
On the other hand, when we ‘receive’ a work of art, “we exert our senses and imagination and various other powers according to a pattern invented by the artist.” Receiving a text is a stance of humility. It is a giving up of oneself to the text. It is letting the author and his choices direct our reading. As Lewis says, “The first demand of any work . . . makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive.”
Lewis explains the superiority of ‘receiving’ this way: “The one, to use an old-fashioned image, is like being taken for a bicycle ride by a man who may know roads we have never explored. The other is like adding one of those little motor attachments to our own bicycle and then going for one of our familiar rides.”
Bible formats are based on understandings of what kind of book it is. Is it a user’s manual? A reference work? A love letter? A magazine? What kind of writings do we really have in the Bible? Our answer to this will lead us to either ‘use’ or ‘receive’ the Bible.
A Bible that is covered over in an imposed system of chapters, verses, section headings, and cross-references is a Bible that invites being ‘used.’ It is an offer to race around picking up bits and pieces of predetermined religious teaching here and there. It is a format that seeks to override the original work of the authors.
A Bible without the additives is an attempt to ‘receive’ it as a varied collection of real books. It presents an offer to more slowly and intentionally take in the Bible on its own terms.
-Glenn
C. S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism (Cambridge University Press, 1961), pp. 88-89.
Literary type? An academic exercise.
Historical setting? Not relevant to me and my current needs.
On the other hand, when we ‘receive’ a work of art, “we exert our senses and imagination and various other powers according to a pattern invented by the artist.” Receiving a text is a stance of humility. It is a giving up of oneself to the text. It is letting the author and his choices direct our reading. As Lewis says, “The first demand of any work . . . makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive.”
Lewis explains the superiority of ‘receiving’ this way: “The one, to use an old-fashioned image, is like being taken for a bicycle ride by a man who may know roads we have never explored. The other is like adding one of those little motor attachments to our own bicycle and then going for one of our familiar rides.”
Bible formats are based on understandings of what kind of book it is. Is it a user’s manual? A reference work? A love letter? A magazine? What kind of writings do we really have in the Bible? Our answer to this will lead us to either ‘use’ or ‘receive’ the Bible.
A Bible that is covered over in an imposed system of chapters, verses, section headings, and cross-references is a Bible that invites being ‘used.’ It is an offer to race around picking up bits and pieces of predetermined religious teaching here and there. It is a format that seeks to override the original work of the authors.
A Bible without the additives is an attempt to ‘receive’ it as a varied collection of real books. It presents an offer to more slowly and intentionally take in the Bible on its own terms.
-Glenn
C. S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism (Cambridge University Press, 1961), pp. 88-89.
2 Comments:
I agree with you and Lewis about recieving the scriptures. I would add, though, that they must be recieved in the manner in which they came; i.e. as a living document of the Church. Jesus promised that he would send the Spirit of Truth to the Church. Paul declares that the Church is the pillar and ground of truth. Still, while the Church (all of God's faithful through the centuries) does interpret scripture, it is also subject to it. This brings us the faith "once delivered to the saints," that which has been believed always, everywhere, and by everyone.
GREAT post, GREAT ideas... What wonderful analogies and descriptions used to convey the point.
I've started a post on a forum I frequent to discuss this more; there's ALWAYS lively discussion over there. Check it out if you like!
http://www.shanebweb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1171
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