Episode 137: Why Pastors Should Read Fiction
This week on The Literary Life podcast with Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks, we have a very special episode for you. Our hosts are joined by guests Dan Bunting and Anthony Dodgers, both of whom are pastors, for a discussion on why pastors should read fiction books. Dan is also host of the the Reading the Psalms podcast. Angelina starts off the conversation by asking why these men would prioritize taking literature classes. Anthony shares about his own literary life journey and how rediscovering literature has helped him personally. Dan talks about the book club that he and a couple of his pastor friends have and what kinds of books they read together. They discuss many other deep topics and crucial questions that we hope will be encouraging and thought-provoking to everyone who listens to and shares this episode.
Join us for the 2022 Back to School Conference, \u201cEducation: Myths and Legends\u201d happening live online this August 1st-6th. Our special guest speakers will be Lynn Bruce and Caitlin Beauchamp, along with our hosts Cindy Rollins, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks. Learn more and register today at Morning Time for Moms.
Commonplace Quotes:If education is beaten by training, civilization dies.
C. S. Lewis, from \u201cOur English Syllabus\u201d
How am I a hog and me both?
Flannery O\u2019Connor
He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.
Freidrich Schiller
Whoever wants to become a Christian, must first become a poet.
St. Porphyrios of Kafsokalivia
A Boy in ChurchIt is hard to have patience with those Jeremiahs, in press or pulpit, who warn us that we are \u201crelapsing into paganism\u201d. It might be rather fun if we were. It would be pleasant to see some future Prime Minister trying to kill a large and lively milk-white bull in Westminster Hall. But we shan\u2019t. What lurks behind such idle prophecies, if they are anything but careless language, is the false idea that the historical process allows mere reversal; that Europe can come out of Christianity \u201cby the same door as in she went\u201d, and find herself back where she was. It is not what happens. A post-Christian man is not a Pagan; you might as well think that a married woman recovers her virginity by divorce. The post-Christian is cut off from the Christian past, and therefore doubly from the Pagan past.
C. S. Lewis, from \u201cDe Descriptione Temporum\u201d
by Robert Graves
\u2018Gabble-gabble, . . . brethren, . . . gabble-gabble!\u2019 \xa0\xa0\xa0 My window frames forest and heather. I hardly hear the tuneful babble, \xa0\xa0\xa0 Not knowing nor much caring whether The text is praise or exhortation, Prayer or thanksgiving, or damnation. \xa0 Outside it blows wetter and wetter, \xa0\xa0\xa0 The tossing trees never stay still. I shift my elbows to catch better \xa0\xa0\xa0 The full round sweep of heathered hill. The tortured copse bends to and fro In silence like a shadow-show. \xa0 The parson\u2019s voice runs like a river \xa0\xa0\xa0 Over smooth rocks, I like this church: The pews are staid, they never shiver, \xa0\xa0\xa0 They never bend or sway or lurch. \u2018Prayer,\u2019 says the kind voice, \u2018is a chain That draws down Grace from Heaven again.\u2019 \xa0 I add the hymns up, over and over, \xa0\xa0\xa0 Until there\u2019s not the least mistake. Seven-seventy-one. (Look! there\u2019s a plover! \xa0\xa0\xa0 It\u2019s gone!) Who\u2019s that Saint by the lake? The red light from his mantle passes Across the broad memorial brasses. \xa0 It\u2019s pleasant here for dreams and thinking, \xa0\xa0\xa0 Lolling and letting reason nod, With ugly serious people linking \xa0\xa0\xa0 Sad prayers to a forgiving God . . . . But a dumb blast sets the trees swaying With furious zeal like madmen praying.Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh
Asterix Comics by Ren\xe9 Goscinny
Tin Tin by Herge
Giants in the Earth by Ole Rolvaag
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L\u2019Engle
The Complete Stories by Flannery O\u2019Connor
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carr\xe9
The New Oxford Book of Christian Verse edited by Donald Davie
Waiting on the Word by Malcolm Guite
Word in the Wilderness by Malcolm Guite
Reflections on the Psalms by C. S. Lewis
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