Missing Books

Al Mohler blogged recently about the “Twilight of the Books.” I would encourage you to read all of his post for yourself. He describes the decline in interest and in time spent reading among all people. In many ways, our society has just given up on reading. We aren’t returning to a time of illiteracy, because many people can read and just don’t. We are rather returning to a time or orality – where information is passed not through written words but through spoken words. We are becoming viewers of information rather than readers of information, and we are becoming a society of people who can’t read critically.

Not buying it? Consider this… only 13% of Americans can take two contrasting newspaper editorials and come to a reasoned comparison.

I see this decline even in my own life. I enjoy reading and I have a growing list of books I would like to read someday. And yet, when I have time to read I instead spend it watching quality television (LOST, 24, and SportsCenter) and ridiculous television (American Idol, American Gladiators, and Biggest Loser) alike. I am jealous of my friend Chris who as part of his Ph.D. program in Leadership is required to read 15 great works of literature this semester. And yet nothing but my own laziness prevents me from reading just the same.

This trend could have significant implications. “A reader learns about the world and imagines it differently from the way a viewer does; according to some experimental psychologists, a reader and a viewer even think differently. If the eclipse of reading continues, the alteration is likely to matter in ways that aren't foreseeable.” Think of how education will be different as we confront students who don’t know how to read critically. Think of how politics will be different. Think of how church will be different. In fact, Mohler suggests that of all people, it is Christians who should lament the decline in reading most:

“For Christians, the concern must reach even deeper levels of concern. Christians are a ‘people of the Book.’ Our knowledge of God, the Gospel, and all things essential to our faith is found within a book, the written text of the Bible. Beyond this, while Christian witness is often oral in transmission, the survival of the church depends upon the availability of the Bible as the church's living witness to Jesus Christ. Put simply, Christians who are not deeply involved in a growing understanding of the Bible will find their faith fed, fueled, and formed by something other than the Bible.”