So glad to be in the right place (tourbsubstack) at the right time (the passing of Pope Francis) to read this. You nail it. And it raises implicitly a reminder of how this man became pope. He is absolutely right. And it helps me to look with more compassion on him as pope. I will do the readerly thing and posit: maybe he saw himself less as the infallible vicar of Christ and more of a flawed author, just trying to get us to engage with God and His creation. Helping us to loon at the Book of Life.
I live a reader's life. As I am not a digital native, my life might prove shocking to those who were born in our connected, yet disjointed, world.
The late Pope's exhortations to read are well meant and not inaccurate. But that there needs to be an exhortation to read is more than a little sad to those of us who would prefer to do nothing but read.
Hard to imagine but up until the mid-20th century there was neither television nor internet. (Radio evoked some of the excursions of the imagination that visual media atrophies, and the sense of conversation that podcasting invites may be an outgrowth of this.).
I rejoice (in secret) whenever I see younger persons reading books. They boast of their preference for physical books, as if they had just discovered water on Mars. I let It go and straightaway I ask what is being read. So much pleasure to be derived from the simplest of encounters.
Let us turn away from the desperation that found the current president shouting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" We would do so much better to repair to an overstuffed chair and "Read! Read! Read!"
The "Fight!..." sentiment now seems universal and not just the coin of the realm for our current Prez. See recent commentary by Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Chris Murphy and many others.
One of Borges's stories introduces us to a group of initiates, people who have special insights that the rest of us need to learn from them. Reading the story, we start to expect that they have the secrets of high ethical principles or deep divine mysteries. But at the end we discover that they understand mud--just ordinary mud. Thus, the importance of being grounded and embodied and incarnational.
Glad to see you seizing the moment to direct attention back to this valuable letter. I wrote about it myself last summer when it came out. I think you have nailed a couple of important themes: reading as active, and the emotional or responsive (not simply rational) aspect of reading. Both draw us into other lives that we have not experienced ourselves. I also think the idea of listening to other voices is central to what Francis is doing in the letter. In my own essay, I emphasized especially that Francis was calling for a dialogic mode of reading. I think he was also framing this as part of a broader dialogic approach to theology, reflecting his legacy as the first Latin American pope and calling for the church's teaching to be re-interpreted as it takes shape in new and different cultural contexts. (I also suggested that the letter may implicitly position Francis vis-a-vis his immediate predecessors.) If you're interested, you can see my take on the letter here: https://frommybookshelf.substack.com/p/the-voice-that-speaks-through-many.
I just had a conversation on how reading novels changes and matures us. The experience of reading fiction enables us to not only to comprehend the viewpoints of others, but also provides a better understanding of how the world works, giving us a greater sense of rootedness. The conversation I had was in how many of my social peers - I come from a working class, low income, conservative religious, North American of European ancestry background - have embraced fear-based explanations of the world and they also read very little, beyond perusing social media. Those of my peers who have a more optimistic yet grounded view of the world tend to actually read books.
I hadn't read this letter before, but I'm on my way to read it now. The moments from it that you highlight, especially their emphasis on the pain within humanity that we recognise in literature and that so often drives us to "thirst" for the Divine — these reminded me of a wonderful short essay by Howard Root.
Francis says the challenge to faith "is not so much atheism as the need to respond adequately to many people’s thirst for God". Howard Root identifies the flip-side to that coin when he writes: "Our greatest ally is not the dying establishments but the hungry and destitute world which is still alive enough to feel its own hunger" for those things Tillich calls "ultimate concern".
And when Francis cautions against the attempt "to satisfy [spiritual need] with alienating solutions or with a disembodied Jesus", I remember Root's brilliant phrase: "The question is not whether men can or will do metaphysics but only whether they will do it badly".
I'm so grateful to you for bringing this letter to our attention; I'm hoping to respond in kind by mentioning Root's essay. It's called 'Beginning All Over Again', included in "Soundings: Essays Concerning Christian Understanding":
One of the most interesting things for me in your essay is the mere fact that I had never read about this view of Pope Francis on literature.
I am fascinated by the Catholic Church and I read a lot of older fiction. (Currently reading "Love in the Ruins" by Walker Percy. Published more than 50 years ago by an avowed Catholic author and set in an undetermined time of political strife and inchoate apocalypse. Sound familiar?)
Where was this view of Pope Francis hiding? So much of the reporting on the Catholic Church is all about scandal, strife and division. And yet here is this lovely, inspiring and Catholic view of literature that had little coverage. As a culture, are we incapable of looking at any institution or belief except through a dialectic of conflict?
I read the letter a few days ago and shared it with some bookish friends who wouldn't be intimidated by the length. It was so good. I wish more leaders of all kinds would heed its message!
So glad to be in the right place (tourbsubstack) at the right time (the passing of Pope Francis) to read this. You nail it. And it raises implicitly a reminder of how this man became pope. He is absolutely right. And it helps me to look with more compassion on him as pope. I will do the readerly thing and posit: maybe he saw himself less as the infallible vicar of Christ and more of a flawed author, just trying to get us to engage with God and His creation. Helping us to loon at the Book of Life.
Sorry for the fatfingering. I wish I could edit my comment.
In the last sentence I meant Pope Francis wants us to look at the Book of Life. And in the first sentence, I meant "your substack."
I would also restack your essay with this as my comment if I could copy it.
I live a reader's life. As I am not a digital native, my life might prove shocking to those who were born in our connected, yet disjointed, world.
The late Pope's exhortations to read are well meant and not inaccurate. But that there needs to be an exhortation to read is more than a little sad to those of us who would prefer to do nothing but read.
Hard to imagine but up until the mid-20th century there was neither television nor internet. (Radio evoked some of the excursions of the imagination that visual media atrophies, and the sense of conversation that podcasting invites may be an outgrowth of this.).
I rejoice (in secret) whenever I see younger persons reading books. They boast of their preference for physical books, as if they had just discovered water on Mars. I let It go and straightaway I ask what is being read. So much pleasure to be derived from the simplest of encounters.
Let us turn away from the desperation that found the current president shouting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" We would do so much better to repair to an overstuffed chair and "Read! Read! Read!"
Not that hard to imagine. Basically my life.
The "Fight!..." sentiment now seems universal and not just the coin of the realm for our current Prez. See recent commentary by Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Chris Murphy and many others.
Yes, "Read! Read! Read!"
One of Borges's stories introduces us to a group of initiates, people who have special insights that the rest of us need to learn from them. Reading the story, we start to expect that they have the secrets of high ethical principles or deep divine mysteries. But at the end we discover that they understand mud--just ordinary mud. Thus, the importance of being grounded and embodied and incarnational.
Glad to see you seizing the moment to direct attention back to this valuable letter. I wrote about it myself last summer when it came out. I think you have nailed a couple of important themes: reading as active, and the emotional or responsive (not simply rational) aspect of reading. Both draw us into other lives that we have not experienced ourselves. I also think the idea of listening to other voices is central to what Francis is doing in the letter. In my own essay, I emphasized especially that Francis was calling for a dialogic mode of reading. I think he was also framing this as part of a broader dialogic approach to theology, reflecting his legacy as the first Latin American pope and calling for the church's teaching to be re-interpreted as it takes shape in new and different cultural contexts. (I also suggested that the letter may implicitly position Francis vis-a-vis his immediate predecessors.) If you're interested, you can see my take on the letter here: https://frommybookshelf.substack.com/p/the-voice-that-speaks-through-many.
Tara Penry also wrote about the letter when it came out: https://tarapenry.substack.com/p/the-pope-calls-for-literature.
I just had a conversation on how reading novels changes and matures us. The experience of reading fiction enables us to not only to comprehend the viewpoints of others, but also provides a better understanding of how the world works, giving us a greater sense of rootedness. The conversation I had was in how many of my social peers - I come from a working class, low income, conservative religious, North American of European ancestry background - have embraced fear-based explanations of the world and they also read very little, beyond perusing social media. Those of my peers who have a more optimistic yet grounded view of the world tend to actually read books.
I hadn't read this letter before, but I'm on my way to read it now. The moments from it that you highlight, especially their emphasis on the pain within humanity that we recognise in literature and that so often drives us to "thirst" for the Divine — these reminded me of a wonderful short essay by Howard Root.
Francis says the challenge to faith "is not so much atheism as the need to respond adequately to many people’s thirst for God". Howard Root identifies the flip-side to that coin when he writes: "Our greatest ally is not the dying establishments but the hungry and destitute world which is still alive enough to feel its own hunger" for those things Tillich calls "ultimate concern".
And when Francis cautions against the attempt "to satisfy [spiritual need] with alienating solutions or with a disembodied Jesus", I remember Root's brilliant phrase: "The question is not whether men can or will do metaphysics but only whether they will do it badly".
I'm so grateful to you for bringing this letter to our attention; I'm hoping to respond in kind by mentioning Root's essay. It's called 'Beginning All Over Again', included in "Soundings: Essays Concerning Christian Understanding":
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Soundings/bgQ4AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
One of the most interesting things for me in your essay is the mere fact that I had never read about this view of Pope Francis on literature.
I am fascinated by the Catholic Church and I read a lot of older fiction. (Currently reading "Love in the Ruins" by Walker Percy. Published more than 50 years ago by an avowed Catholic author and set in an undetermined time of political strife and inchoate apocalypse. Sound familiar?)
Where was this view of Pope Francis hiding? So much of the reporting on the Catholic Church is all about scandal, strife and division. And yet here is this lovely, inspiring and Catholic view of literature that had little coverage. As a culture, are we incapable of looking at any institution or belief except through a dialectic of conflict?
I read the letter a few days ago and shared it with some bookish friends who wouldn't be intimidated by the length. It was so good. I wish more leaders of all kinds would heed its message!
Anything on the medicinal power of books will always grab me. Beautiful piece