The Organ of Meaning

This past weekend, on “Holy Saturday” to be exact, I was in a Family Christian Bookstore and was really pretty upset by the sheer amount of Christian kitsch and fluff that was around me… not to mention the things that don’t have any place in a strictly Christian bookstore. There are crappy little bumperstickers, weight-loss books, American flag t-shirts and lotions that happen to have the word “Eden” on them.

Then there was the shelf labeled “Christian Classics,” books that have been around for centuries; the books that set fire to the Reformation and to revivals for the past 500 years. The shelf was a grand 6 feet of space sparsely filled with the “cheap” books. I decided that, for at least 6 months, I am cutting out the Christian fluff from my life. I am declaring a fast from anything that has been written in the past half-century (with exception).

There will be no Left Behind, or Purpose Drivenness. No books about how rock music is evil or how this regime or that is the Anti-Christ, and (unfortunately) no Piper (despite his non-fluffness). I’m pulling out (from the library and my own book shelf) things written by people named Spurgeon, Bunyan, Lewis, Calvin, Edwards, Foxe, and Chesterton…

Right now I am reading a book of Spurgeon’s sermons, next will be some of the Chronicles of Narnia, then Pilgrim’s Progress and perhaps the Practice of the Presence of God…. we’ll see.

My only exceptions (besides what I have to finish) will be thus: unChristian which has been reccomended by a lot of people as very good and books assigned for the classes that I’ll be taking this summer.

If all of this goes well, I may extend it another six months.