“We read because without books our world shrinks, our empathy thins, and our liberty wanes. We read for the same reason that people have read and shared poems or stories for thousands of years, because our eyes are not enough by which to see.” – Jessica Hooten Wilson, Reading for the Love of God
Why Read Fiction?
There are many arguments against reading fiction books.
The Pragmatic: The world is full of problems to solve, so we don’t have time to waste on escapism. The Spiritual: Why fill your head with anything other than the Bible? The Lethargic: Books aren’t as interesting as my phone and screens.
Not everyone needs to be a literary connoisseur… But what if reading good works of fiction wasn’t a deterrent in our relationship with God, nor a mere escape from the world, but a means of more wisely and healthily living for God’s purpose in the world?
After all, Jesus used imaginative stories in the form of parables to communicate how to conceive of God and his kingdom and how we should live in the world. But there’s a time and place for non-Christian storytelling, too.
We are made in God’s image and live in God’s world. So we should expect authors to capture God’s truth in their stories, and we should celebrate that wherever we find it, as when Paul quotes pagan poets and talks about the statue to the unknown God (Acts 17:16-28). Even through imperfect works written or made by non-Christians, Paul was moved to encounter the true God.
There’s a moment in War and Peace when Prince Andrei, wounded on the battlefield, stares up at the stars in the sky and feels a connection with something transcendent, making all the squabbles of war seem trivial. Reading that, I feel my own need to connect with God as the only stable, sure, and satisfying thing in my life.
When I read about the long-suffering young priest in The Diary of a Country Priest or of the kindness of Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov, I am moved by that picture of moral goodness in a way that forms my own character. Wilhelm, from Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day, persistently gets in his own way as he chases after that deep longing in his heart. When I read it, my empathy deepens for those chasing anything to fill themselves apart from God.
Stories work on different parts of our hearts and minds than logical arguments. They help us feel truths rather than merely intellectually assent to them. When we celebrate moral courage or mourn moral failure that we read in stories, we rewire our own moral imagination. And we’re stretched out of our own cultural blind spots when we read novels taking place in different points of history, in different places in the world, and by people from different life situations and experiences.
The Power of Books
So, fiction is good for our minds, hearts, and faith. But why read books when we can watch movies or television shows? Don’t they tell stories, too?
Have you ever read a book, then watched a movie based on that book, and then said that the movie was better? Probably not. I’m not saying it never happens, but by far, reading the book is better. This is because a good author can describe something in more impactful ways than can be depicted in a film. C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia are far better books than movies and Tolkien’s elves are far more glorious on the page than on the screen. Written stories capture our imaginations in ways that a camera lens cannot.
The pace of reading a book also slows us down to absorb the story. In our fast-paced and often anxious lives, we crave a reset. Moving our eyes across a page to discover what happens next offers more refreshment than receiving content from a screen. Science has even shown that more of your brain is active when reading than watching television, giving us concrete evidence of what we sense to be true.
The Joy of Reading
While reading fiction can do all these good things in our lives, another reason to read fiction is much simpler: it brings us joy.
Like many good things, this joy comes slowly, requires cultivation, and takes some persistence. It’s a learned love, but the end result is powerful. In his autobiography about how he came to believe in God, C.S. Lewis spends much time talking about the joy he experienced in reading good books, particularly those written by Christians. God used this joy to soften Lewis’s heart and open him to the existence of God.
Now, this isn’t a plea to just read any fiction book. As with anything in our fallen world, choosing what stories to take into your mind and heart requires discernment. Books can form us in good ways, but they can form us in bad ways, too. There are all kinds of books that rank as classics or currently occupy top seller lists that we shouldn’t read. We also don’t need to stick exclusively to Christian fiction. Nor read only nice and pleasant books. The key is to know yourself, know your struggles, and use wisdom when selecting your next read.
We read for joy. We read to listen and understand. We read with discernment to cultivate wisdom. But, most of all, we read to love God with all of heart, soul, mind, and strength.
For more on the case for reading:
- The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs
- Reading for the Love of God and The Scandal of Holiness by Jessica Hooten Wilson
- On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
If you've been inspired to read more fiction, check out Keith's favorite books from 2024. You'll find a specific section just for the best in fiction!
