Attentive Reading

I have been stumbling over the theme of how one engages text (and what is being reflected behind the text) in a couple of different places recently.

I just started reading, little by little, Eugene Peterson's newest book, "Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading." In it Peterson takes the image of physically consuming a book from John's revelation (Revelation 10:9-10). He illustrates the idea by drawing attention to the Hebrew word hagah. In Isaiah 31:4 the text begins "As a lion growls over his prey..." Our word growl is a translation of the Hebrew word hagah. Peterson discovers that this same Hebrew word is usually translated at "meditate." Reference either Psalm 1:1-2 or Psalm 63:6. Peterson states,

There is a certain kind of writing that invites this kind of reading, soft purrs and low growls as we taste and savor, anticipate and take in the sweet and spicy, mouth-watering and soul-energizing morsel words...I am interested in cultivating this kind of reading, the only kind that is congruent with what is written in our Holy Scriptures, but also with all writing that is intended to change our lives and not just stuff some information into the cells of our brains. All serious and good writing anticipates precisely this kind of reading - ruminative and leisurely, a dalliance with words in contrast to wolfing down information. (pp.2-3)

This is how I like to read, and perhaps why I enjoy fiction so much. It refuses to be turned into information. Stories must be entered if they are to be engaged. And it is not just stories, as Peterson says. I opened up Scott Cairns' new book, "Love's Immensity: Mystics on the Endless Life," this morning. The preface opens with a quote from the anonymous mystical classic, "The Cloud of Unknowing."

With love's confidence I'm asking,

if you should offer this book

to another, ask of him

as I now ask of you

to read slowly,

and thoroughly, tasting

each word's trouble.

Without doubt, certain passages

should never stand alone,

but will require assistance

offered by others to further

endow their meaning. I fear

for the reader who dabbles,

who gleans, who hurries to take

and flee, and who by doing so acquires

nothing but a novel form

of his current poverty and error.

Reading as a whole person, engaged and attentive. Reading not just with the mind but with the heart.

Comments

[Tony Myles]

I love watching the Rabbis read... there is something about the physical rocking back and forth that seems to engage the text on a whole other level. Perhaps this is a shallow comparison, but it reminds me of football players getting ready for a game by banging their heads into lockers.

Again... shallow comparison.

[maureen didde]

Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you for giving us some blog-love. You are a blessing.

[Tim]

Tony - I love the comparison to watching rabbis read. It reminds me of a print my parents had of a pencil drawing of a rabbi-looking old man, head against hand, looking deeply into a book as he turned the page. Thanks!

And thanks Moe, for giving me some comment-love. You, too.