The Power of Literature
According to legend, when Abraham Lincoln met Uncle Tom’s Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe, he said, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” Whether Lincoln ever said this to Mrs. Stowe or not, Uncle Tom’s Cabin did have a profound impact on the divided America of the mid-1800s and the impact continues. The book has been translated into sixty languages.
Literature has power to do good and to do evil. Think of the impact of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species, for example.
Books can be a powerful component in training a child’s heart, soul, and mind. Good literature was the centerpiece of the education Ray and I gave our children. I am grateful for the impact good literature has had on our family. These are some of the benefits I see in making wholesome literature a centerpiece of education.
- Literature fires the imagination for what can be.
- Literature tries out ideas which lead to action.
- Literature illustrates truth, beauty, and love.
- Reading books gives us a wider world.
- Books help us walk in other people’s shoes.
- Books help us look at how other people have lived, so we can look more clearly at ourselves.
- Literature makes history come alive.
We found good books to be tools that helped us to train the hearts, souls, and minds of our children. We encouraged children to read wholesome books themselves. Other books we rejected outright, seeing no reason for our children to be exposed to them. However, when a book had only a few elements that were controversial, we found that reading them aloud and omitting some words and passages gave us opportunities to train our children to examine what was controversial from a biblical worldview.
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing;
in everything give thanks;
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit;
do not despise prophetic utterances.
But examine everything carefully;
hold fast to that which is good;
abstain from every form of evil.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
News! We released our audio supplement to From Adam to Us on Monday. You can learn about it on the video at this link. You can also learn about the 20% off discount, good through Monday, July 3!
Learn about the Audio Supplement to From Adam to Us!
Ray and I went to the studio again yesterday to finish up the audio supplement to Exploring America. The projects together have spread out over exactly five months. Our first trip to the studio was January 27. It’s been fun!