Christian Writers' Reading Challenge

 So, we're trying something new this year: a Christian writers' reading challenge. No matter your genre or denomination, this reading challenge has something in it for you. Are you interested in the religious significance of creativity? Awesome! Wanna learn some writing tips and habits that will make you more confident and productive? Great! Whatever your goal may be, I hope you're willing to join me on the ride. 

I've read all of the books I'm going to recommend, and in each post, I'll cover a bit of what I got out of them. You might see something completely different in the essays, poems, and books in this challenge. That's wonderful! Every book is a unique experience for each reader, and I am confident it's all part of God's plan for what you need in this season of your life.

If you're not a Christian, feel free to read along--the nonfiction is full of excellent writing advice and the fiction is just plain good literature, regardless of your religion or lack thereof. I'll be highlighting the more spiritual aspects of the book, because to me, creativity is a spiritual act, but whether or not you believe in God, these pieces hold deep insight into the metaphysical processes of being a writer, including such things as naming and inspiration. If you choose to read along, I hope you gain a fresh perspective on Christianity, even if you still disagree with its premise.

Housekeeping Items: I'll begin each post with a Quick Guide to the piece(s) in question--what you need to read, roughly how long it should take, and a few notes on the key ideas in the piece. That's really all you need for the challenge. Below the Quick Guide will be a longer post with a bit of literary analysis and some guiding questions, if you want a deeper dive. The Deep Dive is split into six headings: About the Author, Weird Stuff, Hard Words, Literary Motif, Notes for Christians, and Study Questions. Not every Deep Dive will have all of these features.

Without further ado, here we go:

Day 1

Quick Guide

Required Material: Tree and Leaf, a collection of short works by JRR Tolkien. Hold onto your copy; we will return to it at a later date.

Reading Guide: Start with Leaf by Niggle, a short story about a struggling artist.  When you finish with that, read "Mythopoeia," a poem Tolkien wrote for his friend and contemporary CS Lewis as a last-ditch effort to convert Lewis to Christianity. These are very short pieces and shouldn't take more than a couple hours if you read closely.

Notes: In Leaf by Niggle, note that while Niggle starts out painting leaves and trees, it is the mountains in the background that turn out to be most important. Hold this idea in your mind–you'll need it later when you get to "Polaroids" in Bird by Bird. There is so much in this story, including social commentary and a Catholic allegory, but for our purposes we're mostly paying attention to the imagery of trees and leaves. In "Mythopoeia," the key idea is man as sub-creator. (This idea will be repeated in Walking on Water, under the name 'co-creator.') Once again, pay attention to the verdant imagery.

Deep Dive

About the Author: Tolkien is famous for his epic fantasies, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. However, there is much more to Tolkien than just Middle-Earth. Writing was not his primary career: He was a professor of the English language. He was also a philologist, which means he studied the origins, development, and structure of languages, which is evident in the amazing array of invented languages in LotR. Tolkien was also Catholic. All of these things contributed to how he wrote and viewed the world, and gave him something of a reputation as an odd duck. As his friend and contemporary CS Lewis said, "At my first coming into the world I had been implicitly warned never to trust a Papist, and at my first coming into the English Faculty explicitly never to trust a philologist. Tolkien was both."

Leaf by Niggle

I'm not going to give very much analysis of Leaf by Niggle, because it is far easier to understand than "Mythopoeia," which is where I'll spend the majority of our time. The vocabulary of the story isn't particularly difficult, so I won't list any "Hard Words." Nor is there any "Weird Stuff" or necessary history for this story other than what I put in "About the Author." Enjoy the story, pay attention to any literary motifs you may notice, and look to the Study Questions in place of "Notes for Christians."

Study Questions:

What does Tolkien imply about hard work and responsibility, and how does this line up with Biblical principles?

What does Tolkien imply about society, and especially the role of teachers? (When I was reading, I was reminded of this verse: "Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." -James 3:1)

Who or what do the two Voices represent? Are they angels? If not, what are they?

What do the mountains represent?

Pay attention to Niggle's journey as an artist. What advice or lesson does this story offer to Christian artists?

"Mythopoeia"

Weird Stuff: At the top of this poem are two puzzling lines of introduction. First is the dedication.

To one who said that myths were lies and therefore worthless, even though 'breathed through silver'. 

This dubious personage is CS Lewis before he converted to Christianity. (Depending on what copy of Tree and Leaf you acquired, there might be more history about this poem in the front of the book.)

Second is a heading about the speaker:

Philomythus to Misomythus

These names are Latin-based, meaning "lover of myth" and "hater of myth," respectively. The former is Tolkien, the latter is Lewis.

Hard Words: Tolkien displays his impressive vocabulary in this poem. Here are quick definitions for the more archaic terms.

Limning--drawing, outlining, structure

Origo--origin, reference point

Tellurian--of or inhabiting the earth

Homuncular--small, man-like (a homunculus is a mythological miniature human being)

Dint--impression, mark

Involuted--complicated, obscure

Monition--warning

Literary Motif: If you see through the liberal use of metaphor to what Tolkien is actually talking about (man's sub-creator status, as illustrated in our myth-making tendencies), then good job! I once spent two weeks analyzing this poem in a college literature class. Since we have an afternoon, not two weeks, I'll just assign a little homework. Analyze the symbolism in these two lines:

I bow not yet before the Iron Crown, 

nor cast my own small golden sceptre down.

There is a lot of symbolism here: the two metals on their own, the scepter, and the crown, but also the contrast between iron and gold.

One more literary thing: pay attention to the use of capitals in this poem. If a word is capitalized, it's prob'ly the name of a personified concept. There are several instances where a word is capitalized to indicate that Tolkien is using it as a name for God. A few of these are: Will, Wise, and All.

Notes for Christians: The heart of this poem is in fifth stanza (begins, "The heart of man is not compound of lies..."). Key lines: "Though now long estranged, / man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed" and "We make still by the law in which were made."

Look at the third stanza (begins, "Yet trees are not 'trees', until so named and seen..."). Tolkien is referring back to the first stanza, where he discussed the scientific labelling of trees. I took away two things from this.

First, that Naming and labelling are two different acts with different purposes. With labelling, an object is inspected for purpose, which here translates more closely to "use"--its cause and effect, its role in an ecosystem. That object is then categorized based on physical qualities, then labelled accordingly. Naming is a process that intrinsically has more to do with language than with purpose. Language is about shaping reality, not about identifying it (as we will investigate later), so Names are given before an object's purpose is necessarily known, and physical traits aren't necessarily taken into account. Since Naming is shaping, Names can be prophetic or carry deep meaning or represent hope (often seen in the Old Testament of the Bible).

It's the Name that shapes the purpose, not the other way around (a concept often used in literature, especially in magic). Purpose is assumed to pre-exist one's recognition of the object, and to continue existing (and eventually come to fruition) regardless of one's awareness of or respect for the purpose. Purpose comes from outside one's awareness and opinions. Names help purpose along. Perhaps, when it comes to Naming, purpose isn't a matter of use, but a matter of meaning and value.

Second, Tolkien makes a point about language, which is illustrated in the book of Genesis. Language pre-exists Naming. Naming is a creative act. Naming is one of the most important things we do. It's the first task God gave to man: "Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gace names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found." -Gen. 2:19-20

Not only is Naming the first job God gave Adam, it also appears to be the first act of free will: God watches Adam and sees (observes) what Adam names the animals. Adam chose/made up the names. So it's also man's first act of creativity, and, as far as we know, man's first act of language. Up until now, only God has spoken, but now Adam gives names.

Interestingly enough, we are not given an origin story for language. Later in Genesis, we are given the origins of the first murderer., the first musician, the first metal-worker; previously we were given the origins of man, woman, and the Earth itself. But no such story is given for language.

It makes sense, in a way. How can the story be told without language? It's accepted as a prerequisite. "God said" is the origin story, just as the origin of Time (which is also mentioned in Tolkien's poem) is "in the beginning," a statement of Time's existence.

Language and Time are the first two concepts in Creation, outside of God Himself. Refer to John's gospel: "In the beginning was the Word." Time and language came to be simultaneously. The Word, logos, the Creative Word--Naming.

Study Questions:

Define "sub-creator." Why is man a sub-creator?

Explain what Tolkien means in the fourth stanza (begins, "He sees no stars who does not see them first...").

Is "Artefact" or "White" a name for God? If not, what do these words refer to in context?

Who or what is the "Iron Crown"?