There are a lot of voices in the evangelical community that will tell you to read old books. C.S. Lewis wrote a brilliant introduction to Athanasius’ De Incarnatione Verbi Dei. He basically said that we should read old books because we are blind to our own generation’s errors. We often cannot see the wrong-headed ways in which we think because we are wrong-headed. Reading older books can help to counteract that because other generations might have seen the problem in our sort of thinking as clear as day and been kind enough to point it out.
I’ll not argue with Lewis on that point. It’s a very good one. I like reading old books and even plan on reading Athanasius’ De Incarnatione Verbi Dei pretty soon. At the same time, though, I’m developing a love for newer books for one simple reason: they help me communicate today.
It’s true that if you compare the work of Mark Driscoll (or even John Piper, I would argue) to the work of Jonathan Edwards, they come up looking a bit shallow. It’s also true that they are more blind to some of the problems in our thinking than someone like Edwards would have been. The trouble, though, is that if I tried to quote Edwards (or Augustine, as I’m now finding out) when teaching, no one would understand it. The man wrote in some ridiculously long sentences.
Guys like Driscoll, Piper, and even N.T. Wright are better at saying things in fewer words. They’re also better at communicating on a level that people today can understand. Reading their books has helped me get better at communicating. It’s true that I’ve learned a lot from newer authors (though I’ve also had to spit out some bones), but what I’m really grateful for lately is their ability to communicate succinctly. It has helped to change the way I write and teach.
In summary, read old books. Then read new books to help you learn how to take some of the messages from the old books and put them in words that people today can more easily understand and remember.
