Another
reason for a liberal arts education is to avoid modern errors. The only way to
counteract these errors is to read books, especially old books. Lewis emphasized throughout his life the
necessity of reading old books. “Jack was a voracious reader from his early
childhood” (Hudson). Joe Walsh, college historian at Magdalen referred to Lewis
as the “best-read man I ever met, almost too well read” (Heck, 18). According
to Lewis’ diary, in his early years of teaching, he read a book every two days.
The number of books he read was not only enormous; the “scope” of his reading
was vast. Lewis read poetry, prose, philosophy, novels, drama, opera and
history (Hudson).
“Lewis
believed that reading great books (especially old ones) was the foundation for
any meaningful learning and human growth” (Hudson). Lewis thought the learner
should go to the original sources instead of the commentator. This was not a
popular idea at his time. Lewis stated that “It has always therefore been one
of my main endeavors as a teacher to persuade the young that first-hand
knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than second-hand knowledge, but is
usually much easier and more delightful” (Lewis, “Reading Old Books,” 200). If
the reader has to choose between reading a new book and an old book, Lewis
thought he should read the old book. He thought that reading the old books
helps to correct modern errors. Lewis thought each historical period had its
own blind spots. “None of us,” Lewis says, “can fully escape that blindness,
but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read
only modern books” (Lewis, “Reading Old Books,” 202). Lewis encouraged people
to read an old book after each time they read a new book (Reading Old, 201-202).
An
additional reason to read old books is because it “confirms” what Lewis calls
“Mere Christianity.” The reading of old books on Christian doctrine helps the
reader to see what is essential to the Faith and what is not. Lewis was an
active participant in what has been called the “Great Conversation.” He thought
to be truly educated; an individual must join this conversation. This is
similar to the idea of Mortimer Adler, founder of the Great Books movement. The
great conversation is a dialogue between writers of different centuries on the
Great Ideas. James V. Schall has stated that a college student who didn’t study
Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas while in college, did not receive an
education.
Lewis
thought it was not only important to read the great books of Western
Civilization, but to read them again and again. Some of his favorite authors
were Milton, Dante, George McDonald, Virgil and other great authors of
antiquity. He believed that the rereading of books was one of the marks of a literary
person. Lewis, in An Experiment in
Criticism, distinguishes the literary person from the non-literary person
The
sure mark of an unliterary man is that he considers ‘I’ve read it already’ to
be a
conclusive argument against reading a
work. We have all known women who remembered
a novel so dimly that they had to stand half an hour in the library skimming through it before they were certain they
had once read it. But the moment they became certain,
they rejected it immediately. It was for them dead, like a burnt-out match, an old rail-way ticket or yesterday’s paper; they had already used it.
Those who read great works, on
the other hand, will read the same work ten, twenty or thirty times during the course of their life (2).
A
great book is a book that requires more than one reading. Every time a great
book is read, the reader gets something new out of it. For example, I have read
large portions of The Summa Theologica multiple
times over the last twenty years. I still feel I have not been able to get to
the bottom of it. I do think I understand it a little better each time I read
it. “For Lewis, reading, reading well, reading great books and rereading them
again and again, was the first step in the life of a true learner” (Hudson).
A
second characteristic of a true learner is a grasp of history. “The educated
man,” Lewis noted, “habitually almost without noticing it, sees the present as
something that grows out of a long perspective of centuries” (Lewis, Reading
Old Books, 241). Lewis thought it was important for the learner to have a solid
knowledge of history. This would help him to see the errors of his own period.
Each period had its own particular errors. Since we cannot know the future, the
only available comparison with the present is the past. Lewis states, “A man
who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors
of his native village: the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore
immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the
microphone of his own age” (58-59).
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