Christian Readers and Non-Christian Books

I've had several Christian friends who, for one reason or another, only read Christian books.  Some of these were fellow grad students who felt that their reading requirements for their classes made any side reading of their own preferences impossible.  Others had personalities not well suited to reading novels or other genres outside their specialist disciplines.  And I've known a few folks who were fairly committed to the position that Christians don't have much business reading books written by non-Christians.


People in this last group weren't really as dogmatic on this issue as I've made them sound.  They would morally distinguish between, say, a history of World War Two written by a secular historian and the vulgar, blasphemous memoir of some celebrity libertine.  The point of contention usually lay with books that fell somewhere in between this spectrum.


My own view is that the matter should be judged on a book by book and person by person basis.  A book that might make one Christian stumble might have no such effect on another.  However, on the broader issue of whether or not Christians should choose to mix a substantial amount of non-Christian books into their reading diet, I take the position that Christians should.


Tim Challies lists four reasons "Why Christians Should Read in the Mainstream."  Here are his arguments with a sentence or two from each section:


(1) Common Grace:  "Common grace tells us that Christians do not have the market cornered when it comes to what is true and what is wise."


(2) Cultural Engagement:  "If you want to understand the people around you, why they are the way they are, what influences them, why they make the decisions they do, you will do well to read the books they read."


(3) To Practice Discernment:  "If you read only your favorite books by your favorite Christian authors you will grow only so far and in only so many directions. To read widely is to engage with people who think differently and who approach very similar issues from a radically different worldview."


(4) There is Much to Learn:  "C.S. Lewis once wrote that there are two great benefits available to us if we choose to read widely: we will have the opportunity to experiences places we’ve never experienced and we’ll be able to think thoughts we’ve never thought before. "


The whole post is worth reading.