Guilt Trip

After just posting a whole blog about NOT reading and some of its benefits, I am yet again humbled by C.H. Spurgeon:

"The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains proves that he has no brains of his own."

-C.H. Spurgeon, Sermons on New Testament Men, Book 2.

If you don't like Spurgeon, it's probably because you haven't actually read Spurgeon, but you've just read stuff about Spurgeon (like blog posts or crappy books).

I'll take this opportunity to once again tell you, my lovely reader, to read primary sources. Never hold an opinion on a writer without reading their primary work. A huge annoyance of mine is to hear people say, "I hate Plato because [insert large generalization here]" without ever reading the text in which he claims such an idea. In reality, he probably didn't say it like that or in that context.

This is where I see college and other forms of higher education becoming very important. I've been blessed in my college career to get the right professors who teach primary texts and teach them well. But for all the great stuff I've received, there's a ton that I've missed out on (The Wealth of Nations being one).

Colleges should be held to the standard of teaching primary texts to all of their students. They can be boring, but primary texts become so very important in our understanding of the history of ideas and the formation of our own opinions.

I will especially admonish my readers who are seeking Jesus. Reading books about Jesus is pretty great, and reading books that quote these famous theologians has merit, but never ditch the Christian's primary text (the Bible, duh), from which all Christian thought is formed and reformed.