A Christian Holistic Approach to the Study of Literature

Literature contributes immensely to the growth and development of Christian inspiration and Godly live. Reading literature materials develop biblically clear set of mind from which individual can evaluate his experiences. However, secular literature in this case, must be carefully selected so as to lead to the glory of God. God encourages the attitude of reading by the fact that His Word is in written form so as to be read by those who seek Him. Therefore, for a true Christian reading is not an option. Though secular literature may lack spiritual concept, its reading offers sensational experiences concerning the social issues and natural phenomenon, such as environmental occurrences and civil crisis. Reading sensational experiences are more enjoyable than having the firsthand experience. Nevertheless reading of God’s word should be a priority in Christian live (Johnson 2001).

Carefully selected secular literature fortifies Christian standing on issues of days to days life. Though a Christian may be heavenly bound, he is still in the world and is a victim of the secular world in his life. There are Christian soldiers, sailors, scholars, and so on, all these aspect of life are not spiritual, but there related to Christian’s life. For a Christian to be informed of these secular aspects of his world, it will require him to read some secular literatures related to those areas.

Believers are not supposed to entirely ignore nor should they entirely embrace secular literature until they establish the theme of the material. All secular materials should be weighed against scriptural background. A Christian should be equipped with the Word of God before embarking on the secular literature to avoid misleading information. Only a mature Christian will neither accept nor reject the concept of secular literature blindly, but will subject every literature to a biblical test to prove its worth or meaningless. A proper balance between secular and Christian literature must be found to avoid both extremes (Waaijman 2002).