Reprinted from The Christian Science Monitor: Reading with a spiritual purpose

Rosalie E. Dunbar

Founded 75 years ago, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop is the oldest graduate creative writing program in the United States. Over the years the program has helped develop the talent of a host of award-winning authors. A recent Monitor feature explores whether today’s society is still producing authors capable of writing the “great American novel.” 

I love to read books that, among other things, shed new light on what freedom means, the nature of sacrifice, selflessness, courage, intelligence. Lifting ideas outside the limitations of the human scene as we know it enables one to look at them in a different light. Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy was well versed in the quality fiction of her day, and her nonfiction works are peppered with excerpts from them. She was also well aware of the negative effect some types of fiction could have on spiritual growth. In responding to someone who asked if she felt the study of literature was objectionable for those seeking to advance spiritually, she gave literature a careful nod of approval: “Literature and languages, to a limited extent, are aids to a student of the Bible and of Christian Science” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 64).

Jesus’ parables offer today’s Bible readers lovely vignettes—stories with a spiritual message—that some contemporary authors have used as a basis for their own books. Jesus deftly presents a situation and then zeros in on the spiritual quality or message he wants to convey. 

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