{"id":14295,"date":"2017-10-11T06:03:21","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T13:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=14295"},"modified":"2017-10-11T06:03:21","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T13:03:21","slug":"shock-and-awe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/shock-and-awe\/","title":{"rendered":"Shock and Awe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pierre Bayard\u2019s, How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read<\/em> is a shocking, non-traditional, and\u00a0awe-inspiring\u00a0reading approach that challenges readers not only on how to read, but specifically on how to not read books.\u00a0 Bayard says that \u201cnon-reading is not just the absence of reading, but a genuine activity\u201d that keeps us from \u201cdrowning\u201d in a sea of books.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 This book inspires me to struggle against the academic status quo and schoolhouse traditions to achieve an awkward type of metamorphosis into a next level scholarly-reader paradigm. To do that, I need to modify my reading lens so that I can see relationships, connections, and correlations between authors, books, fields of study, and most importantly ideas.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 This is exactly what I need to search for the spiritual connections, disguised schemes, and supernatural influences that have led to the desensitization of the North American church and its response to the threat of spiritual warfare.\u00a0 This post will survey three subsections of Ways of Not Reading, Literary Confrontations, and Ways of Behaving to show how the book impacts me, what I discovered, and how I can use Bayard\u2019s non-reading techniques to advance my dissertation preparation and research.<\/p>\n

First, \u201cBooks You Don\u2019t Know\u201d caught my eye because those books that I do not know are important for my search for bibliographic and historical information for my dissertation.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 My goal for enrolling in LGP-8 is to know God.\u00a0 As such, I want to identify books, authors, and themes that I do not know yet that will connect me to the past, present, and future scholarly narratives on the specific topic of spiritual warfare.\u00a0 As Dr. Clark says, I want to \u201cdrill\u201d the data fields, examine historical core samples, and find the divine treasures of truth, wisdom, and spiritual discernment regarding the churches weakened posture in training, equipping, and sending the body of Christ into spiritual warfare.[4]<\/a> \u00a0Like Bayard\u2019s librarian, I want to \u201corient\u201d myself to all the books and libraries on spiritual warfare and identify what is true, false, myth, and unknown.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Equipped with Bayard\u2019s reading and non-reading techniques, I will strive to stay on the literary periphery, maintain perspective, and use a bird\u2019s-eye view to examine the relationships, themes, and connections uncovered during my research.\u00a0 If I can use the agricultural analogy; I plan to plow, plant, prune, water, weed and harvest the first fruits of my bibliographic orchard.\u00a0 Finally, I will work on my non-reading techniques to \u201cgrasp the essence\u201d of many books, focus on connections, and discover relational ideas that will help the church survive and overcome the advance of spiritual warfare.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Second, \u201cEncounters in Society\u201d is another chapter that encourages me as a non-reader to speak and share my reflections on books that I haven\u2019t read.[7]<\/a>\u00a0 This section stimulated me because I thought, \u201cWhat a great way to inform, inspire, and challenge others to put on, pray, and persevere within the relational context of spiritual warfare.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 For example, I have not read Ferdinando\u2019s The Message of Spiritual Warfare<\/em>.[8]<\/a>\u00a0 I scanned the cover, read about the author, and can now speak to his message without even opening the book.\u00a0 How?\u00a0 Because the author\u2019s biographical bullet on the back page told me he was a pastor and professor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).\u00a0 Yep, that\u2019s all I need to speak in society about the book, and relate his insights on spiritual warfare with mine and other works I have absorbed over the years.\u00a0 First, I know the DRC; French speaking, Lord\u2019s Resistance Army, jungle, mutations, animism, club feet, addictions, abuse, and Jane Goodall.\u00a0 So, my experience, impressions, messages, signals, and cross-culture insights give me license, according to Bayard, to engage Ferdinando\u2019s work and discuss it in society within the greater theological themes surrounding spiritual warfare.\u00a0 My strategy, adapted from Bayard\u2019s non-reading theme, is to honor the author for his work, thank him for his service and sacrifice, hail him for calling out Satan as the author of evil, connect myself to his CRC context, connect him to my armor of God artifacts, relate my encounters with spiritual forces in the DRC, and stay close to the Pauline principles on spiritual warfare.\u00a0 One book review says, \u201cOne need not have read a book to talk about it aptly and accurately; in fact, it may hinder it.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 I believe, at the end of the day, Ferdinando would thank me for my critical and in-depth review of his book, that yes, I never read!<\/p>\n

Third, Bayard\u2019s storytelling to further his non-reader position about \u201cImposing Your Ideas\u201d caught my attention at 20,000 feet.[10]<\/a>\u00a0 Yes, while flying I scanned Bayard\u2019s Table of Contents and landed on his chapter about imposing your ideas about books I haven\u2019t read.\u00a0 My abstract notes, while time-sharing other tasks like flying, monitoring flight gauges, talking on the radio, loading data points onto inflight computer, and looking at the world from an elevated position were as follows.\u00a0 Imposing Ideas: forcing, enforcing, instilling, mentoring, and demanding.\u00a0 Did God impose? Yes.\u00a0 Christ? No. Holy Spirit? Yes and No, it depends.\u00a0 My next thoughts went to the parable of sowing and specifically to Paul\u2019s warning and principle that we \u201creap what we sow.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 So, to wrap Bayard together with my calling to sow seed worth reaping, I will continue to impose (levy, execute, enforce, enact) \u00a0my Pauline based spiritual warfare ideas to anyone and everyone for their good and God\u2019s glory.<\/p>\n

Overall, a radical book that actually makes sense to me.\u00a0 Integrating Bayard and Adler, like oil and vinegar, does not mix well in a traditional scholarly salad, but it sure tastes\u00a0better with a little\u00a0salt and pepper.\u00a0 I did pick up some new techniques on scanning, drilling, and deep-diving narrative sections when needed.\u00a0 The best part of the book for me, was that it pushed\u00a0me into another academic dimension, abstract as it might be, to interpret the world, books, theology, and extend my reach toward knowing God.\u00a0 Stand firm.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Pierre Bayard. How to talk about books you haven’t read<\/em>. (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2007) Kindle Edition, Location 291.<\/h6>\n
[2]<\/a> Ibid., 245.<\/h6>\n
[3]<\/a> Ibid., 173.<\/h6>\n
[4]<\/a> Jason Clark. Face to Face<\/em>, LGP-8, Zoom Video Conference, 9 October 2017.<\/h6>\n
[5]<\/a> Bayard, Books you haven\u2019t read<\/em>, 207.<\/h6>\n
[6]<\/a> Ibid., 296.<\/h6>\n
[7]<\/a> Ibid., 852.<\/h6>\n
[8]<\/a> Keith Ferdinando. The Message of Spiritual Warfare<\/em>. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2016.<\/h6>\n
[9]<\/a> Liedeke Plate. “Unreading, Rereading, and the Art of Not Reading.” Symploke<\/em> 17, no. 1 2 (2009): 262.<\/h6>\n
[10]<\/a> Bayard, Books you haven\u2019t read<\/em>, 1907.<\/h6>\n
[11]<\/a> Gal. 6:7, ESV.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pierre Bayard\u2019s, How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read is a shocking, non-traditional, and\u00a0awe-inspiring\u00a0reading approach that challenges readers not only on how to read, but specifically on how to not read books.\u00a0 Bayard says that \u201cnon-reading is not just the absence of reading, but a genuine activity\u201d that keeps us from \u201cdrowning\u201d in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[477,1039],"class_list":["post-14295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bayard","tag-spiritual-warfare","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14296,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295\/revisions\/14296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}