{"id":5552,"date":"2015-09-03T15:48:34","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T22:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=5552"},"modified":"2015-09-03T15:48:34","modified_gmt":"2015-09-03T22:48:34","slug":"one-must-demand-the-right-for-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/one-must-demand-the-right-for-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"One Must Demand the Right for Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

One must demand the right for truth. The reader must demand the right to transform. If we simply read to be entertained or appeased, then our obtainment becomes nothing more than ignorance and indoctrination. Adler makes a stunning declaration regarding this apathetic crisis in our culture. \u201cMany readers, and most particularly those who view current publications, employ other standards for judging, and praising or condemning, the books they read \u2013 their novelty, their sensationalism, their seductiveness, their force, and even their power to bemuse or befuddle the mind, but not their truth…\u201d[1]<\/a> Are we looking for truth or tantalization? Are we seeking the author\u2019s perspective or our agenda?<\/p>\n

I recently wrote an article, titled \u201cLove Won\u201d<\/a>.[2]<\/a> Many people lambasted my Facebook wall with offensive comments. My readers did not seek to find truth. They chose to approach the article passively \u2013 skimming through and dismantling my statements to formulate their own agenda. My blog post became obsolete, because my audience refused to read past my title and hear my voice. They refused to pursue truth.<\/p>\n

Adler summarizes my experience, when he suggests, \u201cHe who regards conversation as a battle can win only by being an antagonist, only by disagreeing successfully, whether he is right or wrong. The reader who approaches a book in this spirit reads it only to find something he can disagree with. For the disputatious and the contagious, a bone can always be found to pick a quarrel over. It makes no difference whether the bone is really a chip on your own shoulder.\u201d[3]<\/a> Active reading requires one to step out of comfort, culture, prejudice and step into the lives of those within the pages. It requires one to read-between-the-lines.<\/p>\n

Adler makes an interesting statement in regards to actively understanding literary characters in light of understanding humanity. He suggests, \u201cDo not disapprove of something a character does before you understand why he does it \u2013 if then. Try as hard as you can to live in his world, not in yours; there, the things he does may be quite understandable. And do not judge the world as a whole, until you are sure that you have \u2018lived\u2019 in it to the extent of your ability.\u201d[4]<\/a> Have we lived in this world to the extent of our ability? Have we settled for indifference or fought for impact?<\/p>\n

Amy Orr-Ewing, shares a quote by Bertram Russell\u2019s daughter, which states, \u201cI would have liked to convince my father that I had found what he had been looking for, the ineffable something he had longed for all his life. I would have liked to persuade him that the search for God does not have to be in vain. But it was hopeless. He had known too many blind Christians, bleak moralists who sucked the joy from life and persecuted their opponents; he would never have been able to see the truth they were hiding.\u201d[5]<\/a> Bertram Russel was not offended by arrogance; He was astounded by indifference. Adler is challenging his readers to engage with the text, wrestle with the theme and approach reading from the position of the literary characters. He is asking the reader to be transformed through the activity of thought. He is asking us to forgo apathy and agenda to find truth.<\/p>\n

This type of consideration challenges conviction, comfort and convenience of its readers. It places them in the thick of turmoil and expects change to occur \u2013 it expects empathy and opinion to be wrought in the battlefield of experience. It expects one to actively contemplate the reality within each page. Alder goes on to suggest, \u201cDo not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of the book. Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgment, until you can say I understand.\u201d[6]<\/a> Do we utter the same statement towards ministry? Do we seek to comprehend or condemn?<\/p>\n

Active reading occurs when one seeks to delve into the text and discover the truth \u2013 the crux of the author\u2019s heartbeat hidden beneath the shadows of terminology. \u201cThe art of reading, in short, includes all of the same skills that are involved in the art of unaided discovery: keenness of observation, readily available memory, range of imagination, and of course, an intellect trained analysis and reflection.\u201d[7]<\/a> Each sense must collaborate and aid the reader in discovery. Active reading requires one to be fully infected, in order to be fully effectual. It requires one to seek and pursue truth at all costs.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Mortimer Jerome Adler and Charles Lincoln Van Doren, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading<\/em> (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972), 163.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Colleen Batchelder, \u2018Love Won\u2019, by Colleen Batchelder, COLLEENBATCHELDER, June 26, 2015, accessed September 3, 2015, http:\/\/colleenbatchelder.org\/love-won\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Mortimer Jerome Adler and Charles Lincoln Van Doren, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading<\/em> (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972), 145.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Mortimer Jerome Adler and Charles Lincoln Van Doren, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading<\/em> (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972), 213.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>Amy Orr-Ewing, Is believing in God irrational?<\/em> (United States: Inter-Varsity Press, US, 2008), 84.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Mortimer Jerome Adler and Charles Lincoln Van Doren, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading<\/em> (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972), 162.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Mortimer Jerome Adler and Charles Lincoln Van Doren, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading<\/em> (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972), 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One must demand the right for truth. The reader must demand the right to transform. If we simply read to be entertained or appeased, then our obtainment becomes nothing more than ignorance and indoctrination. Adler makes a stunning declaration regarding this apathetic crisis in our culture. \u201cMany readers, and most particularly those who view current […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"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":[660],"class_list":["post-5552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adler","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5552","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\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5553,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5552\/revisions\/5553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}