The Christian History Literature Approach
The goals for teaching literature should include:
- Inspiring a high Christian standard of language by building a diverse and excellent vocabulary.
- Cultivating abilities of expression in speaking and writing.
- Developing literary tastes and sensitivities of the highest quality.
- Instilling a love of the Bible, of classics, and of all types of literature.
- Building a knowledge of elementary facts about literature (figures, terms, elements, types).
Literature is "the expression of life in words of truth and beauty; it is the written record of man's spirit, of his thoughts, emotions, aspirations; it is the history and the only history, of the human soul. It is characterized by its artistic, its suggestive, its permanent qualities. Its two tests are its universal interest and its personal style. Its object, aside from the delight it gives us, is to know man, that is, the soul of man rather than his actions; and since it preserves to the race the ideals upon which all our civilization is founded, it is one of the most important and delightful subjects that can occupy the human mind." (English Literature, William J. Long, 1945, pp. 8-9)
Literature is the highest quality of language for any nation. The Bible is the model for all literature, the most excellent standard. The Bible contains every type of literature.
Long explains the artistic quality of literature:
"A hundred men may pass a hayfield and see only the sweaty toil and the windrows of dried grass; but here is one who pauses by a Roumanian meadow . . . He looks deeper, sees truth and beauty where we see only dead grass, and he reflects what he sees in a little poem in which the hay tells its own story.
Yesterday's flowers am I,
And I have drunk my last sweet draught of dew...
My breath is sweet as children's prattle is;
I drank in all the whole earth's fruitfulness,
To make of it the fragrance of my soul
That shall outlive my death.
The Bard of the Dimbovitza
"One who reads only that first exquisite line, 'yesterday's flowers am I,' can never again see hay without recalling the beauty that was hidden from his eyes until the poet found it.
"In the same pleasing, surprising way all artistic work must be a kind of revelation." (pp. 2-3)
Long describes the suggestive quality of literature:
"The . . . quality of . . . suggestiveness . . . appeals to our emotions and imagination rather than to our intellect. It is not so much what it says as what it awakens in us that constitutes its charm. When Faustus in the presence of Helen asks, 'Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?' he does not state a fact or expect an answer. He opens a door through which our imagination enters a new world, a world of music, love, beauty, heroism . . . When Shakespeare describes the young Biron as speaking
In such apt and gracious words
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
he has unconsciously given not only an excellent description of himself, but the measure of all literature, which makes us play truant with the present world and run away to live awhile in the pleasant realm of fancy. The province of all art is not to instruct but to delight." (p. 4)
The Christian History Literature Approach Compared with Other Approaches to Teaching Literature
Current traditional programs in literature present literature from a secular base.
(Excerpted from The Noah Plan)
|
Method |
Critique |
Source |
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The anthology organized on the thematic approach - social, psychological, patriotic themes, i.e. "Love and Friendship," "Understanding Others," "Buildijng a Better World." |
Authors are forced into catagories or themes. Authors are not distinguished for their own individuality. Selections are not always representative of the author's best. The use of "snippets" or "swatches" - a Reader's Digest approach. The emphasis is not upon literature, but on the themes. |
Progressive education: "The true center of corrolation on the school subjects is not science, nor literature, nor history, nor geography, but the child's own social activities. |
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The survey approach is organized in terms of type or period. Many authors are covered to give breadth of view. |
This is a subject-centered approach. Literature is studied as a secular subject - literature for its own sake. It has no relationship to the life of the student. |
Traditional, academic, secular. |
|
The historical approach studies the major American and English authors chronologically. |
This approach teaches chronologically but reverses the order, putting American literature first in the curriculum, then English literature. Students cannot see the influence of the English Bible upon English literature. Students cannot see the heritage of English literature given to America and how our nation built upon that heritage and contributed her own individuality. |
Traditional and historical but does not show the Hand of God in history or literature. |
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The Christian history literature program studies authors in their relationship to the chain of Christianity® and to their contribution to the history of liberty. |
Authors are studied in depth and whole works are studied intact. English literature is studied first, then American. |
Literature becomes a testimony to the Hand of God in history. A Biblical worldview is cultivated. |