Deep Reading: Practices to Subvert the Vices of Our Distracted, Hostile, and Consumeristic Age

by Rachel B. Griffis, Julie Ooms, Rachel M de Smith Roberts

This book helps readers develop practices that will result in deep, formative, and faithful reading so they can contribute to the flourishing of their communities and cultivate their own spiritual and intellectual depth.

The authors present reading as a remedy for three prevalent cultural vices--distraction, hostility, and consumerism--that impact the possibility of formative reading. Informed by James K. A. Smith's work on "the spiritual power of habit," Deep Reading provides resources for engaging in formative and culturally subversive reading practices that teach readers how to resist vices, love virtue, and desire the good.

Rather than emphasizing the spiritual benefits of reading specific texts such as Dante's Divine Comedy or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , the authors focus on the practice of reading itself. They examine practices many teachers, students, and avid readers employ--such as reading lists, reading logs, and discussion--and demonstrate how such practices can be more effectively and intentionally harnessed to result in deep reading. The practices apply to any work that is meant to be read deeply.

Genres: Philosophy

240 pages, Paperback

Published May 28, 2024

Reviews

[Cameron Barham]

“Wrestling with the vice of distraction as we read is thus not only a matter of discipline. It also must involve recognizing the delight that deep reading affords us.”, p. 27

[Elsa Amorim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I add my hope to the author's, Julie Ooms, hoping that this book will encourages all members of reading communities — teachers, pastors and other clergy members, students, and all others — to practice humility not just before the texts but before each other as well.