Author	Thread: Authors' beliefs
Tulip89 View Profile History	Authors' beliefs Posted : 4 Nov, 2010 11:20 AM To what extent do you believe an author's beliefs can be divorced from their writings? Is it right to bring prejudices you have, due to strongly disagreeing with the author's stated beliefs, against their books on Christianity? Post Reply
View Profile History	Authors' beliefs Posted : 4 Nov, 2010 11:33 AM Rather tricky. To write a book you have to know what you're talking about and most writers, myself included, put atleast part of themseleves in their works. Recently I tried to read a book called The Anti-Communist Impulse and couldn't get past the second chapter. I felt the author, although not a communist, was a communist sympathiser and I could not read on. But I do give books a chance to bring their claims to light. Like in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, he brought in many histoically accurate ideals to support his claim. I'd like to think it be right but who knows. I wanst there. Post Reply
Tulip89 View Profile History	Authors' beliefs Posted : 4 Nov, 2010 11:42 AM Yeah, I think it's far easier when a book is purely fiction. But what about books that claim to be Christian or are very much about God? Post Reply
View Profile History	Authors' beliefs Posted : 4 Nov, 2010 05:12 PM Such as? Post Reply
Tulip89 View Profile History	Authors' beliefs Posted : 4 Nov, 2010 08:57 PM The first one that comes to mind is The Shack. Young has denied the substitutionary atonement of Christ and he has serious universalist leanings, among other things. I know people who claim to have been helped by his book, but at the same time, I have a hard time supporting something written by a man with beliefs I so strongly disagree with. Personally, I think there's plenty actually in the book that makes it better to avoid, but should the author's beliefs in and of themselves be enough? Post Reply
DontHitThatMark View Profile History	Authors' beliefs Posted : 4 Nov, 2010 10:05 PM If it went against my beliefs too much, I don't think I would have the endurance to stay interested. :peace::peace: Post Reply
Joy2theW0rld View Profile History	Authors' beliefs Posted : 5 Nov, 2010 06:47 PM If an author does not present the book from a neutral viewpoint, it is possible that he will alienate readers with different opinions. Anytime that an author writes a book about politics, race or religion or some other subject where people have a variety of opinions the author should expect for the book not to be accepted by everyone Post Reply
View Profile History	Authors' beliefs Posted : 5 Nov, 2010 08:07 PM "but should the author's beliefs in and of themselves be enough?" Nope. What enough is only the truth. No truth outside God's Words. ? ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Post Reply
View Profile History	Authors' beliefs Posted : 7 Nov, 2010 02:11 PM I agree with you, Tulip. I read your posts on that topic about The Shack and you were right on. I was almost going to jump in there, but you were doing fine =) I think that it does depend, in part, on the type of book that it is, though. Where the danger really comes into play here (for me anyway) is when a book passes itself off as being Christian in some way when it actually twists theology around or just outright contradicts the Bible. I go into books like that expecting to be fed spiritually and looking for that nourishment. And when something false is found, the danger is that it will be ingested anyway. I'm sort of reading a book right now titled Sabbath, Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives. It's by Wayne Muller, an ordained minister. The appeal there for me is that I have a difficult time truly resting and have had some questions about practical application of the Sabbath in our lives today. I was hoping the book would answer my questions... What the book does well is that it does offer some really great practical ideas on how to rest. But, doctrinally speaking, it's off-base. It's from a rather secular, New-agey, Universalism perspective. And, I actually kind of find it offensive that the author uses the term Sabbath, because he doesn't really seem to have anything Biblical in mind. I think the main thing that rubs me the wrong way is that the focus is very egocentric... the whole "me, me, me" kind of thing. He encourages the reader to seek after his or her own interest over caring for others and even over God. While an aspect of rest is to take of ourselves, it's not really about ourselves, in that the endpoint there is that worship God and glorify Him. The rest that we take should be done in worship and we let God be renewing us so that we may be of better service to Him. But, thus far, the author hasn't presented it from that perspective. I'm not very far into it yet, and it supposedly gets better (so the woman says who leads the online book club that I'm reading it for), but I'm not sure that giving it any more of a chance is a wise use of my time, considering that it's not in-line with God's Word. Post Reply
Tulip89 View Profile History	Authors' beliefs Posted : 7 Nov, 2010 02:27 PM Thanks for that Pixy! Judging by the views that thread got, there were quite a number of people standing on the sidelines. I didn't come off as too harsh, did I? Post Reply
View Profile History	Authors' beliefs Posted : 7 Nov, 2010 02:55 PM No, you weren't too harsh at all. You really stuck to the facts and presented strong, Scriptural evidence for what you were saying. I think you did great. That's why I didn't step in there. You know how that saying goes about "too many cooks in the kitchen." I had some stuff in my head to say but you were handling it and my input probably would have just muddied the waters there. Post Reply

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