Literature

Well It’s still fresh on my mind I wanted to write about my experience this semester. I just finished my first world lit class at my local community college. It was quite a rewarding experience. Some of the memorable quotes from my teacher are “Literature reveals more about the person reading it than the subject matter itself”, “Each time you read a book you will have a different experience and view of that book, because each time you will be in a different place in life.” I’ve found this to be true. There is truly something very rewarding and valuable in reading the literature of other cultures. It gives you a way to see life and the world through different eyes. There’s many contrasts but the comparisons maybe the most stunning. How do other societies and cultures view death, war, God, religion and humanity? How do they cope with suffering and view the meaning of life? What has life’s experiences taught them? By just asking a few questions when you read something and then compare that to what you’ve already read, known and experienced it stimulates the mind in many ways. Besides the characters in the book itself and how they are dealing with issues it good to keep in mind “why is the author writing about this? Why is He emphasizing that, or focusing on this or ignoring that?” Not only do you look at the characters but the author. It gives much detail.
My final essay i wrote was a comparison between Job and Bhagavad Gita (a book from India). They both deal with suffering and have anguish thrust upon them. They both have interaction with their God, to sort out why. They both explore issues like the meaning of life and are like wisdom literature. I’ve written an earlier paper involving these two plus Homer’s The Illiad in how they address suffering, but this time I compared the books/writers themselves. Job’s interaction with God is mostly one sided. He listens as God describes Himself, and finally Job repents for questioning God. God does not give job a direct answer to his why questions but simply tells him He is God. On the other hand, Arjuna (from the Bhagavad Gita) has a lengthy dialogue with Krishna (his God). Arjuna asks questions and God responds with an answer. There’s really is more of a two way conversation and answers are given in a more direct way. However there’s a difference in the way they are facing suffering. Job had no control or say in the things that happened to him, Arjuna is experiencing something similar in that the war that has come is not because of his doing but it is thrust on him to fight his relatives. He struggles to do his duty as a warrior, that is his caste in life, his purpose is to fight and bring honor by being a soldier, but to kill relatives would be a against what he is taught as right and wrong. So the difference here is that Arjuna has a decision to make, whereas Job has no decision. In making that decision Arjuna’s God has this conversation, but with Job there really isn’t a conversation with God, just listening. In the conversation Arjuna has with his God, they address the issues of life, its meaning and the purpose of suffering. Arjuna would ask a question and Krishna would respond. In Job we see a different approach in dealing with the same issues. Job would respond in rebuttal to his friends and from their dialogue we see a response to these questions of life. Job does a lot of talking about the meaning of life and suffering, albeit maybe in an indirect way. By reading other literature and then comparing them to the Bible you can get a better picture of how the Bible deals with issues, why the author of that particular book in the Bible wrote the way he did and how the issue is dealt with. Why did God respond in that and why does the character see God in that light are brought into view. It really does say something about God when you read of others experience with their god or how they perceived it to be. Each time they write they give a description of their god’s character.
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This class and from others bible students and believers has taught me to remember that the Bible is literature. I still believe its the word of God and to be reverenced, but when we read remember this are people telling of their experience with God and how they interacted with Him, perceived what He was saying and how they dealt with many of the same questions we ask ourselves today. The authors intent and focus still needs to be looks at for clarity of what’s being written and why its written that way. God is the same but how we see God may not be the same. Jesus came to clarify our understanding God, he often said “You have heard it said . . . but I say into you . . .” He came to bring clarity on what God is like. He says a very excluding statement when he says “I am the way, the truth and the light”. Even the books of the Bible are to be viewed in different categories. What I mean by this is some are historical narratives, some are wisdom literature, some poetic, some prophetic, others a testimony to events and some a letter to a certain audience for a certain reason. These tell much on how we are to read and see God weave in and out of it.

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