Cultivate Self-Learning

 Cultivate self-learning. 

When I first started reading Dante's Divine Comedy many years ago (10+ years), I had no real knowledge of what it was about (other than the basic journey through hell, purgatory, and into paradise), and much of it went over my head. I had purchased a used copy of all three books in one in a used bookshop in Providence, Rhode Island on a visit there after college. I knew it was a book I should read at some point, so I read it. It sat there in my heart lingering with images and questions. Then a year or two ago I picked it up again to start to re-read all of Dante's Divine Comedy. This time I read Dorothy L. Sayers's translation and I listened to talks about it and read books on Dante along the way. My understanding and depth of reading since those years after college reached a deep appreciation and I caught more references, but still miss so many. 

And yet...the more I read the more I saw how reading this text from the 1300's connected with my life in a myriad of ways everywhere I turned. Dante showed up in the other books I read, he was discussed by my favourite writers, and his Divine Comedy was creeping into the tight spaces between lines of stories I had never seen before.

It is true that one book leads to another. This happens to me constantly. It is a thing of beauty I could never set-up myself.

Ask the deep questions and then read to find out more. Watch talks/lectures, listen and hear ideas. Ponder and keep reading. Let your own discovering guide you. God is there too, and soon you realize what you hear along the way is reflections of His own voice through echoes of others in their study and writing. A deeper truth is being portrayed. 

Be patient with it. Reflect and let the truth indicate itself.

Read the books that challenge you. They are usually older, more nuanced, more detailed (sometimes they feel like a paradox I know), and they are worked out with intelligence, heart, and grace. If something offered is as simple as a 1, 2, 3 step procedure, be skeptical. 

Do not expect an immediate answer. Sit with the questions and then live them. 

Look for the wisdom and the context in which the words are being written or spoken. You will find more answers as you go along in your self-study than you even knew you were asking about. That is the marvel of reading.