Windows into Hearts of Darkness
Dr David Powlinson has done some stirring work on bringing to Bible to bear upon human problems, pastoral issues, and biblical counselling. Powlinson understands and promotes the value of literature for pastors and Christian generally as they seek to discover and better understand the chaos and messiness of the human experience.
When asked recently what were his standard literary texts for students in his counselling courses, he gave the following response:
1. Fydor Doestoevsky. He particularly mentioned The Brothers Karamazov which deals with anger, shame, fear, passion, guilt, shamelessness, suffering, child abuse, adultery, and reconciliation.
2. Alan Paton, Cry the Beloved Country, and Marilynne Robinson, Gilead both provide a window into human reality, and have pastors as main characters.
3. The following works all portray the messiness of life and the labyrinthine conurbations and complexities of the human heart. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller; Anton Chekhov’s Short Stories; The Stranger by Albert Camus; The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O’Neill, and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
"Conrad, he said, can see straight into the pit of human darkness, and writes with an unalleviated cynicism. Checkov is equally pessimistic but with a degree of common grace and palpable love and respect in the way he presents the characters. Each of these authors value honesty, an honesty pastors can learn from."
Our thanks to Tony Reinke for these references and comments. Hat Tip also to Between Two Worlds.
