Augustine is the first writer to answer that annoying question:
Who wants to hear about my life, anyway? For Augustine, as for Margery Kempe, Teresa of Avila, John Bunyan, Thomas Merton, and an unbroken line of spiritual autobiographers who stretch right up to Charles Colson, the answer is:
all those, who like me, are sinners (by any measure, a wide intended readership). If the purpose of autobiography is to point sinners to grace, the autobiographer can be humble and self-centered. Minute, individual self-examination (a most satisfying activity) has enormous importance to thousands of readers. After all, the same divine image sleeps in them; they must perform the same self-scrutiny and encounter the same God.
-Susan Wise Bauer, The Well Educated Mind
No comments:
Post a Comment