Don't judge a book by its cover...

...and don't judge a man by his books...

For the past several months, I've had the frustrating experience of going back there to grab something for my own study or for a congregant, only to find that I couldn't put my hands on it. Even more, someone (not me) had "thoughtfully" arranged the books and decided that D. L. Moody biographies should sit in the biblical studies section, that Aquinas was really a Puritan, and that the general theology books could be arranged with no rhyme or reason alphabetically.
So, today, I finally had time to wander back there to arrange and find things. And as I did, the thought occurred to me: it would be really, really foolish to judge my theological positions by the books on my shelves. Perish the thought!

I've had similar thoughts. As regular readers of this blog would suspect, my own bookshelves have a fairly ecclectic content. There's a large section on what the Yankees insist on calling the Civil War, including a book called The South was Right! (it doesn't mean about slavery...). Also in my library is a copy of the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and Carl Sagan's Cosmos. As should be evident from my writing, I am neither a Muslim, Mormon, or Materialist. I am, however, more likely to read such source material and make my own evaluations, than to rely on common rhetoric or what 'everybody knows' about such subjects. Often my reading confirms the accepted wisdom, but frequently I discover things that are glossed over. At any rate, my own sense of what I believe is better served through challenge and refinement than by existing in an echo chamber. I do try to follow the Bible's admonishment to dwell on what is "noble, right and pure." There is plenty out there that is neither informative nor edifying. But that doesn't mean I can't do opposition research on, say, Richard Dawkins' anti-Christian screeds. Truth prevails; those who would censor opposing views don't have the courage of their convictions. And to quote an interesting thought I recently encountered, "those who begin by burning books end by burning men."