With my entire heart I burn for him. As a freshman in high school He called me, not with words or anything audible, but by his mere presence; a holy desire within my spirit that wants to love his people, and bring them into a romantic love-relationship with Him. The calling was as a whisper at first, just a small urge, almost a whim, but now it has grown into a war cry that rages in my soul. I’m not sure exactly how literature has affected that, well secular literature; the main influence on my faith has definitely been the Bible. When I was fourteen my pastor said on a Sunday morning, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12) Don’t believe it because I say it, your parents say it, or your friends say it, GET INTO THE WORD AND WORK IT OUT!” So I did. I read the whole thing, all of it, in a year and a half. I learned a lot during that time, and my faith was greatly influenced and my convictions were shaped. I know I subconsciously and even consciously picked out in my mind the things I personally found important to hold on to. Nevertheless I developed a great respect for the Bible and everything it says, and I agree with Gallagher and Lundin that the Bible should be viewed as literature to be best understood. Robert Altar and Frank Kermode offer “ ‘a new view of the Bible as a work of great literary force and authority.’ They even claim that ‘literary analysis must come first’ before all other uses of the Bible. Without prior literary analysis, the other ways of using the Bible will be hopelessly misguided, for unless we have a sound understanding of how the text fits together as a literary work, ‘it will not be of much value in other respects’ ” (Gallagher and Lundin, 66) I have always enjoyed reading because I am an imaginative person. I will refuse to watch a movie if I have already read the book because I like the way ...
