Have we always let young people publish books of philosophy and theology, or is it just a contemporary phenomenon?
By "young people," I mean those under fifty.
As everyone knows, the thing that most troubled me about End of Faith (besides the fact that it was vitriolic) was the lack of historical perspective or a deeper understanding of the religions Sam Harris was lambasting. The book would have been much better if the author had spent another twenty years studying before writing it. Sam Harris is a smart man, and I'm sure he'll do some important thinking in his lifetime. However, I don't think End of Faith represents it.
Now, I'm reading Blue Like Jazz, a book of "Christian spirituality" written by Donald Miller, a man in his twenties. I'm reading the book for a reading club, or I would have put it down after the first ten pages.
The complete lack of historical perspective and scholarly wisdom in this book of theology is absolutely appalling. The simple fact that Miller doesn't know the difference between "Christian spirituality," which he claims to write about, and "Christian theology," which he's actually writing about, is just the first of the book's problems. On every page, I want to scribble, "Think a little more about this, please!" in the margins.
Again, Donald Miller is a pretty smart guy (not Sam Harris material, but still). I just think he needs another thirty years of study and meditation before he's allowed to publish.
Last week, a friend sent me a paragraph she'd written a few years ago. The theology was interesting stuff for a young person, but my friend is now embarrassed by it. With a few years of perspective, she sees the shallowness of her thinking back then. But, here's the thing, no one published it. If she'd tried to publish it, I'm sure an editor would have told her to come back when she was older.
How I miss the days when people felt they actually needed to know something before they signed a publishing contract and blessed the world with their knowledge.