Commonplace Books

Today I came across an article in the periodical First Things.  I found it very interesting.  Alan Jacobs, an English Professor at  Wheaton College, is author to a wide range of topics, from theology to the history of reading.  While perusing the magazine his article, under the Opinion section,  caught my eye.  It is titled:  A Commonplace Book.  Historically our time period can be compared to the sixteenth century when a crisis of information occurred.  With the invention of the printing press reading became readily available not only to the wealthy but to the commoner as well.  There was some thought, by the later part of the seventeenth century, that the onslaught of words threatened to undermine the culture.  People, for the first time in history, had more books than they could possibly read!  Imagine that, the theme of my life is, "so many books, so little time."  

In answer to this something called the "Commonplace Book" emerged.  Before this time people read, re-read, and read over the books that they owned so much that they often committed them to memory!  This was one reason for the fright of the time.  People would read without care.  The commonplace book was a way of recording the best of what people read. This gave way to the journal.  This is very interesting because Jacobs makes the case for the blog.  When information comes at you at lightening speed, the need to record the thoughts, the wisdom, and the gleanings of larger portions of writ become imperative.   

The temptation is that the commonplace book, the blog, or journal can become a substitute for "reading, learning, and digesting what is already there."  We, in other words, can just add to our knowledge base, pontificate that knowledge, or regurgitate the knowledge without truly living it out.  Personally, I do not ever want my blog or commonplace book to ever get to the point where I am not willing to share with you my friends what God is doing in and through me, and not hiding when God often allows me to fall flat on my face, to show me that I am just one beggar helping other beggars where to find the bread of life.