Why Read Secular Literature?

Written by Lucy Methum | February 20, 2026

As an English major at a Christian university, it was only a matter of time before the question crossed my mind, “Why am I spending so much time and energy reading through and dwelling on what is, in my case, a majority of secular literature?” When I look back on all the time spent, three truths stick out to me.

Secular literature broadens our understanding of reality and the world around us. 

This is a reality I find especially true when engaging with fiction literature. On a Tuesday night, sitting in my apartment, I am instantly transported to the English countryside to visit with the Bennet family. A day later, I pick up another book and am dropped in the middle of Russia during the Napoleonic Wars, attending a highly esteemed Rostov party. Through the act of reading, any time, place, or experience is right at my fingertips.

We have been given one life to live. And while perfectly ordained the way God intended it to be, the scope of our lives is

narrow in comparison to all that is in the world to experience. Reading provides a means for us to broaden our understanding of reality.  

I like how John Piper puts it when he says, 

“Most of us live lives that are so small, narrow, constricted, and limited–we know so little about so many things–one of the ways, only one, but one of the ways that God has ordained for us to grow in our knowledge of many things, many experiences that we have no immediate experience of is through reading.”

C.S. Lewis shares similar sentiments in the epilogue of his essay, Experiments in Criticism, saying, “we demand windows. Literature…is a series of windows, even doors.” Literature provides not only a window to see into a different reality, but a doorway to walk into, to engage with a different idea or environment on a far more intimate level. 

Secular literature deepens our understanding of worldviews outside of our own.

"But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself." --C.S. Lewis

Entering into the doors of literature, we also open ourselves up to the beliefs and worldviews of each author whose words we read. This is easiest to see when reading literary works in the form of philosophy, memoir, or essay, but no work of fiction, poetry, or play is void of an underlying worldview as well. 

C.S. Lewis states this of the Christian reader, “We therefore delight to enter into other men’s beliefs (those say, of Lucretius or Lawrence) even though we think them untrue. And into their passions, though we think them depraved, like those, sometimes, of Marlowe or Carlyle. And also into their imaginations, though they lack all realism of content.”

For the believer, reading widely is one of the best ways to not only dive into another world or new experience, but to simultaneously gain a deeper understanding of the lenses in which unbelievers view this life. It is good and helpful to wrestle with and engage in works that present different views when done with discernment, testing everything we read against the Word of God. 

Secular literature is a marvelous picture of God’s common grace. 

God-given talents extend beyond only believers. As I walk through a museum or listen to the lyrics of a song, many times, it is actually the works of unbelievers that, by God’s grace, help me fix my eyes on the things of Him. The same is true of the literature we read. Many of the books that we regard as “The Classics” are written by those who know the truth of God but do not worship Him. 

John Calvin writes extensively on the beauty of works by those who do not worship Jesus Christ as their LORD and Savior. He says, “In reading profane authors, the admirable light of truth displayed in them should remind us, that the human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator.”

Just as God’s common grace causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on the righteous and unrighteous alike, he bestows abilities and talents on us all. We would be at a loss if we rejected all that the secular world has created, most especially where shadows of Truth can be found. Just as we teach math or use modern-day medicine, which have found great achievements through those who don’t know Christ, we can approach literature in a similar way. 

But above all, in the words of Charles Spurgeon, though we may “visit many good books”, we must “live in the Bible.” We praise that He has made Himself known through many avenues in this world, and moreso, that He has made Himself known to us through His Word, where we can dwell deeply in the fullness of Truth.