I read From Eternity to Here by Frank Viola six years ago. It contained a lot of ideas and imagery that was I was unfamiliar with at the time so I decided I would read it again one day. It took a while but today I finished reading it for the second time.
I don’t normally read a book twice unless I have a specific reason. I read Still twice because I couldn’t figure out the chronology which wasn’t so much a problem with the book but with my lack of understanding of the terminology associated with the American schooling system. I read Pilgrimage twice because I visited Israel between readings which was the context of the book. If a fiction book is particularly clever I might read it a second time because knowing where it’s going means you can see how the author manages to create the twists and turns. Generally though I read a book thoroughly the first time and don’t feel that I’ve missed anything. Nevertheless it’s interesting to notice my different reactions to a book the second time around.
Reading From Eternity to Here a second time I still found the ideas and imagery fascinating but also noticed that some of his ideas I have adopted into my thinking without realizing. The difficulty with a book like this is how to make practical application. Mostly it is about changing your thinking to bring in more in line with Scripture. This tends to be a slow process, challenging old paradigms and creating new ones. I’m glad I’ve re-read the book as it makes me realize that my thinking has changed since I last read it but still needs to change some more.
