In an era dominated by rapid information consumption and short-form content, the art of deep reading is quickly declining and fading into the background. Deep reading fosters more than just intellectual enrichment. It cultivates essential virtues like contemplation, humility, and empathy. By immersing ourselves in well-crafted narratives and complex ideas, we open doors to deeper understanding and awareness. At the same time, the importance of words forms the very roots of Christianity, from God creating the world through words, to Jesus himself being the Word.

Although it requires discipline and intentionality, reconnecting with this practice of deep reading can be profoundly transformative for our lives. In this podcast episode, Curtis Chang talks with Jessica Hooten Wilson, an award-winning author and Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University. Through their conversation, they explore how the shift towards fragmented reading habits has not only diminished our ability to engage deeply with texts, but also our ability to thoughtfully engage and disagree with each other, and invite listeners to intentionally re-engage with books as a spiritual practice.

This excerpt has been edited for length and clarity.

Curtis Chang: So if we think that the kind of deep reading is, as Marianne Wolf shows, is also declining our actual neurological and spiritual capacity for empathy and critical thinking, what is that doing to us? And Jessica, I’d especially love to get your reflections on what you’re seeing in the classrooms. As you see students come in, what are you seeing is their ability in terms of their ability to empathize and do critical thinking?

Jessica Hooten Wilson: It’s only been the last couple of semesters that I’ve been teaching undergrads again, and it is dramatically different from four years ago, dramatically. It’s actually been quite a challenge that I’ve had to really think through because when they read, they don’t actually wrestle. They assume that it says what they want it to say. So rather than what you were talking about, entering into the experience of the character, trying to understand a perspective that’s different than their own, they map themselves onto it very quickly, even if it says the opposite of what they would say. And that’s what’s difficult. It’s like they physically or neurologically cannot understand that someone is thinking differently than them.

And they can’t assess that difference. So it’s a loss of empathy. It’s because it’s not practiced. So they’re coming into the classroom for their first deep reading experience, and they don’t have the neurological wiring that allows them to empathize and then to disagree or to agree.