In Book Six of his Confessions, St. Augustine recounts coming upon St. Ambrose sitting quietly by himself, reading a book and “not even moving his lips!” As if this was some sort of dramatic innovation in reading for the 4^th-5^th century AD. Apparently, it was common practice at the time, even when reading alone, to read aloud.

This understanding is supported by William Harris, formerly of Middlebury College, who references Roman villas that had private “reading rooms;” a room where books could be read without disturbing other members of the household. I.e. READ OUT LOUD…the exact opposite of how we think about a reading room today. I invite you to walk into any library reading room and begin reading aloud to see what kind of reaction you get.

If you have small children, you may get regular practice reading aloud. But most of us don’t have that opportunity. If I even try to read a news article aloud to my wife, she usually stops me mid-sentence (and I don’t blame her.) So, most of us are out of practice. And that’s unfortunate.

Reading Paul’s letters

Reading aloud can lead to small revelations — micro-epiphanies — that enable us to hear that which we might otherwise miss. Consider the letter. Paul’s letters couldn’t have been intended only for the select few in Corinth or Rome who knew how to read silently to themselves without moving their lips.  His letters weren’t marked, “Confidential. For your eyes only. Please do not forward.” It’s not Letter to a Roman. It’s Romans. These are public documents, meant for all with ears to hear.

Personally, I always had trouble with readings from Paul’s letters. His words – with the obvious exception of those repeated so often at weddings — seemed to me to be a little hectoring, emphatic, and dogmatic. I didn’t like Paul. But in reading Paul aloud, I began to appreciate what I think he was trying to do. Paul’s handwriting was by his own admission nearly illegible. And in the early days the church, it wasn’t uncommon if not the norm for letters to be dictated to scribes: an amanuensis. That means the letters were actually spoken words first, before they were transcribed by another person into written letters and then read aloud by the recipient of those letters to an audience; effectively de-scribed back again into spoken words. Reading aloud was giving the original author back a voice.

So, I think that as Paul composed his letters, he was actually standing and literally speaking to an imagined audience that was over 500 miles away. Paul’s voice had a long way to travel. So, he felt an imperative to ensure that his voice would carry. If he were text-messaging today he would be typing with CAPS LOCK ON. Trying to break through the noise to capture and hold the attention of a fractious, unruly and distracted audience. Paul was trolling the Romans. Trolling the Corinthians.  Everything he said would have to be BIG, BOLD, PASSIONATE, STARTLING and ATTENTION GRABBING.  “No!  Do not do that! That is an abomination!”

What I realized is that Paul IS a clanging gong and clashing cymbal, but one with faith, hope and love. Paul has to be read aloud with absolute conviction, with a tinge of exasperation, a little too loud, but with the faith that his readers will ultimately hear him and through him, hear the word of God. In reading Paul aloud, Paul is not just read, but heard.

These words were not meant to be forever consigned to pages in a letter, or book, or on a tablet. Read the Gospels out loud!