During my time in The Fellowship Residency Program, I read a long list of powerful books. To read more about my residency experience click here. One aspect of my assignments is to summarize and write key takeaways from each of the books. This is a summary of "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions" by Edwin A. Abbott.
For my fiction book, I read an interesting science and mathematical fiction book that describes a two-dimensional land called Flatland. In this land, there is only length and width. They do not understand anything else. A sphere known as “Lord” brings Square into Spaceland that has three dimensions. Square’s mind is enlightened and his perspective is greatly widened. He is excited by what he saw and desires to share the “gospel of the third-dimension” with everyone he known. He upsets the “lord” by asking about a fourth dimension that the Sphere Lord does not believe exists. As a result, he is exiled from Spaceland back into Flatland. When back in Flatland, he attempts to convert disciples of his revelations. Much to his frustrations, no one believes in him. He is ultimately thrown in jail over this teaching. The governing body share that if he is right, then the “lord” will free him from prison. Still to this day he sits in prison waiting angrily to be avenged. As time passes, he has begun to question the existence of the Spaceland he once saw.
Two quotes struck me. The Spaceland people “see” and believe since they have three dimensions. The Flatland people “feel” and believe since they only ever experience two dimensions. “I have no patience with your Sight Recognition, Feeling is Believing. A straight line to the touch is worth a Circle to the sight.” Feeling the presence of Christ to a Christian is far more powerful than “seeing” scientific proof of logic. Secondly, there was a quote “what you think you see, you see not.” This quote was describing the ignorance of the Square from Flatland. He only is able to see what he knows. The “Lord” is there to remove the veil from his eyes so he can see all that he does not yet know. This book is a wonderful read that will challenge you. It causes you to think and encourages you to share what you have seen, felt, and come to know. It is not something that I would have picked myself, so I am grateful that my mentor recommended it to me. If you want to stretch your reading muscle, I would recommend this short read!