Relevance in Writing

I started 4 books last night. One I skimmed/read, two I tossed after the first page and a half or so, and one I tossed after checking out the year of publication and book jacket. Why? Well, it didn’t feel “relevant” to me, which is just another way of saying it didn’t interest me.

A Dirty Word
Relevance has become a controversial word in religious circles, but putting the religious issue on hold, I bring it up for two reasons.

#1 – Within the relevance discussion, someone (I can’t remember whom) said that excellence is always relevant.

#2 - In its strictest sense, the word simply refers to the ability to connect with or relate to something/someone.

From that, let’s make this jump….
How does literature arrive in the canon?
Typically the craftsmanship is excellent, and it involves an important/timeless subject/theme. (I’m referencing an English textbook by Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau.)

Could we then argue that great literature is always relevant because it has both excellence and subject matter that is timeless, i.e. something readers will always relate to?

Apostolic Relevance

Kent’s post made me once again consider how we should present our faith as we continue in our ongoing experiment to write the great Apostolic novel. I’m convinced two fundamentals will be:
1) writing with excellence, and
2) presenting important enough subject matter that will stand the test of time.

I don’t know about you, but I think Apostolics can fit the bill. What do you think?

Writing Class: 2 Moments

In June, I attended a weekend writing workshop/class of nine students of varying ages and nationalities, some from the Midwest, at least one from each coach, working with an MFA/published novelist instructor. The class discussed the topic of “Writing Beyond Realism”; specifically, how do you believably welcome moments of the supernatural into your realistic (presumed literary) fiction. (Think the ghost of Hamlet’s father, which sets the entire plot into motion; no one shelves it under “horror” or “fantasy.”)

I learned loads on many fronts, but there were 2 moments that stood out to me:

One of the questions we were supposed to answer as we introduced ourselves at the beginning, was “Do you believe in good & evil?” Most of the class did. When it was my turn, I said I did, also adding I believed in heaven & hell. I left it at that, but wasn’t going to pass over a chance to share the sources of good and evil when asked like that. The very next person said she also believed in good & evil, but was not specifically religious. Somehow, my adding heaven & hell had troubled her.

The other moment was a throwaway line from our wonderful MFA/novelist instructor, who might’ve been 26. One of the students read a short piece that included 2 American tourists unable to find a hotel room in Germany, so ending up with a woman who sometimes rented rooms. After all of us commented on the piece, he said (paraphrase), “No room at the inn—does that still resonate with Christianity?” Several students seemed unsure and a couple said no. He thought it still did and warned us to be careful of creating parallels with classic (my word) stories, as it misled the reader if we didn’t intend for those parallels to exist.

Neither of these moments were profound, but I found both telling of our times. After all, there are millions of narratives floating on the internet (and in the bookstores and theatres and . . .) today; if we aren’t willing to keep Christianity alive through (written) word and deed, who will? It’s part of the challenge we’ve got to take on when we agree to follow our calling to write (and read and teach).

Appendix A: McDermott, 50 Books

• National Book Award Winner Alice McDermott has a new short story “I Am Awake” on Catholic-weekly Commonweal (which is completely free on the web during July)

• Check out the speaker list (Eugene Peterson, Brady Udall, Barbara Nicolosi, Stephen Carter) on the premier Christian conference on faith in writing (novels, screenplays, short stories) today, Calvin College’s The Festival of Faith and Writing. Then make plans to attend April 15-17, 2010. You won’t regret it.

Newsweek tackled books this month, with multiple interesting articles, including:

• 50 Books for our times--“The fact is, no one needs another best-of list telling you how great The Great Gatsby is. What we do need, in a world with precious little time to read (and think), is to know which books—new or old, fiction or nonfiction—open a window on the times we live in, whether they deal directly with the issues of today or simply help us see ourselves in new and surprising ways.”

• An Author’s Roundtable with the most recent Pulitzer Prize winner

• The Pleasures of Rereading Essay

• My Favorite Covers by designer Chip Kidd

Secular Allusions, Biblical Conclusions

For the first time in a long time, I've been able to read something other than material for school. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy my readings for the Master of Hispanic Studies program I've nearly finished, but it feels nice to have control of my literary choices again.

Back to the Classics

With my newfound freedom, I decided to take it back a couple of centuries and plunged into a novel written by a man more well-known for his plays, Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Reading of 19th century English aristocracy amuses me. The only way I can describe my fascination with it is that I love to disdain it. It was a time when languid, misogynistic "gentlemen" existed while women were seen as mere accessories. They had all the time in the world on their hands. A pack of indulged, cynical, world-weary, apathetic, erudite and usually quite decadent and unabashedly hedonistic young men engulfed in ennui populate the pages. Romanticism and Realism clashed. Orientalism ran rampant. As Paris was all the rage, pretentious French phrases were thrown about with abandon and the love of French literature was the height of culture. In this milieu, I discovered Dorian Gray.

The Word and Literature

God's Word is sacred, holy, and Truth. But the Bible has also left an indelible mark on Western secular literature. It never ceases to amaze me how much my Biblical formation is almost necessary to grasp the depth of motifs, symbols and allusions in literature that I've read for English as well as Spanish studies. The emergence of a post-Christian society has, to me, been no more obvious than in the fact that many of my colleagues, even in the heart of the Bible belt, lack awareness of Biblical basics and thus, the ability to see its significance in literature.

But back to Dorian Gray. While reading the novel, I did a bit of research on the author. Oscar Wilde in many ways lived along the same lines as some of the characters who populated his novel. Lord Henry Wotton, I feel, is an extension of his well-known wit and professed preoccupation with pleasure-seeking. The eponymous character is seduced by Lord Henry's words and lives the hedonist philosophy to the extreme. I won't give away the plot, but even as godless and condescending a character as Lord Henry quotes a scripture he heard in a "little crowd of shabby-looking people listening to some vulgar street preacher" which not only drives Dorian to his final act, but in sum, serves as what I feel is the theme of the entire novel—"What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"

Literature as Parable

A friend of mine once said something that really made me think—"All truth is God's truth." If something is true, or demonstrates Truth, whether it comes from the Bible or elsewhere, it belongs to Him. He is Truth. I see Dorian Gray as a 19th century parable that shows the futility of living for oneself at the expense of others and the hypocrisy in maintaining appearances at the expense of all else. It is an exploration in novel form of the answer to that convicting question Jesus asked of the disciples in the gospels.

Let Freedom Ring!!

So, I didn't realize that when I agreed to be blogger for week one this would pretty much guarantee the 4th of July for me every year!! Yippieeee!! I love Independence Day!! For this post, I go to The Great Book for inspiration (the word free and its derivatives occur a bizillion times in the Bible, I have limited the citations below to the Gospels, but I encourage you to also go to www.biblegateway.com or other such site and do a keyword search on "free" in the Psalms or Romans--yowser! God is good!!):

A (Strange?) Bible Study in Freedom

Why do we have the Holy Spirit?

"'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.'"
-Jesus, reading from Isaiah 61:1-2 in Luke 4:18-19

"As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."
-Jesus to the disciples, Matthew 10:7-8

Do you make use of the Holy Spirit in your life? How do you accomplish the things Jesus is calling us to?

What can someone be freed from?

"He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.'"
-Jesus to the woman with the issue of blood, Mark 5:34

Other examples include Mary being freed from her cultural limitations, Zacharias being freed from an inability to worship, Martha instructed to be free of maintaining appearances through service, Prodigal Son is free to return, Woman at the well is freed of the secrets she struggled to keep, Jesus is free to grieve, Peter in the last chapter of John is freed of comparing results of his ministry to the results of others, Paul receives a vision freeing him from his need to judge according to the law...the list goes on and on!

What do you need to be free from? Or for all you grammarians: From what do you need to be freed?

What will it take to free you?

"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'"
-Jesus, John 8:31-36

What are some of the lies that are keeping you bound? What teaching of Jesus counteracts them?

I hope you have an AWESOME 4th of July!! As for me and my house, I plan on rocking out to the Newsboys, "I Am Free."

The Scoop on The Shack

Heads up all you Christian readers. It’s time to talk about The Shack. Who’s read it? Who hasn’t?

An Unusual Assignment
I am the girl at the party wearing last season’s cute shoes because I finally got around to buying them after everyone else bought and ditched them and moved on to the next fashion wave two months ago. What that means for today’s post is that I’ve chosen The Shack to round out this month’s "Here's a Christian title you should be aware of because . . . " topic. It’s the book everybody’s talking about—granted for over a year now. Why is this an unusual assignment? Well, I haven’t read it (yet). Hard to discuss a book you’ve not read, right? Probably, but here goes.

So Why Then…?
First I got a very convincing recommendation months ago from a good friend whose recommendations I trust. Of course, I never got around to it. But last week I was in a class where a well-respected pastor brought it up and suggested we read it (with a disclaimer to read it carefully).

I chose The Shack because true to the topic, we as Christians should be aware of it, whether fan or foe.

The Disclaimer
The Shack may not be for everyone. This blog post is not meant to be an endorsement of the book; I’m simply following this month’s theme in the strictest sense and suggesting that we all should be aware of The Shack and prepared to dialogue about it. I despise controversy for controversy’s sake, but without blindly jumping on any bandwagons, I do believe we need to be aware of the world around us. The Shack is not a new book, and many of our ninetyandnine readers have already brought up both praise and concern about the book.

Since I have not yet read it, I can’t add my opinion here. What I’ve been told is that personification is used that could be interpreted as disrespectful. I have been warned to take the personification in its simplest terms as a device to help us better understand the intricacies of something more complex. In addition, the book is written by a Trinitarian author. Go into the book knowing that but look beyond that to gain value from other aspects.

The Scoop
So what’s the big deal about this book? As of today, the paperback tops the NYT bestseller list. According to an article from Friday in a local Ohio paper, The Shack has reigned on the list for 49 straight weeks and has sold 7 million copies in 14 languages. That can’t be ignored.

People keep describing it as “life-changing.” The book’s home page has a quote from the father of a Columbine victim endorsing it for just that reason. The scoop is that the author employs a third-person narrative to bring a fictional presentation of God to readers that is praised as being amazingly intimate. Many people have claimed the intensely personal writing has brought them peace with unresolved issues and life questions.

In Summary
Well, I just ordered it to find out for myself. By the way, if you order through Amazon by way of ninetyandnine, we get a portion of the sale. So for all your summer reading needs, remember to help out your friendly Apostolic ezine.

Surprising Revelation

At some point last year, my devotions ground into dust. I felt like I tried everything (different translations, complementary books, etc). Nothing worked. First time in my life it'd happened like that.

Then, for a freelance project, I started doing research using William Hendriksen's amazingly even-handed New Testament Commentary series (Baker) on Matthew. Upon my dad's recommendation, I'd used them in the past, but suddenly the depth and breadth (he's unafraid to offer competing theories/insights that he might not agree with before he clearly states his preference) spoke to me.

I immediately began using that as my daily reading, highlighting the historical and spiritual insights throughout. My devotions blazed alive. My Sunday school lesson got stronger. Sharing Christ got easier.

Yes, Hendriksen comes from a Dutch Reformed background, but there are only the usual differences we always face (and understand). There's no spiritual subterfuge here to confuse. (He died before completing the New Testament, so Simon J. Kistemaker finished the series for him. There doesn't appear to be many differences in their approach.)

Yes, commentaries are expensive, but used copies abound on the internet. Besides, if you like new hardbacks, ask for 1-2 every birthday and Christmas for your library. It doesn't take long.

For you non-Bible Scholars, this series (I've dabbled in difference gospels and pastorals, danced through every chapter of Romans) is accessible, clear, and teachable. He created it for pastors and teachers (and people whose devotions pancaked against the proverbial wall).

For you Bible Scholars, I'm sure you have your preferences, but don't overlook this series. It compiles a lot of information from knowledgeable sources in clean English. I'm guessing that's still the exception to the rule.

Appendix A: Toibin, Munro, Flannery

• If you’re writing fiction today, you’re likely to find Colm Toibin’s first few answers (especially) very helpful.

• Short story master Alice Munro won the Man Booker Prize.

• A fascinating review of the first full-length bio of Flannery O’Conner (by Joseph O’Neill, the highly regarded author of Netherland, the winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

• Harper ’s has video interviews with authors.

The Best Books Are the Ones You Give Away

Our Word theme of the month is "Here's a Christian title you should be aware of because . . . "

I shall end that sentence with this: Because the best books are the ones you give away.

To Own a Dragon

I desperately hope none of the Word readers currently suffer from Don Miller fatigue syndrome due to my posts. But as any faithful readers know, I went through a period of devouring anything Don Miller-penned that I could get my hands on post-reading Blue Like Jazz. I happened across a book of his called To Own a Dragon: Reflections of Growing Up Without a Father.

The fact that his foreword warned that it was from a "crude" male perspective didn't deter me. Neither did the fact that I didn't grow up fatherless make me think twice about diving completely into it. It's a memoir of sorts written with his trademark mixture of humor and pathos about exactly what the subtitle of the book says, growing up without a father. He talks about how the lack of a father in his life contributed to difficulties he had with maturing, self-esteem, relating to the opposite sex, authority, and in his relationship with God. He describes his journey and ends with the revelation he had about God being his Father, even though he never had a relationship with his earthly one.

Reading the book not only made me thankful for growing up with a dad and having a great relationship with him, but also gave me a taste of what people who lacked a father figure in their lives experience.

Why I gave it away

A friend of mine was relating some of his experiences to me about the strained relationship he had with his father who was absent for most of his childhood. He then began telling me about a documentary about elephants he had seen which made him reflect on the feelings of aggression and frustration he often felt and he realized it came from his lack of a father figure. The elephant analogy rang familiar, and I realized he was citing the exact same thing Don Miller does in his book. (Click here to read about the elephant documentary and The Mentoring Project his book inspired him to start.) I knew that he had to read it, and I gave it to him the next time I saw him.

In the end, my friend told me that the book brought him to tears and put into words many things he felt as a result of life with an absent father. He said that it explained a lot of things to him and helped him realize that, like Don, the feelings he had towards his father were transferring over into the feelings he had towards God. Reading the book changed his outlook, and he was grateful.

I put my name on all of my books before I lend them out. As a bibliophile, I'm actually sort of protective of them. But what was an interesting, entertaining read for me was an emotional, outlook-changing read for my friend. I gave it away.

Here's a Christian Title You Should Be Aware of Because...

This should be easy, but it it is NOT!!! Still, I have managed to narrow it down to 3 books which should be new to most people, but I think are phenomenal!

The first is...The Lost Gospel of Ruth: Loving God Enough to Break the Rules
by Carolyn Custis James.

This book opens with the question: Is God good for women? It's a question I think any reasonable female has to ask if the Bible is read and considered at all. I first saw this book at a conference. It was a promotional copy they were using to entice buyers into ordering from a catalog. There were no copies for sale. I am not a person who remembers to order from catalogs. Plus, I felt inexorably drawn to the book and I wanted it in hand before I left. Therefore, I took that lone promotional copy up to the checkout place, laid the book so the title was prominent and asked, "So, do you love God enough?" They did. They broke the rules and I left with a real gem. I think men and women should read this book as it not only deals with gender roles and identity, it approaches and handles the biblical text with refreshing honesty. It helped me learn to read Bible stories with a view to discover something more than information.

Second: Claiming God Reclaiming Dignity: African American Pastoral Care
by Edward P. Wimberly

This book gave me the powerful understanding of what it means to "privilege God conversation." The theory is that we are all participating in and internalizing conversations which when retold enough times shape how we understand who we are. Only in privileging God's conversation and putting it at the forefront of all others will we beome holy. It's about allowing God's voice to reign supreme. Funny story about this book is that I photocopied a section for use in a class I taught in India. When I brought it out, I saw that others were embarrassed for me, but I was confused as to why. Later, someone took "the American" (me) aside and politely informed me that India was in Asia. I still didn't totally get it until I realized they thought I thought I was in Africa!!! So, by way of explanation, the subtitle of African American Pastoral Care is only referencing the community that already best exemplifies a practice we all should embrace whether in Africa, Asia or North America!

Lastly, The Shape of Practical Theology: Empowering Ministry with Theological Praxis
by Ray S. Anderson

If the mark of love is continually re-buying a book because you are afraid you lost it, then you can know for sure I love this book. Another indicator might be on my page 171 where I have written "I" at the top, a big heart encompasses the page and "Ray" is written at the bottom. This book radically transforms the way I believe I need to exist. Some are turned off by the technical components to the words he uses, but I adore those who value precise use of langauage. I can know what he means because he does not keep using the same words to mean different things, even with shades of nuance. I am at a loss to try to write about this book pretty much because Ray says everything better than I could dream of. If you want to live, think and be more like Christ then you should read this book. Here's a random quote:
"Love from God can be worn on the back, put on the table and set down beside you; it is human as well as divine, tangible as well as spiritual. It is Jesus."

Sigh!