Christian leaders not shacking up with novel

William Young’s The Shack is a best-seller for BN and has topped the NYT list. It’s a Christian genre book and that’s what makes its success surprising — and controversial. Albert Mohler, in a full-length radio program,  has called it “heresy,” and Lifeway has apparently pulled it. But in addition to sales, customer reviews say the book is enriching and renewing.

For me and other would -be writers the most interesting thing here is the book’s publishing history. Young, recently bankrupt and having lost a home of 19 years, wrote the book for his children and a few friends. They loved it, word of mouth marketing kicked in, and a best seller was born.

“Dear Mr. Young, we regret to inform you . . .”  Yes, the book, like so many other successes, was rejected by both Christian and secular publishing houses. Undeterred Young formed Windblown expressly for publishing his own novel. Then came a webpage. Barnes and Noble bought a few copies and when sales soared, ordered more. Many more.

Issues? Christian leaders say the book may be harmful. Fans say it’s the best Christian book they’re read. By the way, in the book God is a black woman.  A quick read will tell. I’m waiting for it to hit the used bookstores or be available at the library.

Young’s website gives the front matter and chapter one for readers. NYT Books has another review. And of course, blogs are weighing in on both sides.

Believing Prince Caspian

As I’ve said before, I’m not a reader nor fan of fantasy preferring MY fiction to be rooted in reality. 

Hmmm . . .

Allegory, like the Narnia series,  majors on plot: it’s a representative fiction with the story employing symbolic events and characters along the way.  Prince Caspian, like the others, is specifically and unabashedly Christian — it’s all there — good v. evil, moral struggles, choices, human strength and weakness, Divine superiority with intervention and rescue.

Lewis believed in the importance of imagination and its part in believing the truth of Christianity. After all, as a faith there are some issues that do require, well, faith. Is there a cosmic struggle between good and evil? Is the end predetermined? Who are the players? Who wins? Why? Does Good triumph as events on earth and beyond play out?  Why do bad things happen? Why good?  Will God arrive on the scene at a designated time to right all wrongs and avenge his name defeating his emenes and fully redeeming mankind?

Some kind of faith is needed for all that. I’ve not seen “proof” beyond the metaphysical. And still . . . reason to believe. That’s what kept coming to me as I watched this film tonight. With ugly inter- and intra-kingdom battles and power struggles, murder and deception, violence and hatred in a dark world that has forgotten the “faith of its fathers,” represented by ruins and kingless, beseiged doubting creatures, there are true warriors -believers, the English wardrobe children, previously weighed and found worthy. They unite with Prince Caspian, who has what it takes, goodness, faith, character, courage, and proves himself able to lead the Narnians when the children return to England and Aslan is not physically present. 

I don’t care for fantasy. (Christianity is fantastic in some ways, but not fantasy. ) I couldn’t finish the Chronicles though I appreciate Lewis’s work. The film for me serves as an enjoyable reminder that, in Emily Dickinson’s words

“This world is not conclusion
A sequel stands beyond
Invisible as music
But positive as sound.” 

and in Shakespeare’s (Hamlet):

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Fantastic but not fantasy.

This is not a textbook review, so here are the Disney offical site with video and the review from today’s NYT.

Also, this week I picked up a DVD of “Beyond Narnia,”  a dramatization of C. S. Lewis’s life and transition from atheist to Christian. It’s good (cheap) background for children (or adults) reading the series, plus it was shot on location in Oxford, England.

It’s a Charlie Brown Christmas, Dr. Dawkins

These things are but types and shadows, Ebenezer.

Wrong story. 

But Charles Shultz’s timeless classic is filled with meaning, too, out of the mouths of babes. Which Charlie Brown character is most like you this Christmas?

 ”I know nobody likes me. Why do we have to have a holiday season to emphasize it?” — Charlie Brown (Are you a negative, pessimistic, self-deprecating Everyman?)

“Christmas is not only getting too commercial, it’s getting too dangerous.” — Linus (Are you wise beyond your years; you see through it all (he saves the day with the real meaning from Luke chapter 2 at the end) but  overcome with serenity and truth?)

“Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees?” — Linus (Are you sentimental and nostalgic, accepting of the present reality while the past is always before you?)

“All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.” — Sally (Is your picture beside the definition of materialism?)

“It happens to me every year. I always get a bunch of stupid toys, a bicycle, or clothes or something like that. I never get what I really want.”
“What is it that you want?”
“Real estate!”  Lucy (Are you usually disappointed with gifts, ungrateful to be sure, but you know what you want, and it’s practical.)

“Every Christmas it’s the same thing — I always end up playing a shepherd.” Linus (Do you participate in the traditional doings, a little bored with it all?)

“That’s the worst Christmas tree ever! You Blockhead, Charlie Brown!” Lucy (Had everything better be perfect for this Christmas Queen or King?)

“Charlie Brown, you’re the only person I know who could take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.” Linus (Do you see and address the problems of your less-enthusiastic friends but don’t see why they can’t cope like you do. Who wouldn’t like Christmas?)

I read that Richard Dawkins, the world’s best-known atheist and author of The God Delusion, plans to sing Christmas Carols because it’s part of the season. It’s what we do and have done in the West for centuries. He loves Christmas and is probably not a Charlie Brown nor a Lucy. I’d say he’s a Linus. He gets it, will participate whole-heartedly in the traditional manner. But he won’t recite along with Linus the Biblical narrative. Or if he does, he won’t believe it. But it’s only after the children hear the well-known passage that they realize their darkness and symbolically turn to their friend, moments ago a mere Blockhead, and say with love and understanding, “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown.”

Happy Reformation Day!

Wednesday night at Casa Blanca we talked about Martin Luther and the Reformation over enchiladas and chili rellenos. They were mopping up as we dispersed into the rainy, deep-October night. It was church.

Bob knew about Luther, the man and the monk. I did’t know that he (Luther, not Bob) translated the Bible into German while on the lamb under a death notice. It reminded me of Bunyan. And come to think of it, Paul (the Apostle, not the logger.) Not to mention John out on Patmos, probably not a resort town at the time. Something about incarceration. Maybe if more preachers . . . no, alas, not enough jails.

 Who are the reformers today? It still has to be writers, most writing in plush offices with deluxe software suites. Whole churches change how they do business based on their books and tape series.  Maybe some were divinely inspired. Lifeway and CBD have stacks and stacks on how to make our churches and ourselves more purposeful.  Reform, after all, is betterment. Remember reform school? Sure you don’t.

One website on Luther, which contains the 95 Theses condemning the selling of indulgences, features commercial ads for Luther products! Love the irony.