Housekeeping—Robinson

Housekeeping
by Marilynne Robinson (author of Gilead and Home)
(Farrar Straus Giroux, 1980, 219pp.)

Where do the homeless come from? Are they born so? Or does their destiny evolve? In this her first novel, Marilynne Robinson melds words into a dreamlike revelation of the makings of a transient mindset. Through the eyes of a little girl Ruth, speaking for herself and her sister, we follow the effects of loss of family and isolation on individuals in the larger context of a whole community haunted by the same. The place is Fingerbone, an isolated western town on the shores of a deep lake crossed by a railroad trestle bridge. The story begins with the retelling of the tragic derailing of the train that buried its occupants in this lake, including the grandfather of the storyteller. Here the dysfunction begins with the solitary upbringing of Ruth’s own mother and sisters… Following the subsequent drowning of her own mother in this same lake, Ruth is mothered in succession by her aging grandmother, two spinster great-aunts, and finally an unstable aunt whose idea of housekeeping shapes the rest of the book.

The author is a magician with words and evokes not only a somber dreamlike mood but recreates the very mental distortions of the lonely. Losing touch with reality, denying need, welcoming transience all become part of the reader’s experience vicariously. It is not a read that will brighten your day but it will give you a new way of seeing the next wanderer that crosses your path.

Having read Gilead and Home and loved Marilynne’s capacity to capture mood with words, I thought I knew what I was getting into when I found Housekeeping, her first novel, on the library shelf. I was disappointed. Not because she does not evoke mood with deftly used language and a dream-like point-of-view—a first person omniscient narrative. My disappointment lay in not fully comprehending the mental states painted with words. Her skill in getting into a character’s mind and tracing its workings in words is a wonder! I felt barred from going there by my own want of experience. A large part of the delight of reading for me is reading about myself or my experience, resonating with ‘Yes, that’s how it really is’, seeing in words what I could never have written… This novel was too utterly strange and ‘other’ for me to enter.

But I don’t regret the reading of it. It is like I have seen the evolution of a homeless person, traced their origins, felt to a small extent their loss and metamorphosis. I have seen, if not understood, their values—the disdain for ‘housekeeping’ as I picture it, the denial of want, of hunger, of cold, of pain, the inability to relish comfort. I was struck by the possibility of learning not to feel.

“I learned an important thing in the orchard that night, which was that if you do not resist the cold, but simply relax and accept it, you no longer feel the cold as discomfort.”

“I was hungry enough to begin to learn that hunger has its pleasures, and I was happily at ease in the dark, and in general, I could feel that I was breaking the tethers of need, one by one.”

Loss, loneliness, aloneness, solitariness—these are the breeding grounds for insanity. This novel is haunted by the ghosts borderlining this state. It is sad, lonely, like a bad dream, blurring reality with imagined reality. At once I want to shut it and put it on a far away shelf and yet the glimpses it has given me into another world cannot be so easily re-shelved.

--DW

God’s Love Letters to You—Crabb

God’s Love Letters to You
By Larry Crabb
(Thomas Nelson, 2010)

This compact devotional is a condensed-Crabb sampler. For the reader who hasn’t been challenged with Crabb’s perspectives this is an ideal starter. Each of 40 brief devotions is loosely based on a book of the Bible. After a key verse each ‘love letter’ begins with “God says…” These are not emotional, feel-good letters but bracing truths that cut through the blind spots and sloppy theology of a hedonistic culture. They reflect the idea that God is more concerned with our holiness than our immediate happiness. A sampling from the “Daniel” devotional represents the flavor of these letters: “The greatest danger My people face today is prosperity, blessings that reinforce the false hope that nothing serious will ever go wrong in their lives if they just keep believing, expecting, trusting, and smiling…” Following each single-page devotional are three of four penetrating application questions, well worth taking time to think through, and a prayer written in the first-person. The ‘letters’ are designed to be read over the span of 40 days.

I have long appreciated Crabb’s writing and very much enjoyed this latest devotional, marking lines to re-read on most pages. There is much food for thought here. One potentially disconcerting factor is the way words that are not directly traceable to Scripture are put in God’s mouth. Scripture has been filtered through Crabb’s own spiritual walk and life experience as a counselor giving it a distinctive ‘Crabb’ flavor. While I happen to believe his emphasis is a timely corrective for a Christian culture addicted to self-fulfillment, still it would be good if the devotionals were more directly referenced to the Word. I would still highly recommend this book. Even if you don’t agree with every word Crabb speaks for God you will be challenged to face potential blindspots and misconceptions about what the Christian life is really all about.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers for review purposes.

--DW

The Second Coming—Percy

The Second Coming by Walker Percy
(Farrar,Straus,Giroux: 1980), 360pp.

So, I’ve read my first Walker Percy novel! Here’s an author who takes his background as a devout Catholic and southerner, trained as a medical doctor, and combines it with his life experience of having lost both grandfather, father and mother to suicide, and weaves a story in quest of making sense of the nonsense of living in a crazy world.

Meet the two main characters: Will, a well-respected, well-to-do widower who finds himself depressed and increasingly suspect of the farcical nature of life as he sees it. The answer? Not suicide necessarily, for then one never finds the answers…and so he concocts a seemingly insane experiment to prove for himself once and for all whether God exists. The outcome surprises both Will and the reader.

In the process of pursuing his experiment, he meets Allison, a recent escapee from a mental institution, who has undergone too many shock treatments to remember much about how life works. She’s adept at reading facial expressions and stating the obvious but clueless when it comes to appropriate protocol in reacting to strangers. For instance, what is this expression: “Have a nice day.” Such a nice thing to say, so why is it said in such a perfunctory way like ‘goodbye’ ? Good question; she has many of these. She puzzles too over the meaning of “love”, having no better notion of it than that it ‘sounds like something dark and furry which makes a lowing sound.” (40)

This duo of characters give the author an unusual perspective from which to evaluate the meaning of life, language and relationships. With the perceptive diagnostic skill of a doctor and his own hard-earned life experience Percy Walker blazes a bizarre and sometimes humorous trail toward the best answers to life’s hardest questions. His is not a story of complex or gripping plot. It is even unbelievable in spots, but this is forgiveable in exchange for his expert handling of thought and conversation which so clearly mirror the reality of the human condition.

In fact within the story’s first handful of pages the reader is faced with the possibility that something might be wrong with life, not only with that of the depressed epileptic main character, but also with life as he knows it. Is it possible for a majority of people “to deceive themselves into believing that things are going well when in fact they are not, when things are in fact farcical. Most Romans worked and played as usual while Rome fell about their ears.”(4)

This is not just another mindless novel to pass the time of day, though it is very readable. There is much food for thought in its pages on such diverse themes as belief vs. unbelief, real love vs. ‘doing it’, evidences for the existence (or not) of God, sanity vs. insanity, and the quandary of needing relationship when people are so tough to get along with! And yes, there’s reference to the Second Coming of Christ, but this is only a fragment of the meaning in the book’s title. The title’s full significance is in fact more food for thought!

--DW

______________________

A review would be incomplete without a sampling of quotes from THE SECOND COMING that give a taste of Walker Percy.

“If one person is depressed for every ninety-nine who are not or who say they are not, who is to say that the depressed person is right and the ninety-nine wrong, that they are deceiving themselves? Even if this were true, what good would it do to undeceive the ninety-nine who have diverted themselves with a busy round of work and play and so imagine themselves happy?” (5)

“Peace is only better than war if peace is not hell too. War being hell makes sense.” (21)

Lewis [a golfing friend], to Will : “The trouble is you and I share something that sets us apart.”
--“What’s that?”
“We’re the once-born in a world of the twice-born. We have to make our way without Amazing Grace. It’s a lonely road but there are some advantages along the way. The company, when you find it, is better. And the view, though bleak, is bracing. You see things the way they are. In fact, don’t you feel sometimes like the one-eyed in the land of the blind?”

He frowned. Why was Lewis’s unbelief so unpleasant? It was no better than the Baptist’s belief.
If belief is shitty and unbelief is shitty, what does that leave?No, Lewis was even more demented than the believers. Unbelieving Lewis read Dante for the structure. At least, believers were consistent. They might think Dante is a restaurant in Asheville but they don’t read Marx for structure.” (151)

“Two more problems:
One: How to live. How do you live? My life expectancy is approximately another fifty or sixty years. What to do?”Two: Memory. It’s coming back…Speak memory. Why? Only because I have to know enough of where I’ve been to know which way I’m going.” (93)

“Is there another way? People either believe everything or they believe nothing. People like the Christians or Californians believe anything, everything. People like you and Lewis Peckham and the professors and scientists believe nothing. Is there another way?” (132)

“Is it possible for people to miss their lives in the same way one misses a plane? And how is it that death, the nearness of death, can restore a missed life?....Why is it that without death one misses his life?” (124)

“…people notice very little indeed, ghost-ridden as they are by themselves.”(174)

“A mystery: If the good news is true, why is not one pleased to hear it? And if the good news is true, why are its public proclaimers such assholes and the proclamation itself such a weary used-up thing?”(189)

“As unacceptable as believers are, unbelievers are even worse, not because of the unacceptability of unbelief but because of the nature of the unbelievers themselves who in the profession and practice of their unbelief are even greater assholes than the Christians.

“The present-day unbeliever is a greater asshole than the present-day Christian because of the fatuity, blandness, incoherence, fakery, and fatheadedness of his unbelief. He is in fact an insane person. If God does in fact exist, the present-day unbeliever will no doubt be forgiven because of his manifest madness.” (189)

“Are people necessary? Without people there are no tunneling looks. Brooks don’t look and dogs look away. But late afternoon needs another person.

“What do I do if people are the problem? Can I live happily in a world without people? What if four o’clock comes and I need a person? What do you do if you can’t stand people yet need a person?” (239)

“Must one have a plan for the pursuit of happiness? If so, is there a place where one looks up what one is supposed to do or is there perhaps an agency which one consults?
Who says?
Who is doing the supposing?
Why not live alone if it is people who bother me? Why not live in a world of books and brooks but no looks?” (241)

“Death in the guise of belief is not going to prevail over me, for believers now believe anything and everything and do not love the truth, are in fact in despair of the truth, and that is death.

“Death in the guise of unbelief is not going to prevail over me, for unbelievers believe nothing, not because truth does not exist but because they have already chosen not to believe, and would not believe, cannot believe, even if the living truth stood before them, and that is death.” (273)

“Is she a gift and therefore a sign of a giver? Could it be that the Lord is here, masquerading behind this simple silly holy face?” (360)

__________________________________

And lastly, Walker Percy’s writing is perhaps best understood with reference to his own sense of calling as an author. Here are his own words:

“To the degree that a society has been overtaken by a sense of malaise rather than exuberance, by fragmentation rather than wholeness, the vocation of the artist, whether novelist, poet, playwright, filmmaker, can perhaps be said to come that much closer to that of the diagnostician rather than the artist's celebration of life in a triumphant age.

Something is indeed wrong, and one of the tasks of the serious novelist is, if not to isolate the bacullus under the microscope, at least to give the sickness a name, to render the unspeakable speakable. Not to overwork the comparison, the artist's work in such times is assuredly not that of the pathologist whose subject matter is a corpse and whose question is not "What is wrong?" but "What did the patient die of?" For I take it as going without saying that the entire enterprise of literature is like that of a physician undertaken in hope. Otherwise, why would be here? Why bother to read, write, teach, study, if the patient is already dead?––for, in this case, the patient is the culture itself.

[I]t is the primary business of literature an art . . . [to be] a kind of finding out and knowing and telling, both in good times and bad, a celebration of the way things are when they are right and a diagnostic enterprise when they are wrong. The pleasures of literature, the emotional gratifiction of reader and writer, follow upon and are secondary to the knowing.”
["Diagnosing the Modern Malaise," in Walker Percy, Sign-Posts in a Strange Land 204-221, at 206,207 (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1991)]

I hope you will dip in and try Walker Percy!  Incidentally, the main character of The Second Coming(1980) is first featured in Percy’s book: The Last Gentleman(1966), which I have yet to read!

--DW

A Prayer for Owen Meany

A Prayer for Owen Meany

by: John Irving
(William Morrow and Co: 1989, 543pp.)

***4 stars***


“I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.” (13)


So begins the first-person account of a friendship between two 11-yr. old boys coming of age in a small New Hampshire town in the Vietnam War era.

Owen Meany, the hero of the narrative is very small for his age and bears the stigma of a freakish voice that never changes. But he possesses a strong belief in destiny. For him there are no accidents. Everything serves a purpose, including his tiny stature and his voice. When the mother of his best friend (John, the narrator of the story) is ‘accidentally’ killed by a baseball he hits, Owen is all the more committed to the idea that his hands are God’s hands to do with as He pleases. His belief is corroborated by key visions and dreams of what he will accomplish in his life. He lives to fulfill this destiny, which the reader doesn’t picture in its entirety until the final pages of this 543 page book, where Owen’s stature and voice play a key role in the heroic saving of others’ lives.

Along the way Owen’s faith mystifies and challenges all he meets. His unconventional re-enactment of the Christ child in a nativity play confirm the reader’s suspicion that this character is a type of Christ—coming into the world to sacrifice himself for others. His wordless but authoritative role as ‘the ghost-of-Christmas-yet-to-come’ in Dicken’s “Christmas Carol” play establish him as something of a prophet in his own community. He becomes known as ‘The Voice’ as he takes on an editorial column in the local school paper, intent on exposing injustices, challenging the status-quo and fomenting change. Through this character John Irving exemplifies the stubborn vision and courage that typify a person of strong faith.

His best friend, John, is by contrast skeptical. His view is captured in this quote: “You’re always telling me I don’t have any faith,” I wrote to Owen. “Well—don’t you see?...that’s a part of what makes me so indecisive. I wait to see what will happen next…because I don’t believe that anything I might decide to do would matter.”(446 ) As narrator, John is artfully portrayed in both the present action of the story and in his future life as an English teacher in Toronto, Canada where he ends up after ingenuously avoiding the draft, thanks to Owen’s courage and foresight. As an adult, he is critical of American politics, opposed to the War, and cautiously committed to belief in God as he reminisces about Owen’s miraculous life. This retrospective point of view enables the author to interject statistics and describe political tensions of the times surrounding the Vietnam War and the Iran-Contra affair of which the young friends would not have been fully aware, making the book a not-too-subtle platform for his rants on these and other issues, including TV!

The strength of A Prayer for Owen Meany is in its well-formed characters and dialogue. Irving’s attention to life-like details in presenting his characters and his method of moving the story-line along by interjecting realistic conversations between them, make the less believable and bizarre events of the story more credible. The story-line is unfortunately plagued with content of a sexual nature, which arguably is a real-life factor in a teenager’s life but is excessive in this reviewer’s opinion and may be offensive to some readers.

John Irving’s story is clearly based on first-hand research and life experience, allowing us to see inside the varied occupations of quarry workers, English professors, and even Army body escorts while drawing from his own childhood in New Hampshire and teaching career.  He keeps his readers well-tantalized with unanswered questions that make the lengthy 543 pages slip by. His reflections on faith as inspired by Owen’s life and death make this a story you won’t soon forget.

--DW

How to Ruin Your Life by 40

How to Ruin Your Life by 40
by: Steve Farrar
(Moody: 2006, 143pp)


Don’t mistake this for a trivial book based on its facetious title. Steve Farrar addresses the 20’ish crowd with refreshing candor and relevance based not only on his own life experience but on his extensive interactions with people who have struggled and/or derailed their lives by the age of forty. What are the common denominators? The groundwork for a successful life at age forty is laid in the decisions that are made in the twenties. Sobering counter-examples are woven through chapters dealing with finding life’s purpose and one’s unique calling, finding and being the right mate, pursuing God’s will and guarding the heart. A ‘blow out’ at age 40 comes about because of errors in judgment and poor choices before then.

A particularly effective chapter (9-‘Honest Struggles’) discusses the critical need to deal honestly with the struggles of life before they erupt into full-blown disaster. The heart cannot be merely ignored or hidden, it must be guarded. “It is the struggle to guard you heart that will determine what happens to you by the time you are forty.”(125)

Farrar concludes with a recommendation he calls one’s “minimum daily requirements”, suggesting that the reading of Scripture is to the health of the heart what adequate nutrition is to the body. “You can’t fight off temptation when you are malnourished.” (138) He suggests a chapter of Proverbs a day, read and put into practice, as a safeguard against ruining your life by forty.

I appreciate Farrar’s obvious passion and insight. His Bible-based counsel is both pointed and practical. This book will be a timely encouragement to young adults and even to those of us who are older, but still intent on living our lives to their fullest potential.

--DW


“The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God, and after conversion to keep it with him.”—Charles Bridges

Has Christianity Failed You?–Zacharias

Has Christianity Failed You?
Ravi Zacharias
Zondervan, 2010, 234pp. including discussion/reflection questions and an author interview


***5 stars***


In this personal plea to those who have found Christianity wanting, Ravi Zacharias explores the heart of the Christian faith.  Why are so many today living in silent doubt or actually abandoning evangelical churches for some other alternative?  Is it the fault of the message, the messenger, or the hearer--or a composite of the three?  Ravi explores these questions and challenges Christians and skeptics alike to examine the claims of Christ and not to confuse them with the way they are lived out in the modern church.   His message addresses the felt needs of the heart and the intellectual basis for them, concluding that though the Christian life can feel like a terrifying adventure on the high seas without a compass, there is a Captain that can be trusted to take us through. 


The reader looking for theoretical apologetics in a strictly intellectual format may be disappointed with the style of this book.  In the tradition of the East, Ravi brings theory to life with the skillful use of poignant story and parable.  In so doing he reaches the heart without bypassing the mind, making his intellectual reasoning both palatable and memorable.


I highly commend this book for the skeptic and the discouraged Christian alike—and for those who are connected to either of these.  Ravi’s compassionate but unapologetic style is compelling.  His vast and varied life experience and reading are reflected on every page.  And his piercing insights are worth reading again and again.  One comes away convinced that Christianity has not failed.  The blame is wrongly placed.  This is good news for saint and skeptic alike and leaves room for each to chart a fresh course…

---------------------------------
A more detailed review of the various topics covered follows:

The book commences logically with “Who is Jesus?”  Since it is human nature to claim that one’s version of religion (or unbelief) is superior to another’s, how is what Jesus offers any different than the rest?  This chapter, is no devotional read but each point made is elucidated with real-life parables that greatly aid the understanding and credibility of the theoretical.  No stranger to modern skepticism about the person of Jesus, Ravi goes to great lengths to amplify on the ‘startling coalescence of contrarieties’ (J.Stewart) in the personality of Jesus.  Under the heading of Jesus the Son he amplifies on the four aspects in which this is true: Son of David, Son of Man, Son of God, Savior and the implications of each for the human heart.  “Knowing who he is makes the journey to a strong faith rational, even though the way is punctuated with times of struggle.”(43) When our relationship with this Jesus is broken or non-existent it will logically appear that Christianity has failed us. 


The following chapter addresses the question of what it means to be a Christian.  Beginning with the bold statement: ‘All religions are fundamentally different and only superficially the same at best’ he goes on to present the strength and uniqueness of the Christian worldview.  He prefaces this discussion with the pertinent reminder of how easily one’s judgment can be clouded by emotionally charged or traumatic associations.  Thus the special need for believers and skeptics alike to think objectively in this area.  This chapter, just over 20 pages in length offers a solid apologetic for belief in God over naturalistic belief.  It touches on such topics as the origin of moral values, the first cause, life purpose, religious plurality, and the uniqueness of the semi-transcendence of the Christian faith.  He breaks these complex philosophical issues down so the average reader can begin to comprehend them, making this chapter particularly helpful for discussions with those of a skeptical mindset. It definitely bears reading and re-reading to absorb all that Zacharias has so concisely presented.  In addition it provides a springboard for further reading by citing leading thinkers in these areas such as David Berlinski, Antony Flew (a former atheist, author of There is a God,) and  Francis Collins.

In his excellent chapter titled: ‘Points of Tension’, Zacharias makes the point that no matter what system of values one chooses to live by, there will be tensions.  Total skepticism is untenable as is living with no absolutes.  Here then is a call to consider the value of living according to absolutes and making sure those absolutes accord with reality as expressed in God’s Word.  Facing the tensions of life is dependent on believing the truth.  If for instance, the lie is believed that  ‘God exists for my comfort’, when this does not accord with the Christian’s life experience, God’s unchanging character is called into question, rather than the believer examining the real cause of the tension-- a lie believed.  Another tension lies between what I believe and what God validates through miracle.  Why doesn’t God make Himself more visible, more unmistakable?  Given the human condition of fickleness, continual need, and our desire to control God, might this be a tension we are best to live with?  The alternative, dispensing with god, creates even greater tension points.  The paragraph summarizing these is an example of many superb and tightly worded paragraphs which make Ravi’s writing a treasure trove of noteworthy quotes to come back to again and again ( see p.78).  He chooses three primary tensions we face in living out the Christian life to address individually in this chapter: our  struggle for security, our struggle with pain and brokenness, and our struggle for sexual fulfillment.

An additional chapter is devoted to bringing coherence to the problem of pain and evil in the world.  It concludes that ‘to walk away from one’s faith because of unanswered questions about evil is to walk into a storm of unanswered questions about good.’ (119)

Following is a chapter critiquing the book: The Reason-Driven Life by Robert M. Price,  a former evangelical leader and  example of one who proclaims that Christianity has failed him.  Price has now entrenched himself in a vehemently hostile camp from which he lobs missiles of self-proclaimed ‘reason’.  In this case, Price attacks the best-selling Christian book: The Purpose-Driven Life as a type of all things evangelical.  Ravi’s response cuts through the surface rhetoric that at first sounds strangely convincing, and points out underlying prejudices and strategies that may have been overlooked.  He highlights only a few philosophical points but refers the reader to the writing of Ben Witherington and Darrell Bock, scholars who have more specifically responded to attacks on the gospel narrative by such as Price.
 
Unanswered prayer is a reason some feel that Christianity has failed them, so Ravi devotes an entire chapter to discussing whether prayer indeed makes a difference.  His remarks commence with this statement: “Christianity does not promise that you will have every question fully answered to your satisfaction before you die, but the answers it gives are consistently consistent.  There may be paradoxes within Christian teaching and belief, but they are not irreconcilable.”(143) Prayer is more complex than we make it out to be.  Most people have at some time been frustrated over prayer.  With much use of anecdote, Ravi revisits some pertinent aspects of prayer-- as conversation with God, as demonstrated in the life of Jesus, as more than a means to an end.  He concludes that: “More than anything else, this is what prayer is about—training one’s hungers and longing to correspond with God’s will for us—and it is what the Christian faith is all about.” (157)  A closer look at three dimensions found in the Lord’s prayer remind us of the reverent attitude expected in prayer, our essential daily dependence on God, and the reshaping of our wills that takes place in prayer.  In addressing the issue of unanswered prayer Ravi closes this chapter with a very insightful section elaborating on five goals of God for us to attain through the process of prayer—humility, spirituality, faith, fellowship, and understanding.

The concluding chapter contains first, a sober warning of the ramifications behind abandoning Christianity, both on an individual level and at a society level. Naturalism, the competing worldview in the West, has an insufficient rational base to maintain human existence despite its accusation of Christianity being ‘irrational’.  But this chapter’s primary aim is the modern evangelical church—for here lies the source of disillusionment for so many.  Ravi salutes those churches that have demonstrated ‘theological integrity with methodological relevance’ and gently admonishes the remainder to consider their true mission…

Wholesome entertainment cannot be the church’s primary aim. Producing believers with strength of character requires a different methodology.  The Bible points the way to restoring wholeness and conformity to Jesus’ image.  Teaching people to think correctly, not just change outward behaviors is at the heart of the Gospel, and is key to changing individuals, churches and ultimately culture.  The church is called to reach out, not condemn.  Our message must be based on Christ’s teaching, not merely perceived needs.  Technique must not eclipse the message. The church is called to inform the world of truth, not vice versa.  Lives lived to the glory of God are the true strength of the church.  And ultimately, ‘the solution to the failure of the church is not found by abandoning it,’ (201) but in taking time to examine one’s own calling as a Christian and evaluate where the failure really lies.
 
Ravi concludes by outlining certain ‘glories’, supremacies, and excellencies inherent in the God who calls us to live in this world by faith.  He calls the reader to persevere, not only for his own benefit but for the hope of religious liberty as we know it.  “Only Christianity, only the gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us the enormous privilege of sacred freedom without imposing faith on anyone, is strong enough to preserve our freedom and our dignity.  Those who mock this faith will find themselves before long under the oppression of an ideological domination that uses religion to gain political and cultural dominance.”(208)

--DW

THE END OF REASON--Zacharias

The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists

Ravi Zacharias, Zondervan, 2008, 143pp.


***5 stars***

A rising tide of ‘new atheists’ scathingly indict religion as the source of all ills.  Their rallying purpose is to free the world of all traces of religion. Mockery is the prescribed tool and nothing is held sacred.  Some actually proclaim rape to be preferable to religion and pedophilia to be less harmful than teaching a child about Hell.  The Holocaust is declared the fault of Christianity.  The atrocities carried out by Stalin and Mao are said to be  the result of wrong beliefs, (thus religion) not atheism! And they proclaim themselves to be the pinnacle of morality, superior to Jesus Himself.  Is this a new brand of ‘intellectual supremacists’ merely 'masquerading as spokespersons for science' or are they just rabble-rousers out to make a buck from an unwitting public? Either way,  who will give a well-reasoned answer to their volatile rhetoric?

To this end Ravi Zacharias has written his small but powerful book, The End of Reason, which specifically responds to Sam Harris’ claims in The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation.  Ravi’s reasoning is refreshingly gracious without any loss of potency.  He demonstrates atheism’s bankruptcy as a worldview using both logic and references to atheism’s own disillusioned proponents.  He deftly outlines the contradictions implicit in Harris’ views and underlines his blatant ignorance of the world religions he so confidently derides.

The first half of The End of Reason discusses the four essentials of a coherent and credible worldview with reference to atheism.  These are: #1 Origin—how did life come to be?, #2 Meaning—is life random or does it have purpose?, #3 Morality—what’s good and evil? and on what basis do we define these?, and #4 Hope—what is man’s destiny?  A realistic worldview must offer answers to these questions which are consistent with reality.  With great clarity Ravi discusses atheism’s inability to provide credible answers to each of these big questions, concluding that: “Given a starting point of primordial slime, one is forced to live apart from a moral law, with no meaning, no real understanding of love, and no hope.”

The remainder of the book addresses such misunderstood (and misrepresented) topics as Pascal’s Wager, ultimate justice, Christianity’s views on slavery, and genetic engineering.  Each is addressed with a mix of humble inquiry and thoughtful rationale in a tone full of compassion.  “Wise as serpents and harmless as doves” is a befitting description of Ravi’s apologetic style, and I would add a refreshing alternative to the often shocking and profane verbiage of some of the recent proponents of atheism.

Zacharias concludes this address to his fellow Americans by presenting a brief case for the existence of God and of Jesus Christ.  His closing remarks address the schism between religion and radical secularism, calling for open dialogue so that individuals can evaluate the relative truth claims and decide for themselves, and re-affirming that science and religion need not be at odds.  He concludes his argument with a striking statement of personal opinion re: Islam, as this is the example of ‘religion’ that Harris is fond of citing and making the stereotype for all religions, including Christianity.  Ravi says: “Islam is willing to destroy for the sake of its ideology.  I want to suggest that the choice we face is really not between religion and secular atheism…. Secularism simply does not have the sustaining or moral power to stop Islam [as now demonstrated in secularized Europe].  In the end, America’s choice will be between Islam and Jesus Christ.  History will prove before long the truth of this contention.” (p126-7)

There is much to ponder in this small volume, and to refer back to in any discussion with those of an atheistic leaning.  Many such have not pursued their want of belief in God to its logical ends. Ravi provides references to those who have and have come up empty.  The ‘new atheists’ tend to borrow from a worldview richer than their own so as to have a moral standard to live by.  Ravi demonstrates why this is inconsistent with a god-less worldview.  Perhaps most importantly this small volume provides a reminder that there are well-reasoned  answers to those who call faith in God irrational and dangerous.

--DW

DEFIANT JOY--Belmonte

DEFIANT JOY: The Remarkable Life & Impact of G.K.Chesterton
by Kevin Belmonte
Thomas Nelson, 2011, 318pp.
incl. Timeline, Endnotes and Bibliography

***3 stars***
[Disclaimer:  This was not a 'best book' for me, but it did contain some timely quotes.  My recommendation would be to skip this volume and go right to the source, i.e. Chesterton's own writings!]

Though he died 75 years ago “Chesterton is in many ways our contemporary, and our need of his wisdom, art, humor, love, and humanity is as great as that of the age in which he lived—perhaps greater.”  Belmonte has written this thoroughly researched review of Chesterton’s life and works in hopes of encouraging a new generation of readers, particularly scholars, to study Chesterton’s life and writings.

After a brief glimpse of his early life and emergence from agnostic despair to belief in a personal God, Belmonte begins his ‘surveys’ of Chesterton’s most influential writing including a sampling from his critical biographies, literary essays, poetry, and well-known books: Heretics, Orthodoxy and the famous detective Father Brown series.  The author’s extensive use of quotations from past reviewers mark this book as more of a critical biography than one for the average reader.

This is not an easy read and was not the human interest type of biography that I was expecting based on the title. I would likely not have read it in its entirety had I not promised BookSneeze to review this complimentary copy on behalf of the publisher. However, my copy is underlined throughout—I just couldn’t get enough of the wit, wisdom and childlike wonder G.K. Chesterton exuded. His use of paradox to make an idea clear is outstanding.

This joyful and rather eccentric genius was admired even by his opponents because his critiques were winsome.  This type of respectful debate is rare in our day and I’m hooked.  I’ll definitely be digging into Chesterton’s own writing, likely beginning with Orthodoxy—his own philosophical journey to belief in the Christian faith.  So perhaps in a round-a-bout way this book has accomplished its purpose despite its deliberately academic pace.  Chesterton’s tantalizing words, even in snippets,  have done their work—no further introduction needed.  I would recommend this book only to readers with interest in literary critique.  Want to know Chesterton?  Go straight to the source.
--DW

NEW TOWN—Blamires

NEW TOWN
A fable…unless you believe
by Harry Blamires
Publ.2005,Revell. 174pp.


***4 stars***


New Town is a most peculiar tale.  It is the sparsely told parable of life as it’s lived in Old Town, a deteriorating place under constant repair and destined for destruction.  Its residents differ in their perspective toward the value of Old Town.  While some live wholly in hope of their home in the New Town just across the chasm, others live to preserve the buildings of Old Town.  They are in denial of the seriousness of its state of decay and of its eventual demolition, and have as their ambition to deride those who live in hope of a New Town. 
Humorous names and acrostics with double meaning allude to the obvious parallels between Old Town and our present earth, New Town and heaven. For instance, the real estate agency is owned by Sir Alph Godfrey and his son, Christopher.  Access to the New Town is via the Christopher Godfrey Memorial Bridge.  Further assistance is always available at the Christopher Godfrey helpline.  The permit necessary to live in the Old Town is known as the Resident Inhabitant Permit (RIP).  These might seem almost sacrilegious were it not for the surreal, dream-like quality of the story.  The primary character, Bernard finds himself in Old Town in a dreamstate which he mistakes for death. The narration retains that dream-like state of unreality as he becomes accustomed to life in the Old Town and pursues obtaining a house in the New Town.
The plot consists of a scattering of events representative of life in such a place.  Elements of romance, local politics, social life and the ever-threatening occurrences of ‘subsidence’ and other natural disasters are loosely woven through the story of Bernard coming to terms with life in Old Town and figuring out how to get on the waiting list for the New Town.
A favorite part in the story was Bernard’s first meeting with the Society of Waiters—of which he was made a member automatically upon being enrolled on the ‘Waiting List’.  One can’t help but see the comical allusion to church as we know it. Traditions practiced include the singing of songs in verse about the New Town and about the joys of waiting on (serving) others, a homily based on the expression: ‘Wait for it’ explaining the contrasting meanings of ‘wait’ as it applies to Waiters, and a chocolate-passing ceremony commemorating Christopher Godfrey who lived among the poor and gave all his chocolates away. The subtle and not-so-subtle parallels seem silly until you are engrossed in the story.  Read as parables they give old truths a fresh polish and appeal.
The process of applying to be put on the Waiting List is an interesting analysis of works vs. grace as a means of getting to heaven.  The Old Testament (OT=Old Town) covenant  and the New Testament (NT=New Town) covenant are contrasted perceptively.
This is a story that bears re-reading to fully appreciate all the meaning encoded in its simple, seemingly even silly story.  It is in fact a mere fable… unless you believe.
Not myself very fond of fantasy, I still enjoyed this unusual book for it’s uncanny means of making clear the transient nature of our lives on planet earth.  Clinging to it, living for its pleasures, trusting its foundations never looks so ridiculous as when you see it in a parable.  Now my interest is peaked to check out more of Harry Blamires’ (rhymes with ‘the fires’) writing.  He is said to have been a friend and protégé of C.S. Lewis and to have written more than 30 theological and English literature books.
Following are some favorite quotes representative of the book, New Town:

“Dr. Fisher, you said everyone wants a house in the New Town.”
--“I did.  Deep down that’s what they all want.  Of course, they don’t know they want it.  Lots of them think they want to stay here, as you will soon discover.” (16)
“What would be the point of wasting effort, trying to give a false permanence to something that can never last?”(33)
“They’re not fit to make a settled home in, but they’re good enough to stay in until a proper home is available.”(33)
“Whatever its condition to begin with, it must have been further damaged by the fall.  It costs a lot to lift things back to ground level when subsidence has occurred.” (73)
“Any applicant freely admitting as a fact (and not lamenting as an injustice) his or her own total lack of referential potential shall be classed as a self-professed friendless pauper, and as such shall be automatically entitled to full referential accreditation in the name of the company.” (89)
“I know of no equation between the traditional and the inefficient, and still less between the old-fashioned and the ingenuous.  If someone chooses to be taken in by the age of our firm and our taste for the traditional in office furnishings and to assume that we’re therefore gullible amateurs in our trade, then so much the worse for them.” (92)
“What’s the next step, Dr. Fisher?”
--“To wait.”
“I don’t have to do anything?”
--“The next step is ours.  You have put yourself into our hands as a pauper…”(93)
“Shareholders who have a record of lifelong investment in the Future Accomodation Insurance Trust—Hertham (FAITH) will be granted benefits proportionate toe their respective holdings.” (97)


On what it means to be a “Waiter”:
“We must all wait in the sense that we must be patient and calm, that we must not be restless or fretful under the strains of delay or deferment.  We must trust quietly in the promised security of eventual residence in the New Town.  Yet at the same time, it is our duty to ‘wait for it’ in the opposite sense.  We must prepare ourselves and hold ourselves in readiness; we must be poised in eager anticipation of the immense delight awaiting us at the moment when the call comes for us to move into the New Town.  For it may come at any time.” (135) … “There’s more to waiting, however, than either patience or expectancy.  Our ceremonies speak of a different mode of waiting.  Service is a keynote of our society.  We serve one another by waiting on one another whenever we meet….The poet summed it up comprehensively when he wrote, ‘They also wait  who only stand and serve.’”(136)
--DW
“But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Rom.8:25

AUTHENTIC FAITH--Thomas

Authentic Faith
by Gary Thomas
Zondervan, 2003, 256pp.


*** 3 stars***




Gary Thomas has done the modern-day church a huge service in bringing to us voices from the past.  I have long believed that reading history gives a perspective on our own times that is indispensable to living a balanced life.  The trends and fads of one’s time can seem all-important and we can easily stray into unrecognized pitfalls if we don’t step back and consider the wisdom of the past.

In Authentic Faith Gary Thomas takes on the question: “Are we in the Christian faith for what it gives us, or is our chief purpose to glorify God? “  He organizes his response around ten ‘disciplines’ that he proposes are signposts to authentic faith.  They are refreshingly different than much popular teaching, but uncomfortably pointed if you’re looking for a faith designed to make you feel good, live longer and be happy in the process!

The disciplines Thomas emphasizes are: selflessness, waiting, suffering, persecution, social mercy, forgiveness, mourning, contentment, sacrifice, and hope/fear regarding coming judgment.  He says these are the disciplines that will mark a maturing friendship with God and give us what he terms ‘defiant beauty’.  They differ from the traditional disciplines of fasting, meditation, prayer and the like in that they are not primarily actions we initiate.  They ‘turn us away from human effort—from men and women seeking the face of God—and…toward God seeking the face of men and women.’(p.14)  Thomas says these are God-ordained and God directed disciplines that will produce a spirituality dependent on God.  It will be good to keep this opening thesis in mind as the book progresses.  For disciplines like these become a heavy lot to manage the instant we take on responsibility for making them ‘happen’.  As long as this perspective is kept in view this book will be a valuable guide in helping believers appreciate and respond to these disciplines as we face them in our lives.

Each chapter focuses on one of these ten ‘authentic disciplines’-- defining, describing, and illustrating with examples from the author’s own life or the life of saints in the past and always including quotations and explanations from the ancient church classics, such as Augustine, Ambrose, De Sales and St. John of the Cross.  In my opinion, these references to wise Christians of the past are the most valuable contribution of this book.  These are the ‘great cloud of witnesses’ that surround us (Heb.12:1). From them we can gain wisdom and encouragement for the running of our own race.  In their witness we can more readily see the errors of our times and not be caught in foolish trends.

While this book offers valuable aid in embracing different seasons of growth, it can also become a source of condemnation.  The wise reader will focus on the areas where God is already leading him to make changes, and will beware of taking on more than he is ready to ‘chew’.  This is a book that does not need to be read in its entirety all in one season!  Consider it like the various medicines in your cabinet.  Beneficial, but only as symptoms dictate.  The first three chapters are excellent and foundational to healthy growth. Chapter One introduces the concept of seasons in our growth, while Two and Three consider selflessness and waiting which are inherent to any process of Christlikeness.  After that the chapters do not have to be read consecutively.

Any application of ‘disciplines’ will readily become negative and burdensome when attempted by sheer ‘will power’.  Our growth has seasons that are directed by God.  Regrettably, though the author makes this observation in his introductory chapter, he seems to lose sight of it when it comes to areas of weakness and immaturity in the church that particularly peeve him.  Though love for the Body may be his reason for writing, a tone of condemnation slips in.  This want of grace seriously detracts from the book’s effectiveness.  Sharp criticism must be tempered by love and grace if it is to bring about heart change. Otherwise there is a risk of only hardening the heart of the reader.  Reader beware. But don’t miss the  wealth of practical time-tested wisdom here, thanks to Gary’s impassioned research.  Take it and let God apply it in season as you walk out an authentic faith with the God who seeks our friendship.

--DW