Dear Loren:
It was good to see you briefly at the Board of Ordained Ministry interviews today! Thanks for your comment here on the blog the other day. How far is too far, you asked, when I commented on Anne Rice's books Christ the Lord. How far is too far, when people "invent" incidents in Jesus' life that are not evidenced in scripture. Well, I guess the only answer I can give you is a subjective one. I know "too far" when I read it. These books, for me, are not "too far" (so far :-)) though I have only read a few chapters. The life that the author imagines is, yes, partly grounded in the gospel of Thomas, but it is also grounded in a rich, rich life of faith by a woman (Anne) whose re-conversion to Christ and Catholicism that has redeemed a very good writer of dark vampire stories into a writer of holy reading that, quite frankly takes my breath away. When I got to the account of Jesus, who tells this first book's story as a man, but trying to remember and recount what it was like for him at seven, when I read the account of the boy Jesus, his family returning to Israel from Egypt, how they arrived in Jerusalem for the Passover, and the huge crowds and the Temple rebuilt and finally he and his family, led by faithful Joseph (whom Jesus calls Joseph, not father), find a place to stay with relatives up on the roof of a building near the Temple. Joseph and Mary encounter part of their extended family there....Elizabeth, and her son John. I was moved to tears, my breath, as I said, taken away by this simple encounter. Could it have happened this way? Why, yes. Does this description deepen my faith experience to the gospel. Oh my yes. Can one become blasphemous if one is not careful when one goes making up things about Jesus' life? Yes. I think of Madeleine L'Engle or even C.S. Lewis himself and what they would have thought about these books..Ms. L'Engle may have read the first of these two books. I think both of them would have approved and said well done. She herself wrote a book, whose name escapes me, about Jesus and his time in Egypt. The imagination is a marvelous gift that we can offer up to the Lord to use for his purposes. And I believe that these books are such an offering to us.
Anyway. Hope your interview went well!
Susan
4 comments:
Susan,
Good blogging. I'm with you I know it when I see it. What worries me is when others are telling me what is "To Far". I need to figure it out on my own as I study and pray. Keep up the God work and know I'm praying for you all. Can you tell us how your son is doing with his eye sometime?
Susan,
Thanks for your response. I also agree that I know it when I see it. The same is true not only of fictional texts, but also the living and breathing texts of culture and society. How far is too far? If only this question was ever before us as we move and work in the marvelous and diverse reality that God provides us every day. Is it not true that the limitations we place on ourselves both cognitively and physically often block the reality God places before us? How far is too far? I know it when I see it, feel it, taste it, hear it, smell it, touch it, and perceive it.
If you're not easily deterred by some moderately vulgar parts, I'd recommend reading "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal". It's a brilliantly written and hilarious bit of midrash that explores those "lost years" of Christ as Biff (his real name is Levi, but he's called Biff after the sound of his mother wacking him upside the head) and Josh (the name by which Biff calls Jesus) seek out the magi from the east.
God often has a way of guiding me to passages that often speak directly to things I have been contemplating. Today was no exception. This morning, I came across this passage on page 180 of Tim Keel's book, Intuitive Leadership. I believe he addresses the very thing we have been discussing when he writes,
"We hunger for myth, the 'true' stories that are not based in facts but nevertheless echo deeply in the eternal spaces of our creatureliness. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien knew this well, and while critics steeped in the sensibilities of modern criticism excoriated both men and their works, they nevertheless wrote in ways that evoked and sated the hunger for that which exists beyond the factual world--not in spite of their faith but because of it."
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