Resonance with Jazz

Confession
I too have finally succumbed with the masses that adore Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.

History
The book hit the scene in 2003 and seemed to me to enjoy an ever-growing adulation from Christians everywhere. It seemed everyone on the planet from every facet of my life was recommending this book. “Give me a break!” I thought even as I smiled and said, “Yeah, I should get around to reading that!” What could he possibly be selling that so many were buying as if they had never heard it before? Forgive my analogy if it offends, but it reeked to me of the “free-thinking” members of the UPCI who spend so much time defending their “open-mindedness” by arguing for television, beards or wearing jeans to church. In the end it’s just not a very big deal, nor are any of them indicative of a very radical line of thinking. Radical thinking undermines your ability to cope with tomorrow the same way you got through today. It stops you and makes you think…painfully. It challenges you on more than just your behavior. People don’t really tend to like the truly radical thoughts (isn’t this why so many of us avoid reading the Bible?). Therefore, by virtue of its seeming coolness and readability, I just didn’t buy that this book had anything very new and/or revelatory to say.

Reality
It was with some grudging assent that I agreed when my Home Friendship Group selected this as our next book for study in December. It was true that a number of people who recommended this book were people whose opinions I deeply respected on a number of other issues. And at least enough time had passed that I didn’t feel like such a trend follower!

Upon Reading It
In truth, this book resonated with me on very many personal points. So much so, I now find it hard to believe so many people had this same experience. Did everyone attend an unconventional four year college renowned for immorality where they experienced the unconditional love and acceptance they longed for (and did not find) in the church? Has everyone had a specific moment of realizing that being a Christian meant receiving/accepting love as well as giving it (his moment came cleaning a toilet, mine came in discussion following the watching of Moulin Rouge: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return”)? Has everyone lived with hippies who challenged their preconceptions of the divide between the world and the church? Has everyone intentionally moved in with housemates to counteract an unhealthy tendency to be too comfortable existing without community? Has everyone questioned whether blindly voting Republican was the Christian thing to do? Has everyone remained single into his or her thirties because they liked it and were happy?

Upon Reflection
Initially, I felt like it should be my book and could not accept its popularity as genuine. But then I realized that in all those recommendations others had made there were elements of personal resonance for them as well and I recognized that the book’s power rests in its ability to express something much more fundamental. We all really do have our own song of grace to sing in our own redeemed voice, but it’s a tune we sing in harmony with everyone else bought with a price.

P.S.
Thanks to all my friends who tried to get me to read this book much earlier! You were right, I was wrong!!! It is a wonderful book!

The Greatest Story: Danger, Romance, Mystique, and a Message!

Every year Christians try to find just the right spin to tell an old story in a new way. From the perspective of shepherds to the account of wise men to a modern day recasting of the story, no Christmas is complete without a church, school, or community production of the nativity. Ultimately, the story of Jesus Christ's birth is a miracle in itself that needs no help.

Yet have you ever thought of the Christmas story in terms of literature?

What do you mean "literature," you might ask? Well without rehashing an academic lecture on literary criteria, let's just simply look at the nativity in the Gospels as a story.

Like Any Great Story....
Everyone has his or her take on just what quality is the most important element of a story, but let's focus on three: plot, theme, and characters.

Action!
Start with a dramatic love story. Compound the intricacy with angelic encounters and a hard-to-explain pregnancy. Toss in a subplot of political intrigue and the danger of execution by a power-threatened monarch. Add a surprise element when the birth scene unfolds in the least likely of places with visits from unexpected guests. The result is an account still as captivating today as ever.

Quite the Characters
Meet Joe the Carpenter--not to be confused with the Joe the Plumber--and yet just a little-known character until his supernatural experience. Suddenly he faces a labyrinth of emotions. Every literary critic on the planet should take a second look.

Then there's Mary and her classic line: "be it unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38). What a response!

No study is complete without acknowledging the central character of it all: the Christ child. Juxtaposed against society's stereotype of a king, He humbly takes center stage in the drama He designed from the foundation of the world.

The Most Timeless of Themes
While the greats of the canon are celebrated for their timelessness, none compares to the eternal value of this miracle story. The hope breathed into the hearts of humbled worshipers at that manger still gives life and hope to humanity for all time.

Gloria in Excelsis Deo!
I submit it is the greatest story. Whether told by an elementary class, preached by a minister, or remembered in your heart, take another look and see the beauty of the story once again.

Lagniappe
P.s. - On a related note, see what we were talking about on Word one year ago.

Images Source: http://tdwotd.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html

The Year in Books

Every year I keep a list of all the books (and short stories) I read. I started this in 1995 and it creates a type of lively journal of my years, as in “Oh yeah, I read The Portable Faulkner on the plane to San Diego, didn’t I?” or “I bought that book in Philadelphia” or “Why did I read Hunchback of Notre Dame in Rome? Shouldn’t I have read Dante or something Italian?”

Anyway, it’s fun to log them in and count them up at year’s end. (I’m going to end up in the mid-20s this year, while in 2006—thanks to the miracle of audio books—I actually finished 56 titles,.)

2008 was Different
This year, I decided to focus on literature written by Christians and the arts, specifically the craft of writing. I did this because I usually read wherever my moods take me, and I wanted to build a certain mental framework that specifically fed my experience within Christian literature, offered me with insights into the creation process, and provided general context (in this case the ripe Rembrandt’s Eyes that is promising me about 500 more pages of pleasure in 2009 and perhaps 2010).

So while I occasionally strayed into other areas, especially dipping into a hand full of Young Adult titles shoved onto Caleb at school—how did Island of the Blue Dolphins win any award except for tediousness?—I basically stuck to my commitment. (Though I was especially amazed that such an astounding fiction talent as Micahel Chabon could write so many essays with so few rewards as Maps and Legends demonstrates.)

My year in books looked like this:

Christian Literature

• Contemporary Titles—Marilynne Robinson’s Home, Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi, Leif Enger’s So Brave, Young & Handsome, and Uvem Akpan’s harrowing short stories of Africa in Say You’re One of Them.
  
• Classic Titles—Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Illyich, Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited

Writing / Arts Titles

• How Fiction Works by James Wood. Insightful & pentetrating. He uses writing from the canon to prove his every point.
  
• Art and the Bible by Francis A. Schaeffer. Interesting, but not amazing.


• Literary Genius edited by Joseph Epstein. Literary biographies of 25 Americans & Brits with spectacular wood prints by Barry Moser.


• Burning Down the House by Charles Baxter. Energetic screeds against lazy thinking about writing. He even defends melodrama successfully.


• Conversations with Flannery O’Conner edited by Rosemary M. Magee, which may be good enough to teach a fiction writing course from.

But Wait! There's More!

I also tackled a number of Christian books (two by Kathleen Norris, A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards, among others), but I’m glad I (largely) kept to my commitment. Of course, I won’t be able to evaluate their value for another couple years, but I didn’t feel cheated as I made my choices throughout the year.

Do you keep a reading list? What did your Year in Reading consist of? (Extra points for the person who can identify the picture of an author on my reading list.

Merry Christmas!

Appendix A: Books I'm Trying to Finish

As 2008 winds down, I'm desperately trying to complete the following books, though time will probably only allow 2 of the 3 to be finished.

1. The Shack is least likely to be finished. It's still an event book, so I need to (finally) find out what it's all about, as it appears to offer Christian counsel in a fresh manner (surely its strongest point). It's more storytelling, than writing, but I'm only 100+ pages into it. Doctrinally, it doesn't hold up, but I can spew out those parts to get his gist. (Though that's likely to be in 2009.)


2. Shepherding a Child's Heart is the best book on parenting I've ever read, so I read it about every other year to keep it's principles--everything funnels through a child's heart, so that's where the fixing must take place--fresh in my mind and heart. Lovely biblical truths are shared in a practical manner that make sense to mind and soul.

I can't tell you how few books I've reread since I was a teen (Anna Karenina, strangely enough due to its length, is one of the very few--probably less than 10? 5?), but this is a regular.


3. Break, Blow Burn: Camille Paglia Reads 43 of the World's Best Poems--This is my "why am I reading this book" book, so I'm most likely to complete it of the three. Purchased on my Florida vacation in October, I love how this iconoclast breaks down classics by Dickinson and Donne, Wordsworth and Williams (among others) into accessible Eureka! moments.

Her lively style and enlightening insights into the creative process, history, art movements, Scripture (she was raised a devout Catholic), rhythm, and form have made this my December must read.

Are there any titles you must complete before 2009 begins?

Two Books

Eek. Late post. I'd give an excuse and talk about how grueling finals week was and how tiring 4 1/2 hours of driving to an orientation and 4 1/2 hours driving back was, but I'll spare you.

At first glance

The two most recent books I've read are Home by Marilynne Robinson and Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin. The former is about a middle-class white family in a sleepy Iowa town. The latter is about a working-class black family in Harlem. At first glance, the two books seem to have absolutely nothing to do with each other. The plot, the structure, the subject matter, the style, one is from a female perspective the other is from a male perspective--everything about the two books seem worlds apart. But the incredible thing is, I started making all kinds of crazy connections between them. And not just peripheral things, but things that made me almost wonder if it were God's will that I read these two books in succession in order to glean some overarching truth from them both.

Minister's children and the Christian tradition
Both books involve main characters whose lives are steeped in a Christian background. In Home, the main character Glory Boughton is the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. Everything, even the problems that her family encounters, in some way is always connected to her father's vocation. And the way that Glory, and her father especially, responds to others is rooted in the Christian tradition and the minister's burden. John of Go Tell It On the Mountain is the son of a Pentecostal minister. Likewise, John begins the story explaining the expectations that are placed upon him because of his father's vocation, and the story is framed by and culminates in a vivid religious experience.

The prodigal son

In both stories, biblical imagery and allusions are abundant, especially the story of the prodigal son. In both novels, there is a ne'er-do-well son whose actions profoundly affect the fathers and produce conflicting emotions in their family dynamics--in both cases it is seen by the main character that at times their father loves the ne'er-do-well more. In Home, it's Glory's brother Jack. In Go Tell it On the Mountain, it's John's brother Roy.

Criticism yet respect and praise

Criticisms of their respective Christian traditions can be found in both books. Home and Go Tell it on the Mountain refer to the hypocrisy, superficiality, and over-concern with appearance found in their families and religious communities. However, neither criticizes unfairly or with disrespect. Though the critique may be biting, its purpose is not to discredit Christianity or organized religion. Critique doesn't overpower the other themes of the novels, and both authors, through their characters, show an ultimate reverence for faith.

Race and the turbulence of the era

Though both books were written in different decades, (Go Tell It on the Mountain was published in 1953, Home in 2008) the settings of both of them are in the 50s. Both stories subtly examine race relations in America. Home takes place in a setting removed from the protests turned violent by waterhoses and dogs in Montgomery and the "Stand in the Schoolhouse" door at the University of Alabama--events which the characters of Home only witness through their newly acquired TV sets. But conversations reveal that Gilead, the sleepy Iowa town, was founded on the ideals of radical abolitionism long ago and that Jack (the ne'er-do-well) is personally affected by racial conflict. Like Home, neither are race relations in Go Tell It On the Mountain a central theme, but the realities of racial conflict and injustice, from some characters' beginnings in the Deep South to their eventual migration to New York, shape their lives.

Overarching truth?

Something that I was reminded of through reading these books was the universality of literature. Though, as I mentioned earlier, these novels seemed worlds apart, they had some very core elements in common. Part of the reason why I was impressed and moved by these books was because, aside from the exquisite writing, of their relevance and timelessness. Another thing is that like these novels, I too at times critique the tradition I've been raised in and the faith that I'm still a part of. But critique does not have to equal disrespect. And the last thing is that both of these authors wrote liberally and explicitly from, if not a Christian worldview, (Baldwin later became disillusioned with church life), their Christian upbringings and shared the vividness, serenity, and authenticity of their faith and traditions with a general audience. Both won accolades and recognition for it. Apostolics can and should do the same.

What's the Point of Academic Writing Styles?

The most popular academic writing styles are APA, MLA and Chicago. Still there are many more which, depending on your field of study, will be necessary for you to learn. In theological/biblical studies the style of choice is SBL. Writing styles do set format, but their primary purpose is in dictating how sources get cited. But what's the point? Who cares? Hopefully, we can grant that it's important to cite references, but does it really matter how you do it? Does it need to be standardized?

Virtues of a Standardized Style

• Publishers within the field have a ready template for the works they will receive (and getting published is pretty important)
  
• Demonstrates an ability to operate within a particular field of study (see below for implicit communications)
  
• Demonstrates that the writer, by using a particular style, is competent to choose and check other reputable sources in the field since they are using the same form of research
  
• Puts content at the forefront of the readers'/researchers' minds by removing a layer of aesthetic judgement. As most academic writing is for research purposes, it wouldn't be appropriate for a particular writer to be given more credibility or circulation simply because he or she choose a font that was pretty to look at or arranged citations in a convenient way while someone who did more quality research was cast aside because it was hard to check sources.
  
• In conjunction with the point above, it creates a level playing field for scholars

The Implicit Communication of Writing Styles

Each writing style is geared to a specific field. By looking at the differences between the fields, one can better ascertain what is of prime importance to a specific group of scholars. Let us look at APA and SBL. APA is designed for use in the social sciences while SBL is for "ancient near eastern, biblical and early Christian studies." The most immediate difference between the two styles is the citations within the text. APA favors in text citation whereas SBL is all about the footnotes. The other distinction is what information and in what order references get cited.

APA Example:
Blah blah blah blah blah (Hays 1989) blah blah blah

SBL Example
Blah blah blah blah blah1 (this is a footnote)

1Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 3-29.

What can we deduce from these simple observations?

• Social sciences are more concerned with the cost of publication (it's more expensive to have footnotes) and therefore, the accessibility of the research. SBL is more comfortable gearing itself to a wealthier and/or more elite community.
• APA is concerned with current-ness and new research whereas SBL is concerned with publishers and who has given the stamp of approval to your research
• SBL encourages commentary on how and why research was selected or used (the footnote accomodates these kinds of comments). APA, not so much.
• APA carries the sense of building on others' research in the sense of a continuation in a field of study. SBL, by divorcing citations from the body of a text, seems to favor bringing something brand new to the table.

Closing Comments

Whatever style you choose, I hope you are able to adopt the discipline to do proper research and represent your work so that it can be shared with a wider audience in a palatable manner. There is a safety in having to cite reputable sources and by so doing one avoids the danger of over zealous, unresponsible espousing of pure opinion. There is a humility in being forced to wrestle with others' research which is good for everyone.

Holiday Reading List

With the approach of the holidays, many of us will have a long-awaited chance to delve into some extended reading. Fortunately there are many new books to interest virtually every type of reader.

Heads up, History Fans

Remember your college history course and the required James McPherson reading? You dreaded another textbook, but unexpectedly fell in love with McPherson's captivating narrative style. Well, he's at it again. Pulitzer winner James McPherson has just released Tried by War, a Lincoln biography. Publishers Weekly and New York Time's Book Review claim it's every bit as good as we should expect of McPherson.

Third Time's a Charm

This month Harper released Wally Lamb's third novel The Hour I First Believed. As you might expect from the title, it appears to have a subtle religious undertone--the theme of redemption. Can Lamb's third work stack up as compared to his other two novels, both of which were Oprah picks?

Another Hit from Toni Morrison

Also this month, Knopf releases A Mercy by Toni Morrison. For those of you counting, it's her ninth novel. Involving the story of conflicted slave and slaveowner in 1680s New England, it may have some striking parallels to previous Morrison works. Book reviewers are absolutely enamored with it--for good reason I'm sure.

Big Names in the News

It's been argued that John Updike is the most famous living American writer. While the debate remains, he's got a new novel out that I'm skipping. It's The Widows of Eastwick, which connects back to one of his previous novels. It involves witchcraft and female sexuality, so while it will certainly be a centerpiece of conversation for critics, we may want to think of it through a Christian lens.

HAPPY READING!

Lots of big names to choose from as we head into the holiday season. May you be blessed with a warm day, a quiet corner, and a good book which will inspire your own creative genuis.