The Screwtape Letters

(1942)
C.S. Lewis

Finished Reading: 05.2010

This is written in a very creative format as a series of letters from one high ranking demon to a younger demon who is in training as a tormentor. (Or is the first lower ranked since Lewis describes Hell as using an upside-down system of lowerarchy rather than a hierarchy?) However organized, Screwtape is an experienced demon writing to Wormwood his inexperienced inflicter-in-training, imparting important knowledge to guide his young nephew at his task.

In the Screwtape Letters we see a human life from a demon's point of view, but don't get to know the particulars in any real detail, as we only read the responses to Wormwood's submitted progress reports to headquarters and so see a life lived third hand. This Hell-centric view of humanity reveals that there is a lot more going on than what we see, hear and think. Beyond each individual man, Lewis reveals a demon assigned to meticulous spiritual harassment, and beyond that is the whole realm of organized demon bureaucracy - each with assignments, reports and even celebratory banquet feasts to consume their conquests. The whole system is very muddy and dreary.

These demons attempt to draw man away from God (their Enemy) and their instructions and intentions are meant as the opposite to the Gospel, as Lewis shows us the other side of things. There is however, confusion as to the best way to achieve the intended results, as Wormwood is interested in tempting his man towards incredible evil, and the elder Screwtape is only interested in his pupil's success in turning his man away from their Enemy. Temptations come in many shapes.

Finding The Flow

A Guide for Leading Small Groups and Gatherings

(2008)
Tara Miller
Jenn Peppers

Finished Reading: 01.2010

Finding The Flow is a "how-to" for leading small groups. There is no exciting plot or devastating disaster involving the goldfish on the cover. These orange sea kittens are simply exploring the word wrap possibilities around the letter G.

As the facilitator of a church small group this has been very helpful and timely as our group is dealing with many of the issues discussed in the book. The group began meeting in August 2009, and there has been a core group of six of us for most of that time, with occasional newcomers showing up now and then. I had not really thought about any of these issues before, as I just wanted the group to happen however it happens. Organization seems so lame.

The authors talk about knowing yourself, so that, as the facilitator, I can learn to know what the others are feeling or how they might react in various situations. There is a section on the various stages that a group goes through as it forms and grows. Small groups can't last forever, and eventually run their course. There are important life skills discussed that can be utilized in many situations where we have to deal with other people in a group. Listening, asking questions, dealing with conflicts, and developing new leaders are topics thoroughly explored. Annoying people are placed in the group by God to test us.

Most important is to remember that the purpose of the small group is our spiritual transformation and growth, which we do in community with the help of our group, We need to engage with the Scriptures enough to be moved by it, and this is a good way to organize that engagement.

The Gospel According to Tolkien

Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-earth

(2003)
Ralph C. Wood

Finished Reading: 11.2009

This is a summary of Tolkien's work, seen through the lens of Christianity. The story can be read and enjoyed without this monocle, but the lens provides some different color. Ralph Wood explores Tolkien's creation story (as beautifully told in the Silmarillion), wrestles with the reality of evil, the insistence of good to overcome evil, the redemption of sins, and finally an interesting parallel of the after-life (from The Debate of Finrod and Andreth, which I have not read). In addition to these sources, the author draws heavily from all three volumes of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and various other published histories of Middle-earth.

The Gospel is the fulfillment and completion of all other stories, and the Kingdom can be seen in many places, often in simple clothing, not easily noticed. The author argues that Tolkien's work is influenced by his Christian faith, though The Lord of the Rings is not an allegory with a one to one connection (such as is the case with his contemporary, C.S. Lewis' story of Aslan the Lion playing the part of Jesus Christ in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). Rather, the author explores how Middle-earth is a pre-Christian culture that can exist within the framework of historical Christianity. My interpretation of this is that, since there are no Jews in these stories to have received revelation from God (as the chosen people did before the coming of Christ), the Elves, Hobbits and Men of these stories would have their own explanations for what is going on in the world around them, and it is totally conceivable that some future traveler might show up one day from a far away land to link the Gospel to all their experiences.

Much like the Aztecs or Mayans who had no direct connection with the ancient Jewish culture, though they shared a time and a planet, God was yet at work in all peoples. Middle-earth recognizes that there is a God, but doesn't quite know how he works. This shows that God's love, morals, and peace can still be known without direct knowledge of Jesus and his saving work on the cross. Just as the ancient mezzo-American cultures had a spiritual and religious life that isn't nearly Christian, Middle-earth was doing it's own thing the only way it knew how; but the author argues that it can be seen as being closer to Christianity than one would guess at first glance.

Examples of Good and Evil and the Redemption of sin can be found throughout the stories. Frodo is continuously merciful to Gollum. The resurrection of Gandalf was a sacrifice to save the others in the Fellowship. The promise of the coming kingship is realized in Aragorn. Balrogs and Ringwraiths have turned to evil, abandoning any good that once may have been to follow something "precious."

What happens after death is not well-established in Tolkien's major works. Elves are immortal and don't think much on death, but Men are meant to die after a short time on Earth. The Elves can return to the Undying Lands of Valinor (which seems to parallel heaven in some ways) but an after-life for Men is not understood (save "going to join one's Fathers"). In the last chapter of Wood's book, he references an interesting, though little known Tolkien story called The Debate of Finrod and Andreth, where the title characters, one an Elf the other a Man have a conversation about the after-life. He alludes that this story contains the strongest ties in Middle-earth to a Christian after-life, with Men having eternal souls and speaking of knowing God (Illuvitar) who is incarnated and descends bodily to Middle-earth in the "Consummation of All Things," which sounds a lot like the End Times. From the point of view of Tolkien's major works, this idea is seen as a Christian-like hope for a life beyond the present.

In some ways this book is academic and dry as the author searches to find and rationalize what he is looking for in the text. Often the obvious is stated, but perhaps for good points. To learn more about a beloved masterpiece of literature through a new lens is interesting and educational but the best opinions are perhaps given wings on the soaring pages of fantasy.

The Joyful Christian

(1977)
C.S. Lewis

Finished Reading: 09.2009

This collection of short readings is taken from the wide shelf whereon the written works of C.S. Lewis are found and is best read as a devotional. The short chapters are best digested slowly on a range of topics both spiritual and social. Over several months, I picked up The Joyful Christian between my other readings, and felt it was a good forum for a quick discussion in my heart. I have reproduced the section below which seemed to strike me as most important at the time encountered, though it is far from representative of the usual entries Lewis offers a thought on. More often are seen tidings on Morality, Prayer, Pride and Pain. The following reading is found on pages 203-205.

Christmas and Xmas

Christmas cards in general and the whole vast commercial drive called "Xmas" are one of my pet abominations; I wish they could die away and leave the Christian feast unentangled. Not of course that even secular festivities are, on their own level, an evil; but the labored and organized jollity of this - the spurious childlikeness - the half-hearted and sometimes rather profane attempts to keep up some superficial connection with the Nativity - are disgusting.

Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn't go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merrymaking and hospitality. If it were my business to have a "view" on this, I should say that I much approve of merrymaking. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyones business.

I mean of course the commercial racket. The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him in Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers. Neither of these circumstances is in itself a reason for condemning it. I condemn it on the following grounds.

1. It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure. You have only to stay over Christmas with a family who seriously try to "keep" it (in its third, or commercial, aspect) in order to see that the thing is a nightmare. Long worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry making; much less (if they should want to) to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.

2. Most of it is involuntary. The modern rule is that anyone can force you to give him a present by sending you a quite unprovoked present of his own. It is almost a blackmail. Who has not heard the wail of despair, and indeed of resentment, when, at the last moment, just as everyone hoped that the nuisance was over for one more year, the unwanted gift from Mrs. Busy (whom we hardly remember) flops unwelcomed through the letter-box, and back to the dreadful shops one of us has to go?

3. Things are given as presents which no mortal ever bought for himself - gaudy and useless gadgets, "novelties" because no one was ever fool enough to make their like before. Have we really no better use for materials and for human skill and time than to spend them on all this rubbish?

4. The nuisance. For after all, during the racket we still have all our ordinary and necessary shopping to do, and the racket trebles the labor of it.

We are told that the whole dreary business must go on because it is good for trade. It is in fact merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition of our country, and indeed of the world, in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things. I don't know the way out. But can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers? If the worst come to the worst I'd sooner give them money for nothing and write it off as a charity. For nothing? Why, better for nothing than a nuisance.

A Visual History of the English Bible

The Tumultuous Tale of the World's Best Selling Book

(2008)

Donald L. Brake

Finished Reading: 06.2009

Not only is this Visual History of the English Bible a fascinating tale recounting the slow transformation of God's word from rolled parchment to illuminated manuscript to printed book; it is the relating of History itself - told from a unique perspective not centered on war or politics as is often the case, but rather, on the world as seen through the lens of God's sovereign will to reveal his truth through man's devotion, faith and love.

Prior to reading, I thought I knew a little about church history, but it turns out I only knew a little. This book is rich in providing the back story of how the great leaders of the faith, such as Luther and Calvin, were able to rise to their tasks with the printed Bible in hand. It wasn't always available for the hand that would seek it, though we take it for granted in our modern age of online book ordering and bookstores on every corner (OK, I wish there was a bookstore on every corner).

Interwoven with bloody stories of sacrifice and martyrdom are the personal tales of Donald Brake and his search for rare Bibles to add to his impressive collection, often purchased in England. Little did the translators know that their dangerous work would one day be sought after by this collector. There is no lack of promoting the overextending of ones purchasing power to indulge in an expensive collection. Not being a collector of anything rare or noteworthy, it is hard for me to appreciate this enterprise. However, I am a lover of a great many books and my library shelves grow slowly with the cheapest "quality copies" that I can find, preferring older hardcovers to paperbacks.

I realized I have inadvertently begun a Bible collection of my own. My oldest Bible belonged to my grandfather Walter, a King James Version presented to him by his Aunt Edith in 1935 at his confirmation. Also passed down to me are two Service Testaments from WWII, and a Service Prayer Book, which he carried in that war. I also have a Revised Standard Version that belonged to my father Craig, dated 1970; given to him by his parents. I have added my own Bible to that shelf; A New American Standard was presented to me by my Junior High School for achievement in verse memorization, in 1995.

In addition to providing a stepping stone for me to consider my own Bible collection, Brake's book interested me in the history of the English Monarchy as well as the status of various current Bible translations, both of which I subsequently researched for more information. It seems this book is a gateway to a great many thoughts, surely a distinction of a successful publication. I was unaware of the involvement various Monarchs played in approving or disapproving translations at a whim, sometimes resulting in the death of those who chose to favor the Bishop's Bible over the King James Bible, for example. I was also under-informed of the full force with which the Catholic Church used the ignorance of the "man behind the plow" to hold him in its power. It was the very printing of the Bible in a language that the common man could understand that fueled the Reformation and gave birth to the Protestant faith.

The various translations of the Bible have become like "teams," with one person favoring the NIV and another preferring the NASB. I was a little disappointed that Brake doesn't devote many lines to my personal favorite, the English Standard Version (ESV). Of course it hasn't even been in print for a decade yet, and no blood was spilt over it's introduction, so it's history has yet to be written.

The Sins of the Fathers

Raising kids in a same-sex union

(June 22, 2009 Newsweek)
Lisa Miller

Finished Reading: 06.2009

As the Religion Editor of Newsweek magazine, Lisa Miller often pokes at Christianity with a long stick, thinking she pats it firmly on the shoulder. Often, metal armor is required. In her recent piece on same sex adopting couples, she brings up a dilemma confronting prospective same sex parents. The issue is that some same sex couples want to raise their children with religion, but how do they reconcile their homosexuality with a religion that doesn't recognize their role as parents?

Miller hints that some might find it puzzling that homosexuals would even want to be a part of the church, and in particular she writes about the Catholic Church. Obviously comfortable with their lifestyle, these homosexuals are trying to find an entitled place in a religion that doesn't take comfort in them, and which they do not understand. She references a gay man who is proud to see his children baptized in the Catholic Church. He is proud to see his daughter take Holy Communion, and the sight is to him a beauty and a joy. He is likewise proud of his homosexuality.

I applaud not he, but the Catholic adoption agency that chose to shut its doors rather than comply with mandatory non-discrimination laws regarding same sex parent adopting rights. This organization could not reconcile the civil law with God's law, and chose wisely the higher authority. Less wise is the choice of ignorant homosexuals who don't recognize that their problem with the church and homosexuality is that they are sinners who embrace their sin. But Christianity is to follow Christ; it is not the all-inclusive feel good club of Me. If they would embrace a new life in Christ, there need be no confliction. Then again, this article reminds us that there is a vast divide between religion and true faith, as the name of Jesus isn't even mentioned once. At least Miller got her title right.

Let us not seek for what we can get the Church to do, but rather let us seek after Jesus.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

from 2 Corinthians chapter 5

The Reason For God

Belief In An Age of Skepticism

(2008)

Timothy Keller

Finished Reading: 03.2009

This book explores the most common reasons why people do not believe in God. While not attempting to prove that God exists through reason alone, Keller shows that most logical arguments against God don't actually work if we follow through with them, fully working out the logic. The skeptic usually goes into pondering the existence of God, not wanting there to be a God, and so he can reason anything against it. The author wants us to consider faith outside of science and what is provable, whether our skepticism is based on direct reasoning against God or ignorant doubts. This book is relevant to Christians because it is good to ask hard questions about what we believe, as we should not choose our beliefs and then not think upon them again.

Split into two sections, the book begins with seven chapters describing common claims against Christianity, and ends with seven chapters of claims for the truth of God. Following are my comments on some of the ideas presented.

There is a new kind of young Christian emerging particularly in cities, with whom I identify. This type of Christian does not feel a strong affiliation with a traditional mainline denomination, perhaps one reason being that he does not view the world in as black and white a fashion as his parents and grandparents traditionally did, separating their Christian world from the rest of the world, creating a Christian bubble. This type of Christian cares about the world as the one world it is, inhabited with different kinds of people; not two separate worlds in which one we cling to and one we shun. Keller recalls, when first struggling to grasp in his own life, that, "(t)he people most passionate about social justice were moral relativists, while the morally upright didn't seem to care about the oppression going on all over the world (xii). The Christianity he was presented didn't click with him.

The new, fast-spreading multi ethnic orthodox Christianity in the cities is much more concerned about the poor and social justice than Republicans have been, and at the same time much more concerned about upholding classic Christian moral and sexual ethics than Democrats have been (xx)." These Christians don't fit in the traditional molds that have been carved out of the last century and are looking for something new.

Keller makes important points that I agree with, such as:

"Most people in our culture believe that, if there is a God, we can relate to him and go to heaven through leading a good life....Christianity teaches the very opposite....Jesus does not tell us how to live so we can merit salvation. Rather, he comes to forgive and save us through his life and death in our place. God's grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and acknowledge their need for a Savior (19)."

"If you have known many wise, loving, kind, and insightful Christians over the years, and if you have seen churches that are devout in belief yet civic-minded and generous, you will find the intellectual case for Christianity much more plausible. If, on the other hand, the preponderance of your experience is with nominal Christians (who bear the name but don't practice it) or with self-righteous fanatics, then the arguments for Christianity will have to be extremely strong for you to concede that they have any cogency at all (52)."

"It is often the case that people whose lives have been harder and who are 'lower on the character scale' are more likely to recognize their need for God and turn to Christianity (54)."

"In short, hell is simply one's freely chosen identity apart from God on a trajectory into infinity (78). All God does in the end with people is give them what they most want, including freedom from himself... (C.S.) Lewis writes: ...All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice it wouldn't be Hell (79)."

"Imagine two people arguing over the nature of a cookie. Jack thinks the cookie is poison, and Jill thinks it is not. Jack thinks Jill's mistaken view of the cookie will send her to the hospital or worse. Jill thinks Jack's mistaken view of the cookie will keep him from having a fine desert. Is Jack more narrow-minded than Jill just because he thinks the consequences of her mistake are more dire? I don't believe anyone would think so. Christians, therefore, aren't more narrow minded because they think wrong thinking and behaviour have eternal effects (81)."

"If there is no God, then there is no way to say any one action is 'moral' and another 'immoral' but only 'I like this.'... if there is no God, then all moral statements are arbitrary, all moral valuations are subjective and internal, and there can be no external moral standard by which a person's feelings and values are judged (153-4). If you believe human rights are a reality, then it makes much more sense that God exists than that he does not. If you insist on a secular view of the world and yet you continue to pronounce some things right and some things wrong, then I hope you see the deep disharmony between the world your intellect has devised and the real world (and God) that your heart knows exists (156)."

"If you don't live for Jesus, you will live for something else. If you live for career and you don't do well, you will feel like a failure. If you live for your children and they don't turn out all right you could be absolutely in torment because you feel worthless as a person. If Jesus is your center and Lord and you fail him, he will forgive you. (172)."

Green Martyrdom and the Christian Engagement of Late Capitalism

(2008)

Rodney Clapp

Clapp, Rodney. "Green Martyrdom and the Christian Engagement of Late Capitalism." Cultural Encounters - A Journal For The Theology Of Culture Volume 4 / Number 1 (2008): 7-20.

Finished Reading: 02.2009

Rodney Clapp asserts that consumerism is desire for desires sake, and we are addicted to centering too much of our life on obtaining our desires, which are unfulfillable. Consumer capitalism demands that we make consumption our way of life, our ritual, and our spiritual satisfaction. It pretends to be a comprehensive view of life, where there is nothing beyond obtaining and acquiring.

In America, every single day of the year is a consuming holiday, and the day after an actual holiday is the first day leading up to the next holiday. The day after Thanksgiving kicks off the Christmas shopping season with huge sales! (buy! buy! buy!) Later, when we have settled down to our normal lives after the holidays, Valentines Day populates the countenance of our storefronts, screaming red and flowers and candy! Valentines Day wouldn't be anything to speak of outside the consumerist structure which has been created to take advantage of, ironically, the ancient celebration of St. Valentine, a Christian who was killed and martyred for his faith oh so long ago. We have made consumerism important because we want it to be important, perhaps subliminally covering up what these ancient holidays were really about.

A martyr is someone who endures great suffering on behalf of a belief or principle. If only St. Valentine knew what we were suffering for him. There are no martyrs in consumer capitalism, just as surely as there is no crying in baseball. Baseball players are supposed to be tough as nails, and consumers are supposed to spend money on things they don't need. That's how it goes. Subsistence living is viewed as inferior to the vision of the good life depicted in all desire-based advertising, or as you might call it, "advertising." Theologian Kevin Vanhoozer asks, "Could it be that we do not understand martyrs in our postmodern era because we cannot fathom what it is to be convicted of and committed to the truth?" Too often truth is whatever sells. Does Jesus sell?

Consumerism has been incorporated into American Christianity, and Rodney Clapp argues that, "Christ is not a pleasant add-on or option to an unending array of consumerist products and experiences," as many have come to believe. Christ is often seen only as a way for me to get what I want.

Clapp suggests a society, specifically within the church, that purposefully moves away from consumerism, thinking on our consumption of the environment, our finances, and time. This is green martyrdom: to sacrifice our apparent entitlement to obtain, which we have been reaching for as much of as we can get our hands on, at whatever the costs. We first need to be able to understand martyrdom, which starts with thinking outside ourselves.

I know we used to have martyrs around because now we have a lot of holidays to forget them by. There used to be heroes, too. Now we have celebrities. Celebrities exist for our consumption. We don't want to be like them, the real them, we just crave their attention and their phat rims. Heroes are to be honored and revered for some great deed, but they are far above the common people and we don't really try to be like them, we just look up to them.

Conversely, martyrs are to be emulated, but not for something they have done or something they have, but because the life of a martyr points to something greater than themselves, unlike every other instance of fame, which points inwards at itself. The martyr lives outside himself, and Rodney Clapp makes five strong points to illustrate what a green martyr is, comparatively less committed to the cause as the red martyr who has died for his strongly held beliefs.

1. Green martyrdom means laying the bodies of ourselves and our own on the line for our way of life, rather than making others suffer for it. We should support local economies rather than fight consumptive, distant wars to support our "consumerist way of life," even at the cost of adjusting our standards of living and energy consumption.

2. Green martyrdom means working toward an economy that includes and does not exclude and separate or hide the poor from the rich. We should establish ties with the less economically well off, and integrate rather than get as far away from them as we can. The church needs to involve itself with churches that are less economically well off as well.

3. Green martyrdom means committing our whole selves, body and soul, to church, community, and place for the long haul. We are a society in transit, consuming and moving on. We should commit to a certain place to cultivate relationships and community rather than following consumptive rewards.

4. Green martyrdom means challenging idolatry and naming greed as an acute form of idolatry. We should have conversations about where to draw the line with our greed, which is a sin just as sexual sin is surely wrong.

5. Green martyrdom means admitting the reality of death and living as if we will one day die. We can't take it with us, so we shouldn't try to get more than we need before we die. We shouldn't live our lives for the ultimate end of averting our suffering, for that is futile.

A life lived in this manner doesn't necessarily point to God, as some people can find other reasons for their moral choices, but Christians should recognize that we cannot possibly turn fully towards the good God of the Bible unless we turn fully away from consuming ourselves.

The Great Divorce

(1945)
C.S. Lewis

Finished Reading: 02.2009

In this creative story depicting the great separation between heaven and hell, the divide between God and sinners, Lewis explores the idea of the "Refrigerium," or holiday from hell. I was not familiar with this term before reading the book, but apparently it is said that those in hell are given a chance to leave for a short time, mostly choosing to visit Earth and appearing as ghosts or various haunting apparitions. The Great Divorce begins with a group of regular people waiting at a bus stop in hell. Upon boarding the bus, which is magical and flies, the passengers are taken up into heaven where most are incredibly scared out of their minds, and only a few wish to stay.  Those that want no part of heaven hurry back to the bus for the return trip to hell.

In hell, it is always raining and twilight, with the darkness ever looming. The unnamed narrator boards the bus and we follow him on his journey to heaven. Before he arrives, he meets a few people on the bus with whom he has short conversations. One man explains how the grey town that they just left is so bland and horrible because people quarrel with one another which leads them to move away from their disagreeable neighbors. Each quarreler moves his home further and further away, with no one ever moving any closer to where they started, and so the whole town is a sprawl that goes on for millions of miles. This sounds like horrible city planning to me and an accurate depiction of sinners moving further and further from Christ, which leads them deeper into hell and no nearer to the bus stop.

Upon arriving in heaven, where it is perpetually dawn and the sky is so much larger than can be imagined by comparison on Earth, the bus passengers step out and marvel at how very bright it is. The narrator notices that everything is so much more real here, and that the bus passengers appear now as ghosts, somewhat transparent. He then notices that the people don't seem any less real than they did before, though he can see right through them, but rather this new place is more real and more solid in a way previously unimaginable. The grass is hard as diamonds and hurts their ghost feet, tree leafs are unattainably heavy to lift, and there is a general fear of the rain, for if it begins to rain the ghosts will be pierced with many holes as if from a machine gun. Further, the ghosts are able to walk on the very hard water in the river, but are swept away and hurt by its power.

The narrator begins to walk around and explore this fascinating and dangerous place, observing encounters between ghosts and the Solid People, those who are of this place. Mostly these meetings are prearranged, with a Solid Person coming to meet a ghost who has just arrived from the bus. One such Solid Person is a murderer who is humble and regrets his wrong choices, and has repented. He has come to meet a ghost friend who can't believe that a murderer is in heaven and not he, since he lived a good moral life. Another ghost comes along who doesn't think we should be punished for our beliefs, no matter what they are, as long as we truly believed them, thinking all is relative and there is no real truth.

A man stealthily tries to steal some apples from a large tree, but struggles against their immense weight. He wanted to take many, but is unable to take any and sneaks off hoping no one noticed his failed attempt. He is rebuked by an angel. Another man is very disappointed in what he sees in this place, thinking heaven is not what he had hoped for, and does not think that his talents can be of any use here, or that there is anything that heaven can do for him.

A vain woman thinks only of her image and cannot stand to be seen as a ghost, so see-through. She is very ashamed. There is a grumbling lady, and a sex-seeking lady, and an artist who marvels at the beauty of heaven but wishes to return to hell because they don't need artists to paint the beautiful landscape in heaven when all can just look at the beautiful landscape for themselves. He, as so many of the others, wants to be where he is needed, placing value in his self-worth over absolute beauty and love.

One woman complains about her husband and doesn't even want to see him, and another woman wants very badly to see her son - but he doesn't show up. She has placed all her value in him. He is her identity and she would rather have him with her in hell than know he is happy up in the mountains of heaven. Another man has a lizard living on his shoulder, which is controlling his life. He doesn't want to get rid of it, but finally agrees to let an angel kill it, and when the lizard is dead the man is finally free. Transforming into a Solid Person, he rides off into the mountains.

There is a grand celebration for a beautiful and saintly woman who truly lived a life filled with the love of Christ. Everyone she came in contact with on Earth was affected by His love. In the midst of the celebrating, she meets her husband who is a shrivelled dwarf, and he can't believe she had joy in her life after he had died. He doesn't understand that her joy comes from Jesus. He wanted her to be broken and distraught from the separation of death. He wanted her to value him above all else. 

George MacDonald shows up and talks with our narrator for some time, answering many of his questions. (I am unfamiliar with this man,  but apparently he was a Scottish minister and writer that Lewis admired). MacDonald explains that to those who choose to stay in heaven, hell was not really hell at all, but rather purgatory. Those in hell have always been there, and those in heaven have always been there. The Solid People of heaven live to go higher and higher up into the mountains (which I take to be where Christ is,) but some stay down on the great plain where the has bus stopped, for the very purpose of trying to save the souls that arrive. He explains that hell is just a crack in the floor of heaven, small as an atom, and no one from heaven can go down to hell, except Jesus who once did, but those from down in hell who do come up for a visit always find something lacking and hurry back to the dark crack, despite the goodness they observe in heaven.

"For a damned soul is nearly nothing: it is shrunk, shut up in itself. Good beats upon the damned incessantly as sound waves beat on the ears of the deaf, but they cannot receive it. Their fists are clenched, their teeth are clenched, their eyes fast shut. First they will not, in the end they cannot, open their hands for gifts, or their mouths for food, or their eyes to see." (ch13)

In the end, the narrator sees that everything in life is just chess pieces on a game board on the great table of time. He then sees the perpetual dawn turn into a rising sun and his ghostly body is destroyed by the blinding light, blasted into oblivion! He awakes from his dream.

This is an excellent analysis of the human condition for sin and the various forms sin takes that keep sinners from wanting to be in heaven. Many people think that everyone wants to be in heaven and it is cruel of God to send some people to hell. What these people want is in hell, because they have no interest in Jesus. Lewis reminds us that while all are offered an outstretched hand (or bus ride), few take it. Few wanted to take the bus ride, and of those that did, even fewer liked what they saw and wanted to stay. Most moved as far away from the bus stop as possible, making it near impossible to catch a bus. Public transportation saves. We must turn fully away from ourselves in order to turn fully to God. 

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened." (ch.9)

I'm not sure of how the depictions of heaven and hell line up with life on Earth. Does life on Earth come completely before either the grey town of hell or the green plain and mountains of heaven? Are all characters in this story dead, and this is the afterlife, or is life intertwined with death and those in hell are living there and the Solid People are saved Christians in heaven - saved though not yet dead? Is the mountain where they go when they have died, and the plain is where they are while still alive, ministering to the sinning ghosts? This would explain why no one comes down from the mountain, and why the people from hell are able to ride the bus to see what the fuss is all about. They are hearing the Gospel and choose to accept or deny it. Perhaps the sunrise at the end is the coming of Christ, at which time it is too late for any ghost. Or perhaps that is just his individual death.

"There is but one good, that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to him and bad when it turns from him." (ch.11)

Blue Like Jazz

NonReligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

(2003)
Donald Miller

Finished Reading: 02.2009

Most of this book is set in Portland, Oregon. I feel an exciting connection to the people and places described, which is sort of weird. Stumptown Coffee. Pioneer Courthouse Square. Powell's Books. Mark the Cussing Pastor. Tony the Beat Poet.

Donald Miller tells of his growth in Christianity and the struggle between what he has known the religion to be and what he wants his relationship with Jesus to be. He values solid theology and loves Jesus, but wants it to be OK to disagree with the Republican party and hang out with gay people. He wants to be involved in a local church, but also spend time on a secular college campus loving people who hate God; doing things the American church traditionally shys away from.

He doesn't claim to have the math of Jesus all figured out, but he loves Him and wants to obey Him. We learn along with the author as he struggles between the culture of the church and the culture of the world, asking hard questions while smoking pipes and seeking truth from people with tattoos. He makes friends with people different from himself, deep friends who come from different backgrounds, with various problems and differing philosophies. This is a journey that we can relate to because it is real life, not just church life -just like our life. Christianity is like jazz, not like math.

"There are some guys who don't believe in God and can prove he doesn't exist, and some other guys who do believe in God and can prove He does exist, and the argument stopped being about God a long time ago, and honestly, I don't care. I don't believe I will ever walk away from God for intellectual reasons. If I walk away from Him, I will walk away for social reasons, identity reasons, deep emotional reasons, the same reasons that any of us do anything."

Right away in the first few chapters I notice this book reads a lot like J.D. Salinger's Catcher In The Rye. Quick sentences. Rambling thoughts. A lot of interesting information gets into your head really fast. He changes subjects quickly too. Sometimes it makes sense. Sometimes it doesn't. I think this is the way I really think, inside my brain. 

I came to the realization that Miller is not using the word and. This explains the short sentences. I enjoy reading this style of writing, but I didn't know how to describe it until just now. I didn't know what the structure was. As soon as I realized this, I looked very carefully for the next use of the word and. I found it over a whole page later! Maybe a page and a quarter even. Who writes for a whole page without using and? Of course you have to use and now and then. I paid attention to this for the rest of the chapter. Once he writes two pages without using and. By the time I finished the book, however, I noticed that he either stopped using this style or I just got used to it and didn't notice anymore. 

I don't know if I have ever laughed out loud so often while reading a Christian book, as while reading Blue Like Jazz. Miller is just so real. He feels like me. I think we would be friends. In the middle of some very deep, mystical, profound truth or life changing moment, he observes humor in how he is feeling or how he feels he is perceived by others. These moments and feelings are always present during our deep thoughts, but are not usually expressed - simply shrugged off as getting in the way of the point we are trying to make. 

The lines that I think are most funny don't seem quite as funny outside the flow of the text. They aren't jokes, they are just whimsical side observations. While having a quiet moment out in nature, alone with his thoughts and searching for God, Miller calls out to the sky but the stars are silent. He notes that the nearby river is speaking "some vernacular for fish." He calls out again. "Nothing from the stars. Fish language from the river." This doesn't lessen the moment, but makes it more real.