Believing

It dawned on me afresh last week, when talking to someone struggling with an idea for a book she is writing, that I see the world through ideas for books. I don't think I was trained this way or that there is anything necessarily in my family of origin that would make me see the world as a bunch of stories that need to be told in books, but that is how I see it now. I talk to a people for an hour, and I see a book emerging--either in the story of their life, in the problem they are trying to identify and solve, in the way they might communicate to the world, in a simple and accessible way, what they know. For example, the woman wanted to tell the story of raising an autistic child when she and her husband have three other children. She didn't ask me for advice at first, and I didn't rush in to give it, but as the conversation evolved she began to share some questions she had about "approach" to the material. Immediately it became clear to me what she "ought" to do. That is, because there is already a "genre" of "I raised an autistic kid"-type of story, I mentioned to her that "angle" or "niche" is important. So, we probed for a while and came up with that angle. Then, we talked about how to frame the opening chapter--which to me is crucial in gaining reader attention and trust. Before I knew it she was asking me to read her manuscript. I actually don't know if that is good news, since I have enough to do without taking on other people's books--except, of course, for a fee...

Then, as I was walking around San Diego last week, and as my senses, which were taken away from me in the close air and confined spaces of a professional conference, began to "return" to me, the ideas began to flow again. I went to the San Diego Zoo; and immediately I wanted to write an essay on every living creature I saw--the droopy faces of the orangutans, the lithe leaping of the siamang, the iridiscent shimmer of the Burmese Python. I wanted to stretch out under the shade of the humongous Moreton Bay fig tree and describe the nature of the canopy, extended and extensive trunk and roots, and imagine the stories of the lovers and loners who have gathered under its shade. I wanted to write about each painting I saw in the small but elegant Timken gallery. I would do so using the solitary Bierstadt or Inness to explode the world of Bierstadt and depictions of the American West in the 1860s-1890s or the growth of "industrial America" in the East at the same time. Each painting brought a smile or a pause, as it triggered memories or sometimes just made me stop and gawp.

Back to Ideas

This one day of exploring in San Diego returned me to my way of seeing the world, and so when I ate lunch with a doctor on Wednesday in the airy comfort of a La Jolla eatery, an idea for a book capturing his life's experience formed right away for me. Then, after returning to my home in Oregon and throwing away all the political campaign literature that came while I was gone, I again sat down to think, and my world exploded in ideas. The remainder of this essay tells you about one further idea for a book.

On Adult Faith

Religious faith has been my rather constant companion for the past 40 years. Faith has been anything but a straight journey, however, for me. It might be better to say that my journey of faith in the last 40 years is like Israel's 40 years in the wilderness: a jagged, serpentine course that took a generation when a "modern" traveler might be able to make the distance in a few hours. I have discovered in life that things which come very simply for others, like following directions on a can, are extremely difficult for me, and that things normally difficult for people, like writing a book or expressing a panoply of thoughts in 10,000 words, come easily for me. Faith has been one of the things that has been difficult for me, and I would explore that difficulty in the book. But it wouldn't just be a "struggle with faith" book; indeed, I did that in three books on Job that I wrote. I decided that it would be an exploration of faith through a review of classic faith affirmations. I would look at what the "traditional" or "orthodox" doctrine of this belief is, and then I would explore whther the doctrine makes sense to me in the world of 2008.

Ideas for the ten or eleven tentative chapters of the book flowed easily. Each chapter would be entitled "What do I believe about...." and then the doctrines or affirmations would follow. The first chapter would be "What Do I Believe About God?" In probing this question, I would begin with some "Nicene-type" affirmations about God, then perhaps some other things that come from various confessions or statements from the Bible, and then I would bring my experience and thinking to bear on the issue.

It might be helpful to illustrate the method through chapter 2: "What do I believe about the statement: Christ died for your/my sins?" I would explain what is meant by some "theories" of the atonement, briefly, but then I would zero in on the question of whether the statement "Christ died for me" makes any sense in my world of today. I like to go through a series of questions, such as what is it about Christ's death that helps me out. Is it the death itself? the blood shed? the way he died? Had he died of old age, would his death have been as valuable? How about if he has slipped and sliced open his foot on a rock and bled to death? What is the "sacrificial" implication, then, of the death of Christ for us in 2008? There are tons of other questions that explode from these basic questions.

Other Areas

I would also have chapters on how you read the Bible today (and if that is different from the way you were taught to read it as a younger person); whether the Holy Spirit has some kind of independent existence in your mind from other two members of the Trinity (or if "Trinity" really resonates with you); to what extent the notion of a "Second Coming" makes sense to you anymore; what the "Virgin Birth" meant and means to you; where do you stand on "Sin/Guilt"?; whether debates over predestination/free will have any resonance anymore; whether the notion of "eternal life" makes sense to you; what the nature of evil is in our world (Whether we want to personify an ultimate evil in a Satan-type of figure or not); whether we believe in a region or condition of "Hell," though I guess that could be included in the "eternal life" chapter; whether prayer "works" and has some value, and what that value might be, etc.

The book, then, would be designed for people who are not afraid to ask some questions about what they still believe after all these years.

Conclusion

If there is any message that has been consistent for me over the years it is that very few things in this life continue without changing. Yet, some of the things, while changing, are embraced as fiercely or more so than in earlier days. For example, I think I love my kids as much as I ever did, though the love is now expressed differently, based on where they are, what they can do, etc. But if there is one thing I have also learned, it is that there is little sacredness to things that I was brought up to think as sacred. I was told I would have one career; I have had more careers than the woman at the well has had husbands. I divorced after 24 years of marriage. I left the ministry to do other things (like to go law school). Examining faith, then, is just part of the "territory" of living the life that I have chosen/has fallen to me.

Would such a book interest you? Ah, and then the big question, would you contribute some money so I would have time to write it? Just to easy for you to answer "yes" to the first question... (smile).

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