Book Review: Fictional Religion: Keeping the New Testament New

Abstract

Fictional Religion: Keeping New Testament New. By Jamie Spencer. Salem, OR: Polebridge Press, 2011. ISBN 9781598150322. Pp. viii + 154. $18.00. Jamie Spencer has written slim volume of reflections on intersections between Christian teachings in New Testament and literature and among eclectic mix of poems, stories, and novels that are focus of his eleven chapters (Introduction plus nine chapters and an Interlude). Spencer sometimes leaves reader wanting fuller reading of chosen, and his textual pairings are bewildering at first (e.g., Macbeth and Faulkner's short story Barn Burning? Paradise Lost and Goldings novel The Inheritors?). But Spencer's argument that literature continually reinterprets and expands New Testament is certainly well supported by he has chosen and might lead readers to test it further with their own examples. In his Introduction, Spencer establishes three basic premises. The first, he says, is widely agreed upon: the books of New Testament are not infallible Word of God, unlike written-in-stone (as it were) books of Old Testament (1). Rather, they are the inspired words of devout and humble writers, and as such texts were in state of flux during faith's early (1). This leads Spencer to his central proposition: New Testament is still being created and recreated as part of flexible tradition that has been continued throughout Christian era [by] vibrant legion of playwrights, poets, and story (1). The evolution of Christian doctrine is not sole provenance of theologians. Creative literary artists reinterpret narratives of New Testament for each successive culture and era (2). Thus, Spencer elevates writers--even those not consciously focusing on religious themes--to level of Church fathers. In his initial testing of his hypothesis, Spencer reads Dickens' A Christmas Carol as narrative parallel to Christ's parable of Prodigal Son, as told in Gospel of Luke, likening elder son's grateful return to his father's house to Scrooge's revelations on Christmas morning. Both stories culminate in rebirth of sinners and a festive celebration (3). Citing biblical scholars Robert Alter (7he Art of Biblical Narrative, 1981) and Arthur Dewey (Professor of Religion at Xavier University), Spencer launches chronological survey of great writers as they reach for, discover, and transmit profound insights into human condition, insights as poignant and definitive as those created with an explicit theological and missionary agenda (5). Spencer begins with Geoffrey Chaucer, representative of late medieval orthodoxy, although his spirit is extraordinarily humane (7). This fundamental paradox is reflected in pilgrims of The Canterbury Tales, since some are motivated to take their Lenten journey by honest faith, while others have more profane desires (9). Spencer's focus is Wife of Bath, is clearly creature more of flesh than faith (9). Her Prologue shows that she has been exposed to Christian Scriptures, especially Pauline doctrine on virginity and marriage, but she misinterprets them to suit her own purposes--her desire for sexual satisfaction. The moral of her Tale is given by old hag in her bedroom lecture, the voice of Christ, who preaches value of humility (16). But Wife fails to hear that message and instead uses hag's transformation to justify her assertion of power or mastery in marriage. Spencers reading, though certainly astute, seems to forget that Chaucer is completely enamored with his very human Wife, perhaps first female character in literature who is frankly sexual but not condemned for it. Next, Spencer moves forward two centuries to Shakespeare. He argues that Macbeth illustrates political message of Christ that Kingdom of God must be founded on a determined commitment to godly life of mercy and justice (17) and to of God and love of neighbor (18). …