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Those kind people at Zondervan sent me a copy of Jesus for President to review, so here goes…
I regard this as one of the best, most challenging and thought provoking books around at the moment. Despite it’s American target audience (we don’t have a president here – yet) this makes great reading for any reader, as its themes are universal.
This is unlikely to look like any book you have ever read before, it’s got nearly as much in common with a graphic novel as it has with a standard text book. The best comparison I can give, and it is quite inappropriate really given the anti consumerist approach of the authors, is with a Howies clothing catalogue. It has that same earthy, lived in, thoughtful, artistic and engaging feel, but thankfully without the pictures of models wearing expensive clothes.
Put simply, this has got to be one of the most beautifully designed books on the market – working with the writing, the design emphasises the creative, radical spirit of the text, and the provocative joy of the authors. Quite rightly the designers, Holly and Ryan Sharp, are credited at the end of the book along with the writers. The colour is full throughout the book, with design elements interacting with the text throughout, which adds immensely to the value of the content. If you liked the look of ‘Irresistible Revolution’ then this is a quantum leap forward, like as if the publishers suddenly realised what this thing was all about…
In some ways it reminds me of an illuminated manuscript, from back in the day of monkishness, when religious texts were coloured and illustrated by devoted scholars. This fits with the fact that the authors are part of the new monastic movement – and perhaps this could be seen as the contemporary equivalent.
But aside from a fantastic design job – what does the latest offering from our dreadlocked brother actually contain? Well first point to make, there are very clearly two voices audible in this book. Claiborne and Haw have coinciding views, but different emphases, or perhaps just different experiences, which while bringing occasional difficulties to the academic niceties of the text, actually helps lend weight to this book. Actually – if you count the design, then add in one or two more voices as well.
Written throughout in easily digestible chunks, the book begins as a dissection of a theme of radical God politics which the authors show running through the bible. It sidetracks through stories of friends, writings of early Christians and reflections on current affairs.
It’s a book of stories, parables, and prophecy, it is not supposed to be a tome, or a text book, or a prize winning essay – this is a work of love, an object of discussion, a catalyst (for want of a less clichéd term) for renewed engagement with the themes, and an encouragement to live a different way.
Rather than taking an easy option, such as a single standpoint, of a Christian anarchy for example, or an anti war vote, Claiborne and Haw manage to turn the whole idea around, arguing for a radical Christian engagement with politics and society in a way that is at once submissive and subversive. American voters wanting to know who the writers say they should vote for, will find themselves left with the same choices, but hopefully looking at them through new, or perhaps ancient lenses. I suspect also that this will help many bring a new creativity to their decision making.
Pacifism and anti (or non) consumerism are key themes, but they each form only part of the overall principal argument, which is to see God’s people as a people set apart by God, called to live another way, and to follow only one leader. It critiques the philosophy that one can serve God, and walk in the way of the world.
This clarion call to a subversive and renewed people of God is a creative and stimulating read – it’s not without its problems, one cant help thinking that if Claiborne authors another book, he will have come close to being part of the system which he so clearly wants to work against, but at the same time, I like many others would be happy to read anything he writes. One might also question how the authors can happily work with others such as Jim Wallis who argue for a more conventional approach to politics… clearly McLaren is not the only one with a generous orthodoxy these days.
Some readers may find biblical references to apocryphal books troubling or confusing, I don’t, in fact I like it. Some factual discrepancies may exist within the text, (numbers of dead in Iraq, or etc) but these are minor when looked at in context, and can be put down to the issue of dual authorship.
It’s a beautiful, peaceful, challenging, affirming, prophetic, subversive and creative book, well worth reading, sharing, mulling over… likely to become a classic.
Links:
I was really annoyed this morning when the Today program did a piece on ‘ex punk rocker turned artist’ Paul Simonon. I really like the Today program, but this was a really shallow piece, which portrayed Simonon as some kind of johnny come lately painter, moving from music to art.
The truth is, (and its not hard to find) that Simonon, who is a really great painter, has been painting for a long long time, and was an artist before he was ever a musician.
I dont suppose he is bothered, as it just means more people will come to the exhibition, but it annoyed me - poor research, very poor.
I know I’m a bit of a Clash fan-boy, but all the same, I think I would have been annoyed anyhow. Grumble grumble.
There was a decent interview with Simonon in the Guardian the other week. Here’s a link.
there’s an interesting graphic novel thang going on over at Ken Raney’s website. Each week there is a new episode of the novel Forever Quest, being uploaded - for free!
Raney and his wife are a top writer/illustrator team, and the forever quest story certainly doesnt lack charm in terms of either text or illustrations.
There is something of the old school childrens book about the whole thing, with a live stuffed panda called Theodore… well you can see what I mean… right?
Well worth checking out though, I particularly like the artwork which is very british, and makes a pleasant change from much of the manga styled stuff around. This is not a graphic novel as I know them though, much more of an illustrated book - which is fine, great in fact, not really a graphic novel though.
You can read a bit of stuff about the project on this handy pdf! fq-launch-news-release.pdf
Talking of graph novels btw, and thinking of manga, I saw the gn version of stormbreaker in a shop today, it’s a year old I know, but I havent seen it before, and it looks great, its illustrated in the manga style by two Japanese sisters, one in London, one in Tokyo… puts south Wales to Grimsby to shame…
I skived off work for half an hour last night, and another half an hour tonight - to watch the dvd of Lets Rock Again, which charts the way the late great Joe Strummer plugged that fantastic album Global A Go-go, which by the way you’ve got to listen to if you havent heard it.
The film cuts footage of Joe and the Mescaleros, with coverage of Joe chatting with people, it reminded me of the staged chats he has in the movie Rude Boy - this time its for real though.
I’ve admired Joe since I was a young teenager, he had something about him - the Clash were a group which was greater than the sum of its parts - but each of the individuals were wonderful too, and in my book Joe was particularly brilliant.
Joe Strummer, aka John Mellor 1952 - 2002
To see him in this film, I got a real impression again of what a genuine, amazingly humble, yet real ballsy guy he was.
You see him taking his cap in his hand, going to little radio stations to plug his album, talking about how he just wants to make the album break even, there’s a heartbreaking scene as he tried to talk his way into one radio station which goes something like this:
“Hi, it’s Joe Strummer, can I come in?
…. (someone speaks on the other end of the phone)
“My name is Joe Strummer, I’m a singer, could I come in to talk about the show we’re doing in town tonight?
….
“Well, I used to be in the Clash, so I guess its rock music…”
With each step he seemed to become smaller, eventually having to play the Clash card, which he was so obviously desperate not to. Its as if he’s saying, ‘please just recognise me for who I am now, not what band I used to be in!’
Another scene shows him writing out flyers to hand out to pedestrians in an American city. He then goes out to the street, and we see people ignoring him, refusing the flyers, and failing to recognise who he is… what a humiliating experience for one of the greatest rock and roll writers and performers of all time.
The film did nothing but strengthen my admiration for Joe, and its particularly poignant to note that he died later in the same year the film was shot, 2002.
Joe was a prophet, and a psalmist, a spiritual and spirited man, a tragic figure, a heroic figure, a fan of world music, flawed, a runner, an icon, and perhaps above all a very human man.
What lessons do we take away from this film? 1) To recognise that those you think are strong and succesful are often struggling to keep their heads above water too.
2) To persist, if even Joe Strummer, rock legend, has to work his backside off to promote a great album, then how much more do we have to put effort into raising awareness of what we do.
3) That Joe Strummer was the man people said he was - and its nothing short of a tragedy that he’s not here now.
Joe died the year before my other main musical hero, Johnny Cash, gutted - both of them were in their musical prime.
Music is very important in my life - I listen to it a lot. I grew up without a tv, and hardly watch any now, which is probably one reason I’ve always listened to a lot of music.
For a long time, I have liked music that is known as Ambient music - a variety of stuff, from the Orb to Clannad, to chilled out country rock, to surf music. I like it as a genre, because it manages to encompass many different genres. You might call it the church ofengland of musical genres, if you felt like it. Ironically of course, broad tastes are catholic tastes.
Brian Eno apparently coined the term ‘ambient’ in the early 1970s, saying that ambient music is: “designed to induce calm and space to think”. Some people sayEno is the father of Ambient, but I would say it was around long before him, it just didnt have a name.
A rguably one of the most important figures in the development of Ambient music was John Cage. And it is Cage’s famous/infamous ‘4.33′ that leads me to my point.
Silence.
I heard Eno talk recently about how we are all hyper stimulated. We’re subjected to a continuous barrage of digital and video imagery, constant noise, advertising flashes up all around us, and the most ubiquitous gadgets are all to do with the delivery of sound and image.
The Christian tradition places a huge value on silence. Many of us, I am sure, have been on retreats where we have been simply asked to stay silent for a long period of time. And found that experience generally hard, refreshing and exhilharating simultaneously. (Don’t try to look after kids at the same time - its a nightmare!)
Within the confines of an alternative worship environment silence can be very moving too. We used silence in some meetings we had in January, everybody sat, knelt, lay, walked around, silently in a darkened room - we used images too, and interspersed periods of silence with selected pieces of music. I’m sure that this has been done immeasurably better elsewhere many times, but it was the first time for me.
On reflection the times when the room was just very quiet for a long period were perhaps the most invigorating.
I love ambient music, but I love silence too.
Some people judge the quality of music by its complexity of form, or layers of harmony, in many cases it is the simplicity which makes music so wonderful. Like the power of ‘I’m so bored with the USA’ or ‘Pretty Vacant’, or the simple repetition of a Late Late Service meditation track.
One of the greatest albums of all time, is Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue - its a beautiful album. I recall listening to another of his album ‘Sketches Of Spain’ and being really disappointed because it just didnt have the same wonderful simplicty that Kind Of Blue did. I got over it.
So lets continue to embrace simplicity, it has long been a Christian virtue after all.
And while we’re at it, lets increase our embrace of silence.
It really does induce calm, and provide space to think.
the most excellent Jonathon emailed me the other day…
a pleasanter or more personable chap you couldnt hope to meet.
he likes to rhyme, and is much better at poetry than me - ok thats not saying much, but he really does have a way with pithy little sayings and wordplay.
here’s a little thing he wrote about courage:
Courage
When you’ve been juggling
And it all falls apart
You have to find the balls
To start all over again.
He wrote another about the right to arm bears and bare arms… I’ll save it for another day.
I see that street trickster/ installationist Mark Jenkins is in London with an exhibition - looks like a lot of fun.
His work is highly entertaining, non-permission street installations in particular.
He makes molds of his own body with sellotape, not something I’d like to try to be honest…
I’d love to go to his show though, something of a banksy influence going on there.
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