Movement 102

Txr Nw RurcroH or Ltrr tru EvERvunY
SrucH (SCM Press) is the latestfrom
Don Cupift. lt is unex7ectedly and
unashamedly down'to' ea fth : Cu Pitt
takes the word Life (and all
associated idioms) to demonstrate a
fundamental shift in thinking.
Essentially Cupitt argues that
recently God has disappeared from
everyday speech... but at the same
time "God has been brought down
into, and dispersed into life".
Everyday life has become sacred, we
revel in miracles and revelations.
Living life by preparingfor the afterlife
seems risib/e; eternal life is about
valu i ng the here-a nd - now. H avi ng
deposed of a realist conception of
Go4 Cupitt has s pent years banEin{
on aboutthe need to embrace Being
only to find the sarne message in
everyday speech, using the word 'lifd
instead: Live life to the full.
The idea of an eminentscholar
gettin* excited by and theolotizing on
a phrase like "Get A Life!" is comical.
It is such a crude technique and I
wanted to hate it yet his wntr'nS ls so
eloquent and arguments so
compellint... "0rdinary language is
the best radical theoloEiani he
claims: perhaps, but only if you have
someone of the calibre of Cupittto
interpret it for you.
Ithad to happen sometime.
Barthes has declared The Death of
the Author, Fukiyama the End of
History. And now we have TUE Ero or
Txeorocy. Or to give it its ful/ title - Aro
nrTasx orTHruunc neow Goo (SCM
Press). Theolof,y rvas once
considered Queen ofthe Sciences
and now, for a whole host ofreasons,
is marginalised, apologetic and
unceftain of its future. But George
Pattison is reluctant to see it
rebranded as'religious studieg.
He says rather obviously: "No one
has a view from above any more!
Paftison is against traditionalism and
utopianism, yet seems too immersed
in the estaDlishmentto follow the free
play advocated by Cupift (to whon,
curiously, this book is dedicated). The
solution is dialogue with other
drsciplrnes. Quite wlat kind of
'dialogud is desirab/e is never
explained - a phrase used in the
c/osing pages "lovinglY seeking
wisdom togethe( would have been
welcome a hundred pages earlier. But
Paftison /ikes lrls theology warm,
fuzzy and meaningless. (TW)
fiL)
BOOK REVIEWERS: FTANCCS
Davison, Tom Lusty, TonY
Mc0onell, Tim Woodcock.
James Wood ctaims to read literature religiously. Catherine
Raine wonders if that has to mean being a dogmatic aesthete.
ou t or
cynlclsm
o o
7 o
Essnvs oN LTTERATURE AND BELTEF
av Jnues Wooo (Jouuarnnu Caer)
lT TAKES a dutiful pilgrim to read
JamesWood's book of essaysfrom
cover to cover. His rif,orous prose
often drove me to wild bouts of Crystal
Quest on an old Apple Mac, not to
mention study breaks with the
Waltons and hopetul Blind Date
candidates. Yetthis escaplsm
testi,?es to the religiously critical
intensity of The Broken Estate which
is its stated mission: "For [Virtinia
Woolfl the novel acts relitiously but
peiorms sceptically. I hope that
these essays may do something
si mi la n Wood s devote s twenty- one
chapters of searching analysis to an
equal number of fiction writers,
including Sir Thomas More, Jane
Austen, Herman Melville, lris
Murdoch, John Updike, and Toni
Morrison.
While The Broken Estate is about
reading relitiously its maln purpose is
to reveal a vision of what makes
fiction truly great and therefore
leligiout. Io show hrs hand, I have
teased outthree basic Woodian rules
for writing sublime fiction. First of all,
a masterpiece must strugg/e with the
meaninglessness of existence.
Whetherthe doubtin+ author be
Christian believer or atheist, allWood
asks is that the ln ner torment be
honest, commifted, passionate, never
trivialized with undue irony. Secondly,
authors must stir their readers,
almost mystically, through what they
suggest, not by whatthey say. Finally,
witers must never address readers
directly (gentle reader begone) and
characters shoudPossess a fu,/y
a uto no mous consciousness. Woodb
literary God is a stern deity who
refuses to ease our longingfor
presence. An absent God, like an
absent authon is more real than a
narrative Voice that Persists in
showeingwisdorn on its devotees.
Thus what Wood means by fiction
acting religiously is that it shoud
move the reader deeply but not
provide fundamentallst answers to the
meaningof life.
The Broken Estate's fervent
profundity and clarity are lts most
appealing features. Wood's prophetic
roar can pluck your neves but it never
leaves you indifferent. He grips the
reader! shoulders and forces them to
focus on senten ces that demand
respectful attention. For example:
"Fiction moves'in the shadow of
doubt, knows itself to be a true lie,
knows that at any moment it mightfail
to make its case". And'a literature
that discovers, that
dares to know /ess,
is always on the
verge of what is not
sayable, rather
than at the end of
what has just been
said'. My favourite
Wood persona is
the man who
abandons himself
to rollicking, poetic
praise of the
authors he loves,
especi ally Melvi lle, Austen, Woolf ,
Lawrence, Roth, and Sebald.
Yet the heaping helpings of
conte mpt th at Th e B ro ken Estatd
ladles out can sour the psalms it
srngs. ,fs not Wood's job to be sweet,
but I felt sick after reading a passage
like the following, which dispara{es a
scene in Morrisorfs'Paradisd:'Had
she described this incident. . . had
she linked itto other incidents - had
she rn shod conducted a'narrativd
- we might believe in this moment".
Sneerint stress on the word narrative
only deepens the patronizingtone of
an earlier asses sment: " Morrisorts
talent and she ceftainly has great
novelistictalent - has been to
combine magic, myth, and history,
and to nake of this a dignified
su perstition". Wood criticises Sir
Thomas More for being "spiftingly
conclusive' butthis phrase l?ts the
Wood whose zeal can shade into
dogmatism.
WasThe Broken Estatds profussed
hope for spirituality and scepticism
fulfilled? Within the limited arena of
literary criticism, indeed within the
limitsWood set, lbelieve itwas.
There were many moments of awe and
meaning apprehended in quotations
such as this one from Woolf: "[Reality
isl a luminous halo, a semitransparent
envelope surround i n g us
from the betinning of consciousness
to the end". Yet beyond academia
and the media ldorftthinkThe Broken
Estate /ives up to the profound
existential challenge it raises: "Lifeunder-God
seems a poinflessness
An absent God, like an
absent author, is more
real than a narrative
voice that persists in
showering wisdom on
its devotees.
posing as a purpose . . . life-without-
God seems to me also a
pointlessness posing as a purpose
(jobs, hmily, sex and so on - all the
u sual d istracti ons)". M ay be w ritin g
The Broken Estate wasr/t rneant to
fulf/ this sense of purpose for Wood,
but it reads as if it is trying. For me, a
bookwhich is dedicated to analysing
why most writers fail to meet Wood's
standards of religious witing is not
truly religious. Least of all is it truly
moral. The Bro4en Estate reminds me
why I abandoned formal literary study
for adult literacy. Literary criticism
came to represent so much
parasitical half-aliveness, bloatin g the
criticwith a wordy snobbery that
serves no socia/ good. Away and dish
out soup or craft some poerns, -/ames
Wood. Befter that than litenry cachet
purchased af second-hand.
Gatherine Raine has a PhD in
Literature and Theologr. More
recently she has been involved in
adult literacy programs.
movement 27