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Language, Meaning, and Faith
Shouts and Whispers
Twenty-one Writers Speak about Their Writing and Their Faith
Jennifer L. Holberg, Editor
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006
Reviewed by Pam Wynn
What does it mean to be a writer in U.S. culture within the context of the Christian faith? Shouts and Whispers: Twenty-one Writers Speak about Their Writing and Their Faith, edited by Jennifer L. Holberg, explores this territory in a collection of twenty-two essays and interviews that articulate what “‘faithful’ writing might look like” today. Initially, the essays were delivered as talks and lectures at the Calvin College’s Festival of Faith & Writing (launched in 1990). Holberg has done an admirable job in transferring the spoken work to the written page.
The one commonality among the writers, Holberg tells us in the introduction, is that “all these writers are agreed on at least one fundamental assumption: that literature can help us be more faithful.” Each author then speaks to the question of how. While the quality of the essays is uneven, overall, most are excellent—accessible, articulate, and thought-provoking. The best essays, with narrative skills well suited to the task, quickly became favorites as each was written in an honest and forthright manner often employing wit and humor.
The volume opens with Barbara Brown Taylor’s “Way Beyond Belief: The Call to Behold.” A professor of religion who, in her own words, “writes small religious essays and sermons,” Taylor left parish ministry after 20 years of writing “for the purpose of speech” when “the language of belief [became] too contentious.” Her essay grows out of her experience of language and the borders between what she calls “the language of beholding” (“what is”) and “the language of belief” (“what is right”). Fortunately for us, she continues to write.
Next follows an essay by Katherine Paterson, “Image and Imagination.” In spite of her opening confession that “I have a sort of spooky feeling that if I start dissecting the creative process to see what makes it hop, I may very well end up with a dead frog,” the clarity of her thinking and prose offer the reader an insightful discussion on a most difficult topic. The book also closes with an essay by Paterson, “Making Meaning,” which addresses her own attempt to make meaning of life and her faith through the writing of children’s fiction.
Elizabeth Dewberry, in “Writing as an Act of Worship,” plunges straight to the heart of Christian belief—“the word was with God and the word was God.” Acknowledging it as an impenetrable theological mystery, she then wrestles with the question of what this core Christian scripture says about the nature of God as she develops her own understanding of writing as worship.
Betty Smartt Carter in “Tired of Victory, Bored by Defeat: Restoring Proper Sadness to Christian Art” and David James Duncan in “The Collision of Faith and Fiction: Cleaning Up the Wreckage” address topics often avoided among Christian artists. Both speak frankly and raise crucial questions regarding the implications of the criteria for artistic excellence that are generally accepted within the Christian community.
In “The Cosmic Questions,” Madeleine L’Engle weaves from her own story a compelling look at the nature of writing fiction with the limber prose and flexible narrative structure we have come to expect from her. L’Engle rarely misses her aim when it comes to detail and craft; this essay is no different.
The most delightful surprise in this collection appears in the work of Thomas Lynch, poet and funeral director, in his witty essay “Faith and Fashion Blunders: Shifting Metaphors of Mortality,” which includes one of his own poems. Lynch addresses a significant concern we all face in this culture, that is, the loss of sacred rituals to express and embody our grief and loss. He does so in fluid lines of both poetry and prose.
In addition to essays, the collection includes interviews with Kathleen Norris and Anne Lamont by Linda Buturian, Paul Schrader by Gary Wills, and Joy Kogawa by Henry Baron. Given our sound-bite culture, I was duly impressed by the insightful questions posed as well as the in-depth, thoughtful, and honest answers by the writers interviewed. Particularly pleasing was the interview with Kogawa, which includes two of her poems.
The weaknesses of Shouts and Whispers are few. As noted already, the quality of the essays is somewhat uneven. And the title itself is somewhat misleading in that it does not clarify that the collection speaks exclusively of the Christian faith. More importantly, I would have liked to have heard from more poets; the collection relies heavily on fiction writers. In addition, a list of contributors would have proved useful.
Shouts and Whispers clearly accomplished what it set out to do—explore the nature of literature and belief with writers who wrestle with the matter on a continuing basis. The book is unique in that it offers a variety of perspectives while most texts on the topic are single author books. Writers and readers concerned about faith and literature will find a treasure in this collection, which largely succeeds in adding another layer to the ongoing story of the writer and his or her faith.
Pam Wynn, poet and author of Diamonds on the Back of a Snake, is professor of poetry, writing, and theological interpretation at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in New Brighton, Minnesota. Click here to read some of her poetry.
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