कुछ और

I was in the library the other day. I like to get 3 or 4 books and then flip through them. So, the other day, I gathered the following books, and was looking through them:

Living, Thinking, Looking by Siri Hustvedt

Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World by Shelina Janmohamed

The Lost Art of Scripture by Karen Armstrong

God: A Human History by Reza Aslan

I mainly read Hustvedt and Aslan, as they were the ones I found most interesting. I didn't really do justice to the other two because I got really engrossed in Reza Aslan's book - so much so that I actually bought the book on Amazon, and it arrived today. 

What I found really interesting was the idea that the early books in the Bible were a conflation of a few different manuscripts written by different writers with very different styles and views. It's an interesting subject and I don't know much about it. Aslan also talks about the influence of Sumerian culture and stories (e.g. The Epic of Gilgamesh) and the influence of other world cultures, on the Bible. He even talks about how there is a sense in which there were actually 2 different Gods originally in proto-Judaism, or at least there were two very different ways of referring to God, and monotheism emerged out of that dualistic view. 

but I'm pretty disappointed by the book I received (Aslan's God). First of all, it's a short book. It's 300 pages long, but nearly half of that is notes and the index. I'm not sure exactly why....I just do not like short books. There are some exceptions, but it's because they're really good books. Shortness in itself (in books) is something I'm prejudiced against. 

but the real turn off for me was how the book ends:

Believe in God or not. Define God how you will. Either way, take a lesson from our mythological ancestors Adam and Eve and eat the forbidden fruit. You need not fear God. 

You are God.  

This is not a book that interests me, because it's based on a flawed premise. 

So, I went looking for a book that talks about a lot of the same issues but in a way that I see as reasonable and intelligent - a way that accords with my faith - and I found a kindle book I bought a while ago called, The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures (2016), Edited by D. A. Carson. With length, I kind of have the opposite problem with this book, though - it's huge: 1257 pages. but, like I said, that actually disposes me in a book's favour. and it has contributuions from really good scholars - D A Carson, Craig Blomberg, Douglas J Moo, just to name a few. Actually I've never heard of a lot of the contributors but the fact that it's edited by D A Carson means that (in my view) it's solid. 

The other big Christian book I have is Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth Edited by John Macarthur and Richard L. Mayhue. It's a bit shorter - 1024 pages. 

I was watching a video where Siri Hustvedt was talking about how, in recent years, since writing her book, The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves (2010) she's written a lot about neuroscience. The book, and her subsequent work in that vein isn't popular - it's serious science. She's also continued to write novels, essays, etc - which are popular. 

One of the interesting things she says about writing in the interview is:

“I have the feeling that the book knows more than I do. That I am in service to the book rather than the other way around.”

It reminded  me of something that I thought Susan Sontag said (but I searched and couldn't find it) along the lines that her writing knows more than she does. I was keen to find the actual quote because she goes on to explain what she means by that, and I can't quite remember what she said. I think she said her writing knows more than she does because she can revise it.....ah! /// after so many searches, I found the exact quote (and it was by Susan Sontag): 

“...what I write is smarter than I am. Because I can rewrite it.”

I've experienced that feeling at times....writing something and you feel like you're just the conduit for this expression to manifest itself. I think it happens after you've been working on something for a long time and you have this sense that what you're writing is insightful or true, in a way that you hardly feel like you are capable of....maybe you distilled it from all the scholars you've read in your research. 

A friend of mine once described a similar impression when playing the piano. He'd be playing some beautiful piece, and look at his hands producing that exquisite expression and have a sense of awe and wonder....something more was produced than seemed to correspond to the mechanics of the situation.