Faith & Spirituality in Review

A Costly Freedom:  A Theological Reading of Mark’s Gospel, Brendan Byrne sj, St Pauls, Strathfield, 2008, pb, rrp $29.95.

When travelling with Mark, you need a good companion to point out the route. Brendan Byrne is the best of companions. He is clearly fascinated by the gospels, and has that gift, very rare in passionate travellers, of being able to guide you  without distracting you with all the detours and discoveries he has made on his previous journeys. 
A feature of Mark’s Gospel is Jesus’ stark and deadly conflict with the demonic powers. Brendan Byrne illuminatingly describes the demonic as the forces in our lives and our world over which we have no control. They could include political subjugation and personal addictions.  These forces are themselves often controlling. So, when Jesus offers freedom, he challenges the fears that lead us into alliance with the demonic. It is not surprising that his life stirred a hostility that eventually became murderous.  
Mark’s sharp stories and images involve us as readers in the story. The great virtue of his book is that it deepens our involvement in the Gospel without taking away the sharp edges or creating a softer and more pliant Jesus. It brings out the high cost of the Gospel. The Son of God’s human adventure leads him to lose everything that we believe makes life bearable for human beings. That is why it provides comfort for the uncomfortable, like the members of Mark’s persecuted community, whose faith must reckon with the possibility of losing everything. 
This book does not dwell too much on the challenges that Christians face today.  But by allowing Mark to speak for himself, it invites us to bring these challenges to our reading of the gospels. 

The Icon in my Pocket: On inward and outward journeys, Owe Wikstrom, St Pauls, Strathfield, 2008, pb, rrp $24.95.

One of the most illuminating ways to see human life is as a journey. Journeys allow for halts and meanderings, but as they continue they can be seen to have a shape and even a purpose. Pilgrims go slowly, but make progress.
A risk with spiritual writing on the human journey is that the writer will be too impatient to arrive at the destination. Owe Wikstrom, a Swedish Lutheran minister, discusses what travel means to us, and moves in a properly leisurely way to the deeper spiritual journey. His book leads him on journeys, on which he notices the way in which other people travel and at what they look for as they go. Gradually, he identifies the differences in travellers with different ways of conceiving the inner journey. He muses on these differences, drawing on writers from the countries that he visits.  They lead him to wrestle with the paradox of travel. We embark on journeys in the hope of finding something that will satisfy our desire. But our travel increases our dissatisfaction.  This is the paradox so richly explored by St Augustine in his Confessions and later by the mystics.
Wikstrom writes simply, almost naively. The great merit of the book is that it delays on the way to remark on the commonplace. It pauses to notice what ordinary people do and their goodness. Then it goes more deeply into the ways of the heart. The little icon that he carries in his pocket reminds him of the reality that lies beyond our understanding but which draws our love. 
This little book is a genial and stimulating companion on journeys, whether overland or within the heart.

Dear Young People: Homilies and Addresses of Pope Benedict XVI, St Pauls, Strathfield, 2008, pb, rrp $14.95.

When the Pope was in Australia for World Youth Day the more topical or controversial points of his speeches were normally reported. The publication of his collected addresses during the event allows us to take a broader view of his thinking. The tone and the recurrent themes offer interesting points for reflection.
The most striking feature of these addresses is the positive and large vision that they present. Although they mention the differences between Catholics about church structures, the scandals of church life and the reasons for disillusion, they do not delay on them. They focus rather on the Gospel and on the Good News it can be for young Australians.  They invite the hearers to ask whether and why a shared faith in Jesus Christ would be good news for them.
The theme of World Youth Day was the work of the Holy Spirit that makes us witnesses.  The challenging theme of Christian witness recurs in the talks addressed to young people. When he speaks of the weaknesses of Western culture, he situates them in the context of witness. He leaves much to muse about.
 Benedict’s writing is interesting in that he always works freshly at his themes. He never gives his hearers the impression that he is simply repeating what he has said before. Nor does he talk down to his audience.  The theology is deep, but the conclusions drawn from it are very concrete and down to earth. 

Hamlet: A Novel, John Marsden, Text, Melbourne, 2008, HB, rrp $29.95.

There have been some classic re-tellings of the stories from Shakespeare’s plays, in print—Charles & Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare with illustrations by Arthur Rackham (1807), Edith Nesbit’s  Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare (1907) and Leon Garfield’s Shakespeare’s Stories, illustrated by Michael Foreman (1991) are some—and in film—in numerous versions. His stories are powerful enough to be told over and over. Well-known writer for young people and educationalist, John Marsden, has turned his considerable skills to the trials and tribulations of the troubled young man Hamlet. ‘You’ve got a play which is a tragedy’, Marsden said, ‘a play which is a romance, a play which is a ghost story, a play which is a tremendously powerful thriller—and a play which is full of complex psychological relationships. It’s pretty hard to resist a mixture like that.’ He takes this mixture and expresses it in his own powerful style. In an article that he wrote as a lead-up to publication, he summed up the story:
‘The death of his father, coming as it did at a bad time for him, and an even worse time for his father, threw him for a six so big it was almost a seven. He began doing unpleasant things to squirrels, put on weight, and stopped going to school. The rest is history … He began a series of killings which left a trail of blood and bodies to rival Saving Private Ryan. He drove his girlfriend insane, causing her to become a suicidee, and later murdered his stepfather. (No father escapes Elsinore alive.) Was he the Messiah, as so many of his followers claim? Or was he just a very naughty boy?’
We need to read the novel to find out.