In my last post I talked about how Christianity is the greatest possible story. In this post I want to unpack the essence of the Christian story, or the gospel, understood as a three-act play: TRAGEDY—COMEDY—FAIRY STORY.
As a foil, I want to use Frederick Buechner’s excellent (and highly recommended) book: Telling the Truth. In it, Buechner describes tragedy as follows:
[Tragedy] is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is tragedy”[1]
The first act of the gospel story is man’s tragedy—something has gone drastically wrong, the world is not the way it is supposed to be. But next—the divine comedy—God’s answer to man’s tragedy.
The Tragic is the inevitable. The comic is the unforeseeable. How can Donald Duck foresee that after being run over by a steamroller he will pick himself up on the other side as flat as a pancake . . . but alive and squawking? How can Charlie Chaplin in his baggy pants and derby hat foresee that though he is stood up by the girl and clobbered over the head by the policeman and hit in the kisser with a custard pie, he will emerge dapper and gallant to the end, twirling his invincible cane and twitching his invincible mustache?…it is the news that [in spite of ourselves] we are loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is comedy.[2]
The incarnation and atonement are God’s response to man’s tragedy—and it is unexpected, unforeseen, it is high comedy. Who would have predicted that God becomes man? It would be like C.S. Lewis entering Narnia (as a talking animal undoubtedly), or J.R.R. Tolkien entering Middle Earth (surely as a Hobbit)! It is utterly unexpected. And it sets the stage for the next act, the unending fairy story:
What gives [fairy tales] their real power and meaning is the world they evoke. It is a world of magic and mystery, of deep darkness and flickering starlight. It is a world were terrible things happen and wonderful things too….Yet for all its confusion and wildness, it is a world where the battle goes ultimately to the good, who live happily every after, and where in the long run everybody, good and evil alike, becomes known by his true name.”[3]
Living happily ever after…isn’t this how all fairy stories go? They don’t end, they continue on forever. And this is the “good news” of the gospel—the sudden joyous turn that is God’s overwhelming love and mercy to us on the cross provides the means for man to live forever as originally intended. Tragedy does not get the last word!
This story—the gospel story—is a story that we all long for; we long for a world that is supernatural, where death is cheated, love is unending, victory is snatched out of the hands of defeat, and goodness wins in the end.
We all long for it—but, importantly, is it true? Two comments. First, I suggest we pay attention to our longings, because our longings reveal something that we have lost—we were created to know God, to experience life as it was supposed to be—and because of tragedy—because of sin and death and destruction—we have lost our way. So, pay attention to your longings—let them awaken you out of slumber. Second, we know the gospel is true because of Christ’s resurrection from the grave. Because of the resurrection, the gospel story is not one more good story that we enter into for a time, only to re-emerge into “the real world” when we put the book down, or walk out of the movie theatre. Because the resurrection happened, Jesus has punctured a hole between life as it is and life as it will be—between what is the case and what ought to be the case—and He bids us to come follow Him.
Here is an excellent discussion by Tim Keller on Tolkien’s use of fantasy to highlight the gospel story:
[1] Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale (New York: Harper One, 1977), 7.
Fueled by the conviction that stories sustain us because we were made to be nourished on the good, the true, and the beautiful, I determined to read one fiction book a month for this past year. And I read some very good stories! In addition to fiction, I have benefitted greatly this year from some solid works in philosophy, theology, biography, and spiritual formation. Without further ado, here are my favorite books read in 2023. As is custom, in my book log, I record the book title, author, and date completed, along with a one sentence description. This has been my practice since 2009. My book log now includes 635 entries. This year I read 43 books.
I love to read. Of course, being a professor helps. I get to read as part of my job. That’s good. But I also love to read for the sheer pleasure of it. When it comes to fiction, I love entering into secondary worlds and journeying along with the characters of the story. Often non-fiction reads like a good story too: life is life, story is story, and often the two kiss (a loose paraphrase of one of my favorite nonfiction stories of the year, All that is Sad is Untrue). (more…)
I love to read. It’s partly why I’m an academic today. What could be better than reading, writing, teaching, and learning every day? Reading books awakens me: to truth, goodness, and beauty. I try, each year, to read broadly. This year, I managed to read 47 books. I’ve been recording every book read in a book log for over 10 years now. Whenever I finish a book, I list the date finished, the title, author, and a one sentence summary of the book. As has become my custom, I offer to you my favorite reads of the past year in philosophy, apologetics and theology, fiction, and non-fiction. (more…)
Fueled by the conviction that stories sustain us because we were made to be nourished on the good, the true, and the beautiful, I determined to read one fiction book a month for this past year. And I read some very good stories! In addition to fiction, I have benefitted greatly this year from some solid works in philosophy, theology, biography, and spiritual formation. Without further ado, here are my favorite books read in 2023. As is custom, in my book log, I record the book title, author, and date completed, along with a one sentence description. This has been my practice since 2009. My book log now includes 635 entries. This year I read 43 books.
I love to read. Of course, being a professor helps. I get to read as part of my job. That’s good. But I also love to read for the sheer pleasure of it. When it comes to fiction, I love entering into secondary worlds and journeying along with the characters of the story. Often non-fiction reads like a good story too: life is life, story is story, and often the two kiss (a loose paraphrase of one of my favorite nonfiction stories of the year, All that is Sad is Untrue). (more…)
I love to read. It’s partly why I’m an academic today. What could be better than reading, writing, teaching, and learning every day? Reading books awakens me: to truth, goodness, and beauty. I try, each year, to read broadly. This year, I managed to read 47 books. I’ve been recording every book read in a book log for over 10 years now. Whenever I finish a book, I list the date finished, the title, author, and a one sentence summary of the book. As has become my custom, I offer to you my favorite reads of the past year in philosophy, apologetics and theology, fiction, and non-fiction. (more…)
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