Template Tools
Todays is : Tuesday, 06 January 2009
| Contemporary Fiction and Spirituality by Jan Waples, M.Div., BCC |
 |
 |
 |
| Jan Waples / Spirituality in Fiction |
| Written by Jan Waples |
| Friday, 12 September 2008 15:19 |
 I’ve been examining spirituality and healing themes in contemporary fiction for many years. I became intrigued by the idea that my mother (not at all religious, Jewish, doctorate level education) absolutely loved the Starbridge series of Susan Howatch, a writer whose novels are very explicitly about Christian spirituality and healing. Granted, Howatch is a gifted and successful writer. But how does she attract so many readers to novels which wove themselves around the Church of England and clergy characters? Why do millions of people all over the world buy her books? Certainly not because the stories are saccharine idealisations: those who have a literary ’sweet tooth’ must needs look elsewhere. I thought about these questions with a friend, Bill Kupersmith, then a full professor of English literature (who is now retired from the university setting and graduate of a CPE resident program). We decided to look further and ended up as collaborators in a series of articles and book chapters which are a unique form of literary criticism: we write about spirituality and healing in modern books.From our perspective, what Howatch's novels do offer is universal spiritual truth wrapped in beautifully written, often gripping packages. Her Starbridge series feature the same characters but each story is told in the voice of a different one. Each protagonist is, like Job, "just walking down the street" when suddenly his world implodes, disaster strikes, and he becomes un-healthy, dis-integrated, un-whole. In each case, the character finds spiritual and emotional salvation, redemption, healing. As Howatch uses both psychological and spiritual terminology, she is able to connect with readers of "all brands, off brands or no brand" spiritually speaking. If a reader has no spiritual context, the psychological journey is the draw. If one is spiritual, the appeal is the path to finding God. In either case, Howatch brings her characters through spiritual and emotional disasters on to healing and wholeness. Her characters have dimension and depth, we can relate. The story lines are intriguing and often blend visionary and intuitive experiential byways into the characters' lives as part of their journeys. As a chaplain and as an Episcopal priest I have been privileged to hear the stories of a great many people. Many stories told by patients mirror those in Howatch books. They too experience the Divine in intuitive, "psychic" experiences. They too seek a spiritual path after personal or family crisis. They search for meaning in the midst of pain. And they often emerge emotionally and spiritually whole, even if sometimes their physical lives draw to a close as a result of disease. As chaplains, we often accompany people on whatever path they find themselves on during their time with us. Howatch’s books became more meaningful to me long after I’d read them first, validated by my education and experience as a spiritual caregiver. The Wonder Worker, a book about a group of healers working in an Anglican church healing centre in the City of London, is a tale I see much differently since I became a chaplain. (It is the first novel written after the Starbridge series and includes some of the same characters whilst introducing some new players). Now I look at the healers and those who come for healing in the story and see a common thread: that being, “everybody’s a patient!” Howatch deftly points out that each person in the story, and in the broader context all humanity, struggle with their own daemons (or emotional dysfunctions). Even the healers, even those to whom the others come. In fact, some of the healers had some of the most difficult challenges. Some of those who seemed the most lost, alcoholic, damaged, saw light on their paths to redemption and found their way out of the emotional/spiritual mire. They did so in the company of other vulnerable human beings…the ‘healers’ in the story have the same problems as everyone else. Venetia, a rich, eccentric society woman in her fifties, starts out as a brazen alcoholic sexpot. After spending time with Lewis, an Anglican priest who is one of the healers, she learns to accept herself and gain self-esteem. By the end of the story she is going back to Cambridge to read theology and has stopped drinking. We also learn the reason for her drinking: the pain experienced earlier in her life. Lewis, through Venetia, becomes less misanthropic/anti-woman and also realises the source of his own pain. Two emotionally crippled ‘halt and lame’ individuals together become whole: another feature of Howatch’s books is that healing is not done in a solitary mode but in community, with others. Everyone is always vulnerable, even those who heal. Everyone has his own weaknesses. Everyone can find wholeness, unity and integrity in the company of others…but not alone. Everyone’s gifts are important…even those of the cook, a character who has a major role in the plot and who virtually comes out of a cocoon of fat to live into her own integrity and healing. Being intuitive doesn’t mean a character knows the future because the intuitive sensing is only as good as the interpreter. If the healer is distracted, if she is a Wonder Worker instead of a channel through whom the Divine works to heal, her vanity can blind her to the truth, for example. The name of the book in the UK is A Question Of Integrity: oneness, wholeness, healing, health, are all about being integrated emotionally and if you will, spiritually. This is a central theme of The Wonder Worker. When characters are ‘out of balance’ they become vulnerable to attack: whether of the psyche or the netherworld or both. For Howatch, these are different ways of expressing the same universal truth about the human path. Howatch herself became a successful writer of gothic romances and later had a personal conversion experience. Subsequently she wrote her first Starbridge novel (set in the fictional town of Starbridge and its cathedral, which in reality is modeled on Salisbury). Her subsequent work has had the same spiritual/psychological focus upon disintegration, fall, and the subsequent road to healing and wholeness…or in some cases, disaster, when the characters stray too far from the light. I look forward to sharing more about these and other novels from a spiritual perspective in future columns. Stay tuned!
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email This
Comments (0)
 |
| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 26 November 2008 12:20 ) |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Latest Columns
- The Goddess, Liberation, and Love in By the River Piedra by Jan Waples
- Leadership Safari: Pastoral Leadership in the 21st Century - Part 3 by D. Leslie Hollon, Ph.D.
- The Root Chakra and the Ground of Being by Mary Fraser, Ph.D.
- Psalm 114: Presence/Absence, by Anne Ogden
- Getting a Grip: The Legend of Bagger Vance by Jan Waples, M.Div., B.C.C.
- Psalm 138: A Temple, by Anne Ogden
- VMAT2, Genes, and Spirituality by Kay T. Roberts, Ed.D., ARNP
- Stories and New Identity at Weeping Willow Church by David Sawyer, Ph.D.
- Clinical Use of Scripture: A Variation on the Theme of Lectio Divina by C. Roy Woodruff, Ph.D.
- Every Person Marries a Foreigner? by G. Wade Rowatt, Ph.D.
- Psalm 61: A Higher Voice, by Anne Ogden
- Power in the Client-Therapist Relationship: An Ethical Issue by Mary Ellen Yates, M.Div.
- The Evil You Do: Spirituality in the Ghost Story by Jan Waples, M.Div., BCC
- Psalm 25, The Path, by Anne Ogden
- Reflections on Being vs. Doing in Pastoral Counseling by C. Roy Woodruff
Newsflash
A new feature of the Oates Journal is the publication of Special Issues, which gather four to six articles around specific topics. Upcoming Special Issues of the Oates Journal will include:
|
