Today’s book pick is from Susan Forshey, a PhD candidate in Practical Theology and Spirituality at Boston University. She’s also my dear friend and a self-described tea-drinker, cafe-windowseat-sitter, theologian-stargazer, contemplative-educator, photo-taking-poet, and earth-loving artist. You can visit her online at her blog The Contemplative Cottage. (Warning: spoilers ahead!)
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Faith of the Fallen, the sixth book in a fantasy series by Terry Goodkind, tells the story of the Seeker of Truth, Richard Cypher. A skilled carver, Richard works as a stonemason in the capital city. The antagonist, Rahl, ruler of an oppressive Stalinesque regime, orders Richard to craft a towering work of hideousness for the main plaza. But, risking his life and mission, Richard secretly carves a statue of beauty, a vision of possibility.
At the statue’s unveiling, the people of the city are stunned out of their subjugation. When Rahl destroys it in front of everyone, the people rise up and swarm the palace.
Often I have wondered if my love of beauty and the desire to express myself creatively was really helpful to the world, or simply born of privileged narcissism. Art often seems superfluous and divorced from justice work. On the other hand, I feel browbeaten by justice activism that is divorced from beauty. It seems angry, unloving, and unyielding.
Goodkind vividly paints Richard as both artist and prophet. He suggests that a work of beauty can touch the beholder and has the power to transform a community at the deepest level. Hans Urs von Balthasar, a theologian known for his writing on beauty, believes that justice and beauty must partner for real transformation to occur in the world.
Faith of the Fallen, as a work of art about the power of a work of art, lives out its own message. The beauty of its narrative drew me in and transformed me, healing my own dismissal of my creativity as useless in the face of the world’s pain. It called me to live faithfully, trusting that such faithfulness to creating works of beauty can be prophetically transformative.
Amen! I too struggle to reconcile my love of beauty and my vocation as a writer with the Christian call to justice. One of the books that did for me what Faith of the Fallen did for you is Jeffrey Overstreet’s Cyndere’s Midnight. It’s a fantasy novel, too, in which Overstreet shows the power of beauty to transform and redeem. The lush lyricism and beauty of the prose, together with the story itself, helped me believe a little more that art and beauty are useful because they are (or can be) transformative.
Of course, on my best days, I see that they don’t have to be useful. On those days, I see that beauty is enough simply because it is beautiful. Oh for more such days!
Great post, Susan! I’m putting this on my list…Peace, SL
Great post! I also very much enjoyed the description of Susan at the top!