Joyful Noise

Book review | The New Testament Revisited

In a generation where anything goes, where universals have become rare in the name of permissive tolerance, what do people really think of the Bible? For many, the view of cosmic law enforcement holds, simply because: “When liberals avoid a debate, they cede the terms… to more conservative voices“, and frequently these voices show up as rigidly fundamentalist - “long on the oppressive, the intolerant and the punitive“.

When the text in question is part of the Bible - written over thousands of years by dozens of authors; and when even today its rightful contents continue to be debated, can its true interpretation really be so static?

Joyful Noise, as edited by Rick Moody and Darcey Steinke is a collection of essays on the New Testament submitted by 21 published authors - “Jews and Buddhists and African Americans and Hispanic Americans and gay people, even a few mainline white Christians“. The main focus was not to be on doctrine; but it was suggested that each writer deal in some way with the text of the New Testament - whether directly or intuitively.

The aim of the editors is to reawaken thought and debate about the New Testament; and while a repressive view of Christianity was out of bounds, the rest was open to discussion. Part of the stated thesis for the anthology is summed up best in a quote from Rick Moody:

The ideal collection of writings about the New Testament, I propose, would not be a series of essays about the canonized text, but rather a whole new set of Gospels, with free and liberal interpretations of Jesus’ ministry ringing out like really good jazz from the mid-sixties…With this in mind, we might see that the great ethical remarks of the late twentieth century emerge not only from the church, but also where they are least likely to be.

The essays themselves cover a wide range of topics. Several deal with a single book, or specific selection of text, for instance Joanna Scott’s “Marvelous Revelation”, which looks at the imagery found in the book of Revelation, and how metaphor can be twisted or misunderstood. Others deal with a person from the text, or with a specific idea, such as Bell Hooks with “Love’s Alchemy” - exploring the common clash between power and love; how “perfect love casts out fear”, and the collective view that love is not a masculine attribute. Jeffrey Eugenides shows the Holy Spirit as the unpredictable version of God who goes places you don’t expect; who frequently ends up being ignored or misconstrued (the underdog), and leaves Jesus to get all the credit.

Some writers look into the treatment of an idea from the text by a group of people, such as Ann Pratchett’s exploration of literal versus the metaphorical in the snake handling Bible Belt; while many pieces also focus on the lives of the authors, as they explore their own thoughts on aspects of the text of the New Testament; or how it was presented to them. So many of these pieces drift through childhood reminiscences, with a vague New Testament connection, that you’re left at the end wondering whether you can get a refund on the last hour of your day.

With a book written by a single author, you might expect there to be some “padding” in between the ideas. But in a book of essays, you really shouldn’t have to deal with it. So while the theory underlying this collection is sound, the success of the final work as defined by the set goals of the editors is sporadic. The self-centred focus of many of these essays does not add much to the genre of God’s Story, but merely endorses the continuing preference for our individual views of God to His own self-revealed view.

The final criticism then, would not be that the style of these works lacks all value; on the contrary, gaining insight into others’ perspectives can be a huge benefit. But as “modern gospels” these works frequently lack their necessary centre: direct contact between the human and the divine. We are often left with the memories of memories as the authors reminisce about their own past musings.

But, to be fair, Moody’s proposition still holds, and should be remembered - that when free voices are quiet, the loudest voices blank out the rest - the final consequences of which can be clearly seen in the oppressive church dictatorship leading up to - and in some instances following - the Reformation. Ultimately the editors’ goals are worth taking further - after all:

What’s to be feared in letting the faithful, or even those souls demonised as outsiders - doubters, unbelievers, and people of other faiths - think, at last, for themselves?

Reviewer: Stephanie Hung was born and bred in Brisbane, Australia and loves Solo, meat pies and 30 degree dry heat. Interestingly, she currently lives, works and ministers in Canada, where she counted only three days all summer when she wasn’t wearing a sweater. High points in her life so far include graduating from university with a degree in Physics/Astrophysics, hanging out with youth in the SAGALA groups (similar to scouts) of South Queensland, and freezing for a year in Canada while doing the Ignite Gap Year at 614 Regent Park. She currently attends Corps 614, and likes most kinds of sports; reading, drawing, and being useful as she works through all that Jesus stuff.

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