My Reading Life 2018: The Year I Discovered Metaxas

Eric Metaxas interviews Stephen Meyer

Dallas Conference on Science & Faith 

Occasionally I run across a writer who has such a gifted command of words and communication ability, that I am literally in awe.  Eric Metaxas is one such person.  This discovery began during the summer when I set reading goals to actually read some of the books sitting on my home library shelves. Several years ago, my husband had proudly acquired and read a hardback copy of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas, and it had earned a prominent and intimidating place on the shelf. The cover jacket of Bonhoeffer’s eyes peering into mine had been daring me for years to tackle this titanic tome.  Understand that I am not one to ever choose to read a history book for pleasure reading. But I took the challenge of Bonhoeffer strictly for self-discipline and because I needed a new audio book to fill the times of tedium in my day. I am very grateful to Hoopla which has a wide selection of audiobooks available to me for free through my local library. Bonhoeffer, read by Malcolm Hillgartner, was available for 22 hours 34 minutes of self-discipline.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

I was moved by two things. First, I was moved by the man, Bonhoeffer, his life, his conversion, his intense devotion to God, his courage, and his brilliance. Second, I was impressed by Eric Metaxas. Very impressed.  Several hours into the book, there was a phrase that made me stop the audio while I was getting ready for work, write down what I had just heard, and read it to my husband.  In thousands of hours of listening to audio books, I had never done that before! I later looked up the passage and marked it in our printed copy.  It’s on page 208 when Metaxas is relating the enormous tension that was brewing between the German church, Reich Bishop Muller, and Hitler.  Hitler had again delayed a much-anticipated meeting for eight more long, stress-filled days. Metaxas writes:

“The eight days of additional waiting were an eternity of strained inaction.

            Bonhoeffer followed every detail of these hemorrhoidal isometrics from England via his mother’s almost daily updates.”  (emphasis mine)

I am not a fan of bathroom humor or references.  I teach 5 and 6-year-olds for a living, so I get my fill, thank you very much.  But I have to admit, that is brilliant writing.

I think it was at this point that I had an Inigo Montoya/Dread Pirate Roberts moment… “Who ARE you?” I asked myself.  I started trying to find out something about this author, Eric Metaxas.  I already knew he had presented on his book, Amazing Grace, as a guest lecturer at my Alma Mater, Harding University, in January 2017 (how I regret not being there).  But now he had my attention and I started reading the “About the Author” quips and checking hits on Google and YouTube. After listening to his conversion story, listening to some of his interviews, and visiting his website, I knew I was a fan of this funny, smart, Yale grad, NYT bestselling author, radio personality, Christian husband, and father, seeker of truth and over-achiever.

But my Metaxas discoveries were just beginning.

Amazing Grace: 
William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery

I clearly needed to read Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery for my next Metaxas experience. Again, the audio version was available from Hoopla, but I acquired my own printed copy shortly after listening to the audio. (There are pictures in the printed copy!) I have long been a fan of the Amazing Grace movie that came out in 2006 with Albert Finney and Ioan Gruffudd, and now I was interested to learn Metaxas’ connection to the movie. In an interview I watched on YouTube, Metaxas explained that in a recorded discussion on another topic, he had made a reference to William Wilberforce and how his Herculean persistence to abolish slavery completely changed the world.  Someone listening to that recorded discussion contacted Metaxas and asked if he would write a biography about Wilberforce in honor of the 200^th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade so that it would be available about the time the movie was to be released. Metaxas had never aspired to be a biographer, but you can guess the answer.  And what do you know, not too shabby for a first try.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God 
(But Were Afraid to Ask)

Back to the goal of reading the neglected books at home, I ran across a new and unread copy of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God (But Were Afraid to Ask). “Where did this come from?!” I asked in total surprise!  Where and how long we had had it, neither my husband nor I knew, but now, knowing something of Eric Metaxas, I was thrilled to find another of his volumes and began reading. Two hundred-plus easy-to-read pages boldly ask and respond to big questions like “How Can You Prove God’s Existence?” and “Isn’t One Religion as Good as Another?” and 18 other such questions. His wit and humor are very evident in this book as his style is like having a conversation with him over a cup of coffee. Yet he treats each heavy topic with the respect and gravity that it deserves.

In the back of that book is a “Recommended Reading List” so I started in on that too.  To my surprise, I had already read one of them, Total Truth by Nancy Pearcy.  Earlier in the summer I had discovered this book also on our home shelves, with neither me nor my husband remembering how we acquired it.  But these little hidden treasures were starting to feel like Christmas in July.

Socrates in the City: 
Conversations on the Examined Life

Having finished the audio of Amazing Grace, I searched Hoopla again and found an audio version of Socrates in the City which was instructive and entertaining to say the least. Socrates in the City is a modern-day Mars Hill meeting-of-intellectual-minds held in New York City. Invited speakers are outliers of knowledge in their particular fields and thus a privilege to listen to, with a Q&A offered to the audience at the end. It was in listening to this that I really got a sense of Metaxas’ personality as he MC’s each gathering. His lengthy introductions of each speaker clearly reflect his jones to be a standup comic.

Bible ABCWhen school started again, I was looking over our school’s selection of library books and I unsuspectingly spied the name “Eric Metaxas” on a book spine.  His name was showing up everywhere!TheBible ABCis a collection of 26 short abecedarian poems about Bible characters.  I now own my own copy and use it at school routinely.Of course, you can expect J for Jesus and N for Noah, but would you expect O for Onesimus or Y for Yahweh?  In EM’s bio information I learned that he has written some 30 books for children.I checked out several from my public library and found another favorite inSquanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving.That is now a must have for my classroom library.

Martin Luther: The Man Who 
Rediscovered God and Changed the World

I had to wait till October 2018 before I could get Martin Luther on audio from interlibrary loan, but it was worth the wait. The big bonus was that Metaxas himself reads the text, and so you get the genuine tone that only Metaxas can bring to his work.  Again, not wishing to write another biography, he was approached (and possibly nagged) by influential friends who had the idea that with the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation at hand, the world deserved another Luther biography, insisting and persisting that only Metaxas could do it.  In the end, their insistence and persistence overcame his resistance. (Pause here to give thanks.) After listening to the 20 hours 30 minutes of unabridged audio, I bought one hardback copy and two paperback copies of the book (pictures again!) and I haven’t stopped talking about it.

Wordsmithing his way through years of pre-Renaissance history, Metaxas resurrects Luther’s early life and de-thorns some of the nastier legends that had become overgrown in his literary cemetery. Taking a comprehensive look at Luther’s life and accomplishments, many facts and stories Metaxas includes are jaw droppingly outrageous, incredibly funny and/or sad, and often unbelievable except that you know “you just can’t make this stuff up.” Growing up in a post-Reformation world, it’s hard for me to imagine that most of the religious leaders of Luther’s day had never read the scriptures, and people who were trying to get the scriptures translated into common languages were literally burned at the stake for their heresy.  Luther himself expected to be incinerated at any given moment because once he got his opportunity to read the Bible for himself, he could not keep quiet.

Metaxas has written many more books which are not mentioned in this work, but these are mentioned that you may go out and see for yourself what Metaxas has to offer. I can promise you that for me and my house, reading Metaxas in 2019 will not be merely an exercise in self-discipline.

HABIBI by Naomi Shihab Nye

Nye, N. S. Habibi. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1997. ISBN 0689801491.

Naomi Shihab Nye is an Arab-American and has written a beautiful story with the authenticity of her own autobiographical experiences. Protagonist Liyana and her family move from St Louis, MO, USA, to her father’s homeland, Jerusalem, at a pivotal time in her adolescence.  Feeling very much a stranger in a strange land, Liyana must adjust to a new home, new friends, new food and new family that she cannot even communicate with because of a new language.  The political climate and new customs create huge and sometimes dangerous challenges.   For example, her father informs her that she will have no need for short shorts in her new homeland.  She also learns that dating and kissing have a whole new set of rules.  She frets, “With her luck she had been born into the only nonkissing culture, just when it started feeling like a valuable activity.” (Page 57)  If male/female relationships are not different enough in the two cultures, complications ensue when she begins a young romance with a Jewish boy at a time when Jewish and Palestinian relations are precarious to say the least. 

Nye infuses the story thoroughly with the sights, sounds, and smells of one who has lived in The West Bank at just the same age as Liyana.  Additionally she shares the feelings Liyana experiences with such a masterful use of imagery and economy of words that I immediately recognized Nye’s poetic expertise.  At times I felt like I was reading a verse novel.  Most chapters are very short and uniquely titled, and many begin with a quote or line of poetry.  

I appreciated very much seeing modern Jerusalem through Nye’s story, especially as I am hoping to see Jerusalem for myself this coming July.  Coincidentally, I also drove through St Louis for the first time three days ago.  I appreciated the fair-handedness Nye gives to each culture-- American, Arab, Israeli-- not vilifying any, yet not holding back on the violence, cruelty, prejudice, and injustice that must be faced within every individual.  Members of each culture are presented as human beings who would like to live in peace.  The overriding hope that I came away with after reading, is that peace is possible though one bridging relationship at a time.

Habibi has been deservedly recognized and awarded numerous times.  You will find Habibi on prestigious lists for these awards: ALA Best Book for Young Adults, ALA Notable Children’s Book, Jane Addams Book Award, and Texas Institute of Letters Best Book for Young Readers, to name a few.

Nye is also very well known for her work in the poetry world and has won numerous awards for her own poetry as well as the promotion of multicultural poetry.  She is a living example of bridge-building between cultures by using her unique heritage to be a peacemaker, spokesperson, and enthusiast for multicultural understanding.  I would recommend this book for young teens and for anyone who seeks peace and understanding with all people.  School Library Journal claims, “Habibi succeeds in making the hope for peace compellingly personal and concrete.”  I would add my Amen to that.

WONDERSTRUCK by Brian Selznick

Selznick, B. Wonderstruck: a novel in words and pictures. New York: Scholastic Press. 2011.  ISBN 9780545027892.

What does lightening, deafness, wolves, and museums have in common?  Brian Selznick uses those elements to tell two stories in few words and copious pictures and keeps us turning 629 pages before we get to THE END.  

Selznik won the Caldecott medal for The Invention of Hugo Cabret in 2008.  Wonder Struck, published in 2011 has the same impressive look of a 3 inch thick tome packed with full page drawings that mimic film in number of frames.  The text tells Ben’s story set in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota in June 1977.  The pictures tell Rose’s story set in Hoboken, New Jersey in October 1927.  The two stories finally merge at the end.  

Ben and Rose are both deaf.  However, they share not only the culture of deafness, but also the culture of abandonment.  Ben loses his mother in a car accident, and Rose experiences physical and emotional abandonment by her movie star mother and is forced to live with her equally distant father.  Ben’s father is a mystery to him, but he discovers hope of finding him. In spite of the lightning strike that robs him of his hearing, Ben sets out to find his father in New York City.  Rose also leaves Hoboken in hopes of living with her mother, only to be rejected. 

 

Selznick successfully captures Ben’s despair when struck with deafness when he says in text, “the pain began to slip away and the silence swallowed him whole.” (Page 177)  Similarly, on the next page, Selznick captures in a drawing Rose’s utter despair in her silent prison.  The despair of the two protagonists motivates brave journeys which ultimately lead to resolution for both. 

In his acknowledgements, Selznick details his extensive research and includes his selected bibliography concerning deafness and Deaf culture, museums and cabinets of wonders, clothing and objects in 1927, stage and screen, world’s fairs, scrapbooks, lightning, Gunflint Lake, Hoboken, inspirations, documentary film, and websites.  

The Booklist starred review explains, “Selznick plays with a plethora of interwoven themes, including deafness and silence, the ability to see and value the world, family, and the interconnectedness of life.”  Although the story is rich in emotion, warmth and intrigue, the authenticity of the deafness the children face did not ring as true as I would have expected.  Perhaps it was intentional that the disability was just a side element to the story, but somehow it left parts of the story feeling contrived.  Nevertheless, I believe Wonderstruck will heighten interest in learning sign language among students and can encourage awareness of any disability and the challenges they present. 

THE YEAR OF THE DOG by Grace Lin

Lin, Grace. The Year of the Dog. New York: Little Brown. 2006.  ISBN 0316060003.

Grace Lin is an established contributor of multicultural literature.  Preceding her Caldecott Honor book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, she wrote The Year of the Dog, a charming autobiographical look at a young Taiwanese American girl navigating her place within two cultures. 

The title of the book references the Chinese New Year, and the cover of the book mimics the Hong Bao;  red envelopes filled with money that are exchanged during the Chinese New Year.  During the Year of the Dog, Pacy, also called Grace, is expecting to “find herself” and her talent and decide what she will be when she grows up.  The story takes us through the entire year and entertains us with humor and charm.   

The cultural markers of authenticity are prolific in Lin’s text and illustrations.  The Hong Bao, chop sticks, traditional Chinese clothing, and Chinese characters occur in the sweet and simple black and white sketches throughout the book.  The text also reminds us of the Chinese influence in Grace’s life by the short vignettes of the stories her mom tells her such as, “Mom’s First Day of School,” and “Mom’s First Friend.”  

A poignant moment in the story occurs when Grace’s world “goes silent” when one of her friends tells her she can’t be Dorothy in the school play, The Wizard of Oz, because Dorothy was not Chinese.  “Like a melting icicle, my dream of being Dorothy fell and shattered on the ground….I was SO dumb.  How could I have even thought about being Dorothy?” (page 70)  This event, as well as others, is a perfect stepping stone into the waters of awareness of students who claim more than one culture.  It helps us see their world as well as ours with more sensitive filters.  

The author’s motivation in writing this story was the fact that when she was growing up, she did not see herself on the pages of the literature available to her.  She has successfully remedied that for the future generation as Kirkus reviews it as “a treat for Asian-American girls looking to see themselves in their reading.”  Well done Ms. Lin.