To the Lion a Fun Test for the Post-Modern Reader
By Stephen N. Reed
Review for Huntingtonnews.net
Of late, we seem to be hearing more from the American bookworms about the
need for really substantial content in our new authors as opposed to just well-marketed
fluff. Citizens of the book, behold, your time has come! In first-time author Heath
Hardesty, you may just have found your new favorite writer.
In Hardesty's book To the Lion: The Christian in Tension (Renown House 2008), the readers are pulled up by their lapels (or t-shirts) from their lazy positions on the couch of life and playfully confronted with a range of thought-provoking issues related to personal belief. Is God in charge of this world or not? What about human free will and our moral responsibility? And the age old conundrum, if God is good as we hope, then what do we make of the horrors going on in this world--and inside each of us?
Hardesty takes a refreshing tack on these weighty matters, confessing his own shortcomings along the way. While one may not always get the definitive answer to life's most mind-bending questions, Hardesty is superior in looking deeply into at both sides of these paradoxes of life. While the book is written by a Christian and for Christians, anyone who has been perplexed by the seeming contradictions of life can profit from reading To the Lion.
For starters, Hardesty shows himself to be a master of the linguistic twist, able to turn around an ordinary phrase in a new way to make his point. One thinks of the fellow at the PTA carnival who twists those long balloons into shapes to the delight of the kiddies. In the chapter, "Message of Fools," he says simply, "The enlightened mind does not overcome the darkened heart."
Granted, he also goes through a lengthy discussion about how everyone is willful and self-directed, such that mere intelligence alone will not save the more educated or naturally brilliant. But by capturing some of these weightier concepts in brief, stinging remarks, he reinforces his points well.
Hardesty goes out of his way to assure the educated reader, the college student that seems to be his target audience, that he is not anti-intellectual in his approach to these paradoxes of life. Indeed, it is hard to come away from To the Lion without an admiration for this young writer's own education. (According to his website at www.therenown.com), he has a B.A. in English literature and Religious Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder.)
But he also makes the point repeatedly that, while education, information, and the powers of the mind are significant, they can also only take us so far when it comes to understanding the undergirding of the universe.
Though, and we must admit, math does speak to and sing about more, much more than we know. It is a beautiful hallmark of design! Beauty reveals itself in math; math is exposed in beauty. It seems to me that mathematics is God's scale of music from which He has made the wonderful and ordered things of the world.
I am thankful for scientists and engineers who seek to understand the notes and musical theory of God's varied songs; but to try to disprove God with mathematics and reason is like trying to disprove the songwriter by analyzing his song.
Hardesty's best gift to the reader is when he shows an ability that many in his generation have, namely an incredible observational power, taking in the life and scene they are living in, combined with an introspection that perhaps these times have forced upon them as they look for answers.
If other generations did not study their navel quite so much as this one, might it be due to a more stable family, a country not quite so partisan, and a lack of random terrorism, whether brought by foreigners or cooked up by deranged students shooting other students on our college campuses. Hardesty's combination of journalistic-like analysis of the scene and his own introspection makes him a likely choice for one of the representative voices of his generation:
I have a television. I have seen school shootings replayed a thousand and one times, interplayed with poppy commercials for facial soap and glossy-violent movie trailers. I listen to the radio. I have heard the song lyrics of sickness and dejection that connect with the masses-- and therefore win Grammy Awards. I watch movies. I drive through the city streets. I see the cardboard signs for help; I see the cardboard signs that have lazy lies written on them and those that have scrawled honest pleas. I hear people screaming at each other through celluloid-thin apartment walls; I see lovers ignore each other. I hear televangelists rape Scripture for riches far beyond job security.....
What is wrong with the world is what is inside of me. If I see there is a splinter in my neighbor's eye, then there is a Redwood forest in mine....The heart is darker than the actions as a source is deeper than its stream.
At 400+ pages, a first work like this is a triumph for any new writer. But the question is, do all those readers who claim to want a real mind chew really have it within them to wrestle with The Lion? After all, we so conditioned to read the equivalent of watered-down marshmallow creme sodas these days. So when some really strong, chewy beef jerky comes along, will our teeth still strong enough to tear off a chunk and read it, think about it, debate it within ourselves or with others?
Hopefully so. I noticed something as I made it through this book, one that I had to read in short spurts for its sheer density of material. I began to feel an inner strengthening as I plowed through it, as if I had been to a gym of sorts for my mind and heart. A real workout for a flabby soul! No pain, no gain.
Hardesty does not use words that the average person doesn't understand, so it's not about readablity. It's about the willingness to be challenged in post-modern America. If you are up to it, this is the book for you. And if you aren't up to it, then it may be the book for you even more.
To the Lion: The Christian in Tension is available at Amazon.com and Target.com. For more information about the book and author Heath Hardesty, check out his website at: www.therenown.com.