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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Some hits, some misses in Canadian Christian anthology

Reviewed by: Laurence Broadhurst

Posted: 12/21/2008 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Northern Lights

An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Writing in Canada

Edited by Byron Rempel-Burkholder and Dora Dueck Wiley, 260 pages, $25

THIS is a very Canadian book. And it yearns to be so.

It is self-announced as a collection on the subject of the national "spiritual landscape."

It is not "interfaith"; it is deliberately and self-consciously Christian. And it doesn't want to analyze that faith, in all its manifestations. It wants to "explore, express and showcase it."

This is not a work of scholarship. It is a legitimate, aggressive anthology, as its subtitle indicates. The editors, both Winnipeggers, compiled, in a very determined way, different things by different people, but all "Christian."

So, there are here, in their words, bits of fiction, bits of poetry, bits of memoir, bits of meditation. Not only are the genres diverse, but the profiles of the authors are, too.

This is not a collection of essays by theologians from "the North"; it is a collection of 46 essays by an immensely diverse cast of characters, not just from Winnipeg.

There are big names here: Michael W. Higgins, Rudy Wiebe, Preston Manning, Mary Jo Leddy, Joy Kogawa, Michael Coren, Bruce Cockburn, among others.

There are stories here of the Prairies but one wonders if the editors tried to craft a "northern" prairie theme from a plainly Canadian theme.

This diversity also extends, in a sense, through the collection's embracing of many, many Christian denominations. Some of it seems rushed. Some are very, very brief and some are much indulgently long.

Most are autobiographical and this both informs and puts off. So, "Christian writing," the book seems to argue, is largely about individuals meditating, sometimes as blowhards. It is in no way systematic or intellectual.

It is, inherently, a collection, so there is hit and there is miss. Some hits include Susan Fish's Here, a wonderful, personal, reflexive meditation. Christ in the Room by Philip Marchand, about the awkwardness but joy of a strict Catholic upbringing. Atomic Birthday by Sally Ito, on Hiroshima and struggling with memories of it. The humble and charming Crossing to the Other Side by James Londy. There is riveting, earnest stuff here.

Despite the editors' frank and embarrassed admission that this book about "spirituality" is simply Christian, one does note that the spirituality on display here is rarely peculiarly Christian.

It is rather generic, even pantheistic. There are moments of overt meditation on Jesus as Christ, but it is much more complicated than that.

At the end of the day, their embarrassed admission may not be necessary: So many of these pieces are really just "spiritual," not "Christian" reflections.

These pieces by ministers, by film critics, by poets, by novelists, by essayists, by teachers, by television personalities, all of whom wear their Christianity on their sleeves, are also very accessible and interesting to the uncommitted reader. Their embarrassment is unwarranted.

Laurence Broadhurst teaches Christian origins in the department of religion at the University of Manitoba and is a senior fellow of St. John's College.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 21, 2008 D0

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