True

It would be wrong to say that I read a book while away on holiday. I almost finished one that I started while we were a way. But I did finish another that I began just after Christmas! It was a Christmas present and a novel. I don’t read many novels. There are far too many interesting theology books out there to spend time reading novels! But, because it was Christmas present from my wife, I began reading a novel. Well, I say novel. It was an historical novel. And by that I mean it was a novel written around historical events. I like that kind of book, because I like a bit of history. So I was looking forward to reading the truth about a Roman Catholic priest who lived in Rome in WWII and helped the allies escape. I found it a challenging book first because of the style of writing and then because I read it little snatches, so I was struggling to remember all the details. What I loved about it was that some chapters were transcripts of interview with the various characters in the story. Here was what they remembered twenty years after the events. It all made it much more real and extraordinary. The final chapter almost made me cry, as the two main protagonists met after many years and confronted the secrets they’d held from each other all those years. It was very moving. I found myself wondering if there was ever a way I could ever be as brave and courageous as this priest, literally putting his life on the line to save others. And could I ever see myself being so tenacious and daring as the others who were part of a network of support? I’m not sure that I could be like that. I don’t usually do this, but after I finished the book, I read the afterword at the very back of the book. I was…well…I wasn’t ready for what I read. I had read the book believing it to be a true story about real people and an accurate record of the events written into a novel. That turned out the be untrue! Wait! Wat? The transcripts of the testimonies to the secret service were fictional? Wait…you made them up? Some of the people might not have been real? You made them up? What? I was stunned. Had I been stupid? I sat there feeling let down and disappointed. What I had read as truth, historical truth, events that actually happened in the way that was written, wasn’t that at all. But here’s the thing: it wasn’t untrue either! There was a priest who helped people escape from Rome in WWII. He was real. People did escape. He did save lives. But the story I read was fictional. It was story written around the bare facts. The story contained pieces of history, educated guesses, speculation and an author’s ability to tell a story and make you want to read to the end. The book was both true and untrue. I’m sure the author did lots of research to understand the city of Rome at the time, the ways things really were under the German occupation. That kind of detail matters because it’s true. But the book is an interpretation. It’s an author’s understanding. It’s written through the lens of the one writing it. And maybe, in the end, it’s not the details that matter in the grand scope of the story. What’s important is that a priest showed extraordinary courage and perseverance, along with others, to help captured allied soldiers escape. Having read the book, I now know what I didn’t before. More and more I’m wondering if that would be a much more helpful and appropriate way to understand how the Bible works. I love the thought that God, in his wisdom, has let people write the Bible. And people do what authors do. They tell the story. And they do it through their lens. I’m learning to enjoy a Bible that didn’t just drop from the sky, but emerged over time, one that speaks of God in many and varied ways, but is also very human. That is not to say that God had nothing to do with the Bible. Of course he does. And we an meet him in the story. That’s what I hope I will continue to do. And that’s what I think God wants too. God is happy with the Bible and happy to meet us in its story.