Monday, July 16, 2007

The Second Coming

No, I am not going to give my predictions for the return of Christ, but I did want to share some thoughts on a great book I finished last week. The Second Coming is a novel by Walker Percy. Percy was a southern novelist in a similar vain of Flannery O'Connor. If I am not mistaken he was also a Catholic like O'Connor. The novel explores some of the difficulties of life as the main character, Will Barrett copes with his wife's death, his father's suicide, his own thoughts of mortality, love, and faith. Percy offers some valid critiques of the disconnect between what Christians say they believe and how they live out their faith. "If Christ brought life, why do churches smell of death?" (p.272) This is one of my favorite lines from the book because it asks a piercing question to everyone who calls himself a disciple. The conclusion of the book brings Will Barrett full circle from being a doubter and essentially an agnostic to realizing that some of the evidences of God are the very things in front of his face everyday, like Allie, who he has fallen in love with. "Is she a gift and therefore a sign of a giver? Could it be that the Lord is here, masquerading behind this simple silly holy face? Am I crazy to want both, her and Him? No, not want, must have" (p. 360).

If you need a good novel to take to the beach or the lake with you as summer winds down, may I recommend The Second Coming. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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