The Fire in the Rock

[cnorman19]

Since there seems to be a new extension to Interstate 20 under construction in my mouth, and since I'm not going to be recording more audiobooks (or even eating solid food) anytime soon, I find myself reflecting on my own book and its prospects in the marketplace. So here I am.

To be honest, the book is not doing well.

Now, I know nothing about "marketing" anything; I've often said that I couldn't sell a candy bar to a Cub Scout. All I know is how to speak honestly and from my heart. So I'll do that, about the meaning of this book and its origins. If you've ever thought my posts worth your time and thought, please give this one a few minutes.

It began with a simple insight, a simple truth: EXODUS is not a myth.

Nor is it an ancient, symbolic metaphor.

And before the conservatives and fundamentalists begin to nod in satisfaction -- Exodus is not a record of divine, supernatural miracles, either.

The Book of Exodus -- Sh'mos, or Names, in Hebrew -- is a remnant, a distant echo; it is the residue of oral traditions and memories passed down through many generations of distortion and exaggeration -- but of REAL MEMORIES and REAL EVENTS that can be, and in fact have been, proven and verified.

Does that mean that the Exodus narrative is literally true? No, of course not. But there are certain cataclysmic events that are known, beyond scientific doubt, to have occurred at about that time and place, and that are far too close in nature to those related in the Bible, to be coincidental.

"The Fire in the Rock" is my attempt to reconstruct the actual, real, historical events that lie at the root of those memories and traditions, and to tell the real, human story behind the Bible's wonder tales of grand miracle and Divine intervention. It is strange to me that no one else to date has made an attempt to tell this story in this manner, as a straightforward fictional account.

"The Fire in the Rock" is just that; a "demythologized" version of these events, in the term used by my friend Stephen McCulloch (with a nod, I assume, to the 20th-century Biblical scholar Rudolf Bultmann). God is not exactly absent -- but He is "offstage," so to speak, throughout the story, present only in the minds and perceptions of the ordinary human beings who lived through these extraordinary times.

Still, the question recurs throughout: Did God truly take part in these spectacular events?

Who can say? Perhaps God was no more "there" at the Exodus than He is in our own day, acting through the minds and hearts of those who choose to try to follow Him -- and of those who do not! That is not nothing, though it is not the grand and glorious Cecil B. DeMille spectacle that we have come to expect in Epic Stories, whether from Mount Sinai or Mount Doom.

Likewise: The objective existence, not to mention the attributes, of God -- if there is a God of that kind at all -- are indefinable and unprovable in our own time, and I suspect that they always were, even in the time of Moses, even to Moses himself.

What I do know is that there was -- there must have been -- a very real and very human story behind the Biblical accounts, and that it was most likely a story of adventure, of courage, of original thought and creative understanding -- and above all, as most important stories are, a story of human love and affection.

My attempt to tell this story hews pretty closely to the Biblical narrative. I acknowledge that the "true" story, by now no doubt unrecoverable, may have been very different indeed; but as an attempt to find a way from the traditional miracle tales to a more naturalistic understanding of these momentous events, I think my effort serves rather well.

If you're interested in seeing a fresh perspective on one of the oldest stories in Western culture, you might want to give "The Fire in the Rock" a look. I think it's an important book that might prove to be a springboard for a new conversation on a very old topic; for looking at the Bible as the literary tradition that it certainly is; and for understanding the people in the Bible as ordinary -- and sometimes extraordinary -- people very much like ourselves. It is my life's work, and though I preach to no one -- those who know me know that beyond doubt -- I believe in the book's message and its significance, which have to do with new perspectives, rational and critical thinking, and respect for differing views. I hope you will buy or download it, and I hope that you will find something in it that speaks to you.

Thanks for reading.

https://www.createspace.com/4348539