10.27.2004
The Life of Pi
I just finished The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. The Amazon.com reviews give an accurate depiction of the ambivalence and apparent disconnect between the first part of the book and the last. However, on reflection, Martel provides the dots and expects us to make the connections.
Without giving away the ending, I found it to be a helpful fable about the nature of Story, Truth and the contextualization of reality. The utter disbelief and incredulousness at his fantastic tale paralleled the approach that many have to the Christ story. There is nothing historically provable about Jesus but the subsequent events of history lend great credence to the claims of the gospel. The fact that we are here is proof of a journey of some sort. And no matter what story we choose, it is still rooted in faith.
More importantly, the book places the responsibility squarely on our shoulders for our response to the Story that God gives us. Our natural tendency is to doubt what we don’t believe and to not believe what we doubt. The trouble is that we have a Story like creation that sounds incredulous to some but the Story of evolution is its replacement. And its not necessarily a better story or more attractive. So now the question becomes, do we accept truth because it is pretty and attractive or because it’s believable or other characteristics.
Without giving away the ending, I found it to be a helpful fable about the nature of Story, Truth and the contextualization of reality. The utter disbelief and incredulousness at his fantastic tale paralleled the approach that many have to the Christ story. There is nothing historically provable about Jesus but the subsequent events of history lend great credence to the claims of the gospel. The fact that we are here is proof of a journey of some sort. And no matter what story we choose, it is still rooted in faith.
More importantly, the book places the responsibility squarely on our shoulders for our response to the Story that God gives us. Our natural tendency is to doubt what we don’t believe and to not believe what we doubt. The trouble is that we have a Story like creation that sounds incredulous to some but the Story of evolution is its replacement. And its not necessarily a better story or more attractive. So now the question becomes, do we accept truth because it is pretty and attractive or because it’s believable or other characteristics.
