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And yet in the end, the catalogue of evangelical activity is neither comprehensive, well organized, nor deeply interesting absent the subtext of author as Prodigal Son. The real drama is enacted by evangelicals on their game, heaven–bent on converting John Marks, hoping to succeed where lesser men and God perhaps have failed. This is a book about plastic surgeons, and every single one of them thinks John Marks needs a nose job. John Marks, a man who could (and at a reading I attended, in fact, did) present a deeply understood and beautifully articulated presentation of the Gospel. More than retailing rote understanding, he shades with nuance and can describe with thoughtful eloquence the mystical particulars of grace. He speaks of a country he has not just visited but lived in. Lived in, then left, as he says, behind.
Perhaps because of this, I can't help but think that Marks wants to have it both ways. Decry the God who isn't. Then sketch sympathetic portraits of the people who would die for Him. Marks is too respectful of delusion, much like those who would dub Jesus a fine fellow and forget that pesky diagnosis of psychosis earned if a mortal man believes he's God Incarnate. One wants a more decided stance, a firmer argument. Marks, by fits and starts, is admiring and wistful (for this delusion?), then damning with faint praise, praising with faint damns. These are people who believe in God, in Jesus, in hell and heaven. If they are crazies bent on converting the planet, forget wistfulness, burn your copy of Pat the Christian, and let's have at the questions.
The book is rife with them. What is human agency in our redemption? What is the agency of God? Who's doing the saving? Who decides the thing? The conundrums of active vs. passive voice are given flesh and form. Marks' life story asks if our salvation can be returned. What of eternal security? Are we meant to argue people into the Kingdom? How do you square a loving god with tragedy and evil? (No anodyne theodicy need apply.) Is it to be hell for those who've never heard the Gospel? Marks isn't asking, Where do we post the Ten Commandments? May we be wished a Merry Christmas?
The documentary Purple State of Mind, just out, is a companion piece to Marks' book. In the film, Christian filmmaker and author Craig Detweiler and his old friend John Marks take on these questions and each other in a series of four conversations. On screen, Marks charms and bullies, provokes and entertains. Detweiler waffles and grins. He is sweet, does not offend. But neither man's argument is strong or compelling. And that's the point. Of the movie. Of the book. At the end of the day, it's not about the argument. The message of the film is that there are no winners, no losers. There is only the relationship of these two former college roommates, who shared four years at Davidson, four years of waning adolescence, four years of faith in Christ. And then, across two of these things we call our lifetimes, a conversation runs.
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