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Paris in the Spring – Part II, The Book Launch
We continue today the chronicle of how my books came to be published in French. In Part I, I described how the translator and the publisher came together. Today I want to look at what happened after that connection was made.
With the help of stories in magazines such as Evangele & Liberte and Le Monde des religions, the French-language version of the book, Jesus for the Non-Religious, began in 2014 to make its way into the French reading public. In the first six months of its life, it averaged selling one hundred copies a month. That would certainly not place this book on the French version of the New York Times best seller list. After six months, however, something quite distinct became evident. In its second six months of publication, this book on average sold two hundred and thirty copies a month. That is the kind of trend that publishers welcome. It meant that some effective word of mouth process was at work, lifting this book into people’s conversations. At the end of that year, more than 2000 copies had been sold and the upward trend was still intact. By this time, the book had already covered the initial expenses of Karthala, its French publishing company. They believed that they had succeeded in opening up a market for a very different kind of religious book – a more critical, non-traditional way to think about God. Karthala even began to hear words of criticism, which is always a good sign. Some evangelical parts of the French Protestant world began to attack their perception of my attitude regarding homosexuality. They even got wind of the fact that I had suggested that Paul might have been a deeply repressed, gay man. A sexual explanation, I had suggested, was necessary to account for the quality of self-loathing that Paul expressed when he wrote such words as: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death,” or when he described himself as experiencing an inner war in which: “my mind follows one law and my body another.” When Paul spoke of a “thorn in his flesh,” which prayer could not alleviate or remove, he was surely dealing with some biological affliction. Scholars had speculated over the centuries as to what the nature of that “thorn” might have been. In the Yale University Library, while on sabbatical study leave in 1989, I ran across a 1930’s book by a man named Arthur Darby Nock, which suggested that Paul’s “thorn” might have been repressed homosexuality. In the 1930’s when homosexuality was viewed as sinful and decadent behavior, it was all but impossible to have this suggestion be entertained. Paul could not be identified with something thought of as intrinsically evil. So the idea languished, gaining no traction.
As homosexuality over the years came to be seen as a normal, if minority, aspect on the spectrum of human sexuality, however, the idea that it might have been the reality of the holy Paul began to gain credibility. I had sought to develop that possibility in one of my earlier (1991) books, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism. This idea had been roundly attacked in evangelical circles in the United States. Now some knowledge of that debate had entered the evangelical circles of France. So hostility and criticism followed. These attacks served primarily to give new identification to my name. Catholic leaders also denounced the book as “not orthodox.” It did not occur to them to realize that not to be “orthodox” by their standards was to suggest the possibility that this book might be relevant. In any event, the interest in Karthala’s first critical and modern “religious” publication received significant attention. Sales grew and Karthala began to entertain the possibility of doing a second Spong book. Under pressure from Abigail Bassac, my translator, to publish, Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Virgin Birth and the Place of Women in a Male-Dominated Church, Robert Ageneau, the owner of Karthala, acquiesced and decided that this would be their second Spong publication. This book touched on the secular issues of feminism and equal rights for women, but it also revealed the fragile quality of traditional, biblical and creedal fundamentalism. No part of the gospel narratives was or is better known by the general public, church going and secular alike, than the stories of the birth of Jesus. The symbols drawn from these stories are all familiar. The star in the East, the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, the journey of the magi, the annunciation to Mary, the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, “no room in the Inn,’ the stable, the manger, the angels singing to hillside shepherds, all were familiar images, brought out of the Bible and into the public arena in December of each year. Most people had never thought much about the literal accuracy of these beautifully-drawn portraits. Once literal accuracy is raised to consciousness, however, it is impossible to sustain these stories as history. Virgins do not conceive, except in mythology. Stars do not announce human events. Angels do not break through the midnight sky to sing to hillside shepherds. While the Christmas stories are deeply familiar, few people have thought critically about them. Most people have never stopped to learn that these stories did not enter the Christian tradition until the ninth decade of the Christian era. They were unknown to Paul, who wrote all of his epistles between 51 and 64 CE. They were also unknown to Mark, the earliest gospel writer, whose work did not get published until about the year 72 CE. This means that the virgin birth was literally unknown until it was introduced by Matthew around the year 85 CE. It was then repeated, but in a very different format by Luke some five to ten years later. Then these birth stories were removed from his work by the author of the Fourth Gospel, who wrote between 95-100 CE. Even more than just removing this tradition the author of this last gospel referred to Jesus in his text on two different occasions, quite simply as: “the son of Joseph” (John 1:45, John 6:42). If one wanted to open people up to a new way of understanding the gospels apart from the literalism that has through the centuries been imposed on the Christian story, there would be no better place to begin than with the birth narratives. Exposing the inadequacy of biblical fundamentalism and addressing the issue of women’s equality continues to present intriguing possibilities.
So Karthala contracted with Abigail to be the sole translator of this second book. Now, in addition to Robert Ageneau, the Karthala staff, was made up of a group of experienced and gifted young adults, who began to organize their plans for the launch of Born of a Woman. Xavier Audrain, chosen in 2013 by Robert Ageneau, to be the CEO of this company, was on board. He was one whose scholarship and business acumen were already established. Jeannie Raymond, was now the head of publicity, communications and public relations for the religious collection at Karthala. Though not yet thirty, she exhibited the talent, the skills and the energy that rank her as one of the best in this field. These executives were supplemented by a staff of sales people whose youth and ability made them naturals to interface with France’s still largely independently owned and operated network of bookstores. Robert Ageneau was still the face and the spirit of Karthala, but it was a growing company and it was now moving to cover the niche market of critical, scholarly religious thinking. So Born of a Woman came out to great fanfare in June of 2015. That was what took us to France once again so very recently.
Once more Karthala planned a series of launching events. I now saw Paris bookstores with window displays featuring Ne d’une Femme. Crowds at the public lecture events were larger and more enthusiastic than they had been a year ago. The day the press conference was scheduled turned out to be the same day that Pope Francis issued his encyclical on the environment, so the press representatives had to be there. Not wanting to miss the interview with me, however, they submitted a list of questions to which I was invited to respond in writing. I did. Although such a format does not offer the chance for dialogue, it did mean that I could frame my answers more explicitly. On the basis of these events Karthala now expects an increasing number of sales. Indeed their confidence in this market has enabled them to begin to discuss what book will be the number three Spong book in the French language — should sales justify the idea. The debate was between Resurrection: Myth or Reality? and Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism. Christine and I plan to be in Germany the first two weeks of October in 2016 for other reasons, but if the launch of another Spong book in French is planned, you may be sure that we will be there to assist.
Today, my vocation of helping to bring biblical scholarship out of the Christian academy and to make it available to the non-professional reader, who might still occupy the pews in our churches, seems to be in full swing. My books are now in most of the languages of Europe: German, Spanish, Italian, French and all of the languages of Scandinavia. They have also escaped the boundaries of Western thought by being translated into both Arabic and Korean. Just a week ago Harper/Collins notified me that they had signed a contract with a Japanese publisher to bring out Jesus for the Non-Religious in Japanese in about six months. At this moment, negotiations are going on with a man named Eugene Wei to translate some of my books into Chinese. It all feels very heady. Invitations to lecture on these books around this nation and throughout the world have already been scheduled into 2017. That is not the way that I thought retirement would go, but the challenge of these opportunities drives me to work harder on this column, to extend my orbit of influence to places to which I have never dreamed of going, to continue to break new ground in my own life of study and to keep my mind and body healthy and vital. We cannot always choose the doors that will open to us, but once they are opened, we can and do choose how to respond. I plan to walk through every doorway that opens before me and Christine will walk through them with me. What a way to enter the 85th year of my life.
~John Shelby Spong
Read the essay online here.
Question & Answer
Gary Toporoski from British Columbia, Canada, writes:
Question:
Since and shortly before retiring from corporate life some 15 years ago, I have read prolifically...attending to certain subjects, previously far removed from my radar...eastern faiths, Christianity, evolution and philosophy. From Osho to Camus, CS Lewis to Tolstoy, Alan Watts to Einstein, John P. Meier to Marcus Borg, Pascal to Voltaire and countless others in between. In recent weeks I have come upon and then devoured your book Why Christianity Must Change or Die. It is clear to me that this book is the singularly most important book of all that came before it. This is to thank you profoundly for giving voice to my own thoughts which troubled me, but could not be fleshed out as vividly and convincingly as you have done.
Throughout my personal journey of “Awakening,” I’ve maintained a list of phrases and life-lessons which most resonated. The words are perhaps 20% my own, 40% paraphrased and 40% direct plagiarizing. The most recent entries (not in chronological sequence here) are from your text and serve to remind and encourage me and all readers that human evolution is still underway, especially as regards to the Christian faith and particularly how today we can view, admire, worship and give eternal thanks to the Nazarene for his teachings and perhaps most of all for his example. I am forever in your debt sir.
Answer:
Dear Gary,
I have read your journey entitled “Awakenings” with great pleasure. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I hope you will share them with many others. I am delighted that you found my work worthy of inclusion.
I think two things are obvious. First, if we had not defined Jesus theologically and built institutional religion around him, his memory would probably not have survived. Second, because we defined Jesus theologically and built institutional religion around him, his memory might not survive.
What then can we do? We can separate the Christ experience from the Christ explanation and allow Christianity to become an ever-evolving religion that replaces its dated explanations in each generation.
That means that we recognize that the New Testament is a 1st century explanation of the Christ experience. It is not an objective record of truth and can never be called “inerrant” or be understood literally.
It means that we recognize that the creeds and all the doctrine and the dogma that flowed from the creeds are 4th century explanations of the Christ experience and can never define truth nor can they make or sustain the claim to possess “the one true faith.” We must thus dismiss any claims that these words or any interpretation of these words are or can ever be infallible.
It also means that we must become aware that almost all of our liturgical forms are 13th century explanations of the Christ experience, and must never be frozen in content or form. They can thus never be imposed as the norm for worship in another age.
The Christian faith is always a journey into the truth of God. None of us will ever arrive at our destination and those who think that they have arrived or who pretend to have arrived immediately become idolaters. The truth is that all of us will be forever pilgrims.
Can the Christian Church in any of its institutions ever deal with that? Most of the available evidence says no. Lone voices cry out yes. Will these lone voices be heard or will they remain voices crying out in the wilderness? Time will tell. In the meantime, keep your voice strong and vibrant.
~John Shelby Spong
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Peacham Congregational Church, Peacham, VT
August 29-30, 2015
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