{"id":3382,"date":"2012-12-17T12:09:36","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T12:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/?p=3382"},"modified":"2018-07-19T20:05:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T20:05:10","slug":"openness-to-grace-a-k-a-the-suspension-of-disbelief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/12\/openness-to-grace-a-k-a-the-suspension-of-disbelief.html","title":{"rendered":"“Openness to Grace,” a.k.a. “The Suspension of Disbelief”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“A suspension of disbelief is…what links literature and religion, both of which require a leap of faith as the first step.”\u00a0So goes yesterday’s post<\/a> from Andrew Sullivan’s “The Dish.” \u00a0Its focus is the writer Madeleine L’Engle, author of the work A Wrinkle in Time<\/em> and other fantastical children’s books, upon the recent release of a collection of interviews conducted by Leonard S. Marcus about L’Engle, titled Listening for Madeleine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Friends described L’Engle as one who was “open to grace,” according to Ruth Franklin’s review of the book.<\/p>\n

And, on the importance of faith in her work, Franklin, as quoted by Sullivan, writes:<\/p>\n

One of Marcus\u2019s interviewees recalls glancing at L\u2019Engle\u2019s notebook during a meeting to discover that she was writing a prayer. Another person calls her the greatest preacher he had ever heard. Her piety should not come as a surprise:\u00a0A Wrinkle in Time\u00a0is a fairly obvious allegory of the struggle between good and evil, and the Austin chronicles allude often to the family\u2019s Christianity. One of L\u2019Engle\u2019s editors muses that her books always reflected \u201cher very deep faith . . . embedded in a great story with great characters,\u201d but the reverse can also be true: L\u2019Engle\u2019s characters are embedded in her faith, which is the real raison d\u2019\u00eatre of her novels. She liked to speak of her writing as an \u201cincarnational act,\u201d an inseparable part of her religious life.<\/em><\/p>\n

It seems to me that “openness to grace” is itself a “suspension of disbelief” and that all of life, in its messiness, requires this openness at some level-\u00a0by even the most hardened of atheists. \u00a0The bare fact that we allow ourselves to breathe means that we leave ourselves open to an encounter with something bigger than ourselves and beyond our comprehension breaking into our world.<\/p>\n

I wonder what Christopher Hitchens would say here-\u00a0I miss his hard-nosed honesty and hostility to skin-deep religion.<\/p>\n

But, without an openness to grace, life becomes tedious, boring, and materialistic. \u00a0We pretend that we really do have all the answers. \u00a0We have the answers for why a young man massacres young children. \u00a0We have the answers for how the earth came into being millions of years ago. \u00a0We have the answers for why we do everything we do in this beautifully ordered yet confusing world, whether it’s making love or making war.<\/p>\n

Have you noticed that kids are often asking questions? \u00a0My son always is. \u00a0And there’s something wondrous about the seeking.<\/p>\n

Maybe this is at least in part what Jesus means when he says we must become like children to enter the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

Openness to grace…a suspension of disbelief. \u00a0Children are much better at this sort of thing than grown-ups.<\/p>\n

Our questions and a willingness to be surprised by the answers take us there.<\/p>\n

But, what do you think? \u00a0Are “openness to grace” and “the suspension of disbelief” the same thing? \u00a0Does the bare act of living require them?<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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