New Town: A Fable...Unless You Believe

Harry Blamires has been a strong voice in evangelicalism for the last few decades, calling us to overcome the "scandal of the evangelical mind" with his book The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think? He was, as is pointed out in his bio in this book, a protege & friend of C.S. Lewis' - and he shows some of Lewis' insight and wit in this novel.

New Town is about a man named Bernard and his "dream" (I'm trying to not give away too much...). He finds himself in Old Town, where the rage is getting into New Town. Already you might have spotted the allegorical nature of the book - getting into New Town, which is being established and built by Christopher Godfrey, son of Sir Alph Godfrey.

Bernard meets up with his high school sweetheart and her daughter - interesting relationships ensue (especially as age seems to mean much less in this "in-between" world). As Old Town continues to disintegrate and fall apart, the urgency to get into New Town is heightened - so Bernard becomes a "waiter", someone on the waiting list. Those who wait for a home in New Town gather together weekly to wait together and remind each other of their new homes. And so the allegory goes on...

I don't want to give away anymore, because I'm planning on using this book for our book club next summer. There are a myriad of details which could be sorted out allegorically and discussed enjoyably. It is, over all, a good book which succeeds greatly as an allegorical novel. And it can be pretty funny - Blamires being a good Englishman and all. (Isn't it a cool cover?)

-----

I added a few new links to the "fun, good, thoughtful" section. And I fixed the link to George Grant's blog.

-----

Update on church planting - we had a great kick-off party last Saturday night. This evening is the official start to our "core group": we're going to spend about four months together, studying God's Word and what it has to say about the church, planning for evangelism & outreach, praying for the new church and the lost, and other planning and brainstorming. Shouldb be a lot of fun.