Doomsday

I do not usually read books of the genre in which Glorious Appearing would be categorized.  However, the book does remind me of another similar style of writing with which I am familiar.  Books written for and by Orthodox Jews have certain similar elements.  At home, I was discouraged from reading these books, their having been dismissed as “not well-written.”  Still, I’ve read my share and am not surprised by the parallels between Glorious Appearing and those books.

My friend works in the Jewish publishing business.  In her opinion, authors are strongly encouraged (at the risk of not being published) to write characters who are “realer than real.”  Children are extra-sweet and super-obedient and parents extra-wise and true guardians of the faith.  More importantly, the issues that are discussed in these didactic, often dogmatic, and moralistic books are always set in stark black-and-white terms.  Further, the antagonist is usually an external force over which the protagonist has no control: life-threatening illness, tragic car accidents, Nazi criminal activity, their parents’ decision to raise them in another faith or tradition.  Since the protagonist is removed from the actions that produce the struggle in the plot, his reaction to this conflict seems removed from his real inner life.  Only the prevailing Orthodox view is upheld and the reader is left with the the taste of artificial sweetener.  Usually the resolution proclaims that the protagonist is upholding the faith for generations and saving the world with his actions.

In Glorious Appearing, Ray and his company endure years of trial over which they seem to have no control.  Still, they are of the faithful, the choice to believe is absolute and unwavering.  In the end, they are rewarded.  The rest of the world waits for them to carry out their mission, watching by television.  Control of the media is often the first method a dictator uses to control a group.

The Left Behind series may speak to a diverse audience but its mission is straightforward – advance the cause, convert the unconverted.  Young and old and members of different sects (not sure about all denomination’s reaction to the story) can identify with the main characters, however unbelievable their unwavering devotion and exaggerated goodness, because the end is a supposed panacea for all the problems this world faces.  For example, the sick and maimed are healed, each is the subject of divine attention – not only does this make belief in Apocalypse palatable and digestible, it reinforces the personal benefits of belief.

That the end of the book is predictable and a story well-known in Christian theology and popular American culture is not counter its immense popularity.  Have not successful film adaptations of famous novels shown this to be valid?  Rather, each medium serves its own function, tells its own variation of the theme, and appeals to its own audience.  We might all know how the story is going to end but that does not diminish the pleasure of the reading.

Wouldn’t we not all be believers if we saw miracles predicted thousands of years ago come true?  Faith alone cannot prove these so-called miracles are not only coincidence?  But at what point can supernatural events no longer be called coincidence? The characters in this story are not concerned that the timing of the seven years since the signing of the pact is not exact.  God has his own concept of timing suffices as explanation for them.