Book Review(ish) - Worthing Saga

Among the books listed in my last post, perhaps the least well known is Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card. If the true power of great literature is judged by its ability to influence the reader, then for me this book is one of the greatest works I have ever read.

Orson Scott Card himself writes within several genres, most notably science fiction. Although a Mormon, it is rare to see any direct religious references come through in much of his work. (not something I find fault with, merely an observation) Worthing Saga is different. As a story it sets up clear parallels between the Fall of Man in Genesis as well as to the theme of the book of Job. In a mere 300 pages the novel covers a broad philosophical spectrum: man's purpose in life, man's place within community, the purpose of government, the danger of technology, urban planning, etc. However, the main focus of this blog is on the novel's answer to the cry of Job.

To maintain the book's full power for any who wish to read it, I am going to avoid a complete discussion of the plot. At the beginning of the book, however, we are introduced to a society that wakes up to what will come to be known as "The Day of Pain." For the first time anger gives way to violence. For the first time people have accidents which cause great injury. For the first time women die in childbirth. People in this village wonder what has befallen them. Did God die? If God was still watching over them, why is there such suffering?

The novel eventually answers this basic question by arguing that it is not right to prevent anyone from feeling the full force of pain. On one level, people and communities are only able to grow when they can learn from pain, learn from their mistakes. Even more important than this is the notion that without pain people become emotionally stunted. One can only know true joy, this book argues, when you also know the full extent of pain and depravity. Before I read this book, I would have said that this was not true. After all, must one watch a poor movie in order to appreciate one that is well-done. After reading this book, I wonder.

As I read this book, I couldn't help but relate its discussion of pain to my own Christian theology. I recall one time in a freshman theology class at college a fellow student asked an intriguing question. "Mankind has already fallen once," he said. "What is to prevent us in heaven from falling again?" I remember the teacher responded to this question by positing that perhaps the nature of humanity in heaven is inherently different somehow that humanity in Eden. For myself, this novel provided a clear answer to this question. The very experience of pain alters each individual in a profound way.

Yes, the nature of humanity in heaven is different. It was the one commandment in Genesis 2:17 that man was not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Before the fall, man could be considered to be in a state of innocence. After the fall, we fell into a state of depravity. By the grace of God, through the process of salvation and our ascension to heaven, we shed our sin natures as we become like Christ. We do not shed, however, our experience of the process, our memories. We will forever remember what it was like to live in a world of sin, a world of pain. We will forever have lived through "The Day of Pain."

It is through this process that humanity will be able to understand more fully the nature of joy. I dare to posit that man is actually a greater creature in heaven than he ever could have been without the Fall. It is in this that Romans 8:28 shines out all the clearer. "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." All events do not work together for good for every man. It is only to those who love God that things will work together for good. Even then it seems to me that basic life experience shows that on earth all things do not work together for good to those who love God. It is only when heaven is included in the equation that this verse is possible. I think too many miss this basic point.

Would we ever be able to enjoy the full impact of God's unending and unfathomable grace and mercy without knowing the full extent or our own depravity? Adam and Eve in the garden then become emotionally stunted creatures, devoid of not only of knowledge of God's greatness, but even of the ability to feel great joy and happiness. Yet God in his foreknowledge saw mankind's fall before we were even created, and in this knowledge foreordained a process of transformation. Could this not have been God's final purpose in his creation?