I recently read the novel People of the Book by Pulitzer Prize winning author Geraldine
Brooks. It tells to story of the
Sarajevo Haggadah, an illustrated Haggadah (liturgy book for the Jewish
Passover) that was created in Spain in the 14th century. It escaped Spain during the Spanish
Inquisition, survived Catholic censors in Vienna in the 17th
century, and was rescued from underneath the Nazis in Sarajevo.
Brooks took the historical outline of this special object and
imagined how it made the journey.
Working back through history she created characters that interacted with
the book—a Muslim librarian in Sarajevo, an alcoholic priest and his gambling
rabbi friend, a young Muslim woman who became a slave for a Jewish doctor. I actually don’t usually like books as complicated
as this one. Some chapters are a modern
day story moving chronologically about the conservation of this special
book. In between those chapters are the
chapters that describe each stop, and then move in reverse chronological
order. Each of those chapters is in a
new time and place with a new set of characters to get to know. And for this book, it works. I was drawn into the story—the story moving
forward and the individual stories moving backwards.
One of the questions or themes of this book are how people
of different religions get along, or don’t get along, as often happens. The novel is populated by “people of the book”—Jews,
Christians, and Muslims. Through the
centuries, people of all three religions create, move, and preserve the haggadah. But it usually comes in times of persecution,
when people of one religion are in power and oppressing the others. Christians censor books of other faiths in
seventeenth century Venice. A Muslim
ruler captures a Christian woman and forces her to become his wife in fifteenth
century Seville. There are moments of
beauty and depravity by people of all three religions.
It is a long standing question: how do we relate to people
of other faiths? People of faith
generally hold their beliefs strongly and that causes conflict. We see it played out through the history
books and browsing the news today. And
when faith gets combined with power—particularly political or economic power—things
get messy. I can only speak as a
Christian, and we have made some terrible mistakes. Those mistakes have brought dishonor to the
name of Jesus, who came to bring shalom (peace,
wholeness) to the world.
I want to be part of bringing that shalom to the world, and that means both not perpetrating violence
or harm to others, but also speaking the name of Jesus who brings peace. Easier said than done. I hear stories of people who have had to flee
their homeland because of religious differences. I walk by the mosques in my neighborhood and
am curious about the people that worship in them, but I don’t know many of
them. And so I pray, may I be an
instrument of peace. May people of all
backgrounds find shalom in Jesus
Christ, where true peace is found. And
may all followers of Jesus bring peace and not violence of any sort.
People of the Book image from Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/People-Book-Novel-Geraldine-Brooks/dp/0143115006/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1367202355&sr=8-1
Image of the mosque from Muslim in Michigan, http://muslimsinmichigan.org/2010/04/12/islamic-mosque-and-religious-institute-kentwood-mi/
