Abstract
What do a spy, a rat, and a bed of nails have in common? According to Roques, they are all examples of narratives that one can employ to challenge Western culture’s predominately materialistic and consumeristic worldview.
Employing the very storytelling and question-raising communication techniques espoused in the book, Mark Roques passionately argues for a new approach to talking about the Christian faith within an increasingly secular cultural context. Relying extensively on his interpretation of Thomas Hobbes’ work and its connection with materialism and consumerism, Roque articulates the need to replace culture’s story of materialism and consumerism by employing awe-inspiring and question-inducing narratives. This narrative approach, Roques argues, will help culture discover a better story to live in.
To aid in the development of his communication technique, Roques leverages the overarching metaphor and foil of James Bond as a way to unlock the doors of imagination and invite the reader into a creative telling of the Christian faith. Organized around the topics of story and questions, Roques addresses the need for culture to live a better story. To do so, he unpacks his evaluation of contemporary Western culture. Roques argues that Western culture is highly influenced by a materialistic and consumeristic worldview, rooted in the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. According to Roques, Hobbes can be summarized as viewing humans as nothing more than machines, worth no more than the sum of their parts, and with no greater purpose than enjoying and consuming material possessions (p. 24). “For Hobbes, life boils down to mechanical motion and unremitting physical cravings” (p. 22). In Roques’ assessment, Hobbes’ philosophy has directly led to the predominant story of contemporary Western culture as evidenced in materialism and consumerism, influenced by secular (technology as saviour) and pagan (worship of animals or time, numbers, and reason) idolatry. To confront this story, Roque advocates the telling of a different narrative, occurring in six acts. This six-act story is the Christian narrative (Creation, Fall, Redemption Initiated, Redemption Accomplished, the Mission of the Church, and Redemption Completed) providing an alternative worldview centered on Christ.
This alternative worldview is applied by Roques, using his methodology of memorable storytelling, suggesting different ways to understand these stories, asking probing questions about them, and finally using these insights to “explain important Christian teaching by contrasting different interpretations of these stories” (p. 93). This process is intended gently and subversively to confront pre-existing perspectives formed by our secular, materialistic, and pagan worldviews while awakening the imagination to a Christian worldview. Several examples of this process are given, including stories about rat worship and Rajnat, the standing Baba. Roques then suggests the need to probe the prevailing influence of materialism, education, and war with questions to unveil their influence and examine the story they are inviting people to live in. The volume closes with a curated collection of “spiels” (pp. 153–170) conveniently compiled for readers to use in their own creative communication.
Organized like a tapestry of interconnected stories, it reads differently from many linearly-organized works. At times, one may get caught up in the sequence of stories Roques uses as he moves his storytelling needle through varied and eclectic narrative plots, aligning them in a specific way to create a picture that serves as both technique and example.
Christian educators looking for ways to challenge their students to understand and consider the Christian story will find this book not only to be instructional but also one that can be implemented immediately, with several examples of potential spiels one might use in that process. More than simply an articulation of an emerging communication technique, this work serves as a vision for creative communication that confronts the heart of culture with approachability and storytelling whimsy. More broadly, the accessibility of the text invites anyone with a desire to communicate the Christian story to a secular culture to find helpful suggestions and a fresh vision for how this can be done in a way that evokes awe and wonder rather than fear and dread. In the end, Roques helps the reader ask of others what they are also invited to ask of themselves: “What story are you living in?”