Out of the Flames, Lawrence Goldstone

My latest greatest read was called Out of the Flames, subtitled "The Remarkable Story of a Fearless Scholar, a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the World." This book is partly a biography of the fascinating life of the Spaniard Michael Servetus, partly a discussion of the 16th century religious mindset, and partly the journey of a solitary book.

One of my favorite quotes was, "History is an ocean that books help us to navigate." Out of the Flames navigates the 16th Century world of publishing, bestsellers, heresies, and the intellectual prison that was the life of thousands until men like Luther, Calvin, and Servetus broke away.

Servetus had an elite education and language proficiency galore. He read Hebrew, Greek, and vulgate Latin in addition to his native Spanish. This wasn’t just unusual, it was illegal. Those languages were strategic in allowing him to study the original Bible in its entirety, as well as the modern day translations. He found discrepancies between the two, and in his drive to broadcast his ideas, he made himself a heretic to both Catholics and Protestants. Servetus wrote and published his interpretation of the Godhead and other ideas in Christianismi Restitutio and several other books. His intent was to understand the original meaning of the Bible.

Even though it is written without religious intent, Out of the Flames brings up countless discussion points for the modern Christian. Servetus was the epitome of a radical thinker. He was a pioneering medical genius, and managed to outthink centuries of stagnant medical tradition. In the same way, Servetus’ spiritual ideas also contradicted the collective consensus of established religion. He was a heretic of heretics. Thankfully, modern Christians don't kill each other over theological disagreements. However, modern Christians can still be found defending tradition and consensus rather than study the very Word they claim to follow.

Doing basic internet reading, I've seen a lot of conflicting details about Servetus' death. Modern Calvinists minimize the awfulness of Calvin’s actions because killing heretics was the way of the “church” then. In this book Calvin's role in Servetus’ death is not glossed over, nor is it presented as controversial. It seems the documentation speaks for itself. Whatever your opinion, the brutal facts are provoking. No one denies he was burned at the stake with his book Christianismi Restitutio chained to him. It's recorded that he died slowly, screaming, in terrible agony for thirty minutes.

Of course a story like this arrests your attention. I couldn't help being thankful for how ridiculously easy it is to read an honest translation of the Bible in my native language. Goldstone doesn’t make a connection with modern non-Trinitarian Christians, though many would find a special interest in this story. He does explain Servetus’ lasting influence over Unitarian groups. He may not be famous by U.S. standards, but he is well-remembered in Europe.

The last third of Out of the Flames is the story of the unlikely survival of the first printing of the book Christianismi Restitutio. Like the one that was chained to Servetus, most other copies were burned as heresy. Only three original copies exist today, and those were preserved haphazardly for hundreds of years. Finally, they all rest safely at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, the Bibliothèque National in Paris, and the library of the University of Edinburgh. And oh the joy. The U. of Edinburgh has images online now! Simply beautiful.  

You can buy an English translation of Christismi Restitutio for $229.00, or a used copy for $4,221.00.

And lastly, here is a first. I've made a YouTube video about Servetus for a school assignment, and I ended up using Out of the Flames as my main source.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy, by Eric Metaxas

This book is now known to some people as the book Kristi couldn't shut up about. This was the best book I’ve read in years, and I read a lot. Eric Metaxas is a brilliant writer and researcher, and owing to his own faith and heritage, he presents a mountain of information without losing sight of an important story that needed to be told. This book blends World War II History, Bonhoeffer family history, and various writings (including many personal letters) by and about Dietrich Bonhoeffer into a seamless narrative. It’s better than fiction in terms of romance, intrigue and suspense. I knew the ending was coming, but I became so involved in the story that I kept hoping Bonhoeffer would think of himself and change course.

Bonhoeffer was a complex and fascinating person. From my notes: He was multilingual (Spanish, German, English and more), a hiker, athlete, theologian, smoker, PhD, twin, world traveller, pianist, singer, flutist, teacher, preacher, believer, children’s minister, outlaw, expatriate, genius, writer, romantic, conscientious objector, undercover agent, fiancé. He had a temper at times, owned a St. Bernard once, and liked to argue. “You could not be a friend of Dietrich’s if you did not argue with him.”

I saw Metaxas joke in an interview that he wrote the title for rhythm. Pastor, prophet, martyr, spy. How could one man be all these things? Bonhoeffer was a pastor from a young age, and a spiritual leader even on his dying day. As “prophet” he recognized advancing evil and took a strong stand against it. He died a martyr because his Christian conscience led him into illegal activity. He was a spy in the sense that he carried on a deceptive identity in order to plot against the Nazis. (He once saluted Hitler in public as part of his false identity.) In reading how these random facts are linked in one person you get a feel for who he really was.

I loved reading from the German point of view. Most of what I knew about WWII was from a non-German perspective. It seems there is no end to the damage done by unfathomable evil, the tragic stories, or the sadness in the broken lives of survivors. (This hit home last year when I had the opportunity to hear a Polish holocaust survivor speak in person.) For me, Bonhoeffer’s story hammered a great wedge between the horrible holocaust stories and the greatness of Germany as a country and a people. As Hitler rose to power, some opposed him from the beginning, others were truly blinded. Some who had mistakenly supported him in the beginning had a slow revelation and a change of heart. Bonhoeffer played only a small part among countless German heroes, but his aristocracy and previous fame propelled his story into greater public interest.

The most challenging aspects of this book are the moral questions. Is it ever right to lie, disobey the law or kill? When you delve into the reality of being a Christian in a country where evil has taken over, the truth of right and wrong doesn’t change, but what has to be done for the sake of right and wrong can change. Sometimes you have to break the law. This area gets confusing to me, and even after some long conversations with friends, I am not so worried about what Bonhoeffer did, because no matter how we want to judge him in retrospect, he believed it to be right. I can easily leave that between him and God. But so many hypothetical situations come to mind... Would I have courage? Would I know what is right? Those were the battles Bonhoeffer faced in his mind. He made decisions that he believed were right, and they cost him his life. He had the courage to consider his eternal soul before his physical life. Some of us will never have to make the decision in terms of life versus death, but we do have to decide between an ordinary life and a dedicated life. In a slow way, we have to make the same decision. This book is praised by a broad audience, but I imagine the Christians who read it will be challenged in a much deeper way to live their faith with actions, and to evaluate their own convictions. Metaxas promotes this quote elsewhere, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

The ending. As I said before, I knew it was coming. Bonhoeffer is known as a martyr, and that status can tend to sound saintly and elevated. It can’t be overlooked that he was an extraordinary person who lived in extraordinary times. Yet Metaxas resisted glorifying Bonhoeffer’s death with pompous words. Yes it was heroic, but what comfort is that? It was one tragic loss among millions, an idea-churning mind halted, a writer stopped mid-book, a fiancé prevented from marrying, and a family's loved one gone without a grave to visit. Even though he died unjustly (as did so many others) the focus of the book is on his life, on his legacy, and on the empty space his death left in his world. I'm glad I read the ending alone, because I really don't like to be seen crying.