Amen by Gretta Vosper. HarperCollins (Ontario, Canada, 2012. Pbk 2015). 356 pages. £10.99. Distributed in UK and Ireland by Kuperard Publishing & Distribution, 59 Hutton Grove, London N12 8D.
Gretta Vosper is pastor of a United Church of Canada congregation in Toronto and founder of the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity. Members of SOF who attended the events she led in London and Oxford in 2014 will know that she is an articulate and engaging speaker fired with a passion to promote her non-realist approach to religion.
The book is divided into five parts and Vosper helpfully begins by explaining her plan: Part 1 examines the story of prayer and considers the underlying assumptions; Part 2 examines prayer in the average church service; Part 3 challenges those who do not believe in the accepted core narrative of religion to say what they mean by prayer; Part 4 assesses the human need for the functions that prayer performs, whatever label we give it; and Part 5 suggests what it is essential to retain if we are to move forward in a world beyond belief. So far, so good.
This could be a book which lives up to the claim on the back cover that this is ‘a very intelligent guide to prayer’ (The Globe and Mail). Sadly it fails to deliver because of the way it is written. Vosper’s speaking style is informal, colloquial and conversational, and such is her passion to make the case for a non-theistic approach to religion, that words pour from her in an unending torrent. Unfortunately, she uses exactly the same technique in her writing. She invokes support for her mission in a somewhat random fashion from a wide variety of sources ranging from theologians, philosophers and scientists to novels, films and other contemporary entertainments. She then adds to the mix (unnecessarily long) anecdotes from her own life or that of her church, including more than a page on the trials of moving house.
It seems that she cannot bear to leave anything out. For example she quotes from the film The Music Men and comments: ‘I just had to get in there that great Hermione Gingold line.’ This may work well in front of an audience but takes no account of the fact that a more selective approach is required if a piece of writing on an important topic is to be taken seriously. Vosper’s thoughts on this subject are well worth hearing but it is difficult to extract them from the pages of text. I personally found it tedious having to plough through so many words, particularly as much of the ground had already been covered in her previous book, With or Without God. Would that Vosper had followed the example of Dominic Kirkham who, in his book From Monk to Modernity, begins a chapter by saying: ‘Before sitting down to write this chapter I arrange my thoughts. Mulling over an idea that presents itself …I ponder further what bits of evidence may support or contradict it and how a pattern may be detected before launching into literary construction.’
A particularly annoying feature is Vosper’s use of bizarre headings to the sub-paragraphs into which each chapter is divided: ‘Look out! You’re too close!’; ‘You just wait till your father gets home!’, ‘Still hearing voices? Pinch yourself.’, ‘Squirm baby squirm’, ‘The weight of naughty naughty’ and (possibly worst of all) ‘Look up. Look wa-a-a-a-a-a-y up’. These oddities contrast strangely with more conventional paragraph headings such as ‘Confronting the challenge of language’, ‘Non-Theism’ and ‘Evidence’.
I was also irritated by Vosper’s love of inventing acronyms: TAWGFAT – The Almighty Word of God for All Time; TNR – Theologically Non-Realist; SAP – Source, Agent, Promise (of Good); SBNR – Spiritual but not Religious. Her favourite acronym is ACTS which she uses to summarise the functions of prayer: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. Two of the main chapters use this acronym in the heading: Supernatural ACTS and Natural ACTS. Curiously, the title of the final Chapter is the neologism ‘Empact’, the meaning of which is not explained until the very last paragraphs. Vosper defines it as ‘the ability to empathically impact others, within and beyond our communities and the world around us’.
The book includes some suggestions for non-theistic prayers which only serve to demonstrate the difficulty of writing liturgy in modern language. Excluding notes and acknowledgements this book is 315 pages long and would benefit greatly from drastic pruning. This would allow Vosper’s ideas to emerge. Her thoughts are a valuable contribution to Non-Realism.
Carol Palfrey is Secretary to the SOF Board of Trustees.