Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Autobiography

A friend once asked me "Why didn't God include an autobiography along with the Ten Commandments?" Imagine that you are a writer and that God has asked you to help Him write His autobiography.

What would you set as the scope? When should it begin? When should it end? How many pages should be in it? What sort of details and events would you suggest He include? For what sort of audience should you (or He) write? Intellectual? Influential? Average? Is there anything specific you would suggest He include? Is there anything specific you would suggest He not include? What questions would you want Him to answer. Put aside the "obvious" answer and really think about this.

If I were advising God in the writing of His autobiography, one of the first questions I would face is where it begin. In my experiences, biographies generally begin with one of four points in the subject's life: with some genealogical information (at the very least an overview of the lives of the subject's parents); with the birth of the subject; with the earliest memories of the subject; or with some pivotal event.

God told Moses that He is the self-existent one (Exodus 3:14) that He had neither parents nor a birth; in fact that He has existed through eternity past and will exist through eternity future. For us to begin prior to the creation of the universe would give His audience no frame of reference in which to operate. It would be irrelevant and incomprehensible. The creation would seem to be a good pivotal point at which to begin.

That only helps a little. If one accepts the estimates of the scientists, the universe came into existence something like 14 billion years ago. Do we start there? Do we assume that - just because the earth didn't exist yet, that God was sitting around doing nothing for billions of years? Earth supposedly cooled about 4 billion years ago. Humanity supposedly evolved into its present form about 155,000 years ago. On the other hand, conservative Bible scholars estimate that the universe, the earth and man came into being about 10,000 years ago. The earliest writing is estimated to be about 5,500 years old (http://news.bbc.co.uk.1/hi/sci/tech/334517.stm)

For practical purposes, it makes some sense for God's autobiography to begin with a brief summary of the creation up to the time when man entered the picture because until man enters the picture, there's no connection between God and His audience.

Where to end is not quite as difficult as where to begin. In general, biographies end with the death of the subject; events just prior to the publication of the work; or a climactic, defining moment. A true autobiography can't end with the death of the subject/author, so most autobiographies end with some combination of the other two. Usually, the conclusion makes it clear that the end of story is actually "to be continued...." Such an ending is uncomfortable unless we are reassured that the story will continue.

What would be the climactic, defining moments in God's life? Some further discussion of this must be given in a discussion of the content, but keeping a human audience in mind it seems clear that each of the series of endings of the works should contain a climactic, defining moment that builds on the others so that the whole produces not just a list of events, but some sense of purpose, progress and completion that is all somehow connected to humanity. Each "book" within the larger book should generate a picture of who the subject is, but they should also build on one another to produce a clearer picture still. The ultimate ending then becomes, appropriately enough, "and they lived happily ever after." Ever after could easily be applied to eternity future. Like eternity past, it is incomprehensible to us, but the climactic , defining moment that precedes ever after would likely complete the brackets begun with the creation: the end of the earth, time, etc.

Perhaps the most difficult questions are those addressing the content of God's autobiography. Even if He were restricted to the shortest time period, which moments in the past 10,000 years would He think important for His audience, for us? We dare not assume that because we don't notice activity that it doesn't exist. How many events could be included without making the book too long for most people to read. If we restricted him to one page per years, the book would still be at least 5,000 pages long by the time of Moses and 10,000 pages long now.

The content of any autobiography is linked to the motives behind is writing. For example, an author who is seeking acceptance will tell different stories (or tell the stories in a different way) from an author who is seeking glory and from an author who wants his audience to benefit from the work. This is a very complicating point because an author may have more than one motive for writing. While motives may never be clearly stated, their influence is enormous.

Another complicating factor in an autobiography is that the author can relate stories that could not be told by a biographer. Activities about which no one else knows can be revealed. Stories can be told in which the subject worked behind the scenes as well as stories in which the subject took center stage.

It would make sense for God to choose events that connect to his audience and reveal his motives. Somewhere near the beginning, some attention should be given to the initial relationship with man - God's revelation of Himself to man and man's response. From there, any changes in that overall relationship would need to be explored. The problem is that if we only deal with stories of God's handling of crises, we wouldn't get an accurate picture of God. He needs to also provide a more personal story, the "human interest" side.

With all of this in mind, I can't think of a better thing to say than, "To Be Continued...."

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