Through his books, Brennan Manning sought to tell the world about the grace of God. He did so in his best-seller The Ragamuffin Gospel, as well as in Abba’s Child and again in his memoir, All Is Grace. While grace was an overarching theme for Manning’s nonfiction books, he thought a novel might also be a good way to expand the story.
That’s how Greg Garrett got involved with the famed “ragamuffin,” a man who had bared the story of his painful childhood, his alcoholism and his failures to the world, all in the hopes that others would discover the grace of God as he had. Manning wasn’t a fiction writer, but as the author or co-author of 20 books Garrett had plenty of experience in fiction and nonfiction. The two also shared a belief in the power of a good story.
“He had a clear sense that story was how you communicate ideas and I’m an absolute believer in that,” Garrett said. “I write stories. I study stories and his big thing was he wanted to leave behind a really powerful story that illustrated love, grace and forgiveness.”
The two forged a partnership to write The Prodigal: A Ragamuffin Story (Zondervan). It turned out to be Manning’s last project; he died last year at the age of 78, just as the manuscript was completed.
Garrett said the two men worked together long distance. It was a collaborative effort, with Garrett writing and Manning helping to shape the story.
“This is the story he wanted to tell,” Garrett said. “I felt like I was living in his words and hearing his voice the whole time I was writing.”
Garrett, a licensed lay preacher in the Episcopal Church and a professor of English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, will discuss The Prodigal on April 13 at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Little Rock. He’ll be preaching that morning at 8 and 10:30 and teaching at 9:30. Members have been reading and discussing the book as part of a Lenten study series.
As the title suggests, the book is a retelling of the parable of the prodigal son as found in Luke 15. The parable tells of a father with two sons - one who stays and toils away for the family and the other who leaves and squanders his inheritance, returning only when he is destitute. Prepared to beg for his father’s mercy, the son is surprised to be welcomed with open arms.
“It’s a really powerful story that gets retold a lot,” Garrett said. “Willa Cather said there are really only a limited number of stories and we tell them over and over again. They connect with us because they are about authentic human conflict. The prodigal connects with people because we want to believe that whateve rwe have done, we are still accepted and loved.”
The story centers on a megachurch pastor caught in a scandalous affair with his assistant. Garrett said he thought it would be interesting to update the story of the prodigal son, to take it from the first century to modern times when news of a scandal can make its way around the world in minutes.
“When you fall from grace everybody knows about it,” Garrett said. “We live in a culture with a lot of celebrity scandal but rarely do we see them taking remorse seriously.”
The main character is Jack Chisholm, who has a huge church in Seattle with several campuses. He’s a guy everyone knows, with a devoted congregation and a slew of best-selling books. He’s on top of the world but he doesn’t know a thing about the grace of God.
Garrett said Jack’s basic message is “You are a really terrible person but if you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, God will pay attention to you.”
“That was a theology Brennan never liked,” Garrett said.
Garrett said the unqualified love of God is at the heart of the story and the theology Manning believed.
“The idea that you have unqualified love, whether you’ve earned it or not,” Garrett said. “For Brennan, who was a lifelong recovering alcoholic, who like all of us made his share of mistakes,to him that was the most important story in the Bible because it reminded him every day he needed to be loved and forgiven and that’s why this was really the only story for us to work on together.”
Garrett said for him the story isn’t over. He’s working on a proposal for a sequel that will tell more about what happens after the book ends.
“We know how the story of the prodigal son ends. The father comes out and greets the son,” he said. “What is really interesting is what happens the next morning. … That’s the interesting story for me.”
St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church is at 20900 Chenal Parkway. Information is available online at stmargaretschurch.org.
Religion, Pages 12 on 03/29/2014