Out of Print: A Novel
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What if tomorrow, the text of the Bible disappeared? All of it? What would happen to the Church? Would She still be able to function and exist? Would individual Christians loose their faith? Or would both survive just fine, even thrive?

That’s the premise of my friend and mentor John Frye’s masterfully crafted, fresh novel, Out of Print.

In his book, John posits “a world with no Bible,” and the world that results is a world with just the Text, and more: a world with simply the meaning beneath the Text. But that’s getting ahead of myself!

Without giving too much away and taking the fun out of wrestling through his thought-provoking poetry yourself, here are some highlights and my take-aways.

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The book opens with the Book of John disappearing and subsequent books of the Old and New Testament fading over the course of several weeks with a book and a chapter remaining (though I won’t say which!). In fact, even a book from the Apocrypha disappears, leading to interesting questions on canonicity and the origins of the Scriptures.

Of course, the circumstances and mystery surrounding the Text’s disappearance causes much world-wide alarm within and outside the Church. Biblical scholars from across the spectrum, including Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox and Jewish, all come together to figure out why the Bible disappeared (and continues to do so when anyone pens or types the words of the Text), leading to interesting conclusions and solutions.

One of my favorite scenes is at a coffeeshop with two characters, Luci and Tracy. Luci returned to her faith after the events and was voicing how freaky it all was, so Tracy suggests something:

“Take your napkin and a pen. Try to write, “God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.”

Luci did as Tracy suggested and even as she wrote the words down, they both marveled at how they just as quickly disappeared. Right before their eyes the whole scary reality of a world without the written Word of God was verified.

“That is spooky,” Luci said quietly as she watched the last of the words vanish.

“I know, Luci, it is. But what I said and what you wrote is still very true…”

Brilliant! Simply because the Text was no longer present didn’t make the reality of the meaning beneath the Text any less valid. Which gets to this question: Are the words of the Text important and key, or is the meaning (and I and Barth would say the PERSON) beneath the Text what’s important?

One more great section: in a home study led the pastor character, Luci again speaks up about what she is learning:

“I think that one of those things that God is doing is teaching me this: God is not equal to the Bible. Like I said, I thought when the Bible vanished, God vanished. That scared me, really scared me. But I’m finding that God has given the Bible, but he is not the Bible. I’m also learning that even though the pages of the Bible are empty, that the Word of God is still here. It’s in the kind hearts and loving actions of people like you…right here in this little house in Three Rivers. Just a short time ago I was just a confused girl living with her boyfriend for hope and security, but now I know God. I’ve seen God and heard God…through all of you. God is not a book. He is a person, and, and, I know God is more person than we are, ah, I mean, God is the pure, supreme personal God, but he is God after all. And I think that this God is alive and present and seeing and hearing through all of you. God is at work in the world through so many people.”

Oh wowwie! God is INCARNATED not TEXTED! And that ultimate incarnational revelation was Jesus, a revelation testified to by the textual revelation, but not God itself. And what’s more: God moves and acts through the incarnational, not the textual; God moves and acts through Jesus and us, not simply words on a page. (This by the way is a broader discussion that began, by in large, with Karl Barth. So if you’re interested in more on this idea, read him!)

In the end, the Church realizes why the Text exists: not as a replacement to God the Revealer, but as a reflection of the Revelation Himself; the meaning beneath the Text is more important than the Text itself; the power of the Text lies not in its interpreters and interpretations, but as a stand-alone entity, unpreached and uncommented; though God has revealed himself Textually, he does not stop revealing; when the Bible closes, God does not stop speaking; there is great, unifying value in rallying around simply the Text outside of doctrine, theology, and Textual interpretations; and the most important of all: we are called to BE and LIVE the Text in COMMUNITY, rather than study and know the Text individually.

Though the book is small (clocking in at a total of 108 pages) it’s weight as a story and theology rivals a 300 pager! The questions John poses and ideas he presents are sorely needs, and hopefully they will get you thinking about how you yourself handle the Text, I know he’s got me thinking! In fact, I worked on the book website and I am working with him to launch a forum that will provide space to wrestle with some of these ideas in virtual community, something he certainly hopes results from this book.

In the front jacket of my copy John wrote, “Jeremy: Enjoy the story, Live the story, Be the story! 2 Cor 3:3, John Frye.”

Amen and Amen! May the Church not simply study and defend and argue and theologize God’s grand Narrative. Rather, may we step into the pages God is writing and be and live the Text before a hurting, broken, despairing world. Because when we step into lives as “living letters from Christ” and be the Text, the world will know Him, even if the printed Text is “out of print” in their own homes.

You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 2 Cor. 3:3