by Sonia Gomez

Experimental Theology

Edited by Robert Corbett and Rebecca Brown

(Seattle Research Institute) $15, available at www.seattleresearchinstitute.org

Sitting in the dingy bar of the Hotel Isabel in Mexico City this past April, I heard of the extraordinary events that take place on Good Friday in the otherwise humble neighborhood of Iztapalapa. A complete, literal-to-the-fleshy-detail reenactment of the crucifixion of Christ fills the quiet lanes with thousands upon thousands of the faithful. The honored young man who plays Christ bears a crown of piercing thorns, and drags his cross up the hill, moved, no doubt, by the fervent prayer of the crowds. Traditionally, the protagonist ends his day in the hospital, where, departing from the original story, he spends the next few days recovering from his religious experience. This account, mixed with images of the Aztec cult of the dead and visions of the Virgin of Guadalupe, swarmed to mind as I read Experimental Theology, the new anthology just out from the Seattle Research Institute.

The anthology is the second publication from the Institute, which, despite its mysteriously generic name, is an interesting collection of local writers, thinkers, and other postmodern intelligentsia sorts, including the notorious books editor of this very paper. As the title implies, the anthology is an effort to put God to experiment, to discuss who God is and what it all means to be godly in the secular wilds of the 21st century. While you should not look to this book for spiritual solace or ecstatic transport, you should certainly give it your attention for (a) a collection of surefooted, smarty-pants local writers, and (b) ambitious and innovative publishing from a truly independent source.

The anthology is arranged in three parts, each featuring an array of poems and assorted modes of prose, including fiction, essays, meditations, dialogues, and such. Some authors present a direct treatment of the topic, such as Andrew Connolly in "Speaking in Tongues," which outlines the types of tongue-speaking available to one, and provides a matter-of-fact memoir of his own experiences to illustrate. Megan Purn's piece on prayer and healing is rather wonderful for its play with the language and formulas of research. For those with a taste for the philosophical and theoretical, Jean-Paul Pecqueur's "Pragmatism: Soul-Making for Postmoderns" will meet those heavy needs. There is plenty of poetry to bring our attention to things we thought were ungodly but might now be persuaded to see otherwise, and a little row of delightful, witty meditations on some artifacts of Christian faith, such as angels, hell, and halos. In fact, Mikhail Epstein's essay "Angelism as a Postmodern Religion" was one of the most fascinating and beautifully wrought pieces of the whole.

Experimental Theology is an ambitious project, but for this reason it leads to some disappointments. To go back to my vacation in Mexico City, where in the month of April one cannot possibly miss the gaudy, human extravagance of faith, what I longed for in reading this book was some antidote to the pall of Protestant austerity that binds almost every writer's approach to the subject of theology. What these writers reflect is the prudish (practically Calvinist, not to say classist) suspicion with which we regard spirituality and, more specifically, the hedonistic fervor of faith. In this sense the experiments start to feel less experimental and more conventional as the anthology coheres. Not for the first or last time, I regret living in a city that is so restrained and cleverly clinical in its handling of the most visceral heart-and-soul matters!

Experimental Theology, then, should serve as a point of departure, but should inspire us to experiment much further afield.

Experimental Theology's publication party (a christening!) is on Sun June 1 at Richard Hugo House at 7 pm. $5 suggested donation.