Ron Hansen on Writing as Sacrament

Once a month, a group of friends from the magazine I work for get together to eat sack lunches and talk about writing. We usually read and workshop a piece written by someone in the group. On days where no one feels like bringing original material, we read an article on the writing process.

This week, the venerable Matt Woodley shared an outstanding essay – “Writing as Sacrament” by Ron Hansen. Hansen (author of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, among other novels) argues persuasively that the art and craft of good writing is an act of deep meaning; for the Christian, it is an “occasion of encounter” between humanity and God.

He reacts strongly against books that “seem like the products of a market analysis,” preferring instead to read and write works that stem from “a writer’s private obsession.” Hansen’s commitment to sharp literary art, especially in fiction, is clear. He sees symbol and mystery in art as channels of God’s grace and truth, to the writer, to the reader, to the culture, to the church.

Hansen writes:

“To fully understand a symbol is to kill it. So the Holy Being continually finds new ways to proclaim itself to us, first and best of all in the symbols of Christ’s life, then in Scripture, and finally in created things, whether they be the glories of nature or art or other human beings. And those symbols will not be objects but actions. As theologian Nathan Mitchell puts it, ‘Symbols are not things people invent and interpret, but realities that `make’ and interpret a people. . . . Symbols are places to live, breathing spaces that help us discover what possibilities life offers.’ Read the rest of this entry »