A challenge to translate the gospel

The 2:30 rush has just hit the café where I sit. A group of middle-aged government types sits nearby talking. The conversation strays from Ramadan, to the latest cell phone technology, to the levels of hell in Dante’s inferno, to a daughter who wants to wear thong underwear and a net dress to the Halloween dance at her middle school. One of the men throws up his hands and says, “You know, the world has changed!”

The world has changed. And, ever since the publication of Generation X, Douglas Coupland has served as tour guide through these complex and confusing times. In his latest cultural tour book, Hey Nostradamus! (Random House of Canada, 2003.), Coupland lets us in on the conversation between four people and God. These conversations, all stemming from a Columbine-like shooting in a Vancouver high school, reveal some surprising insights into our contemporary Canadian world.

We shouldn’t be surprised that this novel talks about God. For the past few years, culture gurus have been telling us that God is once again cool. Jesus is hip. People are even interested in the Bible! But what is surprising is that Coupland’s characters are knowledgeable about evangelicals. For most of our history, we evangelicals have been hidden by the shadow of mainline groups. The rapid flight of Canadians from mainline denominations over the past 40 years, however, has left evangelicals as one of the few active and growing groups left in Canada. All of a sudden we find ourselves in strange and unfamiliar territory – in the spotlight.

Being in the spotlight isn’t necessarily a good thing. In the first chapter we’re introduced to an evangelical youth program called “YouthAlive!” It suffers dearly under Coupland’s withering wit. Coupland also portrays Reg Klaasen, one of the book’s central characters, as an evangelical wacko. His religious views are obviously and seriously out of touch with reality. Reg even experiences a conversion out of his conservative Christian world.

Coupland’s caricature of evangelicals is extreme and maybe a little unfair, but if you can get past that, Hey Nostradamus! has something important to tell us. We live in a country of tremendous spiritual seeking, a country full of people aware of their sorry state and yearning for authentic spirituality. But what we’ve been offering doesn’t make much sense. We might as well be speaking to our culture about Jesus in Martian.

Hey Nostradamus! reveals, with penetrating insight, the contours of our post-secular, postmodern world. Somehow we have to figure out how to translate the gospel into a language that our culture can understand. We have a tremendous opportunity. People want to talk about God! So, I invite you to read Coupland’s book, grab your Bible and some friends and begin the challenging and rewarding work of doing that translating.

David Eagle is employed by Saanich Community Church as a “gospel translator” (pastor, that is) in Victoria, BC.