Faith and Fiction Saturday Round Table: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

First a few administrative things. Next month's read, Resurrection in May by Lisa Samson will be the final round table of the year. There are still some open spots if you'd like to participate.

Next Saturday I'll be making an announcement about the future of Faith and Fiction Round Table so make sure you check in!

This month we discussed Ray Bradbury's classic Halloween tale, Something Wicked This Way Comes.
About the Book: Few American novels written this century have endured in th heart and mind as has this one-Ray Bradbury's incomparable masterwork of the dark fantastic. A carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour on a chill Midwestern October eve, ushering in Halloween a week before its time. A calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two inquisitive boys standing precariously on the brink of adulthood will soon discover the secret of the satanic raree-show's smoke, mazes, and mirrors, as they learn all too well the heavy cost of wishes -- and the stuff of nightmare.

This month's participants:
Section 1: Wordlily
Section 2: Linus's Blanket
Section 3: My Random Thoughts

About Our Faith
Amy: I'm a Christian, grew up in the evangelical church but have become a lot more liberal and less literal in my faith and am currently trying to figure out exactly where I fit in.

Jacob: I'm Jacob Ritari, author of Taroko Gorge, released July of this year. I'm currently studying Japanese language at the Inter-University Center in Yokohama.

Religiously, I was raised humanist/Jewish; my parents practiced until their divorce. I converted to Christianity in high school and attended the local Methodist church. I was attracted by the extreme side of religion described by authors like Graham Greene and Flannery O'Connor, and it wasn't until college really that I read actual theology and became more serious about it. I attended Trinity Grace in New York City, a nondenominational church I think does really exciting things. Today I probably identify with the so-called "Emerging Church Movement," people like Jim Wallis and Brian MacLaren.

At the same time, after Newman, I'm watchful of the boundary between faith and fiction; and I doubt many people would guess I believed from reading my first novel, which is very much about skepticism. I'm quiet about my faith from day-to-day too; something my pastor in New York said really stuck with me: "God tells us, 'you don't convert people, I do.'" Still I would basically call myself evangelical.

Hannah: I'm a Christian. I grew up in the church. My understanding of what it means to follow Jesus has changed numerous times, and I'm guessing I haven't reached any sort of final conclusion on that yet.

Nicole: I'm Nicole and I blog at Linus's Blanket. I was raised as a Christian, was baptized, and from childhood attended church services until I went to college. I have always been interested in how the teachings of religion square with real life practices. What I have observed has left me wary of the traditional practice of religion, though I have retained the faith that there is an existing organizing power at work in the world.

Thomas: My name is Thomas and I am a Christ follower and at time I suck at it. I did not grow in the church. I grew up around the church thanks to friends who did grow up in the church. I came to faith late in my life so I am still trying to figure out what this all means.

Jason: I'm Jason Gignac, I grew up in the LDS faith, but am now sort of a doubtful inbetweener, something between an atheist and a dystheist, but not one who assumes that what he thinks is correct. I love religion, I was originally going to study religion and mythology and folklore in school, because I love the way people can believe in things, I think it's beautiful. I just can't manage it myself, I guess.