Frankenchurch: Have We Created A Monster‪?‬

Borrowing from the tragic twist in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein story, the authors of Frankenchurch offer a parallel study on the nature of life. As a young, enthusiastic scientist, Victor Frankenstein was consumed with knowing the nature of life, and then with manufacturing physical life. His early efforts successfully produced life in the laboratory which soon developed into a monster. The sweet innocence of honest and productive curiosity, seen in both his own scientific pursuits and in the heart of the living being he produced, ended in hurtful power and ultimately in destruction.

Victor Frankenstein’s informed, well-intentioned creation of physical life that ultimately became destructive, can resemble the divine, spiritually-alive creation of church life, which can also become destructive. Describing the struggle shared by church people through the centuries - in trying to integrate the divine life of spiritual grace with the human framework of behavioral power and control - the authors provide a rich discussion, delving into the soul-troubling questions that often go unasked. Reflecting on the process of God’s life being incarnated into graceless mortals, the parallel image is striking; that of break-through, newly-created life formed in a grotesque monster.

And the parallel continues throughout the story. Frankenstein’s monster is sufficiently different from others to scare them but he also feels compassion and care for them. Persistent in trying to connect against impossible odds, he eventually allows the life of intense rejection to turn him into the monster others claim he is. From that point on, his life is developed in reaction to his adversaries, rather than by the original vision of his creator.

With chapter titles like “Bright Beginnings,” “It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time,” “Monster on the Loose,” and “A Culture of Revolt,” the authors take an honest look at the difficult questions with which church people often struggle but then ponder without verbalizing. Churches are as diverse as the people who lead and follow them. Frankenchurch provides readers with a platform for discussion about their own church experiences.

Perhaps you’ve been one who has been timid about asking the hard questions; or confused about the contradictions; or just plain frustrated, in your desire to integrate your “church life” with your “real life.”  Reading this book (and thinking through the reflection questions it provides in section 2) will invest you with courage and provide you with a framework to ask yourself and others the tough questions and to enter into the struggle of grace in a world that seems, at times, to only understand power and agendas.