In the dusty aisles of a library in Japan, a girl named Nanami notices that bundles of books are disappearing from the shelves. She begins to suspect a mysterious man but it isn’t until she discovers a portal that she begins to understand the power of books – and the attempts by men in power to stop people from reading them.
I was watching a Christmas program hosted by a church. The studio was decorated with gingerbread cookies on the table, a glittering tree in the corner and Christmas hymns playing in the background. The presenter was teaching his audience about the meaning of Christmas and how the birth of Christ changed history forever. He then shared, “this year I’m going to do it…I’m going to read the entire Bible.”
I thought, has this individual, who just preached a Christmas message to millions not read the Bible? How many of us have not read the words that exist to guide us and rule us – the words from Genesis to Revelation? If not, then what or who guides us and rules us?
“May I ask you a very basic question?”
“Go ahead.”
“Why are you burning books?”
“Well, that’s simple. Books are extremely dangerous, especially the old ones that have been passed down from generation to generation.”
“Books are dangerous?”
“Yes, dangerous. They lead people astray.”
We know one thing. The world goes in one direction and the followers of Christ go in the other. The world says that if someone hurts us, you hurt them back. But the Bible teaches that if someone hurts you, forgive them and leave vengeance to God. The world says crush your enemies. The Bible says love them. If leading people astray means taking someone off the path of the world, then yes. The Bible does exactly that.
The Cat Who Saved The Library
The Cat Who Saved The Library by Sosuke Natsukawa seems like a novel about a cat who has taken up residence in an old library in Japan. But it is deeper than that. The cat enlists the help of a young girl to find out why books are mysteriously disappearing from the library and to bring the books back. In the course of this dangerous endeavour, the asthmatic bookworm named Nanami witnesses what she has always known – that neglected books can lose their power and that it is our dependence on their words that give them their power.
When it comes to the Christian Bible, its words hold power whether we believe in them or not. But for the sake of this thought-provoking novel, let’s look at the story of Nanami and the General, Prime Minister and King that she meets. Each of these 3 characters have their own way of weakening the power of books. While one steals books from the library and burns them, the other creates replacement books that are meaningless but aim to keep the reader busy flipping through its pages so they don’t reach for the older and more powerful books.
“These people will be entirely consumed by reading all these new books, leaving them no time to engage with any of that powerful literature.”
This brings us to where most of us are today. If we’re honest, we receive most of our Christian teaching from church sermons preached by someone else’s interpretation of the Bible. Books that are someone else’s understanding of the Bible. Social media snippets of someone else’s idea about Christianity. These can be good and useful ancillaries but are useless as our primary guide.
What this ends up doing is sending us off course and getting tossed to and fro by every other thing we read instead of being led by the Bible directly. When that happens, we could end up being counterproductive and causing harm to humanity. How? Let’s say an influential person somewhere in the world quotes parts of the Bible and convinces people that because of these words, we must think a certain way about an issue or think a particular way. Those who read the Bible, however, will be able to spot this and not be convinced or moved. If this leads people to think, speak and behave in a way that is against the teachings of Jesus Christ, that would be counterproductive to Christianity.
Finding replacement sources of learning rather than the original source can lead us astray in other important areas too. For example, the internet and television are filled with one-sentence summaries of historical facts that leave out important details and are constructed to lead people toward accepting a certain viewpoint. A viewpoint that might not have been their own, were they to learn for themselves. Even though there might be alternate sources of information out there, the onus is on us to recognize this and prioritize accurate sources of information. This is what the character Nanami does.
The aim of the Protestant Reformation
The aim of the Protestant reformers was to get the Bible into the hands of as many people as possible – so that people of the faith could learn from the source without having to rely on the Church’s interpretation of the Bible, which has the potential to be amended to suit a personal or political purpose. The thinking was, with the Bible in people’s hands, the lesser the chances of deception or manipulation in the name of religion, because people could read for themselves and not be misled.
Fast forward eight centuries since the Bible was first translated for the people and there is a copy of the Bible in each Christian home. But people face another challenge that stops them from reading: apathy.
Throughout history, book burning and book banning have been powerful ways to stop people from gaining knowledge. But telling someone they cannot do something piques their interest. On the other hand, rewriting history or creating alternate histories is an effective way to accomplish this – if we are not mindful. Our minds are valuable commodities. Will understanding this lead us to take greater care to safeguard and learn directly from the book that God has given us rather than falling for the tactics of the General, Prime Minister and the King?
PRAYER
Dear Lord, you have entrusted us to follow you, be your witnesses and spread your word. You have given us the Bible to help us in this mission. I gratefully receive this treasure and promise to invest my time in learning directly from you, instead of anyone else. In the name of our Lord, amen.
DID YOU KNOW?
This book is actually the sequel to the first novel, The Cat Who Saved Books. It is not a Christian novel nor is it allegorical of Christian concepts. It simply points to the importance of protecting books, which were written to build our lives and strengthen the human spirit.