From Revd. Rachel Read, on receiving the John Hull award for her MA dissertation: ‘Exploring Theological Themes within Young Adult Literature with a particular focus on A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness’
“You need to read this, Rachel”, a wise friend said to me as she placed into my hands an illustrated copy of Patrick Ness’ Carnegie Award winning novel, A Monster Calls.1 “It’s a very important story.” Sat in a white, soft chair in the sanctuary of her plant-filled conservatory, little did I realise how the personified yew tree at the heart of the story, would accompany me on a journey towards speaking my truth, just as it accompanies the novel’s main character, Conor, a thirteen-year-old boy, whose mother has terminal cancer. It’s a story that played no small part in leading me to ministerial training at The Queen’s Foundation.
It was my excitement at the insights and truths discovered in Young Adult Literature which drew me into an exploration of theological themes in YA novels for my MA dissertation, with a particular focus on A Monster Calls. The frank honesty, the willingness to question and probe, the cries of injustice and the depth of emotion I have found on their pages, have stirred my soul and challenged me to reflect deeply, about the nature of humanity and the nature of God.
‘A Monster Calls’ book cover ©patrickness.com
I spent months happily turning the pages of novels and engaged in what I now understand might be reminiscent of florilegium. From the Latin meaning ‘a collection of flowers’, monks would engage in this sacred reading practice by focusing ‘on sparklets, lines of text they found important and insightful, lines that jumped off the pages of sacred text and into their hearts’.2 Filling journals with lines that spoke truths to me, these YA novels became companions on my journey of faith; they gave me new ways of seeing.
Inspired by Leach and Paterson’s approach to Reflective Pastoral Supervision, I applied the method of ‘noticing and naming’, ‘wondering and musing’ and ‘connecting and realising’,3 to reading literature from a faith perspective. What do we notice when reading novels? What do they invite us to wonder and muse over? What connections do we make? What new theological truths are revealed to us?
I took ‘notice’ of the fruitful relationship between faith and literature, offering the view that engaging with Young Adult literature has the potential to offer adults too the opportunity to seek truths, to ask questions, to engage with self-discovery, and to deepen faith. In our ongoing process of ‘becoming’,4 as adults, I suggested we could be helpfully aided by embracing such adolescent characteristics within us.
Then, in ‘wondering and musing’ over Patrick Ness’ A Monster Calls, I reflected specifically on the theological themes of ‘being seen’ and ‘speaking truth’. In the novel, Conor is ‘seen’, both helpfully and unhelpfully, by the characters who accompany him. I wondered what it means to ‘be seen’ by God, to be intimately known and understood by the Divine, to experience true acceptance, to be enfolded in unconditional love.
Conor struggles to speak the truth within him, but the personified yew tree ‘sees’ him and enables him to do so; this moment is the climax of the novel. Through ‘being seen’ Conor feels safe to express his truths in a way that brings release, relief, and even new life. The Bible offers us a treasure trove of examples of people speaking truths to God. I wondered how willing we are to do so, and asked if there might be reason to lament an inability to lament. How healing and life-giving might it be to journey in faith and hope as truth seeking and truth speaking people?
‘Connecting’ with the life of the church, I widened the net to hear from the voices of characters from other YA novels, ‘realising’ and offering three suggestions:
- The church is called to notice: to be a place where people are seen
- The church is called to wonder: to be a place where questions are encouraged
- The church is called to realise truth: to be a place where truths are spoken
People are hungry to be seen. How effective are we at truly ‘seeing’ people we encounter? How far are people in church comfortable to ask their questions, to challenge beliefs and practices? What would it look like for the church truly to be a wondering place?
At the heart of the Christian faith is the message of transformation, a transformation that comes from the immense, unconditional and unfathomable love God has for each and every one of us. This is a God who sees us, hears us and knows the truths of our hearts. What transformation might the church be capable of offering if it fully embraced the call truly to see people, to openly engage with questions and to create a place where the truths of our hearts could be safely and confidently spoken? These are questions I take into ministry with me.
Continuing to work as a teacher of Religious Studies alongside circuit work as a Methodist probationer presbyter, it has been deeply humbling to have been awarded the John Hull Prize for my MA dissertation. Recognising his immense contribution to the field of Religious Education as well as his work in Practical Theology and ministerial training, it is truly an honour to receive this award. Moreover, his profound and inspirational work on blindness itself offers deep insight into different ways of seeing.
I would like to express my gratitude to The Queen’s Foundation for the award – and also to the many people, staff and fellow students alike, who have willingly engaged in conversation with me and inspired me in different ways in my writing. Particular thanks to Revd Canon Dr Georgina Byrne, my supervisor, for shepherding me through the dissertation process while simultaneously gifting me the freedom to find my own way with it, and for ‘seeing me’ in my writing.
It has genuinely been a life-giving experience to research and to write in this way, to notice, to wonder and to realise truths in stories, truths that transform my ongoing journey of faith.
- Patrick Ness, Siobhan Dowd, and James F. Kay, A Monster Calls, Nachdr. (Walker Books, 2012).
- William Boerman-Cornell and others, Young Adult Literature and Spirituality: How Stories Address Spiritual Understanding (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), p. 7.
- Jane Leach and Michael Paterson, Pastoral Supervision: A Handbook, New edition. (SCM Press, 2015), pp. 70–73.
- Jocelyn Bryan, ‘Being and Becoming: Adolescence’, in Children of God : Towards a Theology of Childhood, ed. by Angela Shier-Jones (Epworth, 2007), p. 135.
