“Christ Or Caesar: Church And Nation In Christian Perspective”

“Christian symbols and prayers among the mob storming the U.S. Capitol. Nationalistic celebrations and politically partisan sermons in churches. … The relationship between church and nation in the United States is a source of much confusion and strife.” 

So write Presbyterian elder Allan H. Harvey and Senior Associate Pastor Carl S. Hofmann, both of Grace Commons Church in Boulder, Colorado. Hofmann was the guest speaker, via Zoom, at a Chico discussion group considering the authors’ book, “Christ Or Caesar: Church And Nation In Christian Perspective” ($5 in paperback from Barmen Publishing).

Harvey and Hofmann describe themselves as “non-fundamentalist Protestants who seek to follow Jesus but recognize that our writing, like our lives, will inevitably be imperfect and is not the final word.” They invite Christians and others to consider what it means “to give our allegiance to Christ alone, not to any ancient or modern political Caesars.”

Intended for a general audience, the first two chapters provide Biblical context, about Abraham, Egypt, and Babylon and then for Jesus, the Church, and Caesar. In the Old Testament, “God’s people are to carry out their international mission to bless the people of all nations and ethnic groups.” In the New Testament, Israel’s mission is fulfilled in Jesus; in him “God enfolds, heals, and redeems all nations, not just particular ones.”

When Christians seek to wed the church’s mission to the authority of the state, as the “German Christians” did under the Nazis, and often in church history, such nationalism becomes idolatry. Jesus’ followers expected him to overthrow the Roman power and “make Israel great again”; but he said his kingdom “was not of this world.”

The authors consider the “errors of Christian nationalism,” how it distorts American history and seeks to use secular power over others; it is, they say, “theologically wrong.”

The final chapter considers the practical: it’s not about “gaining power for ourselves. Instead, we should be giving ourselves away for the good of our neighbors around the world.” It’s difficult to discuss with family and friends, Hofmann told me; it requires discernment and much prayer; the bottom line: “our ultimate source of hope is Jesus, not politics.”

“Out Of Ukraine”

Chicoan Emily Gallo’s new novel builds and builds in intensity.

It is Winter, 2020. In San Francisco, Eric Stover tries to comfort his wife, Heather. They are a 40-something couple unable to conceive. Perhaps a decade earlier Heather had given birth to their daughter, Chloe, despite issues in her pregnancy, but Chloe had lived only for a short few years before her life was claimed by cancer.

And now their doctor is recommending IVF through a surrogate. A few weeks later Eric discusses their plans with his mother, Abby, and his step-father, Brian. They are supportive but, like Eric, wonder about the expense.

So begins a harrowing and desperate journey that will take Eric and Abby (substituting for Heather, felled by Covid at home) to at least five countries, all in an effort to bring their newborn daughter “Out Of Ukraine” ($14.95 in paperback, independently published, emilygallo.com; also for Amazon Kindle).

Abby, a writer, is an anxious sort, worrying about what might go wrong, not only with the surrogate in Ukraine, but how they might surmount the Covid delays and the bureaucracies that speak other languages, as Eric and Abby await receiving little Jillian Irina. 

Then, with Jillian in Ukraine, Eric and Abby must wait for her birth certificate to be registered and her passport application to be processed. The word comes that the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv is closing and then, on February 24, 2022, Russia invades Ukraine and the trio must flee the country. Eric and Abby are by turns resourceful and deeply afraid for Jillian.

Gallo recounts the many hours walking with Jillian in the freezing cold in an effort to reach the Polish border. “They walked on and the closer they got to the border, the more crowded it got. ‘I wish we could find out what’s going—.’ His sentence was flattened by a huge explosion. People screamed and started running in every direction.”

There is much, much more to come. Readers will find they are turning pages far into the night.

Emily Gallo is Nancy Wiegman’s guest on Nancy’s Bookshelf on Northstate Public Radio, mynspr.org, Wednesday, July 24 at 10:00 a.m., repeated Sunday, July 28 at 8:00 p.m.

“Moonbound: A Novel”

Robin Sloan, author of “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore,” spends his time in the Bay Area and San Joaquin Valley, but, he writes me, in 2021 and 2022 as he was “shuttling around in your part of state” he was making voice notes for his new book, “Moonbound: A Novel” ($29 in hardcover from MCD, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux; also for Amazon Kindle and audiobook formats).

It is, he writes me, “A novel dreamt up (in part) on the road between Capay Valley and Oregon House,” and, as his ten-year-old son Orion says, after Sloan read him the book, it’s YA (Young Adult) but something even younger children could enjoy—if they don’t mind the intensity of a post-apocalyptic world, in the year 11,377, full of talking beavers, giant flies, and dragons made up of information.

About those dragons. Back in the year 2279, the Anth (“for that is what humans called their civilization at its apex”) created seven engineered intelligences, the “dragons,” and sent them out on a spaceship. Instead of opening a door into the universe, the dragons on their return built a base on the moon, pulverized a chunk of their new home and created a dust cloud around Earth so it would “forevermore hide from the cosmos.”

The Anth tried to fight back, but most all humans were destroyed. It was “a bummer so colossal that it was definitely … the worst thing that had ever happened” in Earth’s history. 

Thousands of years passed and one of the mini-intelligences, engineered by the Anth as a “Chronicler,” found itself inside a boy named Ariel, 12. 

The Chronicler tells the story, about how Ariel, escaping from the Wizard Malory, who had somehow created him, finds his destiny. But Sloan, with sly humor, upends standard fantasy tropes. There’s a sword in a stone for Ariel to pull out, but he ignores it and finds a very different, talking, sword. (More details: robinsloan.com/moonbound.)

Sloan upends the whole idea of “destiny” in the book (the first of a planned series) so surprises abound as Ariel ventures out into a world brilliantly imagined, where, with every page turned, readers will ask: “What happens next?”

“Hunting Tehama County’s Forgotten Emigrant Trail”

“With the discovery of silver in Nevada,” writes retired U.S. Forest Service archaeologist Deborah Tibbetts, “Red Bluff merchants saw an opportunity to tap into the business potential of supplying those far off mines. The Tehama County Wagon Road was built in 1863 to compete with John Bidwell’s Humboldt Wagon Road from Chico, which he built in 1862 to take advantage of the growing markets of Susanville and the Nevada and Idaho mines.”

There’s a mystery not far from the path of the Tehama County Wagon Road: a hidden trail, maybe running parallel in places with the Wagon Road, that existed in the 1850s to facilitate gold seekers looking for riches in the county (which, Tibbetts notes, “had little gold”). This trail is mentioned by Cottonwood resident Myrtle McNamar in her book “Way Back When,” published in 1952, but its existence had disappeared from memory.

So, under the guidance of federal archaeologist Eric Ritter, Tibbetts, who graduated with a degree in anthropology from Chico State, along with volunteers, did fieldwork in 2012, 2015 and 2017 as part of the Passport in Time program. 

Moving through overgrown brush in places, looking for swales (“vehicle and animal-created linear depressions”) and, using metal detectors, finding plenty of artifacts (such as hand-forged metal oxen shoes), the team documented its findings Tibbetts has published as “Hunting Tehama County’s Forgotten Emigrant Trail” ($19.95 in paperback from ANCHR, the Association for Northern California Historical Research, anchr.org).

The route “came off Lassen Trail at Deer Creek Meadows and traveled westward through Childs Meadow and Battle Creek Meadows (Mineral) eventually reaching the old Apple Ranch in Paynes Creek….” Tibbetts is careful to provide the larger context of the times, as the book’s subtitle suggests: “An Archaeological Survey And Brief Historical Overview Of Transportation Routes In Tehama County, California.”

Maps and photographs are included with special attention to listing artifacts, including wagon-related items such as “square nuts and carriage bolts.”

Not all sections of the emigrant trail could be studied since many areas are on private land. But it’s a start, and readers will be ushered into the hard but glorious work required to bring to light that which has been forgotten.

“If I Have To Grow, It’s Good To Know—Because Every Story Matters”

Paradise resident and Camp Fire survivor Bobbie Merica is a preparedness trainer. In various natural and human-caused disasters, first responders will encounter those with traumatic injuries and local leaders will be tasked with helping a community respond both during and after a disaster.

To make training as realistic as possible, Merica’s company, MoulageConcepts.com, uses 3-D mock injuries (“moulage” is French for “casting a mold”) that can be applied, like makeup, to simulation participants. The gruesome results are made even more heart-wrenching when they are applied to children, but that’s often the reality in the field.

In a world of active shooters, devastating fires, frightening evacuations, abusive situations, traumatized children need a way to process what is happening to them. A community can help by training children in how to make creative and resilient responses. 

To that end, Merica has developed a coloring book with a cartoon character called “Aoifa” (pronounced EE-FA), “A distinctive warrior with holden hue, of Irish lore./ She’s strong and soft, thoughtful and brave,/ keeping watch with a courageous roar.” The book is “a safe place to discuss hard things.”

“If I Have To Grow, It’s Good To Know—Because Every Story Matters” ($16.95 in paperback, independently published, available through Aoifa.org) features illustrations by Daniel J. Seward. The first pages introduce the cast of characters, Ottava the octopus, Aria the fox, DaCoda the wolf puppy, and of course Aoifa, whose calming presence graces each page.

Aoifa leads children through difficult landscapes, but there’s always hope, as in this prompt for readers to consider: “When paths become rocky, fight we must,/ our way back through,/ the road may be rough, and alone we may feel,/ but rarely ever is this actually true.”

There are pages where children can fill in their responses to the prompts, such as this one: “Some pain for a future gain, is required growth, when we need it most…/ But some hurts, must be addressed, to ensure our health, and our long-term best.” Then there’s ROAR (“react accordingly; outreach—notify others!; activate emergency notification system; reevaluate and respond”). 

Sensitive, courageous and hopeful, Aoifa helps create that “safe place.”