Chapbook Review: Gospel*

The crowd roars, the guitar’s growl, wail and chunka-chunka responds before Ben Harper explodes: “I believe in a few things:/God, the Devil and Love. . .” (“Ground On Down” from the album Live From Mars (Disc 1)). If a chapbook could be a rock concert with lights, amps and kicking guitar solos, then Gospel* comes close to it. Jeremy Huggins, writer and author of Web log Junkmail for Blankets organized and published a theme based chapbook entitled Gospel* where he invited fellow bloggers to submit creative nonfiction reactions to the word “gospel.” More than twenty contributors complete the chapbook with prose and poetry and, not surprisingly, most of the writers are Christian -- but not exclusively. “In these pages, you’ll find all sorts of responses,” he writes. Contributors refer to themselves as “a native of Chicagoland,” “aspiring humanist,” “campus minister,” “wants to see the Northern Lights,” or “spend all day shooting photos or blogging haiku.” With this collection of intriguing writers, Gospel* presents a captivating journey of reactions to the word gospel.

The editor/publisher introduces the chapbook with a brief explanation and his response to gospel. “Here is the one the Gospel writers present. Here is Jesus, the smell that stays in our clothes and hounds our senses until we do something about it,” Jeremy Huggins writes. “This is how I understand such things.”

The word gospel originates from an Old English term meaning “God’s spell” which comes from the Greek word “euangelion” or “evangelion”; translated as “good messages.” All the contributors seem to try to “understand,” as Huggins puts it, this thing called gospel and draw upon their own personal identity, preconceived notions and/or connotative and denotative understandings of the word.

Some contributors write more about their take on religion rather than the actual term gospel, but that is the nature of this chapbook: What do you think of when you hear or read the word gospel. Paula offers: “it’s never really left me, the sadness I feel for Judas...” Donnell, author of wickedpete.com, writes: “Herod, in his fervor slaughtered many people.... For him it was the right thing...” Donnell continues, “The Chinese profess that religion is poison. Much as perhaps the Native American loathed the white man and his theft while preaching conversion.” Daniel Silliman’s piece entitled “Praying the deus ex machina” states: “I don’t think I memorized the Lord’s Prayer until I was 18... But nothing changed, nothing happened.” He continues, “Jesus is there on a mountain in a desert, with his arms spread wide... he is on a mountain named for a dead head bone... And he doesn’t pray at prayer...” Justin Bilow writes, “Every day I go back to my early atheism... I don’t reject belief and conviction altogether. Belief still holds a place in my life: I need something to accept before I can reject it.” Jane Lee, of the Web log My Life As An Adverb, reveals “When I’ve had my heart broken, when I fear I’m about to have my heart broken, or when I feel lonely, I drive. I listen to a melancholy song like ‘Hope Alone’ by the Indigo Girls and eastmountainsouth’s ‘On Your Way’... I guess I secretly cherish the times I feel ache or loneliness. It makes me feel human, and... makes me call upon Jesus.” Joy, of karagraphy.com, supplies “Vibes,” one of the two poems which are published in Gospel*. In “Vibes,” she observes: “we’re apparently surrounded/by believers in this bookstore,/swigging breve lattes,/shifting in their chairs./All types, their Bibles out/on the tables catching glances/and coffee drips,” She continues, “The pornographic periodicals/make eye contact,/double-dare, and wait to yank/the competition from the competition.” The poem nicely bookends more than twenty voices responding to the word gospel.

The neat thing about Jeremy Huggins’ publication is that the blogosphere provided the vehicle for such a remarkable publication. The fact that Gospel* was initiated, marketed and distributed using the power of the blogosphere reveals a new horizon for small presses and independent publishers -- with new technology comes new possibilities. Also, what makes this chapbook readable is its authentic voice. You may agree or disagree with what the contributors wrote, but it does not really matter because it is their story (or poem), their take on life, their personal experience.

“That’s the power of the gospel,” sings Ben Harper of Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals (“Power Of The Gospel” from the album Live From Mars (Disc 2)). “For all of creation comes from the gospel seed./And you may leave tomorrow and you may leave today./But you’ve got to have, got to have the gospel when you start out on your way.”

Originally published in The Indie, Volume 5, Number 41