Author Andrew Kravan is on the mission to find the “God of Literature in Darkness.”
According to his new book, “The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness,” Kraban “exploring the nature of man, finding joy and beauty in the world, while at the same time being clear about the evil found in it.”
It is a conflict with the reality that evil is a part of life. But we can see past the haze of evil and illegality, in order to identify and experience peace and truth through the power of God.
That is the subject of “The Kingdom of Cain,” and the projects he said help explain why he often tackles projects in the crime genre.
“I am a crime writer and I always receive this letter. “You call yourself a Christian and you write about all these horrible things, and these horrible people,” they say the horrible things,” he said. “I was trying to explain that I just think it’s important. I actually think it’s good to write about the evil that men do.”
Klavan believes that important reality and lessons are embedded in these stories. Often he says that modern-day “squeaky, clean Christian storytelling” praises the essential exploration of life, but that has not always been the case.
“When you see the great works of Christian art, they are very dark,” he said. “When you look at great paintings, there are many martians, many crucified scenes, many realities of life and the harshness of life.”
Klavan said there is a real impact to simplifying the existence of evil or pretending it wasn’t happening.
“As the Gospels say to us, it is a very dark world, so if your faith is based on this kind of happy story idea, then I think you will lose your faith very quickly when you stand up to the reality of life,” he said. “This is a book about three real-life murders, how they have been transformed into art, and what I collect from the art that actually helps me not only with my faith but with my joy in the dark world.”
Kravan explores the evil of murder, the beauty of human life, and the importance of treating humans “as if sacred.” As the author has stated, life also retains beauty, wrestling with the often juxtaposition of good and evil, which are part of human experience.
“We’re part of a beautiful design where we sometimes go into the dark patch of that design, and I think it’s something I can imagine,” Kravan said. “I can’t grasp that because I’m just a person, but I think art gives you a hint as to how it works – the fact that you can have a sculpture like Pieta, the dead Jesus lying in the arms of a mother, and it’s so beautiful. It’s incredibly tragic.
Kravan also discussed his own journey to the Lord. It really began after he realized the moral order of life. After reading “Crime and Punishment,” it was the first thing he thought deeply about as a teenager.
“The idea that you can’t justify some things, that some things are just evil is the idea that I’ve started thinking,” he said. “I went through a bad time when I was younger. I had real mental issues. I lost ten years to mental struggle. I came out of it in a miraculous way. … Two years later, I became a fun person from suicide.”
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Literature once again inspired him along the journey when I read a book about a character who thought, “Well, if he could pray, I could pray.” For Klavan, it was the perception that he had “changed everything.” He was then baptized at the age of 49.
“It was a long, long journey,” he said. “Turning my life to God is… so relieved…. It’s a truly journey, and it… informs me everything I think and write.”
Kaban hopes that “The Kingdom of Cain” will make readers think about “the inclusive beauty of the world.”
“I want people to understand that their faith is not vulnerable,” he said. “Their faith is not supposed to make them vulnerable. It should make them fear. What is the world? We will be in trouble in the world, but Christ has overcome it.”
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