Memoirs of How It All Began

Book excerpt: This is a prequel to Memoirs of an Unfinished Tale, a summary of what the followers of Jesus did after Jesus was no longer present. Luke steps out of the text once more to communicate directly with Theophilus his companion—and with us—as if we all are meeting Jesus for the first time. What was it that drew everyone to Jesus in the first place? Luke arranges a revised script that brings the characters to life as actors and then calls us into performance alongside them. In such an imaginative world, there is no predetermined outcome of the story. Instead we find ourselves in a “what-if” restaging of Jesus’ life and the responses of his followers. This is a fresh way of presenting the Bible, a method based on a rapidly growing movement in college and university classrooms called “reacting.” Nonetheless, it is in line with more traditional ways of understanding Scripture as performed in the context of liturgy. Within Memoirs of How It All Began, there are six different gaming applications intended to bring our generation into Luke’s world—or Luke into our world. At the same time, this book challenges the individual reader with creative poems and illustrations and a built-in system of interpretative questions for daily readings.