wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Missouri pastor wins 'first book' award

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8749 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05285
May 31, 2005

Missouri pastor wins 'first book' award

Presbyterian Writers Guild honors Rev. John Barden

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE ? The Rev. John Barden, the pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church of Fulton, MO, is the winner of the Presbyterian Writers Guild's 2005
Angell Award for the best first book by a Presbyterian. 

	A panel of judges headed by retired Presbyterian minister Jim Chatham
chose Barden's book, 'Postle Jack Tales: Gospel Images in New Appalachian
Folk Tales,  from a field of 11 nominated works.

	The guild is a national organization of Presbyterian writers and
editors. The award was established in honor of pastor-writer Jim Angell by
his wife.

	Barden's book, published by KiwE Publishing Ltd., is based on a
19th-century oral tradition of "Jack tales," which originated in the
mountains of North Carolina and spread into Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky.
The Jack stories focused on a character whose experiences conveyed the humor,
insight and the wisdom of the people of the region. 

	In the early 20th century, Richard Chase collected a number of such
stories in his celebrated collection, Jack Tales. Moved and inspired by this
collection, Barden ? who served for several years as a pastor in Hazard, KY ?
created 'Postle Jack Tales, an elaboration based on stories from the Gospel
of Matthew. 

	In the book, "'Postle Jack" is called by Jesus to be a teller of
stories about his own experiences. The stories are narrated in mountain
dialect.

	"As a whittler slowly brings form and style from a wood block, John
Barden whittles cultural insight and value from 'Postle Jack's roaming life.
Not all is happy and fair," Chatham said. 

	Barden says of his stories: "Issues of oppression, marginalization
and patriarchalism are deeply rooted in the cultural experience of the people
of central Appalachia, and as such they are an integral part of the worldview
of the original Jack tales." 

	Through these vicissitudes, Barden says, his stories "present a
worldview that intentionally invites people into the ethos of the gospels and
speaks of a vision of God's reign of justice, grace, and mercy." 

	The book is elegantly written, clever, subtle and funny; simple but
profound, beautiful and highly imaginative.

	"In the hands of many writers, the use of dialect from someone else's
culture would be demeaning," Chatham has written. "Not so with Barden. His
use of traditional Appalachian language maintains deep respect for his
subject, not even hinting of Hollywood patronizing. ... The reader of this
book walks the paths of mountain life with 'Postle Jack. ... Through his
mythic figure, we experience the struggles and dreams each of us lives
through day by day, no matter our time or culture."

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