I recently saw an advertisement for The Undercover Revolution by Iain H. Murray, published by the Banner of Truth. Like many other Christians, I’ve benefited over the years from BoT publications, and especially from Mr Murray’s writings. The topic of this book was one that I found particularly interesting, not because it was something I’d never thought of before, but because of the forcefulness with which it seemed to be being put forth. As the text on the BoT page claims, “How Fiction Changed Britain!” (which is also the subtitle of the book). The quote from John Macarthur on that page also paints a strong picture: “Iain Murray has put his finger on the turning point that sent western culture down the path to immorality. It is a persuasive explanation that we need to hear.”
This was most definitely an interesting premise, and one that I have most assuredly thought about over the years. But the marketing of this book seemed to be making the case more strongly than I had ever seen it. It seems to me to be claiming a role for fiction that might be a bit stronger than reality, so I quickly purchased the book to see what the actual claim is.
To put it simply, I was disappointed, not because Mr Murray doesn’t have a point, but because the book is not quite enough to make that point. As Mr Murray points out in his introduction, “My theme — the influence of fiction on society — is worthy of much more expansion than I have given to it here. I hope I have said enough to alert others to the importance of what is too commonly overlooked.” Alas, I have to wholeheartedly concur with him about that. This is something that needs some more analysis, especially after Mr Murray’s book.
The book is quite short, clocking in at 110 pages. It is divided into two parts: part one is really the ‘meat’ of the argument with part two an extended essay about how Christianity is not fictional but based in fact. Part one runs for the first 76 pages, which are divided into five short chapters. Chapter one is a six-page introduction to the book. Chapter two, 18 pages long, is a brief overview of Robert Louis Stevenson’s life, focusing on how he was hostile to Christianity and its teachings. Almost entirely absent from this chapter is any discussion of how this affected RLS’s writings. How much was his godlessness reflected in his writing? A lot? A little? Not at all?
Chapter three is 22 pages devoted to Thomas Hardy (a favorite author of mine and MrsBlue’s, by the way). Again, very little discussion on the writings of Hardy himself, although a bit more than in the chapter on RLS (and what is there focuses on Hardy’s poems, which is not a surprise, since the anti-Christian hostility is much more readily expressed in the poems). Chapter four is 10 pages long and with a title of ‘The Novelists Multiply’ you can readily guess that there’s not much deep analysis going on.
The final chapter of this section is ‘General Lessons’ which is where some of the analysis starts to happen, but at 20 pages, there’s not much analysis that can happen. In the end, very little actual analysis of the literary works of the various authors happens. Instead, what the reader is presented with is the fact that many of the late Victorian/early Edwardian authors were godless and God-hating, but how did that change Britain as the subtitle claims? We’re not given that answer, but only given the beginnings of what could be a strong thesis.
I’m not against this book — there’s a lot here that Mr Murray is starting to hint at that I think will stand up to a rigorous analysis — but the book doesn’t deliver what its subtitle promises. In the end, we must either make some broad assumptions (which do no one any good) or we are left wondering, “How did fiction change Britain?”