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28th August 2007
The Launch of "Ashes and Diamonds" by A. J. Murray
Around 45 people crammed into into the bookshop on Tuesday, 28th August to hear A. J. Murray read from his first book, a historico-biographical monograph on the life and theology of Karl Barth. The event also marked the launch of the Ravenscraig Press, Kirkcaldy's third publishing imprint.
Mr. Murray began by apologising for his use of notes. "I'm afraid, I have reached that stage in life, you'll excuse me, even my name escapes me." The author then proceeded to explain a little of his own background and how he came to be interested in Karl Barth. Having left school at 15 with no formal qualifications, Mr. Murray was thrown at that time on the mercy of Kirkcaldy public libraries. However, he recalled with great fondness the range of titles available through the Loughborough Road Library, and how simply by reading it dry, he was able to gain enough insight to sit and pass the Civil Service entrance examinations. Also fondly remembered was the tolerance of James Burt, Booksellers, on Kirkcaldy High Street, who, though clearly aware that he had no money to spend, were happy for him to spend hours perusing their shelves.
Other reading interests came and went, but one interest picked up in those early days in the highly-regarded Kirkcaldy libraries, would remain with him for life, namely the writings and life of Karl Barth. He proceed to illustrate by reading a section from the book:
"The Nazis were once young. Once they were the young. In the storm of ruin and misery brought by the Great Depression it was the young who seized the offer of radical protest and renewal. In the years leading up to the Third Reich the Nazis had by far the youngest membership of any major political party. In December 1930 a church newspaper reported a theological student as explaining that almost all the students of theology at his university were Nazis. "
"University teachers did not lag behind their students in open allegiance to radical politics. A December 1930 report in the church newspaper ‘Christliche Welt’ on the North German Universities stated that about 90% of the Protestant Theologians there were appearing at lectures wearing Nazi Party badges.
"The Dehn Case helped clarify the coming battle lines. The origins were in 1928 when the theologian Günter Dehn, gave a lecture in Magdeburg on the church and reconciliation between nations. In the course of this lecture Dehn condemned every glorification of war while at the same time dismissing pacifism as naive. War should only be contemplated as the last act of self-defence, while Christians should avoid giving war a Christian face. The custom of the church in identifying death for ones country with pure sacrificial death was rejected; such an identification ignores the fact that the one who was killed had himself also been prepared to kill. The audience was invited to consider for themselves whether it was right to erect war memorials in churches and to have such an institution as the military chaplaincy.
"In the outrage which followed he was accused of insulting Germany’s fallen heroes, comparing them to murderers. When in December 1930 Dehn accepted an invitation to take up a post at the University of Heidelburg, a newspaper reminded its readers of the Magdeburg lecture. As the Heidelburg students were already rioting against the presence of a Jewish Professor, the university authorities thought it prudent to back away from appointing Dehn. He therefore accepted an alternative offer from the University of Halle. When Dehn tried to give his first lecture at Halle the whole of the entrance hall of the building and the square in front of it was filled with students shouting "Dehn Out". The general opinion was that the students were simply showing an excess of youthful idealism. Dehn's reply was to publish his own account of this matter. He concluded by drawing attention to what he thought was its real significance. "It could be that the church of today stands on the threshold of a most difficult struggle with modern nationalism, in which our very existence will be endangered. Should I give a gloomy indication of this coming conflict by cowardly yielding and withdrawing from the attack in the interest of my personal equanimity? Here resistance must be given. One cultivates the youth in their current struggles mostly by conceding to and praising their idealism, even if it is leading in the wrong direction. I must express serious reservations about that. Distorted idealism is demonic. It is simply not true that this fanatical love of Fatherland, which in my view is coloured by religion but actually dissociated from God, really helps the Fatherland. On the contrary, it will lead the Fatherland into destruction".
"Following street-fighting in the city of Altona between Nazis and Communists which left 17 dead and over 100 injured, the pastors there prepared a statement on the relationship between Christianity and politics. Among other matters the statement claimed that while we are required to be obedient to political power each of us must decide, if the moment comes, whether to obey God rather than men. This work by the Altona pastors was attacked by both the Communists and the Nazis. In the Communist response can be heard a last echo of Adolf Hoffmann. "The perpetuation of the misery of the masses, oppression and war... A more than heavy-handed attempt at deception by the church... Now more than ever mass resignation!" The Nazis were more succinct. Pointing out that the Altona pastors obviously did not understand the times they were living in, a Party newspaper helpfully explained, "anyone who is not for us is against us - or as far as we are concerned, he is dead"."
Copies of "Ashes and Diamonds" are available for sale through the Midnight Oil Books website by following this link.
After the reading, there was a time of discussion, followed by drinks and nibbles, kindly supplied by Anne Watters, Chair of Kirkcaldy Civic Society.
The launch was also a first for the Ravenscraig Press.
This imprint will seek to underwrite the publication of doctoral and post-doctoral
theses, and also select works by masters students and 'lay scholars'.
To echo Tom Hubbard, in continental Europe doctoral theses are published as a matter
of course. Pursuing a similar approach here would widen (and, on occasion, deepen)
the critical response to early academic writing.
"Recent consolidation in publishing has been accompanied by above-average price
inflation for academic monographs. Four publishing conglomerates - Hachette Livre,
Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins - now account for over fifty percent of the
revenue generated from UK book sales, and the figure is rising. A similar trend
marks academic publishing.
"In consequence, academic publishers now actively target the captive University
library market by reducing print-runs and raising single item prices. Brill and de
Gruyter typically now charge £50-£80 for new releases. These trends push academic
writing outwith the reach of a lay readership.
"Meanwhile, our High Street booksellers, who would have the buying-power to
counteract this trend, are pulling in the opposite direction with an increasingly
populist stock of titles, featuring all manner of anodyne pop Buddhism, TV tie-ins,
lifestyle picture books, and unadventurous, utilitarian reference books and travel
guides."
Ravenscraig Press aims to subvert both trends by making scholarly writing available to the common
pocket after the fashion of the blue-spined Pelicans, 1930-80s, or more recently,
Verso's splendid Radical Thinkers Series.
Furthermore, it is our desire to be able to provide patronage to 'fine arts' and
contemporary artists, in return for limited rights of reproduction in cover design
and illustration.
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