Book Review: Johnny Cash - "Man in White"

Man in White by Johnny Cash
(WestBow Press, 8/8/2006)

Johnny Cash is best known as a prolific country artist who recorded in excess of seventy albums over a career spanning more than fifty years. Cash was one of those rare musicians who managed to achieve almost universal popularity. He collaborated with artists running the gamut from Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson to Trent Reznor and Marilyn Manson, and somehow managed to seamlessly interweave his unique style with all of theirs. Cash’s mystique was due in large part, no doubt, to his attitude and reputation as “The Man in Black.” That was a moniker he earned early in his career because of his trademark monochromatic black outfits and the dark themes of many of his most popular songs (“Folsom Prison Blues,” “Ring of Fire” and “I Walk the Line,” to name a few). Moreover, Cash made no secret of the shadowy areas of his personal life, and because of his candor many also knew him as a troubled man embroiled in a lifelong struggle with dependency on methamphetamines and barbiturates, haunted by the specter of his brother’s untimely death at a young age, and later in life suffering from health problems stemming from a neurological disorder and diabetes. Fortunately, Johnny Cash eventually found true comfort and relief from his many demons in “The Man in White”: Jesus Christ. Cash’s addiction and other problems, though, continued to be a thorn in his flesh during the rest of his life, and he was particularly affected by the story of the Apostle Paul who wrote famously of the thorn in his own flesh for which the disciple came to be thankful. This fascination with Paul’s story inspired Cash to author a novel, Man in White, in which he describes the transformation of the former zealous Pharisee who ruthlessly and mercilessly persecuted the earliest Christians before being met with a fateful vision of Jesus Christ along the road to Damascus. This experience transformed Paul into one of the Lord’s most significant and effectual disciples, the founder of countless churches and the author of much of the New Testament.

Cash makes it clear in introducing the novel that he fully understands the danger of extra-Biblical conjecture, and he succeeds in his attempt to illuminate the personality of Paul while largely avoiding those perils. Though fictional by Cash’s own declaration, the novel contains much factual historical information which not only helps readers become immersed in the setting, but ensures that they fully understand the significance of pertinent customs and relevant cultural nuances. The author, through the character he creates in Paul, also subtly offers his own elucidations of a multitude of passages from Scripture along the way.

A great deal of time is spent painting a written picture of Paul as a young Pharisee consumed by his own zeal to live according to the Law and to purify his faith. This depiction is perhaps most disturbing in the fact that we can see a lot of ourselves in this passionate follower of God. But the description is not gratuitous, because we too often gloss over the truly horrid actions committed by Paul. Cash forces us to acknowledge the harsh realities of these before we are shown the wonderful acts of ministry he did later in his life. We are quick to remember the wonderful things that Paul accomplished, but they are only a single part of the “big picture” of Paul’s testimony: he is such an inspiration because of the story of his incredible transformation, a transformation which can only be fully appreciated when we account for his malevolent past. In roughly the first half of the novel, the author grants us a glimpse into the ever-increasing turmoil that Paul feels. He is convinced that he is doing the right thing and following God’s will, and tries to attribute his growing doubts to the meddling of Satan. As Paul begins his persecution of Christians, he is astonished by the “expression of peace and joy out of agony” on the faces of all his victims, and wonders from where that “ecstasy in the agony of suffering for the Lord” comes. They show him love even as he is torturing them and putting them to death, and it is the influence of that love that initially begins to unravel Paul’s malicious convictions and shake his misguided ardor.

We’d do well to find in Paul’s experience a sobering warning against our own fanaticism and zealotry, even if it is limited to something as relatively trivial as allowing ourselves to think that we somehow have a better grasp or understanding of the will of God than any of our brothers or sisters in Christ. We should recall the story of Paul when we are prayerfully seeking to know God’s will, and be careful not to deny the calling of the Spirit from within us in favor of the pursuit of our own desires. Paul’s story teaches us, in a very personal way, the value of learning to submit to God and follow His will.

All of this leads to the climactic meeting along the road to Damascus with the Man in White. But is it truly the experience that is the apex of Paul’s story, or is it the inevitable acceptance of the identity of that man and the conclusion of what he allows the Lord to do with his life after the fated meeting with Jesus Christ on the road… what follows the acceptance of the revelation? Cash verbally weaves the scene in a magnificent depiction. The chapters that follow Paul’s conversion tell briefly the story of some of the arguments and decision-making that occurred in the early days of the Church. It is in the last part of the book that we walk with Paul as he discovers the joy of following Christ, even when it means that we must suffer for him. Many are skeptical of Paul’s conversion, but for his sister the sheer magnitude of Paul’s transformation is enough proof that Jesus is the Christ. Although Paul’s belief stemmed from the very clear and very genuine appearance of Jesus before him, we should not underestimate the power of just our own faith as evidence to the world.

The author writes in his introduction that his motivation for writing the novel stems from the bond he feels with Paul because of the Apostle’s struggle with a “thorn in the flesh.” The story of Paul’s dramatic turnaround and redemption strikes a universal chord, I think, because if we’re truly honest with ourselves, most of us can identify with his defiance. This is especially true for those of us who were formerly hostile to the Christian worldview. In his epistle to the church at Corinth, Paul wrote that he had repeatedly pleaded with Jesus to remove the “thorn” from his side, but that the Lord had told him that Christ’s strength was “made perfect” in Paul’s weakness (2 Cor 12:9). Paul understood that the love of God was real and that love is the most powerful force the universe has ever known, and although he may not have fully understood at the time what Jesus meant, he accepted it as truth. Like Abraham, our faith is credited to us as righteousness.

In Man in White, Cash gives to the legendary Paul an air of humanity that Scripture does not. The fallibility is more real and the troubles more personal in this work of fiction than reading them in Paul’s own words through his epistles. We have in this novel an insight into Paul’s emotions, including the resentment he feels when his desires go unfulfilled. Paul is presented throughout as a deeply pious follower devoted to God; his transgressions against the followers of Jesus are the result of misdirected passion. This Paul is far more relatable: a Paul who at times is bitterly angry when things don’t seem to go his way, and at other times ignores his calling and instead tries to forge his own path. Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” is something we can all relate to because we all face our own unique struggles. Like Paul, we must learn to be thankful for these shortcomings. Cash used the example of Paul’s struggles marvelously and, “accepted [his thorns] as his personal burden,” his son John Carter Cash eloquently wrote, “something to rise above, something to sharpen his courage, to define purpose, and to help him remember to stay grateful for his blessings.”

We should likewise learn to cherish the thorns in our flesh because that which does not break us only serves to temper our spirit. Jesus Christ’s strength is made perfect in our weakness, and he promised that he’d be with us always (Mt 28:20), lending his strength to us that we might carry on, and never be truly broken. Let us not pray, then, for an uncomplicated and trouble-free life. Instead, let us pray for the will to grow through times of privation, the wisdom to learn from mistakes and misfortune, and the courage to overcome adversity.