IF YOU want to write a book, be a teacher, is the advice of the New York Times bestselling author John Hendrix. An award-winning illustrator whose work has featured in magazines such as Rolling Stone, Time, and National Geographic, he has also produced several children’s books with Christian themes. The NYT review of his 2016 book Miracle Man: The story of Jesus stated that “even nonbelievers will enjoy this powerfully told and visually dazzling book.”
He now combines creating popular graphic novels — The Faithful Spy, about the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in 2018, and his latest work, The Mythmakers, concerning the friendship between C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien — with leading the graduate programme in illustration and visual arts at Washington University, St Louis.
Mr Hendrix wants to take his readers to new lands in unexpected ways, whether that is 1930s Germany through the eyes of a conscience-driven theologian, or inter-war Oxford’s common rooms and pubs as experienced by the dons Tolkien and Lewis. “I entered this book with the idea that we have seen Narnia and Middle Earth illustrated a million times; what we have never seen is the third thing they created together, and that was the Inklings. This idea of friends in community, going into a smoky Oxford dark pub, and reading poetry to each other. That is a fantasy as much as anything in Narnia and Middle Earth.”
The author ruefully reflects that times are different in higher education today. “I’m a university professor, and I don’t go to the pub to read poems as much as I would like. I wanted to illustrate that, and give people a way into that world that felt as lush and rich as any of the Narnia and Middle Earth stories.”
Anneli HendrixJohn Hendrix
A “magical trip” to Oxford in 2019 provided the research, although Mr Hendrix has not put a direct translation of the city of dreaming spires on to the page. Walking across Magdalen Bridge and down St Giles provided inspiration rather than finished images. “I did a lot of drawing while I was there, but none of that shows up in the book; that was more to give me some context from the world.
“I get ideas from making; so drawing on site is a way to generate ideas, not images. I get some images out of it, but it’s about what does the making of that image teach me about the idea I’m trying to convey? When I’m there, I do a lot of drawing, I take photos. I try to write a lot, and be present in the space, and let it tell me what the most interesting thing about that location is.
“I travelled before the Eagle and Child [pub] closed. I was able to go there and the Lamb and Flag, and of course to the Kilns, and Tolkien’s and Lewis’s graves, and to Magdalen College and many others.”
FOR Mr Hendrix, the foundation of the creative process — making something to be put out into the world — is the Bible. “We can learn from God in those first five words of the Bible. ‘In the beginning God created’; not ‘In the beginning God thought of an idea.’ He made; making is a fundamental way we image our Creator. Tolkien thought that very passionately, and it’s part of the reason why I wanted to make Mythmakers.”
Transforming concepts into tangible, material reality can be a spiritual practice. “There is an incarnational truth to making that is different to just conceiving of ideas. Dorothy Sayers talked about this in her book Mind of the Maker: God’s role in the Trinity is the idea, Jesus’s role is the incarnation, and the Spirit’s role is the power of that idea and that incarnation. She mapped it on to art-making.
“We all have ideas: we have the trauma of actually making something real, the pain that comes with that, then the feeling of it affecting someone in the world. And all three of them are shared goals. I think about that analogy all the time.”
Unusually for a Christian author, Mr Hendrix works with mainstream publishers, Abrams, having convinced them that the Christian “market” is a viable market. “It is! The real trick with illustration is finding an audience and being able to make good work under the constraints of capitalism. Publishers are trying to sell books; and my books, because they’re full-colour, 200 pages, they’re very expensive to make.
“The publisher needs an audience who will be interested in these books. Finding an obscure theologian, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to make a book about — that connected to audiences, because it’s about the Second World War. There’s a game of finding a way of making a book that is of interest to a segment of the market and allows you to do something interesting. My editor, Howard Reeves, said, ‘Hey, Christians buy books, too; let’s make some good ones that are thoughtful and smart and interesting.’”
He continues: “Most of the Christian books that I don’t like aren’t wrong or ugly: they’re just boring, not interesting as objects and as ideas. I try to make books that appeal to as ecumenical a readership as possible. I’ve always seen it as a challenge to find a very broad tent that I can write for.”
RAISED as a Methodist, and worshipping at Tim Keller’s Redeemer Church while living in New York after graduating, Mr Hendrix has attended Grace and Peace Fellowship Presbyterian Church in St Louis for 20 years. Until recently, he served as an elder on the church’s session — the equivalent of the board of directors — but the Presbyterian Church of America’s refusal to have women in ordained ministry has prompted some reassessment.
“Frankly, one of the reasons why I’m not serving right now is that we, as the Presbyterian Church of America [PCA], do not ordain women to preaching ministry. And it’s something over the past five years I’ve come to believe differently on.” But he does not see disagreement as insoluble. “It’s easy to imagine churches as a collection of position papers; but, at the end of the day, it’s a group of people that I really love, and I’m committed to that group of people.
“Sure, there are things that could happen to make me leave that group, but now I’m committed to Peace and Grace Fellowship, at the corner of Delmar and Clara, as opposed to the PCA; so I just try to make my little church and our community the thing that I’m serving primarily.”
John HendrixIllustration from Miracle Man
He attends services regularly. “We go to church every Sunday when we’re in town; to me, there’s nothing better than when you sing with your brothers and sisters, and share a meal. We’re in a beautiful turn-of-the-century building. Our church is very liturgical; so it follows a classic liturgy. In most Presbyterian churches, there is a lot of time for preaching: our sermons are at least 30 to 35 minutes. So paying attention to the word and letting the word speak to us is primary.”
Music also plays an important part, as does the eucharist. “We sing five or six songs — I know in some churches that’s hardly any. We have communion every week; so we believe in the embodied presence of worship; so being present is important. We often have a meal after church together.” Communion is celebrated with bread torn off a loaf and individual cups of wine or grape juice.
Teaching at a secular university does not present a conflict. “I don’t think of a sacred-secular divide in my life. I don’t mention Christianity in my teaching unless people ask. I want to be sensitive and not somebody who annoys people by talking about religion.”
John HendrixAn illustration of Lewis and Tolkien from The Mythmakers
Mr Hendrix is also on the board of Washington University’s Carver Project, an organisation seeking to connect the Church, the university, and the wider community. ”We are a group of Christian faculty at Wash. U. Our goal is to unify the Church, the greater university, and the larger community, because those two entities are often very suspicious of each other — the Church of the university, and the university of the Church.”
He is as concerned for his students as he is for the art that they make. “My world-view and belief, that people are the true work of art, not the artefacts that we make, imbues every aspect of my teaching. I want my students to flourish — capital ‘F’, Flourish. And that can mean a lot of different things, and I don’t decide what that is. That’s my longing for them. When we meet, I try to get at the heart of our conversation their desires for themselves. To be the best versions of their work, to be the best versions of their lives as human beings.”
And he points out to students that teaching can provide more space for passion projects rather than paying the bills through freelance illustrating, although the time commitments of faculty and family should not be underestimated: “That’s why I only produce one graphic novel every five years.”
The Mythmakers: The remarkable fellowship of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien (A Graphic Novel) by John Hendrix is published by Abrams at £18.99 (Church Times Bookshop £17.09); 978-1-4197-4634-5.