Part I

Discussion Questions

1.      How would you describe Lucy?

2.      What were some of the reasons for her sexual promiscuity? What was she longing for? How legitimate is that longing?

3.      Describe Lucy’s physical suffering. What must it have been like for her?

4.      As you learned more about Lucy, what was your reaction toward her? Why?

5.      How would you characterize Ann and Lucy’s friendship?  In what ways was common grace exhibited in Ann’s friendship toward Lucy?  What is a friend?  Describe the qualities. (Proverbs 17:17; 18:24; 27:5, 6, 17; 28:23)

6.      When Jesus was accused of being a “friend to tax collectors and sinners,” do you think Lucy would have been included in or excluded from His circle of friends?  Why?  Can you think of instances in which Jesus befriended the “Lucy’s” of His day?  How did He deal with them?  What do we learn from Him? (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:36-50; 19:1-10; John 4:4-26; 8:1-11)

7.      What is the difference in being a friend to the world and being a friend of sinners? How is it possible to pursue holiness and friendship with sinners? (I Corinthians 5:9-11; 6:9-11,18-20; Ephesians 5:3; I Thessalonians 4:3-5) When Lucy cursed the Bible (page 221), why did she do so?  How would you have responded to her?  What would you have said?

8.      Self-righteousness is an insidious spiritual disease which is a betrayer of the gospel of grace and a great hindrance to evangelism. What is self-righteousness?  Why is it such a hindrance to evangelism?  In what ways do you struggle with self-righteousness?  How does the gospel of grace enable us to repent of our self-righteousness and free us to share the gospel with compassion? 

9.      If Lucy were your friend, how would you share the gospel with her? How would you address her sexual promiscuity? Her physical suffering and pain?  Her drug addiction? Her longing to be loved?

10. How would you share the gospel with Ann?

11. What redemptive qualities do you see in this book? What biblical truths are portrayed?

12. During your days at the university, and hopefully throughout your life, you will have the opportunity to befriend the “Lucy’s” of the world. How will you be prepared to share the love of Christ with them? (Proverbs 6:20-7:27; 14:12; 16:25; Matthew 7:13, 14; John 10:10)

13. Why do you think Ann Patchett entitled the book Truth and Beauty?

Part II

Informal Answer Key

1.      Desperately hurting, morally, emotionally and spiritually broken.

2.      Lucy longed to be loved and used sex in hopes that someone would eventually truly love her. The longing to be loved is a God-given desire and therefore legitimate. However, Lucy, like so many of us, took this legitimate desire and made an idol of it. She pursued broken cisterns, loved the creature more than the Creator, and ended up broken and empty (Jeremiah 2; Romans 1:20 ff; Ecclesiastes 1).

3.      Disfigured, chemo, 38 surgeries. Felt like an object of ridicule, embarrassed, longed to be beautiful, hopeless at times, discouraged, etc. No end to her suffering.

4.      Over time I began to hurt for her, empathy, sadness, because of her self-destructive lifestyle. Here was one created in the image of God disfiguring that image by her sin.

5.      Ann truly demonstrated friendship that far exceeds the friendship of many believers. She was faithful, ruthless, relentless, patient, kind, tough, honest, truly caring, etc. A friend is one who sticks closer than a brother, will tell you what you need to hear, unconditional in acceptance, etc.

6.      Lucy would have been included, for it was her “type” the Savior came to save. The Woman at the Well, Mary Magdalene, the prostitute who washed His feet, the Corinthians, etc. Jesus loved and attracted these kinds of people, we tend to repel them. What do you suppose they saw in Jesus that they do not always see in us?

7.      A friend of the world is one who loves the sinful lifestyle of the world, and such a professing believer is no true believer. A friend of sinners is one who truly cares for and is concerned for the lost and seeks to demonstrate the unconditional love of Christ toward them. The believer must hate the sin, but love the sinner.

8.      Lucy responded to a passage taken out of context. “An eye for an eye” does not demand a response of war, but is actually a command of grace – the crime fits the punishment, but should go no further. This misunderstanding could open the door for ongoing discussions with Lucy regarding what the Bible actually teaches, hopefully pointing her to Christ through His Word.

9.      Self-righteousness is the unbiblical view that God accepts me because I am more righteous than others in and of myself. It is the view that I in some way have merited the favor of God and has forgotten the reality that for the grace of God, there go I. Non-Christians can sense the condescending air of moral superiority that self-righteousness exudes and are rightly repulsed by it. Self-righteousness also produces disgust toward unbelievers rather than  compassion. The gospel reminds me that I am no better off in and of myself than Lucy. I really am no more than just a beggar showing another beggar where to find bread.

10. I hope I would weep with her over her brokenness, sin and suffering. I would point out that her sexual immorality will lead only to further and deeper disappointment just as her substance abuse would. I wouldn’t be able to answer all the why questions of her pain and disfigured face beyond the fact that we do live in a fallen world, but I hope I could love, support, encourage and offer comfort in her pain. I would point her to my only hope – Jesus Christ.

11. I would commend her for her friendship with Lucy, and point her to The Friend of Sinners. Ann’s religious (Roman Catholic) background is rooted in works and I would point out the many passages which deal with salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

12. Sin always leads to greater brokenness, pain and death. The path of sin is always destructive, don’t go down that road!  True friendship endures the test of trials and time. Beauty is seen not in the outward appearance, but in the fact that we all have been created in the image of God. Ann saw beneath the surface of the skin and beheld a fragile, broken image bearer.

13. Know the gospel of grace, not the gospel of self-righteousness and self-merit. Pray that God would give you the compassion of Christ towards others. Dare to be a friend of sinners with biblical accountability and support. Do not resign yourself to living in a Christian ghetto. Familiarize yourself with the Word of God so that you will be prepared to answer questions non-Christians are asking. Get in a small group Bible study on evangelism and outreach where you will learn how to share the gospel, pray with others for boldness, compassion and opportunities to share, and be encouraged and held accountable to reach out with the love of Christ to your non-Christian friends.

14. True friendship sees beyond outward appearance. The love and acceptance which Lucy sought through her pursuit of outward beauty, is found in true friendship which loves and accepts us for who we are, not for what we look like.

Part III

A Biblical Life View

As Christians, we are called by God to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. But what does it mean to love God with all of our mind?  The Apostle Paul helps us to answer this question in several places in Scripture. In II Corinthians 10:4, 5 we read:

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Paul encourages the believer to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ, that is, to consider the thoughts and views of the world, and consider carefully what Christ has to say about those issues. What does God’s Word have to say about Lucy’s lifestyle and the results of such a lifestyle? What does God say about Ann’s friendship toward Lucy, and about the believer’s relationship to such people?

In Romans 12:1-2, Paul warns the believer not to adopt the lifestyle and life views of the world:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

In this text, Paul calls us not only to offer the entirety of our beings to Him in response to the gospel of grace, but he helps us understand how to offer ourselves to Him – by the renewing of our minds. A renewed mind must flow from a renewed heart, and it seeks to be thoroughly informed by Holy Scripture.

What does the Bible say about the unbelieving world’s view of life?  What are the answers to life’s big questions?  Who is God?  Who are we as humans?  What is the basis of morality?  What is the purpose and meaning of life?  What happens at death?  How we answer these questions will have a direct impact on how we will live.

What do you think is Ann Patchett’s worldview?  What is Lucy’s?  In reading Truth and Beauty, or any literature for that matter, the believer must evaluate in light of Scripture the view of life which is being promoted by the author. We must evaluate and ask if there are redemptive qualities in the book.

What truths are being promoted?  What errors are being promoted as truth?  What is the Christian response?  In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul quoted pagan poetry about the false gods and demonstrated that what the idolaters longed for could be found only in the true and living God. He modeled well this Christian mind in action. He took captive every thought and made it obedient to Christ.

Learning to evaluate worldly worldviews and answering life’s questions from a biblical perspective is fundamental to discipleship and the development of a Christian mind.

At the university you will be challenged to re-evaluate almost everything. There will be many competing worldviews vying for your allegiance, many philosophies promoted which are contrary to the teachings of Christ (Colossians 2:8), and many, many pressures imposed upon you to conform to the pattern of this world. But with these pressures will also come some of the most wonderful opportunities to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, as well as to learn to think and respond Christianly to not only the opposing ideas, but the people who promote these ideas.

Years ago, Charles Malik wrote, “How to order the mind on sound Christian principles at the very heart of where it is formed and informed, namely at the university, is one of the greatest themes that can be considered…. The problem is not only to win souls but to save minds. If you win the whole world and lose the mind of the world, you will soon discover you have not won the world. Indeed it may turn out that you have actually lost the world.”  So as you seek to develop a Christian mind, also ask God for grace to communicate those truths to the Lucy’s and Ann’s around.

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. (I Peter 3:15-16).

May God grant you grace as you seek to increasingly love Him with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.

Part IV

A Reading List

For further reading in addition to Scripture (you cannot have an effective and informative biblical worldview without a practical working knowledge of the Bible), this brief bibliography may be helpful.

·          The Universe Next Door by James Sire (IVP).

·          How to Read Slowly by James Sire (Shaw).

·          Literature Through the Eyes of Faith by Susan Gallagher & Roger Lundin (Harper Collins).

·          The Liberated Imagination by Leland Ryken (Shaw).

Other authors who may be helpful in developing a biblical world and life view: Charles Colson, Nancy Pearcey, Francis Schaeffer and Gene Edward Veith. You may want to subscribe to World magazine (www.worldmag.com) which seeks to inform believers on many current issues from a biblical perspective.

*Dr. David Sinclair, Pastor of Lexington Presbyterian Church (PCA) was for many years campus minister at Clemson University with Reformed University Fellowship. This study guide is reproduced here with his permission.