Solitude - Dekker: Beyond the Circle

Beyond the Circle is a two-volume story written by Ted Dekker and published in 2018. The story is set in the same fictional universe as the Circle series (Black, Red, White, and Green), along with about ten other Dekker books.

If you've read any of the Circle or its spinoffs before, you would find the setting familiar: the bad guys ("the Horde") have distinctive skin and live in the desert, and some characters fall asleep in our world, but they wake up in another one, then when they fall asleep there, they wake up here.

You've seen all the story props before. What sets this duology apart from the original Circle series is its theology. Dekker excels at writing theology into his fiction, both through dialogue and just plain story. These books are the primary example, but other examples include Outlaw, Showdown, Sinner, Heaven's Wager, When Heaven Weeps, and Thunder of Heaven, all of which I recommend.

There's lots to say about the theology of Beyond the Circle, but for this post I'm focusing on Dekker's use of solitude.

From chapter 1, the protagonist, Rachelle, is isolated on every level. She lives in a religious doomsday bunker commune, isolated from anything but her small town. She's blind, isolated by both her inability to see with her eyes and her unusual ability to see via echolocation. For years, she's had nightmares about a shadowy figure promising to blind her again if she ever learns to see. Her father, her sole parent, believes her dreams are delusional, so she's isolated with them, too--especially because it turns out that Shadow Man is real.

Her isolation increases when she becomes the only living human with the ability to shift between this earth and other-earth (an alternate universe) by falling asleep in one and waking up in the other. In other-earth, she learns that (1) she has athletic abilities beyond imagination, (2) she has been prophesied to cause the rise and fall of many, (3) thanks to her prophesied identity, she is in constant peril, though (4) she's remembers nothing about how she is, and (5) oh yeah, she's no longer blind.

I think that takes us up through around chapter 8 of the 80ish chapters in these two books. These are the elements of her character, the ones that will take her to disaster or success.

Rachelle is isolated by both her limitations (blindness, frequent solitary imprisonment, etc.) and her abilities (physical and spiritual, but also echolocation. Duuuude).

She doesn't seek out her isolation. In every case, every cause is pressed on her by outside circumstances. Dekker's focus is not on the values to be sought in isolation, but on the dangers and/or rewards isolation imposes.

So. What does Dekker say isolation does?

Frequently, it weakens. Even when his protagonist is isolated by awesome abilities, her isolation from mentors frequently means she misuses her abilities, misjudging circumstances. Isolation brings weakness for Rachelle because it strips away those who might stand between her and her enemies. Over and over, and with greater and greater consequences, there is nothing besides God to count on.

However, in her most vulnerable solitude, she receives grace. In one of the most moving scenes of the series, Rachelle is imprisoned, strapped in place, and blinded again by a live viper spitting venom in her eyes--just like Shadow Man promised in her nightmares. All. Her. Life. In this moment of supreme vulnerability, as her vision goes black, Rachelle just wants death to come. Union with God, even if it meant death, would be better than living blind again. That's when Rachelle hears God's voice: "You think you must die to be one with me, daughter?"

When isolation bring weakness, grace flows through the vulnerabilities that appear. This is Dekker's message, both explicitly through teacher figures and implicitly through the plot. Rachelle's character growth progresses the more she believes this, until ultimately, she is overpowered, tied to a cross and drowned--and is raised to life again.

Isolation bring weakness, but grace flows through the vulnerabilities that appear.

I hear in Dekker close parallels to what God says about how He uses and redeems suffering (James 1:2-4; 1 Pet. 1:6-9; Rom. 5:3-5; Heb. 12:5-11). I don't think Dekker's theology of solitude in this series is the whole story about solitude, but he highlights an important point: solitude brings weakness, but weakness is often the only way up. Soul is formed in solitude's suffering.

The question Rachelle faces again and again and finally answers is, "Will you really safe if you belong to God?" You - and I - won't know our answers until we are asked that question alone.

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In case my praise of Dekker has gone too far in this post, I do think Dekker writes compelling theological stories, but his characters are cardboard cutouts with plot devices taped to them. To be honest, I didn't remember this main character's name even a week after reading the series. (It's Rachelle. Just had to look it up again.)