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Holy Clues: The Gospel According to Sherlock Holmes
If God is the greatest mystery of them all, then why not, in pursuit of God, consult the greatest detective of them all? In this imaginative and surprisingly profound book, Stephen Kendrick reveals Sherlock Holmes as spiritual guide.
Drawing on the teachings of Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism--as well as a host of thinkers as varied as Albert Einstein, Gandhi, and Vincent van Gogh--Kendrick explores the stories of Sherlock Holmes and finds remarkably prescient religious insights. He shows us the link between careful observation of clues and the Buddhist concept of "Bare Attention." He illuminates the parallel between the great sleuth's pursuit of justice and God's actions on the scene of the first murder, when Cain slew Abel. And in the detective's open, engaged mind, Kendrick finds a model for uniting the principles of science with a sincere spiritual quest. The result is a book of inspiration for the modern, skeptical searcher--and an entertaining work that sheds new light on the methods of the world's greatest detective.
(back cover)
Drawing on the teachings of Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism--as well as a host of thinkers as varied as Albert Einstein, Gandhi, and Vincent van Gogh--Kendrick explores the stories of Sherlock Holmes and finds remarkably prescient religious insights. He shows us the link between careful observation of clues and the Buddhist concept of "Bare Attention." He illuminates the parallel between the great sleuth's pursuit of justice and God's actions on the scene of the first murder, when Cain slew Abel. And in the detective's open, engaged mind, Kendrick finds a model for uniting the principles of science with a sincere spiritual quest. The result is a book of inspiration for the modern, skeptical searcher--and an entertaining work that sheds new light on the methods of the world's greatest detective.
(back cover)
- GenresReligion
192 pages, Paperback
First published May 11, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 31, 2017
Sherlock Holmes, the greatest consulting detective, has a reputation of being cold, calculating, single-purposed and lacking in human empathy. ... So, did he believe in God?
This book has been on my bookshelf, waiting to be read, for many years. Being a huge fan of the Conan Doyle stories, I’d become aware of many writers who tie their beliefs or proclivities to the Holmes name. Some explore his favorite foods in order to collect cookbook recipes. Tour books tie tourist sites to story locations. (I haven’t found a Sherlock Holmes guide to romance, though!) So this book (which had been an impulse buy) sat neglected on the shelf.
Perhaps it was a case of the right book at the right time, but I loved this one.
At the time of this writing, the writer was the Parish Minister of the Universalist Church Of West Hartford, Connecticut. (Having once been a Unitarian Universalist myself, I had to smile at his joke about Universalist prayers beginning, “To Whom It May Concern.”) A fan of Holmes stories and mysteries in general, he explored the religious purpose served by the detective story. This book is the result of that investigation.
There were a number of points made that caught my attention right away:
* Holmes doesn’t remain a “constant” character throughout the stories. He experiences personal growth and he does change.
* Before the Great Hiatus, Watson grows increasingly concerned about Holmes’ cocaine use. There is no mention of Holmes taking drugs after his return.
* During his 3-year absence, Holmes engages on a spiritual journey. In fact, part of it was in an area that would have put his life in extreme danger had he been discovered.
* The Truth is important to Holmes ... finding the solution. However, there are multiple times that he releases a wrong-doer who was caught-up in a tangled web and is unlikely to commit another crime.
The writer also asserts that a fascination with solving a “mystery” (and taking comfort from the world seeming a bit safer place for the moment) might be a stepping stone to being curious about God’s “mysterion.” After all, a serious exploration of religion begins with an exploration and understanding of oneself.
Sherlock Holmes developed his talents through observing what he saw, and paying special attention to what “the small things” revealed. He would spend time organizing the minutiae into a recognizable pattern. (The writer doesn’t mention it, but I wonder if a “three pipe problem” was a form of meditation.) When Holmes returns from The Great Hiatus, he is a different person. Had he turned that gift for introspection on himself?
There are many, many worthwhile discussion points in this book. Some of them will be points I intend to explore in my own meditation sessions. Others caused me to recall events from a beloved story in a different light ... and have awakened a desire to reread them.
Best of all, this isn’t written in a “dry” style of a textbook. I was engaged throughout and would recommend it to spiritual seekers and/or devotees of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
This book has been on my bookshelf, waiting to be read, for many years. Being a huge fan of the Conan Doyle stories, I’d become aware of many writers who tie their beliefs or proclivities to the Holmes name. Some explore his favorite foods in order to collect cookbook recipes. Tour books tie tourist sites to story locations. (I haven’t found a Sherlock Holmes guide to romance, though!) So this book (which had been an impulse buy) sat neglected on the shelf.
Perhaps it was a case of the right book at the right time, but I loved this one.
At the time of this writing, the writer was the Parish Minister of the Universalist Church Of West Hartford, Connecticut. (Having once been a Unitarian Universalist myself, I had to smile at his joke about Universalist prayers beginning, “To Whom It May Concern.”) A fan of Holmes stories and mysteries in general, he explored the religious purpose served by the detective story. This book is the result of that investigation.
There were a number of points made that caught my attention right away:
* Holmes doesn’t remain a “constant” character throughout the stories. He experiences personal growth and he does change.
* Before the Great Hiatus, Watson grows increasingly concerned about Holmes’ cocaine use. There is no mention of Holmes taking drugs after his return.
* During his 3-year absence, Holmes engages on a spiritual journey. In fact, part of it was in an area that would have put his life in extreme danger had he been discovered.
* The Truth is important to Holmes ... finding the solution. However, there are multiple times that he releases a wrong-doer who was caught-up in a tangled web and is unlikely to commit another crime.
The writer also asserts that a fascination with solving a “mystery” (and taking comfort from the world seeming a bit safer place for the moment) might be a stepping stone to being curious about God’s “mysterion.” After all, a serious exploration of religion begins with an exploration and understanding of oneself.
Sherlock Holmes developed his talents through observing what he saw, and paying special attention to what “the small things” revealed. He would spend time organizing the minutiae into a recognizable pattern. (The writer doesn’t mention it, but I wonder if a “three pipe problem” was a form of meditation.) When Holmes returns from The Great Hiatus, he is a different person. Had he turned that gift for introspection on himself?
There are many, many worthwhile discussion points in this book. Some of them will be points I intend to explore in my own meditation sessions. Others caused me to recall events from a beloved story in a different light ... and have awakened a desire to reread them.
Best of all, this isn’t written in a “dry” style of a textbook. I was engaged throughout and would recommend it to spiritual seekers and/or devotees of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
November 21, 2013
If I were to describe this book in one word it would be wow, but I won't. To me, it deserves more.
Nothing has made more clear to me the Gospels (along with a good portion of the rest of the Bible) that was read to me in my youth.
This book doesn't stop there though.
It touches upon not only Christian beliefs, but also those of Judaism and Buddhism, even comparing the great Sherlock Holmes to a Zen master.
Admittedly, I am not religious, per say. I consider myself more spiritual, like Arthur Conan Doyle is described in this book. I've also been a student of world religions.
Holy Clues manages to bring all these beliefs together, and weave them into a web where religion and science can go hand in hand.
I definitely have had my eyes opened, so to speak, and will try harder, from now on, to pay 'Bare Attention' and to attend.
Nothing has made more clear to me the Gospels (along with a good portion of the rest of the Bible) that was read to me in my youth.
This book doesn't stop there though.
It touches upon not only Christian beliefs, but also those of Judaism and Buddhism, even comparing the great Sherlock Holmes to a Zen master.
Admittedly, I am not religious, per say. I consider myself more spiritual, like Arthur Conan Doyle is described in this book. I've also been a student of world religions.
Holy Clues manages to bring all these beliefs together, and weave them into a web where religion and science can go hand in hand.
I definitely have had my eyes opened, so to speak, and will try harder, from now on, to pay 'Bare Attention' and to attend.
March 13, 2016
"Holy Clues" is a thought-provoking read for a recently-converted Sherlockian--Kendrick presents a well-reasoned and written argument for Holmes as an unusual spiritual guide. I do wish that the examples he chooses were more fleshed out by text from the books, rather than interpreted by the author himself. It would give the reader a better opportunity to decide if she agrees with his conclusions.
October 13, 2018
As a Sherlock fan, it wasn't what I expected and I was rather disappointed.
July 17, 2019
Yes, another spiritual book on non-denominational Christianity. This one, however, will pull readers in if they love Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes! A page-turner, I have so many notes in the margins! Like "The Tao of Pooh", the author critically analyzes a fictional medium through a religious lens. (Nothing anti-Catholic in here.)
January 15, 2024
A cozy meditation on the human search for God using the comparison of Sherlock Holmes solving his mysteries. Written by a minister. Shows love for both subjects. As a Holmes fan I was delighted to find this.
March 28, 2013
I found the concept of this book an interesting approach using the dichotomy of Holmes’s investigative methods for truth with logic and the search of the mysteries of God based on faith.
Kendrick, both the author and a pastor, has developed an interesting concept (although a little presumptive at times) stresses that "when we introduce the concept of mystery into our theological work, this does not mean that we cease employing our faculties in a thoroughly critical way. On the contrary it alerts us to the necessity at this point to employ our critical capacities to their utmost."
Thus acknowledging that Sherlock Holmes and this reasonable approach to religion should be more appropriate than the believer who accepts faith without question.
Kendrick suggests that a detective performs "rituals" and likens the typical closure of a detective story to a kind of final Judgement Day where the mystery is revealed and the guilty separated from the innocent.
Thus he believes people read detective stories for the same reason they adopt religious doctrine...to crave internal order and cosmic understanding.
"When a religion has lost it's hold upon men's hearts, they must have some other outlet for the sense of guilt...such as the detective novel." C. Day Lewis
God's truth dwells within the detective story realm, which exhibits the worst of human nature yet in the figure of the detective we search for truth and whatever healing possible in the wrack of human hopes. The mystery of god has no other place but to dwell in both bright and sad mystery of ourselves. God has created us and knows us and thus will discover what we have done.
"You may think a crime horrible because you could never commit it. I think it horrible because I could commit it. Perhaps by recognizing that our enemies are already inside us, silently harboring in our hearts. Simply a realistic assessment of our true natures we are not angelic beings we view ourselves to be , the detective reveals us for who we really are."
Book lessons:
1) That our vision is sound; it is just that we have to train our hearts and minds to notice what we see.
2) That religion is found not only in the spectacular but in the simple, the ordinary, the plain and everyday, and that all is aglow with the mystery of awe.
3) That science and spirituality may dwell together in appreciation and wonder of the expanding mystery that the more we know, the more we learn.
4) That sometimes it is when God seems farthest away that the invitation to search, explore, and open ourselves to the divine becomes a new and creative beginning.
5) That nothing is little, that our lives are more significant than we can know, and that it is often through our pain and guilt that we encounter the hidden God
6) That the Book of Life contains not just judgment and justice, but mercy and forgiveness beyond measure.
Kendrick, both the author and a pastor, has developed an interesting concept (although a little presumptive at times) stresses that "when we introduce the concept of mystery into our theological work, this does not mean that we cease employing our faculties in a thoroughly critical way. On the contrary it alerts us to the necessity at this point to employ our critical capacities to their utmost."
Thus acknowledging that Sherlock Holmes and this reasonable approach to religion should be more appropriate than the believer who accepts faith without question.
Kendrick suggests that a detective performs "rituals" and likens the typical closure of a detective story to a kind of final Judgement Day where the mystery is revealed and the guilty separated from the innocent.
Thus he believes people read detective stories for the same reason they adopt religious doctrine...to crave internal order and cosmic understanding.
"When a religion has lost it's hold upon men's hearts, they must have some other outlet for the sense of guilt...such as the detective novel." C. Day Lewis
God's truth dwells within the detective story realm, which exhibits the worst of human nature yet in the figure of the detective we search for truth and whatever healing possible in the wrack of human hopes. The mystery of god has no other place but to dwell in both bright and sad mystery of ourselves. God has created us and knows us and thus will discover what we have done.
"You may think a crime horrible because you could never commit it. I think it horrible because I could commit it. Perhaps by recognizing that our enemies are already inside us, silently harboring in our hearts. Simply a realistic assessment of our true natures we are not angelic beings we view ourselves to be , the detective reveals us for who we really are."
Book lessons:
1) That our vision is sound; it is just that we have to train our hearts and minds to notice what we see.
2) That religion is found not only in the spectacular but in the simple, the ordinary, the plain and everyday, and that all is aglow with the mystery of awe.
3) That science and spirituality may dwell together in appreciation and wonder of the expanding mystery that the more we know, the more we learn.
4) That sometimes it is when God seems farthest away that the invitation to search, explore, and open ourselves to the divine becomes a new and creative beginning.
5) That nothing is little, that our lives are more significant than we can know, and that it is often through our pain and guilt that we encounter the hidden God
6) That the Book of Life contains not just judgment and justice, but mercy and forgiveness beyond measure.
March 25, 2016
Quotable:
You see but you do not observe.
In his book Mysterium and Mystery – The Clerical Crime Novel, which details the scores of fictional religious figures who have also been detectives, William David Spencer makes the astonishing statement, “In one very real sense the story of Jesus is a murder mystery.” He sees classic structure: Jesus as victim, humanity as killer, God as judge. “The quest of the theologian for the truth about Christ begins like the search of the detective for the mystery of evil… If some Christians question whether a mystery story can be a Christian story, they do not know their own faith thoroughly enough.”
Maybe people read detective fiction for the same reason they adopt religious doctrine. We all desperately crave both internal order and cosmic understanding: a sense that there is a hidden force operating through and beneath us that makes life not only sensible and just but, more importantly, revels compassion at the heart of creation.
Noticing what you see means you are present and accounted for in your own life.
Perhaps one of the reasons we love the figure of the detective is that she or he can catch, if only for an instant, and if only in a small way, a glimpse of what it must be like to be God and know how everything started, why everything transpired as it did.
The well-made detective story can be seen not as a realistic novel but more as a catalogue of magic tricks wherein we willingly suspend belief in the normal laws of physics – except that, in the code of the genre, the magician (the writer) must step forward at the conclusion to shatter the illusion and explain how it was all done. Unlike the case of a magic show, where the illusion remains unbroken as we file out of the theater, we cannot close the book and have this suspension of belief in the impossible maintained. We must be returned to the world of cause and effect, of reason and resolution. If your detective solves the case by employing spectacular powers of ESP, or by looking into a crystal ball, or by attending a séance in which the victim reveals the murderer through a medium, then you have not read a detective novel. You may have mystery, but not one solved by the process of deduction.
God may be apprehended in the twining labyrinth of mystery, but true labyrinths lead somewhere; they take us on a journey. Indeed, the use of the ancient labyrinth is enjoying a resurgence today as a spiritual tool of discovery.
You see but you do not observe.
In his book Mysterium and Mystery – The Clerical Crime Novel, which details the scores of fictional religious figures who have also been detectives, William David Spencer makes the astonishing statement, “In one very real sense the story of Jesus is a murder mystery.” He sees classic structure: Jesus as victim, humanity as killer, God as judge. “The quest of the theologian for the truth about Christ begins like the search of the detective for the mystery of evil… If some Christians question whether a mystery story can be a Christian story, they do not know their own faith thoroughly enough.”
Maybe people read detective fiction for the same reason they adopt religious doctrine. We all desperately crave both internal order and cosmic understanding: a sense that there is a hidden force operating through and beneath us that makes life not only sensible and just but, more importantly, revels compassion at the heart of creation.
Noticing what you see means you are present and accounted for in your own life.
Perhaps one of the reasons we love the figure of the detective is that she or he can catch, if only for an instant, and if only in a small way, a glimpse of what it must be like to be God and know how everything started, why everything transpired as it did.
The well-made detective story can be seen not as a realistic novel but more as a catalogue of magic tricks wherein we willingly suspend belief in the normal laws of physics – except that, in the code of the genre, the magician (the writer) must step forward at the conclusion to shatter the illusion and explain how it was all done. Unlike the case of a magic show, where the illusion remains unbroken as we file out of the theater, we cannot close the book and have this suspension of belief in the impossible maintained. We must be returned to the world of cause and effect, of reason and resolution. If your detective solves the case by employing spectacular powers of ESP, or by looking into a crystal ball, or by attending a séance in which the victim reveals the murderer through a medium, then you have not read a detective novel. You may have mystery, but not one solved by the process of deduction.
God may be apprehended in the twining labyrinth of mystery, but true labyrinths lead somewhere; they take us on a journey. Indeed, the use of the ancient labyrinth is enjoying a resurgence today as a spiritual tool of discovery.
June 25, 2011
I would like to state right off that this is not a "Christian" book.
At no time does the author acknowledge Jesus Christ as the one and only way into Heaven.
That said if you are one who instanly lights up anytime your eye see the name Sherlock Holmes. Then you might still find value in this book.
This book does not support anyone religion and conform Sherlockian quotes to fit it. Rather this book is an exploration into the thought process and beliefs of a fictional Character. Yes the author Stephen Kendrick shifts through the whole Sherlockian Canon and pulls out religious references in order to deduce exactly what the Great Detective believed.
So Not "The Gospel" according to Sherlock but rather what the gospel would have been if Sherlock Holmes had wrote it (which is completely different from how Doyle would have wrote it).
At no time does the author acknowledge Jesus Christ as the one and only way into Heaven.
That said if you are one who instanly lights up anytime your eye see the name Sherlock Holmes. Then you might still find value in this book.
This book does not support anyone religion and conform Sherlockian quotes to fit it. Rather this book is an exploration into the thought process and beliefs of a fictional Character. Yes the author Stephen Kendrick shifts through the whole Sherlockian Canon and pulls out religious references in order to deduce exactly what the Great Detective believed.
So Not "The Gospel" according to Sherlock but rather what the gospel would have been if Sherlock Holmes had wrote it (which is completely different from how Doyle would have wrote it).
September 14, 2010
Very quick read, very easily digested. Lightweight but interesting study of the relationship between detective fiction and the religious life. The book is nominally about Sherlock Holmes, and most of the illustrations derive from the Holmesian canon, but Kendrick has in mind the broader realm of detective fiction, showing how a seemingly lightweight genre actually serves to open our eyes to the world around us and makes us aware of the darkness inside our own heart, our need for the Holy, etc. I’ve often speculated that detective fiction might be the genre that most takes into account the idea of Original Sin, and Kendrick, in his own Unitarian fashion, seems to agree. I enjoyed the book, overall, and am interested to see how I can follow it up in my further reading re: detective fiction.
May 20, 2009
A charming and enjoyable book, especially for the Sherlock Holmes enthusiast, but also for anyone who loves mysteries. Author Stephen Kendrick does a fine job exploring how the thrill of the murder mystery and its component parts is not unlike what motivates us on the spiritual quest for meaning. I'm not on board with every conclusion, but I appreciate the case made. I especially enjoyed how Kendrick quotes from many different mystery writers and pieces of classic religious literature, ranging from P.D. James and Graham Greene to selections from the Talmud and Buddhist scriptures.
November 6, 2012
"In the great scheme of things, reading detective fiction probably ranks pretty low on the list of spiritual disciplines ..." Indeed! Still, Kendrick makes a reasonable case for setting his various discussions of spirituality in a framework of the great(est) detective.
May 8, 2015
A book that reveals both the "great mind" and "great heart" of the incomparable fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. Also includes a perceptive discussion of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his fascination with Spiritualism.
October 19, 2009
I am still rather well...waiting...for the author to really incorporate Sherlock Holmes into Christianity. So, I'll keep reading!
August 1, 2013
Not horrible. Not very enlightening either. Fun more for the Sherlockia than for any revelations about faith or religion.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews