Emphasis Preaching Journal

Shoeless Joe, a novel by W. P. Kinsella, is based on the life of Shoeless Joe Jackson. Jackson was one of the eight White Sox players accused of throwing the World Series in the Black Sox scandal of 1919. Kinsella makes Joe a central figure in taking baseball as a wholesome metaphor for life. Baseball is to be regarded as a symbol of the need to hold on to something in a faithless age when everything seems to go wrong. The real hero in the story is Ray Kinsella, a bright young man from the east converted from insurance salesman to farmer in Iowa. His equally bright young wife encourages Ray to create a baseball diamond on his farm for Shoeless Joe. Ray also feels called to involve J. D. Salinger, the disillusioned author, to get involved. At a Boston Red Sox game in Fenway Park Ray explains to Salinger what he is doing. Ray explains that baseball to him is the perfect game. It is solid, true and pure. Ray reasons that life could be more simple if only there were a framework to life with rules to live by. Ray is confident that those who believe that soon will find baseball the occasion for trust and freedom, for joy and faithfulness. Ray Kinsella was searching for ways to give people a dream that lives. Sure enough, the movie version of his search was called Field of Dreams, and Shoeless Joe does ask, "Is this heaven?" when he runs on the field. The Apostle Paul offers a hope that is more than a dream and is the real promise of heaven. -- Huxhold