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Heroes & Villains

Author:	Mike Alsford
Published By:	Darton, Longman and Todd (London)
Pages:	159
Price:	£10.95
ISBN:	0 232 52573 0

Reviewed by Alun Brookfield.

What an interesting book this was to read! The author is Senior Lecturer in Theology at the University of Greenwich, London and clearly has a particular interest in relating the study of theology to other academic disciplines. His interest in this present book is to ask the question: “How do we define one person as good and another as bad?” This is a book about right and wrong, good and bad and the processes by which we separate the two. This reviewer found himself also reflecting as he read Alsford’s book on why it is that we create heroes and villains and why we find it difficult to process information which contradicts our preconception.

It’s an engaging and illuminating read, as the author takes us inside our own heads and hearts to examine the dark and light sides of our personalities. All the heroes and villains of this book are fictitious, which immediately connects our conceptions of right and wrong to the world of popular culture. And one of the most striking things he points out is that the fictitious hero or villain is always, in some sense, an outsider, a renegade, a man or woman on their own: from Captain Kirk to Superman, from Darth Vader to “he who must not be named” in the Harry Potter books, these characters live on the fringes of what might be termed ‘normal’ society.

As a result, the real heart of this book is in the concluding pages, where he writes: “For every hero who dons mask and cape and confronts the ranks of the criminal underworld, there are countless heroes who simply choose to get up and go out into the world to encounter what it has to offer” and similarly for the villains. And he goes on: “Every day … we confront the world and we must ask ourselves: today, am I hero or villain? … we are only ever called upon to be heroic within the context of our situation and within the limits of our powers”. Amen to that!

An unusual book, but this reviewer found it curiously absorbing, encouraging and uplifting. Now the only challenge left is in which section of my library to put it: theology, sociology, ethics, pastoralia …