There's at least one reaction of some survivors that expresses an unacceptable theology: when e.g. after a deadly fire in an apartment building that killed many of the residents, one of the survivors being interviewed by a TV reporter says something like, "I can't explain it, how my family and I got out of there; God must have been looking out for us." So did only the survivors deserve God's saving intervention, while those who perished did not? It should be obvious to a Christian that that's not at all what happened!
Isn’t life so often a mixture of joy and sorrow? Think of the final chorus of Bach’s St Matthew Passion: both are present in the orchestral and choral parts. We sorrow at the loss of a loved one, but we rejoice in their passage into the presence of the Father. And so it goes with much of life, I believe.
I would mention a remark made by Andre Gide - “know that joy is rarer, more difficult. and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.”
Ms. Butler Bass and Others....I am a social historian (focus on 19 C America), and one of the things that never ceases to amaze me when people are talking about how to navigate C-19 and post-C19 is the fact that they have conveniently (?) forgotten the lessons we learned -- hard truths so many of them -- about how humankind dealt with similar pandemics (Black Death,/Plague, Spanish Flu, come immediately to mind), and , more to the point, survived them. I don't know about the Black Death's aftermath, but one of the major outcomes of the Spanish Flu, which immediately followed upon WWI, was the carpe diem, rip-roaring 20s...in tandem with the revitalized evangelical movement (at least here in the US). I strongly suspect that is also an outcome (in the form of the splintering of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation) of the much longer-lasting and civically and socially devastating Bubonic Plague and Black Death.
As always a delight to read your insights. I've quoted you at length in a book I will publish this fall. (Copyright permissions procured). In the postmodern world, the church isn't what it was, and as Dr. King mused in the 60's it needs to recapture its authentic ring!
So I often disagree with your writing because I think you take some potshots at evangelicals...and I know you were a part of that tradition so you know it. But I think you hit it right here when you say - "mainline can be glum Jeremiahs" (my paraphrase of your great description) and that evangelical joy could be what is needed.
Like you did at Bedford - we can't just focus on the negative but on the new joys the new days are bringing. Thanks for this one on the Cottage.
There's at least one reaction of some survivors that expresses an unacceptable theology: when e.g. after a deadly fire in an apartment building that killed many of the residents, one of the survivors being interviewed by a TV reporter says something like, "I can't explain it, how my family and I got out of there; God must have been looking out for us." So did only the survivors deserve God's saving intervention, while those who perished did not? It should be obvious to a Christian that that's not at all what happened!
i loved this. grateful, joyful indeed!
Isn’t life so often a mixture of joy and sorrow? Think of the final chorus of Bach’s St Matthew Passion: both are present in the orchestral and choral parts. We sorrow at the loss of a loved one, but we rejoice in their passage into the presence of the Father. And so it goes with much of life, I believe.
Thank you for being such an Honest Sweetie! Thanks for making Church feel better and more real. Xxxx
I am grateful for you words here.
I would mention a remark made by Andre Gide - “know that joy is rarer, more difficult. and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.”
Ms. Butler Bass and Others....I am a social historian (focus on 19 C America), and one of the things that never ceases to amaze me when people are talking about how to navigate C-19 and post-C19 is the fact that they have conveniently (?) forgotten the lessons we learned -- hard truths so many of them -- about how humankind dealt with similar pandemics (Black Death,/Plague, Spanish Flu, come immediately to mind), and , more to the point, survived them. I don't know about the Black Death's aftermath, but one of the major outcomes of the Spanish Flu, which immediately followed upon WWI, was the carpe diem, rip-roaring 20s...in tandem with the revitalized evangelical movement (at least here in the US). I strongly suspect that is also an outcome (in the form of the splintering of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation) of the much longer-lasting and civically and socially devastating Bubonic Plague and Black Death.
Spot on!!
As always a delight to read your insights. I've quoted you at length in a book I will publish this fall. (Copyright permissions procured). In the postmodern world, the church isn't what it was, and as Dr. King mused in the 60's it needs to recapture its authentic ring!
So I often disagree with your writing because I think you take some potshots at evangelicals...and I know you were a part of that tradition so you know it. But I think you hit it right here when you say - "mainline can be glum Jeremiahs" (my paraphrase of your great description) and that evangelical joy could be what is needed.
Like you did at Bedford - we can't just focus on the negative but on the new joys the new days are bringing. Thanks for this one on the Cottage.