felix hominum

How to potty train a horse...

photo:  Joe Walker/2010

 

What is "sacred" text?

Interesting thought from our Anglican Primate Fred Hiltz on books, & burnings & September 11:

That day, it seems to me, should be marked by gatherings for prayer, and expressions of mutual respect for our various faith traditions and the texts we all regard as sacred.

Here are a few open questions for all the members of the panel.  On what basis does one regard a text as sacred? What does Bishop HIltz mean by the phrase "we all regard as sacred"?  Who are the "we"?  What do the majority of Islamic scholars have to say about the text called the New Testament?  Can one regard another's text as "sacred" and posit that it is not actually revelation, or that it is incorrect on a number of major points? I'll attempt to answer some of these after some conversation with my betters later on today.

For fun, let's pretend-translate this into politics and see if the same structure of thinking holds true for something like a Palin v Obama election on Nov 4: 

That day, it seems to me, should be marked by gatherings for voting, and expressions of mutual respect for our various political traditions and the policies we all regard as sacred.

Btw, we had our first feast of most excellent corn on the cob from the veggie garden yesterday evening.

In other news:

The Bishop of Amritsar has called on the President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil to protect Christians in northern India after a mob burned down the oldest school in Kashmir and also attacked other Christian institutions.

The Church of North India's Rt Revd Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy, wrote that it was “with a heavy heart” that he informed the President of the complete destruction of the Tungmarg Tyndale Biscoe branch school that provided “quality education to five hundred fifty children from one hundred fifty villages around Tangmarg.”

The school, managed by the Diocese of Amritsar, had 27 staff and 16 support staff and had been founded in 1996 by Tyndale Biscoe and Mallinson School Educational Society to cater for the economically deprived sectors of the community.

The whole three-storey wooden structure with 26 classrooms, computer labs and a library containing, among other books, copies of the Quran was completely destroyed on Monday after being set on fire by a large mob that marched on the school after hearing reports of a man desecrating the Quran in America. None of the staff were injured; they all managed to escape the blaze.

story here

my dinner with Catholics (nor ever chaste, except thou ravish me)

A post by Scott Bader-Saye drew my attention to an article in which Pope Benedict laments the use of sacro-pop in worship.  The article is well worth the read, and makes some interesting points.  The standard quote is that much of contemporary church music is of the "Jesus is my girl/boyfriend" variety.

Some time ago I had dinner with Catholics.  I am distanced enough from the event to be able to fully digest it.  At one point the topic of conversation turned to priestly celibacy and all things related thereto.  To my surprise, I discovered that none of the other guests had read much (if any) of the catholic thinkers and poets of years gone by.  There was a great deal of consternation when it was discovered that (for example) the medievals saw a connection between romantic and divine love.  As had thoughful persons before them.

Those who have followed this writer's offerings over the course of some time have probably come to realize that I believe Dante has a bit of wisdom to impart.  Not the least of this is the relationship between the romantic and the divine.  In our day and age, we tend to collapse the two:  as a culture we think that anything romantic must in and of itself also be divine.  And so, in reaction to this error, when we run across the romantic in contemporary christian music, others of us may tend to think that it must be rebuffed.  After all, such familiarity offends the transcendence of God, and tends to elevate human feelings or emotions to the level of the divine.

I suspect that underneath the admittedly banal lyrics of much contemporary christian pop music is a truth yet to be articulated.  We need a John Donne to tear up their lyric sheets and give them a seminar.  God is his lover.

 

Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

excerpt, Holy Sonnet XIV

 

Dante's Purgatory: Canto XVIII: What is Love? (part 1)

Master, the light you shed has made
my sight so keen that now I clearly see
all that your words mean or what they imply.

So I beseech you, father, kind and dear,
define love for me, please, which is, you say,
the source of every virtue, every vice.

Purgatory XVIII.10 ff

 

In the last Canto Virgil began his discourse on the nature of love.  Here Dante gets right to the point:  "define love for me".  Easier said than done, one may think.   So Virgil leads Dante through several steps in order to explain more fully the nature of love.   Cast aside Hollywood and Hallmark if you wish to follow Virgil at this point.  Love in its infancy is the soul's movement toward that which pleases it.  There is in humaniy an "apprehensive power" (22) which forces the mind to be "attentive" to the thing it desires.  And if the mind is attentive, the mind inclines toward the object it desires: "that inclination is love" (26) Virgil tells Dante.  So we begin with an inward image of the thing we wish to love, and then we incline toward the thing itself.

This first movement of the soul is what Dante will call "natural";  we are created to love.  The example given by Virgil here is of fire moving upward to its natural place: "inspired by its own nature to ascend, seeking to be in its own element". (28)  Language here might be a problem for us.  We contemporary westerners tend to use the word "natural" in different senses that what Dante means.  Sometimes "natural" means "what I want".  For Dante, humanity is created by God with certain characteristics and certain purposes, so what is "natural" really means according to our nature as intended and created by God.  "Natural", then, is not necessarily what I want, but what God intended for me at my creation.

It is with this in mind that Virgil says to Dante:

It should be clear to you by now how blind
to truth those people are who make the claims
that every love is, in itself, good love.

(34-36)

Next up:  what then is "good love", and what distinguishes it from "bad love"?

 

Food & Conversation with Brian McLaren & John Franke

Food and Conversation with McLaren and Franke: Join authors Brian McLaren and John Franke for an evening of good food and great conversation on October 1st from 6:30-8:30 pm at Rutherford House, U of A Campus. Tickets are $200, which includes a $100 tax receipt and an autographed book. For tickets call 780 439 7344, or email.

 

For those of you who may not be attending this event, you are in luck!! There is an alternative.  Beers and fries with Joseph Walker on October 1st from 6:30-closing at Dewey's on the U of A campus.  Beer is $3.75, jugs for under $11, which includes pouring one for me from each pitcher ordered.  I'll be sitting just to the right of the pool tables.  I will also be available to sign your books for you.