tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596708332568087278.post7118157071163241868..comments2024-01-24T10:39:27.668-05:00Comments on Coming Untrue: Magination Run WildDr. S. L. Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06303707167715370504noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596708332568087278.post-20848843851914395412021-03-12T07:25:48.325-05:002021-03-12T07:25:48.325-05:00You mentioned Jordan Peterson. I came across this ...You mentioned Jordan Peterson. I came across this clip this morning, which you may not have seen yet. Very interesting, as is the host's analysis after.<br /><br />https://youtu.be/R1lmBtQd7NE<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596708332568087278.post-1627605768563861442018-04-25T07:21:40.610-04:002018-04-25T07:21:40.610-04:00Indeed, I recognize that you attributed it to Jona...Indeed, I recognize that you attributed it to Jonathan Rogers. However, you recognized the value in it, and were kind enough to share it with us (I was completely unaware of that quotation and poem) so we have reason to thank you for that.Immanuel Canhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11580529966007662214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596708332568087278.post-52968650331673273122018-04-24T17:52:05.672-04:002018-04-24T17:52:05.672-04:00My pleasure. To be clear, that post is an essay by...My pleasure. To be clear, that post is an essay by Jonathan Rogers (not me) wherein he quotes a poem by John Updike (also not me). I agree though - it is a beautiful and eloquent entry along the same vein as your own. Thanks to you, as well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596708332568087278.post-71530296503412196072018-04-24T15:11:54.513-04:002018-04-24T15:11:54.513-04:00Wow, anon.
Maybe you were the one who should have...Wow, anon.<br /><br />Maybe you were the one who should have written my post for today. You've caught the spirit of the thing with admirable poetics and eloquence. I can add nothing, nor would I want to. <br /><br />Thank you for that.Immanuel Canhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11580529966007662214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596708332568087278.post-10764952776181967832018-04-24T14:14:20.044-04:002018-04-24T14:14:20.044-04:00Thanks, Anon. That's a powerful and memorable ...Thanks, Anon. That's a powerful and memorable bit of poetry, and I thank you for sharing it with us.<br /><br />Right on.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00346761712248157930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596708332568087278.post-66571380410207689202018-04-24T13:45:22.780-04:002018-04-24T13:45:22.780-04:00Came across this essay by Jonathan Rogers (a write...Came across this essay by Jonathan Rogers (a writer from Nashville) recently...it brought my mind back to this article. He emphasizes the importance of the resurrection as fact. The poem at the end is a beautiful summation:<br /><br />As a writer, I am interested in how metaphor works. I am also interested in metaphor because I am a Christian. People of faith have to get comfortable with figurative language: Christians speak of Jesus as the Lamb of God, but we also know that Jesus was a man, not a lamb. And some of the fiercest debates among Christians orbit around questions of metaphor. When Jesus broke the bread and said "This is my body," to what extent was He speaking metaphorically? To what extent is the priest or the pastor speaking metaphorically when he holds up the Host or the bread and says "This is the body of Christ, broken for you?" (The Latin Hoc est corpus meum, by the way, is the origin of the phrase hocus pocus).<br /><br />I'm writing this on Easter weekend, and I've been listening to my friend Andrew Peterson's newly released record, Resurrection Letters, Volume 1 (a record a commend to you as enthusiastically as I know how to commend anything). Andrew's poetry and music have gotten me thinking about metaphor. The first track on the record, "His Heart Beats," is about the moment when Jesus came back to life in His tomb (indeed, all the tracks on the record are about the Resurrection, both His and ours). The song contains these lines that I can't stop thinking about: <br /><br />His heart beats.<br />Now everything has changed.<br />Because the blood that bought us peace with God<br />Is racing through His veins.<br />Here's the thing: for all my interest in metaphor, both as a writer and a Christian, the central truths of the Christian faith are truths that cannot be metaphorical. Christ was dead. Christ was risen. Christ will come again. Those are either literal truths or they aren't truths at all. <br /><br />In the end, metaphorical language isn't much use to us unless it points to a truth that isn't metaphorical, a reality that goes beyond language. <br /><br />I will leave you with "Seven Stanzas for Easter," a poem from John Updike that I return to every Easter weekend:<br />Make no mistake: if he rose at all<br />It was as His body;<br />If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit,<br />The amino acids rekindle,<br />The Church will fall.<br /><br />It was not as the flowers,<br />Each soft spring recurrent;<br />It was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the Eleven apostles;<br />It was as His flesh; ours.<br /><br />The same hinged thumbs and toes<br />The same valved heart<br />That—pierced—died, withered, paused, and then regathered<br />Out of enduring Might<br />New strength to enclose.<br /><br />Let us not mock God with metaphor,<br />Analogy, sidestepping transcendence,<br />Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded<br />Credulity of earlier ages:<br />Let us walk through the door.<br /><br />The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,<br />Not a stone in a story,<br />But the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of Time will eclipse for each of us<br />The wide light of day.<br /><br />And if we have an angel at the tomb,<br />Make it a real angel,<br />Weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in<br />The dawn light, robed in real linen<br />Spun on a definite loom.<br /><br />Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,<br />For our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,<br />Lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed<br />By the miracle,<br />And crushed by remonstrance.<br />Happy Easter. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596708332568087278.post-62798698602585976172018-04-19T09:40:28.264-04:002018-04-19T09:40:28.264-04:00I loved this. A really helpful breakdown of the di...I loved this. A really helpful breakdown of the different types of narrative and a healthy warning about the danger of liberal Christianity. I think one of the greatest motivations for holding to the historicity of Scripture is that Jesus did. He spoke about Jonah and the whale (Matt 12:40), Sodom & Gomorrah (Matt 12:40) and a global flood (Luke 17:27) like they really happened. Was He mistaken? Too primitive in His thinking? Was He merely deceiving His listeners or holding a line that was popular in that day? Clearly not. Wasn't his style! It would be hard (impossible?) to claim to follow Him as Lord with intellectual integrity and deny the truth that He believed, knew and taught. <br /><br />Regarding Jordan Peterson, I'm assuming you're referring to his series on the psychological significance of Bible Stories. I agree that his viewpoint is bound to fail him eventually if he continues as he is, but there's something about hearing him discover the beauty and power of Scripture that gives me a small hope that this journey may end in his salvation. There's times that I've thought, "how can anyone say that and not be a Christian?" I am praying for his soul. The Lord doesn't need the wise and strong to defend Him, but I would be glad to have Professor Peterson for a brother.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com