So, it occurred to me after writing the last Confessions post, that there might me something more to say about Augustine's comment that he "rushed headlong into love, by which I was longing to be captured." That seemed to capture the attitude toward romance and relationships that prevail in the social consciousness of the day, and my own as well. Under the auspices of the supposed proverb, "love is blind", there seems to be a willful blindness and abandonment to the consuming nature of romantic desire. It is seen as the "yellow-brick road" that leads to the "emerald city" of lifelong relational bliss where many discover that the promises there made by the "wizard" are hype and disillusionment.
It seems that the same romantic obsessiveness was alive in Augustine's day, even without such stimulants as You've Got Mail and The Bachelor. It was only later that Augustine came around to understand his error in not considering it "more than a marginal issue how the beauty of having a wife lies in the obligation to respect the discipline of marriage and bring up children." It is not unlike the experience of practicing many of the spiritual disciplines. Their beauty lies not only in the "highs" of experience, but also in the "lows" and therefore in the entire covenanted experience itself.
Of course, I don't speak from marital experience, just by way of extrapolation and analogy. But, from what I've heard, this seems to be the right way to see things. What do you think?
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thursday, November 22, 2007
A Prayer for Thanksgiving
Prayer of Thanksgiving
by Walter Rauschenbusch
O God, we thank you for this earth, our home;
For the wide sky and the blessed sun,
For the salt sea and the running water,
For the everlasting hills
And the never-resting winds,
For trees and the common grass underfoot.
We thank you for our senses
By which we hear the songs of birds,
And see the splendor of the summer fields,
And taste of the autumn fruits,
And rejoice in the feel of the snow,
And smell the breath of the spring.
Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty;
And save our souls from being so blind
That we pass unseeing
When even the common thornbush
Is aflame with your glory,
O God our creator,
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
For the wide sky and the blessed sun,
For the salt sea and the running water,
For the everlasting hills
And the never-resting winds,
For trees and the common grass underfoot.
We thank you for our senses
By which we hear the songs of birds,
And see the splendor of the summer fields,
And taste of the autumn fruits,
And rejoice in the feel of the snow,
And smell the breath of the spring.
Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty;
And save our souls from being so blind
That we pass unseeing
When even the common thornbush
Is aflame with your glory,
O God our creator,
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
From Living God’s Justice: Reflections and Prayers, compiled by The Roundtable Association of Diocesan Social Action Directors
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Confessions #9: the love of love
Having now traveled a few days into the Thanksgiving holidays, my little writing project has been set aside for other things that have been more immanent, namely our regional staff retreat with Campus Crusade for Christ staff and the normal catching up with the family. So, I may only have a couple of entries this week, but I hope they will overcome their poverty of quantity with a wealth of quality. ;)Here I start on Book 3 of The Confessions, where Augustine recounts his coming to Carthage in 370 A.D as a young man of 16 to begin his formal studies. It was in Carthage that Augustine began his life of high culture, learning, and promiscuity. It was not until he reached 18 and read Cicero's Hortensius that it dawned on Augustine that happiness was not found in food, sex, and purely material pleasures. In that respect, there are not a few similarities between Augustine as a young male university student and the experience and temptations of many today. The lure and hunger for physical pleasure, notoriety, and and materialism are as alive today, or even more so, as they were in the fourth century. There is nothing new under the sun.
As it begins, Augustine recalls that he "came to Carthage and all around me hissed a cauldron of illicit loves. As yet I had never been in love and I longed to love." How often this is the situation for not only the modern college student, but even for those entering high school and even junior high. The "cauldron of illicit loves" has boiled over and filtered down through our tv's, computers, iPods, and lunchroom conversations. In that respect, I wonder if the cauldron burns hotter and broader than it once did in Augustine's day.
Augustine goes on to say, regarding the fact that he longed to love but had never been in love, that "from a subconscious poverty of mind I hated the thought of being less inwardly destitute. I sought an object for my love, I was in love with love, and I hated safety and a path free of snares." It should be said that Augustine's understanding of "love" was certainly age-appropriate and not the mature, self-giving sort of love that is true love, marital or otherwise. On reading these remarks at first, I didn't quite understand what Augusine meant by saying he "hated the thought of being less inwardly destitute." I thought that certainly he did not want to be more inwardly destitute. In Albert Outler's translation, we have Augustine saying it this way, "from a hidden hunger, I hated myself for not feeling more intensely a sense of hunger." So, it occurred to me that although Augustine had not experienced that love for which he longed, he was reflecting on the fact that he loved his desire for illicit love so much so that he hated that it was not stronger than it was. He thought the idea of his becoming less hungry for this illicit love as something to be despised and avoided altogether, and only later on did he realize that this was an indication, not of the virtue of his illicit hunger, but of its poverty and the magnitude of his real hunger beneath it for incorruptible love. Augustine loved his illicit hunger, not knowing that it would overtake him to consume him. He said,
"my hunger was internal, deprived of inward food, that is of you yourself, my God. But that was not the kind of hunger I felt. I was without any desire for incorruptible nourishment, not because I was replete with it, but the emptier I was, the more unappetizing such food became...I was glad to be in bondage, tied with troublesome chains, with the result that I was flogged with the red hot iron rods of jealousy, suspicion, fear, anger, and contention."
I have noticed this same inclination in my own heart, that I find many times that I am in love with desire, illicit or otherwise, to the exclusion of its object, the corruption of the purposes of desire itself, and the loss of real love. This affects relationships in the most radical way. Several years ago while interning with a youth group in near Houston, I realized during the Sunday morning worship time that my anxiety over how I "felt" during the singing time was really more an indication of me worshiping not the Lord who is to be worshiped but the experience of worship itself. It was and is an idolatry to be repented of, worshiping the relationship over the one I relate to, or in the words of Romans, "worshiping the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever." I also find this principle at work concerning human relationships, especially of the romantic kind, that I (I would say "we", but I dare only speak for myself) tend to love the experience of the relationship more than the one with whom I am in relationship. This is that very same self-centered destructive principle also at work in worship that I mentioned earlier, where we become "spiritually inbred". If Christ and his image is not at the center, then things become convoluted indeed!
Toward the end of this first paragraph, Augustine recalls how he had "rushed headlong into love, by which I was longing to be captured." But then he prays, "'My God, my mercy' in your goodness you mixed in much vinegar with that sweetness." So this continues to be the theme of much of Augustine's journey to conversion, that God exposed to him the depravity of his own pursuits so that he would turn to the source of true satisfaction and love. He was restless, and his heart would be at rest until it rested in God. We also pray with Augustine that in His mercy God would mix in vinegar with all that is at first sweet in our sinful pursuits so that we would return to Him, "the shepherd and guardian of our souls."
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Transmission of the Bible: not like the telephone game
Dan Wallace, from Dallas Theological Seminary on the nature of textual variants in the New Testament (i.e. places where the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament differ from each other). If you've ever been told that the Scriptures have been corrupted by copying and then have come to find out that there are in fact differences in many of the Greek copies of the New Testament that we have, then this article will be a big help. Dan Wallace is one of the best Greek and New Testament scholars around, but he's also a good teacher too!
In it he notes that at most only 1% of the textual variants in the New Testament manuscripts are meaningful with respect to influencing Christian doctrine and viable as being part of the original writer's words. So, 99% of the things that don't match between the different copies of the NT are inconsequential!
In it he notes that at most only 1% of the textual variants in the New Testament manuscripts are meaningful with respect to influencing Christian doctrine and viable as being part of the original writer's words. So, 99% of the things that don't match between the different copies of the NT are inconsequential!
Confessions #8: the gift of worship
"Therefore he who made me is good, and he is my good, and I exult to him, for all the good things that I was even as a boy. My sin consisted in this, that I sought pleasure, sublimity, and truth not in God but in his creatures, in myself and other created beings. So it was that I plunged into miseries, confusions, and errors. My God, I give thanks to you, my source of sweet delight, and my glory and my confidence. I thank you for your gifts. Keep them for me, for in this way you will keep me. The talents you have given will increase and be perfected, and I will be with you since it was your gift to me that I exist."
- Augustine
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and he said, "It is good." He made the heavens above and the earth beneath and filled them with birds and fish and plants and other animals, and he made man and woman after himself to govern and cultivate the earth as his stewards. But man and woman chose to worship the things they were to rule over, even themselves, and we continue to plunge ourselves into "miseries, confusions, and errors."
It's like becoming spiritually inbred. We worship ourselves and so complicate, multiply, and propagate the corruptions in our own nature. So Jesus comes to fix our broken, crooked DNA with "the word of life, which is able to save our souls."
Maybe that's why he's the "seed of Abraham". Like a human genome project in the divine laboratory, and project to map our flaws and inject the healing strand, the seed of new life, from which sprouts true worship, in spirit and in truth, to the creator himself. This true worship, spreading like a virus of light throughout the darkest rooms of our heart to realign, renew, rebuild, refresh, restore.
It says of Jesus that when he ascended "gave gifts to men", gifts of worship I assume, so that in possession of them we are possessed by the one who gives them, in thankfulness, in worship.
Some say that this life is merely preparation for the next. If that is true, and gifts and talents are really gifts for worship, then I had better get busy worshiping. Or else, I might not have much to do in the next life but sit on the bench. Whatever the afterlife (or life after life after death, as some say) holds, it sure isn't a place you'd want to be "benched" at for lack of practice.
Time to start existing.
- Augustine
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and he said, "It is good." He made the heavens above and the earth beneath and filled them with birds and fish and plants and other animals, and he made man and woman after himself to govern and cultivate the earth as his stewards. But man and woman chose to worship the things they were to rule over, even themselves, and we continue to plunge ourselves into "miseries, confusions, and errors."
It's like becoming spiritually inbred. We worship ourselves and so complicate, multiply, and propagate the corruptions in our own nature. So Jesus comes to fix our broken, crooked DNA with "the word of life, which is able to save our souls."
Maybe that's why he's the "seed of Abraham". Like a human genome project in the divine laboratory, and project to map our flaws and inject the healing strand, the seed of new life, from which sprouts true worship, in spirit and in truth, to the creator himself. This true worship, spreading like a virus of light throughout the darkest rooms of our heart to realign, renew, rebuild, refresh, restore.
It says of Jesus that when he ascended "gave gifts to men", gifts of worship I assume, so that in possession of them we are possessed by the one who gives them, in thankfulness, in worship.
Some say that this life is merely preparation for the next. If that is true, and gifts and talents are really gifts for worship, then I had better get busy worshiping. Or else, I might not have much to do in the next life but sit on the bench. Whatever the afterlife (or life after life after death, as some say) holds, it sure isn't a place you'd want to be "benched" at for lack of practice.
Time to start existing.
Confessions #7: In the image
"In you are the constant causes of inconstant things. All mutable things have in you their immutable origins. In you all irrational and temporal things have the everlasting causes of their life."
- Augustine
"God has instituted prayer so as to confer upon his creatures the dignity of being causes."
- Blaise Pascal
- Augustine
"God has instituted prayer so as to confer upon his creatures the dignity of being causes."
- Blaise Pascal
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
"authentic Christian mission"
“Historically the church has indeed seen its mission in these broad terms. It is not a matter of engaging in both the gospel and social action, as if Christian social action was something separate from the gospel itself. The gospel has to be demonstrated in word and deed. Biblically, the gospel includes the totality of all that is good news from God for all that is bad news in human life–in every sphere. So like Jesus, authentic Christian mission has included good news for the poor, compassion for the sick and suffering justice for the oppressed, liberation for the enslaved. The gospel of the Servant of God in the power of the Spirit of God addresses every area of human need and every area that has been broken and twisted by sin and evil. And the heart of the gospel, in all of these areas, is the cross of Christ.”
- Christopher J. H. Wright (italics mine)
- found on the front page of The Boars Head Tavern blog
- Christopher J. H. Wright (italics mine)
- found on the front page of The Boars Head Tavern blog
Monday, November 12, 2007
Confessions #6: Woe to the Silent
"But in these words what have I said, my God, my life, my holy sweetness? What has anyone achieved in words when he speaks about you? Yet woe to those who are silent about you because, though loquacious with verbosity, whey have nothing to say."
In the notes, Chadwick observes that in the Confessions "the loquacious" are usually "either pagan philosophical critics rejecting the Christian revelation or Manichees." So, it was not for want of speaking about the divine that Augustine criticized these, but for want of speaking truly and meaningfully about God. They were somewhat like the smooth-talkers and the weak-willed women of 2 Timothy who were "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth" or those from 1 Timothy who devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship which is from God by faith."
Instead of these wanderings and divergences, as Paul told Timothy, "the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." And as Augustine observes, in love we must speak of God, of His goodness and his nature, or else we will find ourselves like the prophet Jeremiah who said,
If I say, "I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,"
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
So, "since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, 'I believed, and so I spoke,' we also believe, and so we also speak" with words that at best fall just short of the Word whose words are "spirit and life". If we don't speak, it is true, the rocks will cry out. But why wait for them, when it is we who have been charged to speak to the mountains and have them cast into the sea?
I will end with Augustine's words that led to his observation above:
"Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and 'leading' the proud 'to be old without their knowledge'; always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking; you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety, you 'repent' without the pain of regret, you are wrathful and remain tranquil. You will a change without any change in your design. You recover what you find, yet have never lost..."
In the notes, Chadwick observes that in the Confessions "the loquacious" are usually "either pagan philosophical critics rejecting the Christian revelation or Manichees." So, it was not for want of speaking about the divine that Augustine criticized these, but for want of speaking truly and meaningfully about God. They were somewhat like the smooth-talkers and the weak-willed women of 2 Timothy who were "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth" or those from 1 Timothy who devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship which is from God by faith."
Instead of these wanderings and divergences, as Paul told Timothy, "the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." And as Augustine observes, in love we must speak of God, of His goodness and his nature, or else we will find ourselves like the prophet Jeremiah who said,
If I say, "I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,"
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
So, "since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, 'I believed, and so I spoke,' we also believe, and so we also speak" with words that at best fall just short of the Word whose words are "spirit and life". If we don't speak, it is true, the rocks will cry out. But why wait for them, when it is we who have been charged to speak to the mountains and have them cast into the sea?
I will end with Augustine's words that led to his observation above:
"Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and 'leading' the proud 'to be old without their knowledge'; always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking; you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety, you 'repent' without the pain of regret, you are wrathful and remain tranquil. You will a change without any change in your design. You recover what you find, yet have never lost..."
Peterson on living in reality
Every call to worship is a call into the Real World.…I encounter such constant and widespread lying about reality each day and meet with such skilled and systematic distortion of the truth that I’m always in danger of losing my grip on reality. The reality, of course, is that God is sovereign and Christ is savior. The reality is that prayer is my mother tongue and the eucharist my basic food. The reality is that baptism, not Myers-Briggs, defines who I am.
—Eugene H. PetersonTake & Read
-Found it on the front page of City Church of San Francisco
Friday, November 09, 2007
Confessions #5: Heart-rest
"You are great, Lord, and highly to be praised," begins the first paragraph of Augustine's Confessions. Although humankind bears "'his mortality with him', carrying with him the witness of his sin and the witness that you 'resist the proud'...Nevertheless," Augustine prays, "to praise you is the desire of man, a little piece of your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." Doubtless you have heard this refrain before but possibly did not know where it came from. "You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you." It is the theme of the Confessions and of Augustine's story found in its pages.
"The LORD our righteousness", the Israelites said of YHWH, their faithful, covenant, creator-God.
"He himself is our peace", said the apostle Paul of Jesus, YHWH incarnate, God in the flesh "reconciling the world to Himself."
Jesus himself says, "come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
And we therefore follow the urging of the author of Hebrews who says, "let us therefore strive to enter that rest."
So we say, "Yes, Lord. You urge us to 'keep ourselves in your love, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.' So fill us with 'joy and peace in believing' so that we may 'abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit'. We are yours; you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you."
"The LORD our righteousness", the Israelites said of YHWH, their faithful, covenant, creator-God.
"He himself is our peace", said the apostle Paul of Jesus, YHWH incarnate, God in the flesh "reconciling the world to Himself."
Jesus himself says, "come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
And we therefore follow the urging of the author of Hebrews who says, "let us therefore strive to enter that rest."
So we say, "Yes, Lord. You urge us to 'keep ourselves in your love, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.' So fill us with 'joy and peace in believing' so that we may 'abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit'. We are yours; you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you."
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Confessions #4
So the final comment on what is written in the the introduction (I must get on to the book itself!) will be in relation to this quote:
"In Augustine's time there were a few educated people for whom all religion was superstition; but the dominant consensus held to belief in divine providence, visible in the mathematical order and coherence of the world, and given special manifestations to individuals by dreams and oracles. Design was evident to the eye."
How different it seems to be in America these days! Do you agree? Is belief in "divine providence" more common than not among the average American?
Throughout his life and wanderings, as Chadwick observes, Augustine "never lost his belief in the being and providence of God." Even though he was at times very far away from the Christian faith, he still seemed to hold on (unknowingly) to the promise of Hebrews 11:6 that "whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."
Even in the very first paragraphs of the Confessions, this theme of seeking and finding is already apparent:
"In seeking them they find him, and in finding they will praise him. Lord, I would seek you, calling upon you--and calling upon you is an act of believing in you...It is your gift to me."
So, in Augustine's day, although there was a common assumption in divine providence with the occasional divine "flare up", it seems that the belief in a real, immanent God who is actively involved in world and people's lives was not the reigning perspective. But Augustine discovered otherwise. Let us pray that would be the case in this day as well.
"In Augustine's time there were a few educated people for whom all religion was superstition; but the dominant consensus held to belief in divine providence, visible in the mathematical order and coherence of the world, and given special manifestations to individuals by dreams and oracles. Design was evident to the eye."
How different it seems to be in America these days! Do you agree? Is belief in "divine providence" more common than not among the average American?
Throughout his life and wanderings, as Chadwick observes, Augustine "never lost his belief in the being and providence of God." Even though he was at times very far away from the Christian faith, he still seemed to hold on (unknowingly) to the promise of Hebrews 11:6 that "whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."
Even in the very first paragraphs of the Confessions, this theme of seeking and finding is already apparent:
"In seeking them they find him, and in finding they will praise him. Lord, I would seek you, calling upon you--and calling upon you is an act of believing in you...It is your gift to me."
So, in Augustine's day, although there was a common assumption in divine providence with the occasional divine "flare up", it seems that the belief in a real, immanent God who is actively involved in world and people's lives was not the reigning perspective. But Augustine discovered otherwise. Let us pray that would be the case in this day as well.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Confessions #3
In discussing the events leading up to Augustine's conversion, Chadwick notes in the introduction that Augustine's move to Milan from North Africa coincided with a growing intellectual crisis in which his "lost belief in Mani (the leader of a gnostic religious group) was replaced by a skepticism about the possibility of any certainty. He devoured the writings of skeptical philosophers of the Academic school telling him that certainty is not available except in questions of pure mathematics." Chadwick rightly observes that it was this disillusionment with Manicheism and resultant skepticism towards any certainty that laid the ground work for his later conversion.
As a side note, if in the 4th century pure mathematics was the only discipline in which one could hope for any certainty, then as of the turn of the previous century, that's not an option either. I guess certainty needs to be of a different sort and come from outside of us if it is to achieve what we hope "certainty" would achieve. Maybe this is why, later on in the Confessions, Augustine said "My desire was not to be more certain of you, but to be more stable in you." So the "certainty" or "stability" we need is not so much a scientific and cognitive one as much as it is a relational and holistic one.
It seems to me that we are in a period of skepticism much like Augustine's where disillusionment with a disappointing worldview and the proponents thereof have led to a radical skepticism about certainty and any sort of realistic hope for meaning and change. Could it be that we are being readied for conversion? Would it be that the Spirit who groans and intercedes for us on our behalf would cause Augustine's same prayer of "stability in you" to be our prayer in such unstable times? Would the Spirit who also convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment use this to bring the restless skeptics despairing of certainty and meaning to Jesus to "find their rest in Him"? Yes Lord! Amen!
As a side note, if in the 4th century pure mathematics was the only discipline in which one could hope for any certainty, then as of the turn of the previous century, that's not an option either. I guess certainty needs to be of a different sort and come from outside of us if it is to achieve what we hope "certainty" would achieve. Maybe this is why, later on in the Confessions, Augustine said "My desire was not to be more certain of you, but to be more stable in you." So the "certainty" or "stability" we need is not so much a scientific and cognitive one as much as it is a relational and holistic one.
It seems to me that we are in a period of skepticism much like Augustine's where disillusionment with a disappointing worldview and the proponents thereof have led to a radical skepticism about certainty and any sort of realistic hope for meaning and change. Could it be that we are being readied for conversion? Would it be that the Spirit who groans and intercedes for us on our behalf would cause Augustine's same prayer of "stability in you" to be our prayer in such unstable times? Would the Spirit who also convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment use this to bring the restless skeptics despairing of certainty and meaning to Jesus to "find their rest in Him"? Yes Lord! Amen!
the 700+1 Club
Pat Robertson endorses Giuliani for president. Either the situation is desperate or the 700 Club has decided to broaden its membership. I guess you could see this a sign of hope for those on the far right that they will look at the big picture a bit more, or a sign of defeat and compromise. It will be interesting to see how this affects things.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Confessions #2
Still in the introduction, the second thing that caught my attention was Chadwick's discussion of Augustine's first exposure to the Bible. Augustine was first led to pick up the Bible after reading Cicero's Hortensius in which Cicero taught that "happiness is not found in physical pleasures of luxurious food, drink, and sex, but in a dedication of the mind to the discovery of truth." Prompted to explore the foundation of true happiness as the "discovery of truth", Augustine was turned off by the language of the 200 year old Latin Bible he found. The language of the translation was so rough that it immediately offended the sensibilities of Augustine who was used to classic and skilled Latin of those like Cicero and Virgil. As Chadwick notes, "Augustine found that once he had put it down, it was hard to pick up again. Moreover, he was offended by the polygamy of Old Testament patriarchs and the different genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke."
When I first read this I was again struck by the similarities in Augustine's reaction to the Bible and of the reactions of those in our own day. We are descendants of the Western culture that found its birth not long before Augustine's time, and we still suffer much of the shortsightedness and cross-cultural tension that Augustine did when he read the Bible for the first time. Although Augustine was much closer to the original setting of the New Testament than we are, his philosophical mindset and worldview was still far removed from the earthy aspect of Christianity and its roots in the world. He was not prepared to take into account the translational "gap" that had arisen over the 200 years of change and learning. He was also not prepared for the differences in genre and perspective that the Biblical authors used to communicate their religious realities and experience. The earthy and literary nature of the Jewish writings and worldview were different enough from the abstract and speculative reason of the Hellenistic philosophers to cause Augustine to stumble over the Scriptures. Yet, in time, by God's sovereign grace Augustine came back around to understand, appreciate, and believe the Scriptures and the God they presented.
All of this underscores the fact that we need fresh and current translations of the Scriptures that speak in the language and to the thought patterns of all different kinds of people groups that exist and will emerge in our time; we also need to be aware of the methods, customs, skills, symbols, aims, and worldview of the Biblical writers' over against our own cultures' methods, customs, skills, symbols, aims, and worldview when we read the Scriptures and let them speak to us; but finally we can trust in God's sovereign grace through all these efforts that He will work above and beyond our failures, inabilities, and carelessness to advance His kingdom and build His church. Soli deo gloria!
When I first read this I was again struck by the similarities in Augustine's reaction to the Bible and of the reactions of those in our own day. We are descendants of the Western culture that found its birth not long before Augustine's time, and we still suffer much of the shortsightedness and cross-cultural tension that Augustine did when he read the Bible for the first time. Although Augustine was much closer to the original setting of the New Testament than we are, his philosophical mindset and worldview was still far removed from the earthy aspect of Christianity and its roots in the world. He was not prepared to take into account the translational "gap" that had arisen over the 200 years of change and learning. He was also not prepared for the differences in genre and perspective that the Biblical authors used to communicate their religious realities and experience. The earthy and literary nature of the Jewish writings and worldview were different enough from the abstract and speculative reason of the Hellenistic philosophers to cause Augustine to stumble over the Scriptures. Yet, in time, by God's sovereign grace Augustine came back around to understand, appreciate, and believe the Scriptures and the God they presented.
All of this underscores the fact that we need fresh and current translations of the Scriptures that speak in the language and to the thought patterns of all different kinds of people groups that exist and will emerge in our time; we also need to be aware of the methods, customs, skills, symbols, aims, and worldview of the Biblical writers' over against our own cultures' methods, customs, skills, symbols, aims, and worldview when we read the Scriptures and let them speak to us; but finally we can trust in God's sovereign grace through all these efforts that He will work above and beyond our failures, inabilities, and carelessness to advance His kingdom and build His church. Soli deo gloria!
Monday, November 05, 2007
Confessions Writing Project #1
I'm going to attempt to summarize and highlight my experience of reading through Augustine's Confessions as writing project to build my writing skills and develop my reading and retention skills...and of course to talk about Augustine's Confessions. It goes without saying that I won't be saying much compared to everyone else who's responded to Augustine over the past 1600 years, but, no matter, I have other aims for now.
I'll start with the introduction to the Oxford University translation by Henry Chadwick. In discussing the aims and situation of Augustine's writing of the Confessions, Chadwick mentions that at the end of his life, Augustine wrote a review and reappraisal of his work entitled Retractationes (which, Chadwick says, cannot be translated 'Retractions', because Augustine affirms nearly all of what he wrote). Chadwick says this about Augustine's perspective on the Confessions,
"When he came to the Confessions he observes that they serve to excite the human mind and affection towards God; the act of writing the book had done that for himself at the time, and 'that is the effect when it is read now'."
When I first started reading the Confessions, I made a note next to this saying, "this is when it is good to write." That was back in 2003 (it took me a while to come back around to the book to finish it apparently). I still feel the same way. Of course, in the discipline of writing as in any discipline there are times of awkward and painful growth, many times the soil gives way to beautiful fruit, ten, twenty, and one hundred-fold. "Inspiration or feeling is borne of regular daily work," said Camille Pissaro, the 19th century French Impressionist painter who has been called the "Father of Impressionism" . (I saw this quote while at an art gallery in Florence last spring break. Sometimes you just get lucky and see the right things...)
Chadwick goes on to explain that Augustine wrote his Confessions over the course of three years at the end of the fourth century as a "man in his mid-forties, recently made a bishop, needing to come to terms with a past in which numerous enemies and critics showed an unhealthy interest." As with many other aspects of Augustine's life, there is striking familiarity with contemporary figures and situations. Chuck Colson and his book Born Again come to mind first.
But I'm digressing. I mentioned this first to recognize that it took three years for Augustine to write his Confessions. On the one hand, that's a heck of a long time to write a book, let alone one's own story, but on the other hand (maybe a tired one at that after all that writing), he wrote it all by hand. No typewriters, no computers, no editors. Pretty impressive. So, even if it takes a while and is not easy going, writing is good and well worth it, especially when it serves to "excite the human mind and affection towards God", both for the writer and the reader.
Lord, may that be true of all that I ever write, whether for myself alone or for others with me.
I'll start with the introduction to the Oxford University translation by Henry Chadwick. In discussing the aims and situation of Augustine's writing of the Confessions, Chadwick mentions that at the end of his life, Augustine wrote a review and reappraisal of his work entitled Retractationes (which, Chadwick says, cannot be translated 'Retractions', because Augustine affirms nearly all of what he wrote). Chadwick says this about Augustine's perspective on the Confessions,
"When he came to the Confessions he observes that they serve to excite the human mind and affection towards God; the act of writing the book had done that for himself at the time, and 'that is the effect when it is read now'."
When I first started reading the Confessions, I made a note next to this saying, "this is when it is good to write." That was back in 2003 (it took me a while to come back around to the book to finish it apparently). I still feel the same way. Of course, in the discipline of writing as in any discipline there are times of awkward and painful growth, many times the soil gives way to beautiful fruit, ten, twenty, and one hundred-fold. "Inspiration or feeling is borne of regular daily work," said Camille Pissaro, the 19th century French Impressionist painter who has been called the "Father of Impressionism" . (I saw this quote while at an art gallery in Florence last spring break. Sometimes you just get lucky and see the right things...)
Chadwick goes on to explain that Augustine wrote his Confessions over the course of three years at the end of the fourth century as a "man in his mid-forties, recently made a bishop, needing to come to terms with a past in which numerous enemies and critics showed an unhealthy interest." As with many other aspects of Augustine's life, there is striking familiarity with contemporary figures and situations. Chuck Colson and his book Born Again come to mind first.
But I'm digressing. I mentioned this first to recognize that it took three years for Augustine to write his Confessions. On the one hand, that's a heck of a long time to write a book, let alone one's own story, but on the other hand (maybe a tired one at that after all that writing), he wrote it all by hand. No typewriters, no computers, no editors. Pretty impressive. So, even if it takes a while and is not easy going, writing is good and well worth it, especially when it serves to "excite the human mind and affection towards God", both for the writer and the reader.
Lord, may that be true of all that I ever write, whether for myself alone or for others with me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
