Happy Liberation Day!
Such is today for those of us living in Illinios. What it means to me personally is that golf and fly-fishing become options again! It’s a sad commentary on my faith that I first thought of these and only second that, under certain conditions, worship might become available again. Lord, have mercy.
I’ve been watching stories of people not merely demanding their liberation from some of the silliest restrictions, as well as acts of civil disobedience that are to me nothing but common sense. Like the Chicagoans who are tearing down fences around Lincoln Park so they can walk and talk together in the open air--six feet apart of course. It appears that most people can self-enforce when trusted to do so.
Dreher Fear
Readings of the GR know the writing of Rod Dreher if for no other reason than that I refer to it now and then. I’ll continue to do so even after reading and agreeing with this article that begins, “Rod Dreher lives in fear. It comes out in his life and certainly in much if not most of his writing.” Author Austin Rose, in Crisis Magazine, acknowledges that Dreher sometimes has his finger on the pulse of a sick America. But as he scans his career, he sees an unhealthy apocalypticism running through it.
That being said, I think most of Dreher’s recommendations in his The Benedict Optionare well worth following, not because the world is going to hell (it always is!) but because the enemic church at this times needs solitude, reflection, and prayer more than endless plans and mindless activitism in attempts to change the world.
The Future of Evangelicalism
Mark Noll continues to be one of the wisest voices on evangelicalism today. And Eric C. Miller is one of the most thoughtful scholars on the relationship to faith and politics. So when Miller interviews Noll about the current state of evangelicalism, we’re in for an overflow of wisdom. Amidst the flurry and controversies surrounding the movement (FYI: the interview was done the day after my infamous editorial), Noll is a picture of thoughtfulness and humility amidst the proverbial storm. A typical example:
When [evangelist George] Whitefield died in 1770, [African American Phyllis] Wheatley wrote a poem in his honor that praised him for preaching a message that reached African Americans. She won a considerable amount of renown when that poem was published. Whitefield, who did actually insist that colonial blacks be allowed to attend his public meetings, was also an active promoter of slavery in Georgia because he needed slaves to make his orphanage profitable. So the question is, does evangelical religion presuppose racial difference? Does it oppose racial difference? The answer is yes on both counts.
Pain--the Complement of Love
I’m sore pressed each week to find penetrating insights into the interior landscape of our lives. Wise cultural and political commentary abound, but not much on what the Elusive Presence is doing in the recesses of the soul. So from time to time, I’ll use one of these GR items to point to passages from books that have lasted longer than the latest headline.
I’ve been rereading portions of Evelyn Underhill’s classic Myticism, and was reminded of this passage about suffering. Here she plays off against one another the view of a “pessimist” and an “optimist.” I think such labels are confusing today, but the larger point about the role of suffering in the life of the saints remains.
Whilst the pessimist, resting in appearance, only sees "nature red in tooth and claw" offering him little hope of escape, the optimist thinks that pain and anguish… press the self towards another world…. Watching life, he sees in Pain the complement of Love: and is inclined to call these the wings on which man's spirit can best take flight towards the Absolute. Hence he can say with A Kempis, Gloriari in tribulatione non est grave amanti [literally, “To glory in tribulation is not an oppressive lover”] and needs not to speak of morbid folly when he sees the Christian saints run eagerly and merrily to the Cross.
He calls suffering the “gymnastic of eternity,” the “terrible initiative caress of God” …. Sometimes, in the excess of his optimism, he puts to the test of practice this theory with all its implications. Refusing to be deluded by the pleasures of the sense world, he accepts instead of avoiding pain, and becomes an ascetic….
The Sad Pursuit of Happiness
Speaking of “deluded by the pleasures of the sense world”—this little video will not be bursting with insights for anyone who has imbibed religious teaching for any length of time. But it is nonetheless a playful picture of humankind’s eternal yearning and habitual foolishness.
Grace and peace,
Mark Galli
markgalli.com