https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/conferences\/2020-book-of-moses-conference\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I believe that the conference will now happen on 18-19 September 2020. \u00a0So please put that on your calendar.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m very fond of the excellent second-tier English poet A. E. Housman (d. 1936), who, in addition to writing such works as \u201cTo an athlete dying young,\u201d from\u00a0A Shropshire Lad<\/em>, was a prominent classicist at the University of Cambridge. \u00a0The melancholy mood of many of his poems speaks to me. \u00a0I\u2019ve even made a minor pilgrimage to his burial place.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Housman was an atheist, and sometimes a hostile one. \u00a0But he had moments of yearning. \u00a0This poem, entitled \u201cEaster Hymn,\u201d captures those feelings of longing for a belief that, in the end, he simply couldn\u2019t muster. \u00a0It expresses wonderfully well part of the Christian hope invested in this season of the year and, more particularly, in the event that it commemorates. \u00a0And so, as is my custom, I share Dr. Housman\u2019s brief poem at this Easter season:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
If in that Syrian garden, ages slain,<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n The hate you died to quench and could but fan,<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n Sleep well and see no morning, son of man.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nBut if, the grave rent and the stone rolled by,<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n At the right hand of majesty on high<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n You sit, and sitting so remember yet<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n Your tears, your agony and bloody sweat,<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n Your cross and passion and the life you gave,<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n Bow hither out of heaven and see and save.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
A film recommendation for the Easter season: \u00a0Mel Gibson\u2019s movie The Passion of the Christ<\/em> generated a great deal of controversy when it appeared, partly because of Mel Gibson himself and partly for other reasons. \u00a0Many complained that it was too brutal \u2014 as if Roman scourging and crucifixion were anything other than quite deliberately and publicly brutal. \u00a0However, I found the film much less bloody and graphic than I had feared it might be, and I commend it to you. \u00a0Since its focus is on the torture and death of Jesus, rather than on his resurrection \u2014 perhaps not surprising in a film by Mel Gibson, who is some kind of traditional Old Catholic and who, anyway, tends to the bloody in his cinematography \u2014 it might actually be more appropriate on the Friday or Saturday prior to Easter than on Easter Day itself. \u00a0But Easter would be a fine day to view it, as well.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 The Interpreter Foundation\u2019s 2020 Easter message, written by\u00a0Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye, has just appeared: \u00a0 \u201cChrist and the Work of Suffering\u201d Abstract: Christ\u2019s voluntary subjection to the horrible realities of this world transformed him forever. His vulnerability became his capacity to save and heal all humankind. Our own suffering develops our capacity for love, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1375,4907,8954,1356,4753,1363,4632,4630,59,9742,1369,3139,9751,9739,6579,9754,2271,1366,9748,9745],"class_list":["post-84244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-e-housman","tag-atonement","tag-cancer","tag-christ","tag-crucifixion","tag-easter","tag-easter-hymn","tag-housman","tag-humility","tag-inouye","tag-jesus","tag-love","tag-mel-gibson","tag-melissa","tag-melissa-inouye","tag-passion","tag-problem-of-evil","tag-resurrection","tag-suffering","tag-wei-tsing"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Housman](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/03\/640px-Housman_Grave.jpg\")
<\/a>