I’ve been reading my way through the Old Testament again and have reached the sad, sad beginning of the Great Brokenness. The tales of David—hero and king, poet and warrior, man of passion and lover of God—are really the sort of stories that blockbusters are made out of. Long chapters of his life, rich both in detail and in innuendo, create a moving panorama of light and shadows, grand events and bitter moments. And then there’s Solomon—all big and glorious,... Read more
As a nine-year-old, living in a different state from my Papa, I was fairly unmindful of him; he was more mythic than substantial. Even my memories of him are blurred around the edges, only coming into focus when I look at photographs of him. Tall, lanky, small wire-framed glasses, an ever-present pipe with that sweet smoky smell. A fisherman, a hunter. A tiny house in Springfield, Illinois, a cluttered living room, a round rack for an absolutely fascinating collection of... Read more
In our last Neo-Pascalian conversation, I indicated that fragment 418 held yet another clue to the business of make-believe faith. There he addresses the one who “seeks a cure”—who recognizes his or her unbelief and wants to remedy the situation. That, I suggested, indicates the all-important role of desire. If you recognize that you are in a state of unbelief and you couldn’t care less, there’s nothing that can be done for you, humanly speaking. (Though, of course, with God,... Read more
As a child, I only got two religious holidays—Christmas and Easter—and even then, they were minimally observed. That is, the language and meaning of the historical event was there, but the communal ceremony and physical expression and creative experience was missing. Sometimes Evangelicalism seems to unconsciously embrace a subtle form of Gnosticism in its rejection of the physical. It’s all about the mind and the thought and the word and the text and the conjugation and the hermeneutic. However, this... Read more
Mother’s Day is usually a day on which other people in my life think nice things about me (I hope), or I think of my own mother (always), and yet, perhaps this year it’s time to reflect on just exactly what on earth has happened to me. There are those mothers who anticipated the delights of a house full of children from the first time, as little girls, someone put a plastic doll into their arms. I was not one... Read more
(A Book Review) “Living after you have died is strange.” So Lazarus tells us. An understatement, don’t you think? Living before you have died is sometimes very strange, so after you’ve died has to be far weirder. Not many people get to tell that story. In God’s Favorite Place on Earth, though, Lazarus (via Frank Viola) does. (No matter how many near-death experiences you’ve read about, they can’t compete with Lazarus’ four-day adventure.) Lazarus’ death is one of many vignettes... Read more
I want to begin this part of the conversation acknowledging a comment to my last post about a sense of need. Nick astutely writes: My big problem with “God shaped hole” arguments is that it seems to me that I would have to accuse an awful lot of people of living in, at the very least, self-deception about their own obvious unhappiness. If Pascal is right then, to use just one sort of unbeliever, there can be no such thing... Read more
We are left with this all-important question: how do we get faith? How do we “make belief”? If we’re not lucky or blessed enough to have a Damascus-road experience, and, as Pascal tells us, we can’t reason our way to faith or merely don faith like a good habit, then what? What? If indeed there is nothing we can do, why do anything? Might as well distract ourselves from the impasse. Right? We might as well remain passive and wait... Read more
Marriage is the ultimate melting pot. Unless you’re one of those whose families knew each other well prior to their children marrying, if you’re married, you have probably had an experience something like mine. He was an Episcopalian; I was an Evangelical Free Churcher. He was from California; I was from Colorado. He was a junior lifeguard; I think water belongs in the shower. He went to a large secular university; I went to a small Christian college. His family... Read more
The Easter season has only just begun. It will go on for another seven weeks, and then it will go on for eternity. This poem, for me at least, captures both its magnificence and its munificence, its great grace and its hilarity. There is a laughter that comes when we are deeply relieved at having escaped a calamitous situation, at being saved from peril. The joy of Christ’s resurrection is palpable, riotous, and full of mirth. What a coup! What... Read more
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