Everett's warnings especially confused me, because I knew he wouldn't lie, but he was so full of anger and hate this his truths just didn't feel true.
~ Irwin, in The Brothers K by David James Duncan
So the question becomes one of truth-telling — or, more accurately, the possibility for a truth told to be received and accepted by any given audience. Must truths be free of anger in order for them to “feel true”? Surely there is a place for anger in truth-telling; after all, anger is often but a manifestation of broken-heartedness. And how can some truths not break our hearts? How can I speak of my people — and what is done to them — without sorrow, and anger, and hope, and delight all intermingled? Must truths told in such a way be rejected because of how they feel? And if they are rejected what hope do we have? For this is the only way that truth can be told truthfully.
I think that this might be why the prophets — those miserable tellers of truth — often have the paradoxical commission of summoning the people to return to the ways of YHWH and of hardening the hearts of the people (even though the prophet will also be broken in that process).
February 2006
Introductory Reading List
I’ve recently been reading a series of bloggers that have been posting what they consider to be “essential” introductory reading for people who want to enter into theological studies. So, I thought I would post a list of my own and, to the best of my ability, I tried to keep it short and easily readable.
1. Is There Meaning In This Text? by Kevin J. VanHoozer. [Hermeneutics]
2. Christian Origins and the Question of God: Part I (The New Testament and the People of God) and Part II (Jesus and the Victory of God) by N.T. Wright. [NT Intro/Gospels]
3. The Theology of Paul the Apostle by James D.G. Dunn. [Paul]
4. Theology of the Old Testament by Walter Brueggemann. [OT]
5. The Nature of Doctrine by George Lindbeck. [Intro to Theology]
6. The Trinity and the Kingdom by Jurgen Moltmann. [Trinity/Doctrine of God]
7. The Shape of the Church to Come by Karl Rahner. [Ecclesiology]
8. On Being a Christian by Hans Kung. [Anthropology?]
9. The Peaceable Kingdom by Stanley Hauerwas. [Ethics]
10. The Story of Christianity by Justo Gonzalez. [History]
Intimacy in Forsakenness II
she’s not quite as empty
when he moves inside her
puts cash in her pocket
and a point in her arm
he’s not quite so helpless
when he is on top
and she does what he says
to get what he has
and we’re not really thinking
we’re just barely surviving
my friends and my lovers
are all motherfuckers
and who has time to give a damn
yeah who has the time
and why should it matter
to me
it’s fullness and power
it’s a happy disease
it’s a picture of us
unsure if we’re dreaming
it’s the lie that they tell us
that each life is worth living
that each action has meaning
but not these no not these
and we’re not really thinking
we’re just barely surviving
my friends and my lovers
are all motherfuckers
and who has time to give a damn
yeah who has the time
and why should it matter
to me
whether a light that’s too bright
or a darkness too deep
i will place myself here
and not look away
no don’t look away
although it might blind you
don’t look away
though there’s nothing to see
don’t look away
Intimacy in Forsakenness
There are legitimate experiences of absence within this ever-present world of God's grace, but they are forms and modes of love. Such were the experiences of the prophets of the Old Covenant, of the Son of God on the cross and in the darkness of his descent into hell; such are the experiences of all those who, in their several vocations, follow the Son. These are the redemptive paths of love as it traces the foot-steps of sinners in order to catch up with them and bring them home.
~ Hans Urs von Balthasar
Balthasar neatly sums up what I have been trying to say for the last few years now. Yes, godforsakenness is very real — even as an experience of the people of God. But, thanks to the victory won by Christ on the cross, and to the presence of the eschatological Spirit, Christians transform forsakenness into intimacy. We have been saved from hell so that we can now descend freely into the depths of hell to bring God to those who have rejected him. There is such a thing as intimacy in forsakenness — and we are to be the living proof of that.