Until the increased busyness of our expanded-family forced us to make some economies of time this year, my wife had been one of the Trustees of Operation Noah, the churches' pressure group on climate-change issues. We both remain very committed to the purpose for which Operation Noah was founded and have high regard for the two very talented individuals who spearhead the work: Ann Pettifor is our Director - she comes from her achievements as the founder of the Jubilee Debt Campaign in years past, and is also a key figure in the New Economics Foundation, whereat she has contributed to the Green New Deal ideas; Mark Dowd is our Communications man - he comes from a background as an independent journalist, often contributing to BBC Panorama pieces and Channel 4-commissioned investigations, including the wonderful 'God is Green'....
Mark has now arrived in Copenhagen, and is sending video reports from there for each day of the UN conference which is underway for this next fortnight. I intend to post the reports on my site, too. Here is Day One!....
Jon has tagged me with this meme. I guess that given I spent a good few years working in an art college and have taught this kind of thing most of my life, I ought to write something impressive.... Instead, I shall try to be simply truthful!...
Here goes the meme...
To list an artwork, drama, piece of music, novel, and poem that you think each express something of the essence of Christianity and for each one explain why. Then tag five other people.
* Artwork: Rublev's wonder-filled icon of the Holy Trinity, crafted in 1410. It inspires meditation and reflection now, just as it has for centuries, on the nature of God as Three Persons, yet One Godhead. The doctrine of the Trinity revels God as essentially relational, which in turn is key to understanding human beings made "in His image".
* Drama:Volpone by Ben Jonson. First staged in 1606, this black comedy about greed and lust strikes at the heart of what it means to be human and the necessity of right worship in our lives. The characters are given names and characteristics of various animals and quasi-human figures, and they are limited to this less-than-human expression. The opening scene, revealingly, sees the protagonist, Volpone ('the Fox') elevating and reverencing the gold disc of his coin, thus replacing the Bread of the Mass. Jonson is having a conversation about how sharing Eucharist makes us human and restores a right relationship with God.
* Music: I love the whole painful, honest, exhilarating journey of the fictional character Frank, the bum/drunk, created by Tom Waits in his 1987 work Frank's Wild Years. At the heart of our experience, seen in the light of Christ, is a journey. That journey can take us to some pretty dark hell-holes of places. It is no glib assertion that Jesus is the one who can save us from such holes, even after we fall into them repeatedly. Rather, it is a recognition that we are dependent upon the grace showered upon us in Christ's loving work, and that this Jesus is Christus Victor, the one who wins the victory over the evil that crushes and reduces us. If I have to pick out a single track from this musical journey, it would have to be 'Way Down in the Hole': When you walk through the garden you gotta watch your back well I beg your pardon walk the straight and narrow track if you walk with Jesus he's gonna save your soul you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
* Novel: The temptation when thinking about novels in this frame of question is to immediately head for something allegorical, or in the nature of a fable. There are certainly a number of exceptional novels that come to mind which seek to parallel and allegorise Biblical themes or narratives. The modern novel, though, tends to eschew this sub-genre, so I will leave it out for these purposes, and focus on the personal-story which is the mainstay of fiction since the late eighteenth century. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor is my choice of singular brilliance. The novel (written 1952) has been described as Southern Gothic in its portrayal of the bizarre and the grotesque, as well as in its depiction of scenes of horror and violence. O’Connor also has a strong concern with questions of religious faith. Major themes of her novels include: the individual’s search for vocation; the search for justification and redemption; the conflict of good and evil; the conflict of faith and doubt. In Wise Blood, Hazel Motes - the principal character at study - seems trapped by his destiny to become a preacher. Though he denies that Jesus exists, Hazel is driven to seek some form of redemption. O'Connor describes the necessity of faith, as revealed the individual’s inability to deny that God exists. Even when an individual attempts to deny the existence of God, the individual is confronted by the presence of God. Hazel’s attempt to run away from God transforms the novel from bizarre comedy to an intense and searching study of the problem of redemption in the modern world.
* Poem: Pearl, possibly the most perfectly-constructed poem in Middle English (probably written c.1390), is a beautiful and haunting, allusive poem that touches on themes relating to the preciousness of God's perfect, transformative will for us, and about the longing in our hearts for the completion of the New Jerusalem and heaven fully come on earth. I really can't explain it - it just makes me shiver with delight and longing!
I tag +Alan, +Nick, Philip...others have been tagged already, I think!
I don't suppose anyone should be surprised by the climate-change-deniers last little shriek ahead of Copenhagen, but just to throw my plea for grown-up sanity into the mix, I commend the latest posting from the Transition Culture blogsite...
"Summarise the Bible in five statements, the first one word long, the second two, the third three, the fourth four and the last five words long. Or possibly you could do this in descending order. Tag five people."
God made us for freedom life. We prefered death dealing but Jesus won us back.
I am parish priest to the people of Rawreth in Essex. I am also a Bishop's Advisor for 'Faith in Action', helping to animate and resource community ministry and servce. Before any of that, I am husband to Heather and dad to Callum, Iona, Toby, Skye and Aidan.
* Artwork: Rublev's wonder-filled icon of the Holy Trinity, crafted in 1410. It inspires meditation and reflection now, just as it has for centuries, on the nature of God as Three Persons, yet One Godhead. The doctrine of the Trinity revels God as essentially relational, which in turn is key to understanding human beings made "in His image".
* Drama:Volpone by Ben Jonson. First staged in 1606, this black comedy about greed and lust strikes at the heart of what it means to be human and the necessity of right worship in our lives. The characters are given names and characteristics of various animals and quasi-human figures, and they are limited to this less-than-human expression. The opening scene, revealingly, sees the protagonist, Volpone ('the Fox') elevating and reverencing the gold disc of his coin, thus replacing the Bread of the Mass. Jonson is having a conversation about how sharing Eucharist makes us human and restores a right relationship with God.
* Novel: The temptation when thinking about novels in this frame of question is to immediately head for something allegorical, or in the nature of a fable. There are certainly a number of exceptional novels that come to mind which seek to parallel and allegorise Biblical themes or narratives. The modern novel, though, tends to eschew this sub-genre, so I will leave it out for these purposes, and focus on the personal-story which is the mainstay of fiction since the late eighteenth century. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor is my choice of singular brilliance. The novel (written 1952) has been described as Southern Gothic in its portrayal of the bizarre and the grotesque, as well as in its depiction of scenes of horror and violence. O’Connor also has a strong concern with questions of religious faith. Major themes of her novels include: the individual’s search for vocation; the search for justification and redemption; the conflict of good and evil; the conflict of faith and doubt. In Wise Blood, Hazel Motes - the principal character at study - seems trapped by his destiny to become a preacher. Though he denies that Jesus exists, Hazel is driven to seek some form of redemption. O'Connor describes the necessity of faith, as revealed the individual’s inability to deny that God exists. Even when an individual attempts to deny the existence of God, the individual is confronted by the presence of God. Hazel’s attempt to run away from God transforms the novel from bizarre comedy to an intense and searching study of the problem of redemption in the modern world.
* Poem: Pearl, possibly the most perfectly-constructed poem in Middle English (probably written c.1390), is a beautiful and haunting, allusive poem that touches on themes relating to the preciousness of God's perfect, transformative will for us, and about the longing in our hearts for the completion of the New Jerusalem and heaven fully come on earth. I really can't explain it - it just makes me shiver with delight and longing!
