I’ve been reading a used copy of a book edited by Christopher Hitchens called The Portable Atheist. Hitchens has selected, edited and introduced 47 various selections from atheist authors, philosophers, writers, journalists and so on. They bring forward a diverse variety of discussions of unbelief in a variety of formats: essays, novels, interviews, book excerpts, etc.
I’m impressed when a worldview can marshal its best representative material from a variety of sources into one volume that someone can make a reading or reference project. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the same sort of book, with all the diverse material in the footnotes taking you into the scriptures, Catholic dogmatics and the Church Fathers. An it’s well written and well organized as well.
So IM audience, it’s time for us to edit The Portable Christian. Whom will you submit to be one of the 50 chapters in our book?
Here are the rules:
Your nomination cannot be author or book. It must be author(s), book and chapter at the least.
If possible, characterize the excerpt you have in mind. Example: C.S. Lewis’s discussion of how Christians recognize one another from Book IV/Chapter 11 of Mere Christianity, “The New Men.”
Your excerpt should, as much as possible, speak for Christianity, not for your denomination or tradition only. I realize that isn’t completely possible, but let’s work toward it.
That doesn’t mean the distinctive voices of a tradition can’t be heard, but they should be articulating Christianity and not simply polemics toward other Christians. Luther’s anti-papal polemics may turn your crank, but his explanation of grace in Galatians is more acceptable for this project.
Your excerpt should be less than 12 pages in length. (I don’t have your book. Just use that as a rule of thumb. Be moderate.)
Contemporary authors must really hit it out of the park. Let’s not be fanboys here. Show some perspective on time-tested, helpful material.
The Internet Monk Archives 
From a more mystical tradition, I would submit excerpts from Philip K. Dick’s “Exegesis” like:
“God manifested himself to me as the infinite void; but it was not the abyss; it was the vault of heaven, with blue sky and wisps of white clouds. He was not some foreign God but the God of my fathers. He was loving and kind and he had personality. He said, ‘You suffer a little now in life, it is little compared with the great joys, the bliss that awaits you. Do you think I in my theodicy would allow you to suffer greatly in proportion to your reward?’ He made me aware, then, of the bliss that would come; it was infinite and sweet. He said, ‘I am the infinite. I will show you. Where I am, infinity is; where infinity is, there I am. Construct lines of reasoning by which to understand your experience in 1974. I will enter the field against their shifting nature. You think they are logical but they are not; they are infinitely creative… I thought a thought and then an infinite regression of theses and countertheses came into being. God said, ‘Here I am, here is infinity.’ I thought another explanation; again an infinite series of thoughts split off in a dialectical antithetical interaction. God said, ‘Here is infinity; here I am.’ I thought, then, an infinite number of explanations, in succession, that explained 2-3-74; each single one of them yielded up an infinite progression of flipflops, of thesis and antithesis, forever. Each time, God said ‘Here is infinity. Here, then, I am.’ I tried for an infinite number of times; each time and infinite regress was set off and each time God said, ‘Infinity. Hence I am here.’ Then he said, ‘Every thought leads to infinity, does it not? Find one that doesn’t.’ I tried forever. All led to an infinitude of regress, of the dialectic, of thesis, antithesis and new synthesis. Each time, God said ‘Here is infinity; here am I. Try again.’ I tried forever. Always it ended with God saying, ‘Infinity and myself, I am here.’… The architect of our world, to help us, came here as our servant, disguised, to toil for us. We have seen him many times but no [one] recognized him; maybe he is ugly in appearance, but with a good heart… One can see from this that that which we kick off to one side of the road, out of the way, which feels the toe of our boot—-that may well be our God, albeit unprotesting, only showing pain in his eyes, that old, old pain which he knows so well. I notice, though, that although we kick him off to one side in pain, we do let him toil for us; we accept that. We accept his work, his offerings, his help; but him we kick away. He could reveal himself, but he would then spoil our illusion of a beautiful god… Ugly like this, despised and teased and tormented and finally put to death, he returned shining and transfigured; our Savior, Jesus Christ… When He returned we saw Him as he really is—-that is, not by surface appearance. His radiance, his essence, like Light. The God of Light wears a humble and plain shell here (like a metamorphosis of some humble toiling beetle).”
I’d also recommend Shane Clairborne’s ‘The Irresistible Revolution’ and definitely chapters from Ted Dekker’s ‘The Slumber of Christianity’ concerning our desire for Heaven.
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What about Pascal’s Pensees? Specifically #449 under the Two Essential Truths of Christianity and #418-#433 (The Wager and Against Indifference). (pp 121-142 in the Penguin Classics edition)
This may not fit for this project specifically but Augustine’s On the Catechising of the Uninstructed provides a good model for how to deal with those interested in Christianity. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf103.iv.iii.html).
While we are on Augustine, his Treatise On the Creed would be useful as well.(http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf103.iv.vii.html)
I concur to Dostoyevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor but include the section before it – Ivan’s objections to Christianity and Alyosha’s response:
“No, I can’t admit it,” said Alyosha suddenly, with flashing eyes. “But, Ivan, you asked just now, is there a person in the whole world who has the right to forgive and can forgive? But there is a Being and He can forgive everything, all and for all, because He gave his innocent blood for all and everything. You have forgotten Him, and on Him is built the edifice, and it is to Him they cry aloud: ‘Thou art just, O Lord, for Thy ways are revealed!’ (p 278 in the Signet Classics Edition)
Other sections from the Brothers Karamazov that should be included are Father Paissy’s comments to Alyosha: “Remember always, young man…that science which has become a great power in the last century, has analyzed everything divine handed down to us in the holy books. After this cruel analysis the learned of this world have nothing left of all that was sacred. But they have only analyzed the parts and overlooked the whole, and indeed their blindness is marvelous. Yet the whole still stands steadfast before their eyes, and the gates of hall shall not prevail against it. Has it not lasted nineteen centuries? Is it not still a living, a moving power in the individual soul and in the masses of people? It is still strong and living even in the souls of atheists, who have destroyed everything! For even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it still follow the Christian ideal. And neither their subtlety nor the ardor of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ of old. When it has been attempted, the result has been only grotesque.” (p 193)
Also part of Dimitri’s comments to Alyosha: “Enough poetry. I want to tell you now about the insects to whom God gave ‘sensual lust.’ To insects – sensual lust. I am that insect, Alyosha, and it is said of me especially. All we Karamazovs are such insects. And angel as you are, that insect lives in you, too, and will stir up a tempest in your blood. Tempests, because sensual lust is a tempest – worse than a tempest! Beauty! I can’t bear the thought that a man of lofty mind and heart begins with the ideal of the Madonna and ends with the ideal of Sodom. What’s still more awful is that a man with the ideal of Sodom in his soul does not renounce the ideal of the Madonna, and his heart may be on fire with that ideal, genuinely on fire, just as in his days of youth and innocence. Yes, man is broad, too broad. I’d have him narrower. The devil only knows what to make of it! What to the mind is shameful is beauty and nothing else to the heart. Is there beauty in Sodom? Believe me, that for the immense mass of mankind beauty is found in Sodom. Did you know that secret? The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.” (p. 120-121)
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Definitely yes.
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I read a comment that stated “Assuming 50 entries, I suppose we should aim at perhaps 15 from the church fathers, another 15 representing key medieval and Reformation figures, and 15 more the modern period.”
I like that idea but thought I would come back to iMonk’s comparision of what he is looking for – Catechism of the Catholic Church. With that in mind I would think the topics (Salvation, Scriptures, Trinity, etc) would need to be laid out and then the best representative writings from various time periods on that topic could be included.
An excerpt from Augustine’s – On the Trinity (would have to go back to find best chapter) would be an excellent early document on that topic. Then maybe one of Luther’s sermons on the Trinity might be a good one from the Reformation.
Just some thoughts but like the idea and have a lot of new reading ideas.
Thanks,
MikeB
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Well, I hold out for Helena and the Ascended Masters 🙂
She may be a fraud, but she had buckets of chutzpah and I like her style. And all the watered-down New Agey/Age of Aquarius stuff is small beer with the originals. Even Aleister Crowley, who was as big a chancer as anyone could hope to avoid (because I really think you’d be better off not meeting him) put the hard work in when learning his art; contrast his Book of Thoth with some of his latter-day disciples or followers in the ‘tradition’; you go from Hermeticism and a degree of scholarship to insipid platitudes and pap along the lines of “we’re all stardust”.
I like my heretics with at least the courage of their convictions 🙂
John Shelby Spong, on the other hand… *rolls eyes* He seems to think that if only Christ had had his (Spong’s) advantages, He would have made a better job of things. Still, never mind: twenty centuries have brought forth the bright light of Spong to tell us where we’re all getting it wrong!
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God’s Patience by Stephen Charnock from The Existence and Attributes of God Volume II. It’s a wonderful sermon turned essay explaining the greatness of God’s patience with sinners.
I know Puritans get a bad rap, and sometimes they earn it, but this is a wonderful essay full of God’s grace calling for it’s readers to repent.
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His tracts are available in numerous languages, including less-studied ones like Nepali and Tibetan. I’ve been handed them on the street in some really far-flung places.
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Is that even in Blavatsky? Maybe a stray paragraph somewhere, but we want an appealing story. These two give us the chance to show Jesus meditating, or cursing the caste system. The Issla ms. introduces a love interest–Jesus ran off to India to escape an arranged marriage at 13! On the other hand, the Aquarian Gospel has him being initiated in secret tunnels under the Great Pyramid, which is kind of cool.
For the Jesus-went-to-England variation, I think that comes from the Urantia gospel. (Or is it the Oahspe Gospel? I always get those two confused!)
OM Shanti shanti shanti…
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Ah, Louis, come on: if we’re going to have the “Jesus went to India/Tibet/Glastonbury” stuff, why not go to the source and quote Madame Blavatsky?
No point beating around the bush!
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“Actually, one writer commented that Chick may be the most important theologian of our times!”
With the whopping great caveat that this only applies if you’re American, since the rest of the English-speaking world hasnever heard of him. And even within America, are there places that don’t know of him?
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A beautiful song, with beautiful lyrics.
“Lord Of The Starfields”, by Bruce Cockburn.
Lord of the starfields
Ancient of Days
Universe Maker
Here’s a song in your praise
Wings of the storm cloud
Beginning and end
You make my heart leap
Like a banner in the wind
O love that fires the sun
Keep me burning.
Lord of the starfields
Sower of life,
Heaven and earth are
Full of your light
Voice of the nova
Smile of the dew
All of our yearning
Only comes home to you
O love that fires the sun
keep me burning
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She’s one of a handful of female founders of denominations (along with Mother Ann Lee of the Shakers, and Mrs. Fillmore of the Unity School of Christianity), and the theology which she expresses impacted not only Christian Science, but also New Thought, faith healing, and the Prosperity Gospel. Also, her answer to the Problem of Evil (there ain’t none and can’t be none–it contradicts the divine attributes) is philosophically interesting as a contrast to other thinkers.
If we’re going to represent New Age Christianity, we could have selections from “The Life of Saint Issa: Best of the Sons of Men” by Nicholas Notovitch, or “The Aquarian Gospel” by Levi H. Dowling. Both involve Jesus going to India as a youth. The latter is frequently read in Spiritualist churches.
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Surely some nod should be given to end-times speculation, whether rational or otherwise…? We can’t fit in John Nelson Darby, so what does that leave us? A chapter from “Left Behind”? Something from the Adventist movement, or the furor surrounding the year 1000? Actually, one writer commented that Chick may be the most important theologian of our times!
Does everything in the collection have to be broadly agreeable?
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Just start at the beginning, I guess, and keep going until you run out of patience! He’s quite engaging, especially if you are of similar bent.
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http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/586
I see you can download a free ebook by Thomas Browne, the Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/586
Is this the Thomas Browne you are referring to, Louis? If so, is there a section of that book you would most recommend reading? I likely won’t get around to reading the entire thing. Thanks.
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MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham City Jail”. ’nuff said
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The Didache, entirity (Its very short)
First Apology of Justin the Martyr, Chapters 10-12), Justin Martyr (1 chapter = 1 paragraph)
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/richardson/fathers.x.ii.iii.html
Catechetical Lecture 22 (On the Body and Blood of Christ.), Cyril of Jerusalem
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.ii.xxvi.html
The Confession of Saint Patrick
http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/p01.html
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And one more: Pascal’s memorial.
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Whoops–forgot one more nomination: Thomas Browne, the Anglican theologian. You could pretty much pick any five or ten pages at random, for approximately the same effect–the main thing is his style and personality.
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A basic question such a project would have to decide is, do the editors aspire to represent the diversity that exists within Christianity (Origen, Haitian Voodoo, Mormonism, New Age Christianity, John Spong), or is the aim to produce more of a “lowest common denominator” type of collection, along the lines of the “Chicken Soup” books? I suspect that we are looking at what amounts to a mainline Protestant conception of Christianity–one which embraces certain elements of Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but not anything too outre.
Assuming 50 entries, I suppose we should aim at perhaps 15 from the church fathers, another 15 representing key medieval and Reformation figures, and 15 more the modern period. I agree with the nomination of the Didache as the first selection. There would absolutely have to be selections representing Augustine, Aquinas, Gregory Nazianzus, Gregory Palamas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis, the Spanish mystics, and Quakerism (but I have no idea what those might be). I would like to see a few selected passages from Albert Schweitzer’s autobiography, and perhaps some key anti-slavery manifesto by Wilberforce. Literary selections like Dostoevsky, the Arthurian stuff (Tolkien would surely prefer that to his own writings!), Dante, or Pilgrim’s Progress would make a nice change of pace and are obviously great, though there already exist compilations like this.
I agree with the nomination of John of the Ladder, and would especially like to see a couple of paragraphs from chapter one (the description of Christianity, and the advice to laymen). The 15th and 16th discourse of Symeon the New Theologian (on the divine light) would be a possibility, depending on how much space is left for “Orthodox” figures. (Evagrius and John Cassian have had more influence on the West.) I also have a particular fondness for the conversation of Motovilov with Saint Seraphim of Sarov, which is short enough to be included.
But my number one nomination would be for selections from the Sayings of the Fathers. Using the thematic collection as a guide, I would include the following verses: 1.11, 2.9, 6.5, 7.1, 7.19, 7.38, 9.4, 9.10, 10.69, 10.97, 10.100, 10.114, 10.117, 11.38, 12.8, 12.9, 13.7, 14.3, 14.9, 16.6, 16.7, 17.16, 17.22, 18.19.
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“A Testament of Devotion,” by Thomas Kelly, Quaker dude.
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Moira,
Nice thought to add Tolstoy’s ‘“The Kingdom of God is Within You†– first chapter. The very powerful declaration he makes about having to choose between the Sermon on the Mount or the symbol of the faith, and that you cannot believe in both.
Mary Baker Eddy though…..she thinks sin is an illusion, and if we truly believe that it is, it can’t hurt us.
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Moira,
I like selections 1-4, especially Tolstoy! I have to disagree on Jack Chick, however. Nearly everything he has produced is vitriolic and highly sectarian. I find his sensationalism to embody some of the worst aspects of American Protestant fundamentalism, and anti-Catholic tracts are just plain offensive. (Witness “The Death Cookie,” about the Catholic Eucharist.)
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Scripture contains the most essential writings, certainly. But does that mean no other writings are compelling or helpful?
Far from diminishing the importance of Scripture, an anthology of post-Biblical writing highlights the fact that “God’s word does not come back void.”
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Luke, I had never heard of The Masai Creed but I like it very much. Thanks.
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No, Moira, NOTHING BY JACK CHICK.
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1. The Grand Inquisistor’s Tale
2. Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God is Within You”–first chapter (describes peace churches in Russia and the Caucasus, argues for nonviolence)
3. Something from the French Arthurian epic by Chretain de Troyes, featuring Lancelot, Galahad, the Fisher King, and the Holy Grail
4. John of the Ladder, Step 28 (on prayer)
5. Mary Baker Eddy, “Science and Health” ch. 1. (on prayer). Or would the first chapter of “A Course in Miracles” be a better choice?
5. Jack Chick, “The Last Generation.”
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0094/0094_01.asp
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This all makes me a bit uncomfortable. Yes, there have been myriad gifted Christian writers over the years. Yes, I love reading them, and learning from their experiences and their gift for conveying that experience.
Am I just being a party pooper by saying the book already exists, it has 66 (or 73, or 78 depending on your persuasion) “chapters” and therein lie all essential readings for the Christian? Maybe so…
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“The Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson HAS to make the cut.
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I second the inclusion of Willard’s chapter 9 in The Divine Conspiracy.
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Oh yes–the Prayer of St. Francis, along with some short description of his life
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Selections from chapter one (possibly others as well) of the Ladder of Divine Ascent (incl. definition of a Christian, and advice to laymen)
Sayings of the Fathers, thematic collection, 1.11 (many ways to live); 2.9 (“your cell will teach you everything”); 4.15 (forgiveness); 6.5 (obeying the gospel by selling the gospel); 7.1 (story of Anthony); 7.19 (sentence about Sarah, an anchorite); 8.10 (story of Moses the Ethiopian); 9.9-10 (non-judgment); 10.3 (God helps those…); 10.69 (no work no eat); 10.97 (“you have filled the air with words”); 10.100 (“don’t water the vegetables”); 12.8-10 (pray without ceasing); 13.2,4,7 (hospitality); 14.3 (tree of obedience); 15.68 (humility); 16.6 (Macarius helps a burglar); 17.16, 18 (charity, helping the sick); 18.19 (story of unknown female saint).
Justin Martyr’s description of a 2nd century church service
Almost any chapter from St. Symeon the New Theologian
The account of Seraphim of Sarov (a few pages)
Selections from Thos. Browne’s Religio Medici (hard to pick–his style and approach is more important than any particular content)
A few pages from Albert Schweitzer’s autobiography, including the famous concluding lines.
Could somebody recommend Quaker readings?
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Something from Freeman Dyson on Physics and the very exact physical constants needed to keep things going. Sorry, no book or chapter. I had an article, probably could find it still.
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Dumb Ox beat me to it on recommending the Hammer of God, except that my recommendation from that book would be the chapter “Transfiguration Day”. You then hit two birds with one stone: Giertz himself, and the Henrik Schartau sermon he’s quoting in that chapter (“Jesus Only”).
The Journey of the Magi, by T.S. Eliot.
For Luther, how about something from “On The Freedom of a Christian”?
The order for Evening Prayer from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
The hymn “Salvation Unto Us Has Come”.
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Chapter one, “The Call”, from “Hammer of God”, by Bo Giertz.
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Well, I gave a Tolkien quote for the virtue of Hope, so for the virtue of Charity I’d like to nominate from the 2009 encylical of Pope Benedict XVI, “Caritas in Veritate”, paragraphs 3 and 6 about the relationship of truth and justice, respectively, to charity and how charity is more than warm-fuzzy do-gooding:
“3. Through this close link with truth, charity can be recognized as an authentic expression of humanity and as an element of fundamental importance in human relations, including those of a public nature. Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love†is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in the God of the Bible, who is both Agápe and Lógos: Charity and Truth, Love and Word.
6. “Caritas in veritate†is the principle around which the Church’s social doctrine turns, a principle that takes on practical form in the criteria that govern moral action. I would like to consider two of these in particular, of special relevance to the commitment to development in an increasingly globalized society: justice and the common good.
First of all, justice. Ubi societas, ibi ius: every society draws up its own system of justice. Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is “mine†to the other; but it never lacks justice, which prompts us to give the other what is “hisâ€, what is due to him by reason of his being or his acting. I cannot “give†what is mine to the other, without first giving him what pertains to him in justice. If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity, and intrinsic to it. Justice is the primary way of charity or, in Paul VI’s words, “the minimum measure†of it, an integral part of the love “in deed and in truth†(1 Jn 3:18), to which Saint John exhorts us. On the one hand, charity demands justice: recognition and respect for the legitimate rights of individuals and peoples. It strives to build the earthly city according to law and justice. On the other hand, charity transcends justice and completes it in the logic of giving and forgiving[3]. The earthly city is promoted not merely by relationships of rights and duties, but to an even greater and more fundamental extent by relationships of gratuitousness, mercy and communion. Charity always manifests God’s love in human relationships as well, it gives theological and salvific value to all commitment for justice in the world.”
And now I will stop spamming 🙂
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Okay, for a student theologian, quotes from “The Blue Cross”:
“The first he heard was the tail of one of Father Brown’s sentences, which ended: ‘… what they really meant in the Middle Ages by the heavens being incorruptible.’
The taller priest nodded his bowed head and said:
‘Ah, yes, these modern infidels appeal to their reason; but who can look at those millions of worlds and not feel that there may well be wonderful universes above us where reason is utterly unreasonable?’
‘No,’ said the other priest; ‘reason is always reasonable, even in the last limbo, in the lost borderland of things. I know that people charge the Church with lowering reason, but it is just the other way. Alone on earth, the Church makes reason really supreme. Alone on earth, the Church affirms that God himself is bound by reason.’
The other priest raised his austere face to the spangled sky and said:
‘Yet who knows if in that infinite universe — ?’
‘Only infinite physically,’ said the little priest, turning sharply in his seat, ‘not infinite in the sense of escaping from the laws of truth.’
…’Reason and justice grip the remotest and the loneliest star. Look at those stars. Don’t they look as if they were single diamonds and sapphires? Well, you can imagine any mad botany or geology you please. Think of forests of adamant with leaves of brilliants. Think the moon is a blue moon, a single elephantine sapphire. But don’t fancy that all that frantic astronomy would make the smallest difference to the reason and justice of conduct. On plains of opal, under cliffs cut out of pearl, you would still find a notice-board, `Thou shalt not steal.”
…’How in blazes do you know all these horrors?’ cried Flambeau.
The shadow of a smile crossed the round, simple face of his clerical opponent.
‘Oh, by being a celibate simpleton, I suppose,’ he said. ‘Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men’s real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil? But, as a matter of fact, another part of my trade, too, made me sure you weren’t a priest.’
‘What?’ asked the thief, almost gaping.
‘You attacked reason,’ said Father Brown. ‘It’s bad theology.'”
🙂
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Ah, it’s the poets who go to my heart. I have been convinced in my intellect for the need of repentance by sermons and theology, but I’ve only been affected emotionally to quite literally weep over my sins by lines such as these from Canto XII of Dante’s “Purgatorio”:
“95 O race of man, born to fly on high,
96 why does a puff of wind cause you to fall?”
However, there is this extract from the Foreword by Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kun, Bishop of Hong Kong, to his Meditations for the ‘new’ Stations of the Cross in 2008 during the traditional Via Crucis on Good Friday at the Colosseum :
“When we think of persecution, let us also remember the persecutors. As I was drafting the text of these meditations, it frightened me to realize how unchristian I am. I had to make a great effort to purify myself of uncharitable sentiments towards those who caused Jesus to suffer and those who are causing our brothers and sisters to suffer in the world today. Only when I confronted my sins and my own lack of faithfulness, did I succeed in seeing myself among the persecutors, and then I was moved to repentance and gratitude for the forgiveness of our merciful Master.
So let us now begin our meditation, let us sing and pray to Jesus and with Jesus for those who suffer on account of his Name, for those who cause him and his brothers and sisters to suffer, and for ourselves, who are sinners and at times also his persecutors.”
It’s easy for us to let ourselves off the hook, to point to others as sinners and persecutors, and to ignore or not even be aware of the sinfulness and hardness of our own hearts.
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I’m not sure if somebody already put this one, but book VIII of the confessions of St. Augustine would probably be a good fit. And at least something from Andrew Murray.
And of course, the introduction to “Purpose Driven Life”…. ok just kidding.
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Remember all: Not fave writing by Christians. Read the post for a reminder of what we want in these comments.
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Miguel,
I’m sure I’m responding late enough to completely pass you by on this, but the English Church’s Common Worship has a vernacular ‘translation’ of the Rite I canon.
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/hc/order2contemp.html
The Rite I canon is Common Worship’s Prayer of Consecration and first Prayer After Communion put together as a single prayer, IIRC. Also, do you know of Nippon Sei Ko Kai? It’s the Anglican Church in Japan, and they might have some liturgical resources you could tap into. http://nskk.org/
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Please consider a chapter from Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning.
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That IS a great paragraph by Muggeridge, Dan. Now I want to read the whole book. (Though I am thinking maybe I did read it 30 or so years ago.
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Or the Father Brown stories, especially the Flambeau ones which are (going roughly by memory) “The Blue Cross”, “The Queer Feet” and “The Flying Stars”.
But yeah, read ’em all! 🙂
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That DOES look like a great anthology, Sean. I wish I had months just to read, walk, listen to music. Working gets in the way of what I would LIKE to do! But working is part of my life and I know I should not see it as “interfering” somehow in my life. It IS my life and I actually am very fortunate that I have a lot of freedom in my job.
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Oh, I liked that Sayers essay very much, Tom. Thanks for recommending it. (I saved it to my hard drive.)
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Poetry! As previous comments have pointed out, poetry is necessary too!
From “The Wild Knight and Other Poems”, G.K. Chesterton (1900)
The Holy Of Holies
‘Elder father, though thine eyes
Shine with hoary mysteries,
Canst thou tell what in the heart
Of a cowslip blossom lies?
‘Smaller than all lives that be,
Secret as the deepest sea,
Stands a little house of seeds,
Like an elfin’s granary,
‘Speller of the stones and weeds,
Skilled in Nature’s crafts and creeds,
Tell me what is in the heart
Of the smallest of the seeds.’
‘God Almighty, and with Him
Cherubim and Seraphim,
Filling all eternity—
Adonai Elohim.’
The “Anima Christi” from the 14th century (previously erroneously attributed to St. Ignatius Loyola; author Anonymous) which many? of you may know as the hymn “Soul of My Saviour”:
Anima Christi, sanctifica me.
Corpus Christi, salva me.
Sanguis Christi, inebria me.
Aqua lateris Christi, lava me.
Passio Christi, conforta me.
O bone Jesu, exaudi me.
Intra tua vulnera absconde me.
Ne permittas me separari a te.
Ab hoste maligno defende me.
In hora mortis meae voca me.
Et iube me venire ad te,
Ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te.
In saecula saeculorum.
Amen
Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from the side of Christ, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Separated from Thee let me never be
From the malicious enemy defend me
In the hour of my death call me
And bid me come unto Thee
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints
and with Thy angels
Forever and ever
Amen.
Probably this last is a bit too denominational, but I love this hymn (the ‘Tantum Ergo’) in the Latin:
Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote the Eucharistic hymn “Pange lingua gloriosi” for the new feast of Corpus Christi created in 1264 by Pope Urban IV. The last two verses of this hymn are the familiar “Tantum ergo sacramentum”:
Tantum ergo Sacramentum
Veneremur cernui:
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui:
Praestet fides supplementum
Sensuum defectui.
Genitori, Genitoque
Laus et jubilatio,
Salus, honor, virtus quoque
Sit et benedictio:
Procedenti ab utroque
Compar sit laudatio.
Amen.
(English translation of 1940):
Therefore we, before Him bending,
this great Sacrament revere;
Types and shadows have their ending,
for the newer rite is here;
Faith our outward sense befriending,
makes our inward vision clear.
Glory let us give and blessing
to the Father and the Son,
Honor, thanks, and praise addressing
while eternal ages run;
Ever too his love confessing,
who from both with both is One. Amen.
And to finish up, another poem by George Herbert from “The Temple” (1633):
The Collar.
I Struck the board, and cry’d, No more.
I will abroad.
What? shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free; free as the rode,
Loose as the winde, as large as store.
Shall I be still in suit?
Have I no harvest but a thorn
To let me bloud, and not restore
What I have lost with cordiall fruit?
Sure there was wine
Before my sighs did drie it: there was corn
Before my tears did drown it.
Is the yeare onely lost to me?
Have I no bayes to crown it?
No flowers, no garlands gay? all blasted?
All wasted?
Not so, my heart: but there is fruit,
And thou hast hands.
Recover all thy sigh-blown age
On double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute
Of what is fit, and not. Forsake thy cage,
Thy rope of sands,
Which pettie thoughts have made, and made to thee
Good cable, to enforce and draw,
And be thy law,
While thou didst wink and wouldst not see.
Away; take heed:
I will abroad.
Call in thy deaths head there: tie up thy fears.
He that forbears
To suit and serve his need,
Deserves his load.
But as I rav’d and grew more fierce and wilde
At every word,
Me thoughts I heard one calling, Childe:
And I reply’d, My Lord.
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Oh boy, I would have so much to read if I read all you folks have recommended and I surely would love to read them all.
Back in 2008, Michael recommended this sermon by Capuchin priest, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household since 1980:
http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-24546
It’s titled, “Called by God to Communicate With his Son Jesus Christ.” I think that would be a good entry. Actually, many of Cantalamessa’s sermons would be good. Anyone interested can read more of his sermons and other things he has done at:
http://www.cantalamessa.org/en/index.php
I don’t have Brennan Manning’s book Ragamuffin Gospel here because I loaned it out years ago and never got it back! But, if I DID have it, I think I would find a chapter that must be included.
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Or the whole of the “Ainulindalë”, from the “Silmarillion”. Though I think I’m now wandering from the purpose of this post, which is “Your excerpt should, as much as possible, speak for Christianity”, and not “Quote chunks of your favourite authors” 😉
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I’m out of town so I can’t verify references but “On the Love of God” by Bernard of Clairveaux. I believe chapter 4 is what I have in mind. It’s a short book .
Rough quote: In the creation he gave us ourself, in the re-creation he gave us himself, a two fold debt we can never repay (a grace).
Contemporary- “Divine Conspiracy” Chapter 9 “A Curriculum for Christlikeness” by Dallas Willard.
Probably longer than 15 pages but I don’t have it with me so I’ll claim ignorance.
BTW, This is a great idea!
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Oh, if it’s a Tolkien quote, then I nominate from Book X of The History of Middle Earth, “Morgoth’s Ringâ€, the ‘Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth’, or The Debate of Finrod and Andreth. The debate is between Finrod, the brother of Galadriel, and the mortal woman Andreth of the House of Beor, and I love the whole darn thing.
This excerpt is on the definition of what “hope” is (and the difference between human hope and the theological virtue of Hope):
“‘Have ye then no hope?’ said Finrod.
‘What is hope?’ she said. ‘An expectation of good, which though uncertain has some foundation in what is known? Then we have none.’
‘That is one thing that Men call “hopeâ€,’ said Finrod. ‘Amdir we call it, “looking upâ€. But there is another which is founded deeper. Estel we call it, that is “trustâ€. It is not defeated by the ways of the world, for it does not come from experience, but from our nature and first being. If we are indeed the Eruhin, the Children of the One, then He will not suffer Himself to be deprived of His own, not by any Enemy, not even by ourselves. This is the last foundation of Estel, which we keep even when we contemplate the End: of all His designs the issue must be for His Children’s joy. Amdir you have not, you say. Does no Estel at all abide?’
‘Maybe,’ she said . . . ‘It is believed that healing may yet be found, or that there is some way of escape. But is this indeed Estel? Is it not Amdir rather; but without reason: mere flight in a dream from what waking they know: that there is no escape from darkness and death?’
‘Mere flight in a dream you say,’ answered Finrod. ‘In dream many desires are revealed; and desire may be the last flicker of Estel. But you do not mean dream, Andreth. You confound dream and waking with hope and belief, to make the one more doubtful and the other more sure.â€
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For Tolkien, I’d be tempted to suggest, the short story “Leaf by Niggle.” Or perhaps his short poem on sub-creation:
Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sowed the seed of dragons, ’twas our right
(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we’re made.
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Irenaeus of Lyons, “On the Apostolic Preaching”, tr. John Behr. 60 small pages. It’s not “how the apostles preached”; but rather it’s the content of what they preached- the whole history of salvation and what it means, as understood by the “next generation” of Christians.
Athanasius, “On the Incarnation”, tr. a Religious of CMSV (nun friend of C.S. Lewis), sections 6-25, “The Divine Dilemma and its Solution in the Incarnation” through “The Death of Christ”. 30 small pages.
N.T. Wright, “The Resurrection of the Son of God”, Ch. 19 (final), “The Risen Jesus as the Son of God”. 20 pages.
Dallas Willard, “The Divine Conspiracy”, ch. 10 “The Restoration of All Things”. 25 pages.
C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”, essay. (The fiction suggestions above would be mine, too)
Something appropriate from Tolkein, “Lord of the Rings”.
Dana
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I would submit ‘Theology and Philosophy’ by Austin Farrer. It’s an abridged version of his ‘A Midwinter Dream’, that opens: “I had a dream. There were Theology and Philosophy, clothed in both the moral and academic dignity of female professors…”
As it goes on there’s an exchange between these two and two other characters about the nature of philosophy, theology, and revelation, as well as the relationships between them. It’s short, and–especially for Farrer!–very accessible. It’s also just well-written and full of beautiful imagery. Here’s a snippet:
[Theology speaking] ‘We should all be agnostics if our knowledge of God were our exploration of him; as though God sat there impassive as a rock-cut Buddha, and we tortoises vainly tried to scales his knees. We cannot aspire to talk about God in (as it were) divine language, but he can stoop, if he chooses, to talk to us in our language and to deal humanly with mankind. When, for example, for us men and for our salvation. . .’
On hearing these dogmatic words, Philosophy muttered, ‘We will hear thee another time on this matter,’ and faded away to tea, followed by the Stoics and Epicureans…
It can be found in a volume of Farrer’s shorter writings, ‘Reflective Faith’, pages 1-4.
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“Saints’ Everlasting Rest”, Chapter 2, by Richard Baxter (a 17th century Puritan)
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I second that vote for my buddy Mr. Wesley.
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I have to agree — even at Lewis’ own time, this was probably the weakest argument he made. It works only if you assume the gospel texts report Jesus’ claims about himself, rather than someone else’s claims about him.
However, I am personally quite drawn to Lewis’ discussion of how in Christ “myth became real.” Like Lewis, I’m moved deeply by myth and story, so this way of understanding the Biblical narrative feels quite compelling. It doesn’t offer proof. But it is beautiful!
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It is one of my favorites from C.S. Lewis
The wonderful way C.S. Lewis has of teaching Matthew 25 in the story of the Aslan and the ‘follower of Tash’ is so clear that a child can understand it. A service of caring done in any name is credited by the Glorious One, and rewarded.
And here again, we see the nexus between Aslan and Christ: Christ will reject those who say ‘Lord, Lord’ but failed to act in giving loving-kindness to the least of His.
As for those non-Christians, the gentle sheep of His pasture? They know His Voice, and respond to the call of the Holy Spirit within their hearts. And acting accordingly, they follow Him, whose Name they may only know as the One who asks them to love.
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For pity’s sake, man, drop whatever you’re reading and pick up Chesterton. His style gets on my nerves from time to time, but he is like nothing else.
The Everlasting Man is probably the right starting place.
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This excerpt from ‘The Body Broken’ by Jean Vanier
“The Call to Wholeness in the Body of Christ
He came to transform fear into trust,
so that the walls separating people into enemies
would disappear,
and we could join together in a covenant of love,
‘So shall we fully grow up into Christ,
who is the head,
and by whom the whole body
is bonded and knit together,
every joint adding its own strength
for each individual part to work according to its
function,
so the whole body grows until it has built itself up in love.’
Yes, this is the vision of Jesus for our world
announced by St Paul:
one body –
with the poorest and weakest among us at the heart,
those that we judge the most despicable, honoured;
where each person is important
because all are necessary.
His body, to which we all belong
joined in love,
filled with the Spirit.
This is the kingdom.”
Page 67f.
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Tough one. Possibly something from Neuhaus’ “Death on a Friday Afternoon”. His chapter “Do Not Judge” raises some absolutely essential questions about salvation, faith, and hell. But on a whole that books is a stunningly beautiful meditation on the cross.
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Yeah, I’d agree with that. The traditional language is great. The vernacular is great.
Also, I’ve been thinking a lot about the catechism from the BCP. It’s really good even if it is kinda short. Maybe that’s one of the things that makes it good. I remember looking at a Presbyterian prayerbook/psalter that my folks had from the civil war era. That included a really good short catechism too.
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http://european-literature.suite101.com/article.cfm/bishop_of_digne_from_les_miserables
Hugo’s Bishop of Digne, in Les Miserables, is a terrific and unforgettable picture of Christ. The above link describes the bishop’s character and gives some plot summary. These are the opening chapters of Les Miserables and if you read nothing else from this very long book, read those. Whittaker Chambers, who read Les Miserables as a young man, said he was influenced by the Bishop for the rest of his life.
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Donald Miller’s chapter on the voice and character of God from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It is stunning both cognitively and emotionally. I would probably include Thomas Campbell’s 1809 Declaration and Address.
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For a little lightheartedness:
The bit about trying to move a paperclip by faith in “The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, aged …” (I forget how old).
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I would give section 1 of “On Being a Theologian of the Cross” which includes a discourse of thesis #1-#12. Really sets us up as sinners pointing us to Christ. Thesis 1-12 really shoot at the heart of a self-glorified Christian/non-Christian as the source of righteousness. To steal from M.Horton, “if you get the diagnosis right….”. I have heard some suggest this would not make for a new Christian read but it was great for me to read as a Christian for only 3 years.
As a side note. I’m done at “that” popular Christian bookstore. They had one small isle left that included books written by old dead people, classics. Even that isle is now gone. Its been taken over by an expanding Christian fiction section and the Osteen book wing.
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The General Confession from the Book of Common Prayer, which Richard Foster claims in his book Prayer, “Who… can improve upon the Spirit-empowered words of the General Confession from The Book of Common Prayer?” (p. 107).
ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind In Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.
AND….
From Frederica Mathewes-Green’s little book The Illumined Heart: The Ancient Christian Path of Transformation (2001) — Chapter 6 entitled “Repentance, Both Door and Path.” This little 100-page book is a treasure.
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Yes, definitely the Didache and Creeds.
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Definitely. Definitely.
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thanks for the link: this is VERY good; rarified air compared to the usual weekly “do better, try harder” gruel we so often get.
thanks
Greg R
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“And Can It Be” by Charles Wesley is a great bit of religious poetry
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My wife and myself pray compline together in the ’79 BCP most evenings, and Rite II is absolutely essential as far we we’re concerned. She is ESL from Japan, so Rite I King James English successfully prevents here from understanding just about everything. It’s hard enough to learn the meaning of the English without archaic phrases. I use Rite I for morning prayer when I’m by myself, and which is superior I could honestly care less, I just think it’s good to have both options.
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I’d nominate the Didache for the list. It’s short, so I’d probably include all of it.
The Creeds would be essential; at least the Apostle’s and Nicene.
Something from Steve Brown’s A Scandalous Freedom. I’m not sure which chapter, at this point, though. Something about Brown’s ideas of the “Radical Nature of the Gospel” and grace, freedom, etc.
One of the introductory sections of Robert Weber’s Worship is a Verb that discusses historic Christian worship and how that can apply cross-denominationally today.
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I know I’m a heritic among some Anglicans for saying this, but I love the ’79 edition of TEC’s BCP. Rite II was a great idea IMO. I was at a site for Anglican Dominicans a few weeks ago, and they referenced the section in the BCP’s catechism that discusses the ministry of the laity. GREAT stuff there.
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Jim Packer’s chapter on the heart of the Gospel in “Knowing God” is pretty good. Having said that, so is the chapter on sons of God.
Jonathan Edwards on the end for which God created the world (or parts of it)
Calvin’s Institutes 3.11
As mentioned earlier, the prayer of humble access in the BCP is very good. The BCP burial service is also worth mentioning, along with the primary Collect for Advent.
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Tozer’s “Pursuit of God” was already mentioned but I would add chapter 7 to the list as well. Entitled “The Gaze of the Soul”, Tozer talks about faith as looking squarely towards Christ, the “author and finisher of our faith”. Here’s a selection :
“Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves–blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.”
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The bit in Augustine’s Confessions where he gets converted–the “take up and read!” passage. The Rule of St. Benedict. St. Patrick’s Breastplate. The Dream of the Rood.
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THE PAIN THAT PLAGUES CREATION
by Mark Heard.
http://mhlp.rru.com/pain_plagues.html
As this planet falls around the sun trapping us in the orbit
Creation groans in unison like a race of frightened orphans
The darkness of this raging storm is covering up our portals
But a yearning for the light is bourne in the heart of every mortal
Day to day we ache
With the pain that plagues Creation
Night to night we lie awake
And await its restoration
Heaven knows our lonely ways, heaven knows our sorrows
And Heaven knows things that we don’t know and the joy of eternal tomorrows
But through this glass we dimly see this world as it was made
Oh and the good we know must surely flow
From the heart of a kind Creator
Day to day we ache
With the pain that plagues Creation
Night to night we lie awake
And await its restoration
So hold on in this restless age and do not fear your shadow
Your alternating tears and praise are prayers that surely will matter
Day to day we ache
With the pain that plagues Creation
Night to night we lie awake
And await its restoration
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“A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none, a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.”
And other snippets from Luther’s “The Freedom of a Christian.”
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/REFORM/FREEDOM.HTM
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Yeah! Anything from his two volumes of poetry would be great (available on Project Gutenberg). “Diary of an Old Soul” is good, too.
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Chapter 4 of Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing about Grace–“The Lovesick Father.”
Hitchens probably includes Dostoevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor,” in The Brothers Karamozav, but I think I would include it in The Portable Christian, too, because of Alyosha’s response (after Ivan’s atheistic rant, his Christian brother Alyosha responds by kissing him).
I really like the first four chapters of N.T. Wright’s Simply Christian, his arguments for God from our needs for justice, community, spirituality, and beauty.
The section from Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship in which he discusses the relationship between faith and works–“Only the person who obeys can believe, and only the person who believes can obey.”
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Sadly, that chapter has only limited relevance today. Most critics won’t accepting the underlying assumption that the words of the gospels are the actual words of Jesus. Therefore, “liar, lunatic, or lord” is of no use. They would be more apt to reject all three labels and instead attach the label of “legend.”
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*Clarification, the excerpt is from Cullman’s work, not Wright’s.*
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Also, something from George MacDonald could surely make the cut. Something from his Unspoken Sermons, perhaps? I don’t know them well enough to make a direct suggestion.
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…and John Wesley’s sermon no. 39: “the Catholic Spirit”.
http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/39/
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If we can take more Lewis, I would highly recommend Ransom’s theophany (or whatever it is) near the end of Perelandra. It’s about five pages; a magnificent, almost operatic expression of a universe loved by God. A piece, not the best but perhaps the most understandable by itself:
“Another said, “Never did He make two things the same; never did He utter one word twice. After earths, not better earths but beasts; after beasts, not better beasts but spirits. After a falling, not recovery but a new creation. Out of the new creation, not a third but the mode of change itself is changed forever. Blessed be He!”
And another said, “It is loaded with justice as a tree is loaded down with fruit. All is righteousness and there is no equality. Not as when stones lie side by side, but as when stones support and are supported in an arch, such is His order; rule and obedience, begetting and bearing, heat glancing down, life growing up. Blessed by He!”
One said, “They who add years to years in lumpish aggregation, or miles to miles and galaxies to galaxies, shall not come near His greatness. The days of the fields of Arbol will fade and the days of Deep Heaven itself are numbered. Not thus is He great. He dwells (all of Him dwells) within the seed of the smallest flower and is not cramped; Deep Heaven is inside Him who is inside the seed and is not distended. Blessed be He!”
“The edge of each nature borders on that whereof it contains no shadow or similitude. Of many points one line; of many lines one shape; of many shapes one solid body; of many senses and thoughts one person; of three persons, Himself. As in the circle to the sphere, so are the ancient worlds that needed no redemption to that world wherein He was born and died. As is a point to a line, so is that world to the far-off fruits of its redeeming. Blessed be He!”
“Yet the circle is not less round than the sphere, and the sphere is the home and fatherland of circles. Infinite multitudes of circles lie enclosed in every sphere, and if they spoke they would say, For us were the spheres created. Let no mouth open to gainsay them. Blessed be He!”
…
“The Dust itself which is scattered so rare in Heaven, whereof all worlds, and the bodies that are not worlds, are made, is at the centre. It waits not till created eyes have seen it or hands handled it, to be in itself a strength and splendour of Maleldil [God]. Only the least part has served, or ever shall, a beast, a man, or a god. But always, and beyond all distances, before they came and after they are gone and where they never come, it is what it is and utters the heart of the Holy One with its own voice. It is farthest from Him of all things, for it has no life, nor sense, nor reason; it is nearest to Hm of all things for without intervening soul, as sparks fly out of a fire, He utters in each grain of it the unmixed image of His energy. Each grain, if it spoke, would say, I am the centre; for me all things were made. Let no mouth open to gainsay it. Blessed be He!”
“Each grain is at the centre. The Dust is at the centre. The Worlds are at the centre. The beasts are at the centre. The ancient peoples are there. The race that sinned are there. Tor and Tinidril are there. The gods [that is, the angels] are there also. Blessed be He!”
“Where Maleldil is, there is the centre. He is in every place. Not some of Him in one place and some in another, but in each place the whole Maleldil, even in the smallness beyond thought. There is no way out of the centre save into the Bent Will which casts itself into the Nowhere. Blessed be He!”
“Each thing was made for Him. He is the centre. Because we are with Him, each of us is at the centre. It is not as in a city of the Darkened World [earth] where they say that each must live for all. In His city all things were made for each. When He died in the Wounded World He died not for me, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less. Each thing, from the single grain of Dust to the strongest eldil, is the end and the final cause of all creation and the mirror in which the beam of His brightness comes to rest and so returns to Him. Blessed be He!”
…
Sorry it’s kind of long, but it all builds up upon itself. Even this is like an amputated arm without the rest.
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I really think this is a great idea and actually hope it really gets published. So far, none of the to fifty most influential evangelicals are even listed; makes you wonder if someone might take notice and ask why.
Not to necessarily appeal to the fine young calvinists, but the Dungeon of Giant Despair from Pilgrim’s Progress would be important.
It could easily become a C.S. Lewis collection, but the scene in hell from “The Great Divorce” is priceless.
The chapter, “The Maniac” from Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy” is significant.
Don’t forget Merton! How about, “The moral Theology of the Devil” from “New Seeds of Contemplation”?
How about “Losing as Winning: the Prologue to the Good Samaritan” from Capon’s “Parables of Grace”?
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Brother Lawrence’s 11th letter – http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/download/text/practice.txt
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The first chapter of the Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer and the first chapter of the School of Christ by T.Austin-Sparks. Those chapters will be for a great introduction to this project.
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As for poetry, I’m a big fan of many of the poems that come from Toyohiko Kagawa’s “Songs From the Slums”. One example follows:
“One Garment Left”
I have no one
To make a garment
For me;
Nor yet
A garment to be made.
My clothes
Are soiled,
And torn,
And tattered.
On the streets,
The people stare at me
Each time I leave the slums.
But those who clothe themselves
In borrowed garb
Are like a crow
Wearing a peacock’s feathers–
Fools!
As for myself,
Bare legs,
Short shirt,
Sweatband on brow,
I gird me up
To move the world!
And when
I wash
My one poor garment,
Stiff with filth,
Naked,
I wait
For it to dry.
Naked,
I kneel
Down at the crossing
In the mud,
To weep
And pray.
Stripped thus of all that Thou hast given me,
Lord, I would give again my all to thee!
Chapter 18 of Thomas Merton’s “New Seeds of Contemplation” is entitled “Faith” and I heartily recommend not only the book but that particular chapter, as well.
Also, the “Second Conversation” of Brother Lawrence’s “The Practice of the Presence of God.”
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I love Bishop Sheen. I’m glad that EWTN radio includes him in their broadcast schedule.
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I love ‘The Masai Creed’ – an adaptation of the Nicene creed into the cultural language of the Masai – an indigenous African tribe in Kenya and Tanzania.
“We believe in the one High God, who out of love created the beautiful world and everything good in it. He created man and wanted man to be happy in the world. God loves the world and every nation and tribe on the earth. We have known this High God in the darkness, and now we know him in the light. God promised in the book of his word, the Bible, that he would save the world and all nations and tribes.
We believe that God made good his promise by sending his son, Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left his home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and man, showing that the meaning of religion is love. He was rejected by his people, tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died. He was buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch him, and on the third day, he rose from that grave. He ascended to the skies. He is the Lord.
We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him. All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins, be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love, and share the bread together in love, to announce the good news to others until Jesus comes again. We are waiting for him. He is alive. He lives. This we believe. Amen.”
I heard it in a Speaking of Faith program about Creeds Jaroslav Pelikan.
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/pelikan/masai.shtml
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I wholeheartedly agree.
It’s hard to select one section from this book. The Heidelberg Disputation, which is the subject of this book, is probably one of the most important treatise that Luther wrote. Understanding the difference between the theology of the cross vs. theology of glory I think helps to unpack what is really wrong with evangelicalism.
If I had to choose, I would say chapter 4: God’s Work in Us: the Righteousness of Faith”.
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Eugene Peterson’s article in Christ Century – Transparent Lives
http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=1195
or something from Peterson’s writings on the topic presented.
Tim
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I would just say all of Book 2 of Mere Christianity. It comes in at around 20-30 pages in my edition.
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Wow. That is awesome! I can see Chesterton’s inspiration of Lewis. I’m studying for a theology degree right now, living a harmony of simple faith and deeper theological study is strenuous. I will be referring back to this quote many times!
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I also appreciate that Lewis admits he doesn’t agree with everything he had written in that passage, but he had to submit to it as the ideal of his faith. I think *that’s* one of the incredible and unique things about authentic (mere) Christianity – submitting ourselves to an authority with which we don’t completely agree. It’s a total paradox in our modern age; one of the reasons it feels so true. 🙂
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I *love* that exchange between Emeth and Aslan! Good call!
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Oh – the hymn/poem is in the collection ‘At the Lighting Of The Lamps’; a selection of Greek and Latin hymns up to the 10th century. It’s not so large as that might make it sound :), and there are some marvelous pieces.
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Thank goodness for people including poetry. Almost any other place online (that I’m familiar with, anyway), the closest you’d get to somebody suggesting a “Christian” poem would be “If. . .” Ugh!
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1.) The second chapter of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s ‘The World’s First Love’. Wish I had a copy of the book to hand – the chapter is a beautifully clear discussion of the Christian idea of freedom.
2.) This evening hymn, originally in Latin, from the fifth century – for a reminder that beauty has been there all along in the Church. (And also because it’s a hymn in Latin that ends on a distinctly Orthodox note – there was a time when the Church was united.)
Gracious Lord, Creator of the golden light,
You establish the patterns of revolving time,
And as the sun now sets, the gloom of night advances in.
For all your faithful, Christ, restore the light.
You have arrayed your heavenly court
With all the countless stars,
setting the moon there as a lamp,
Yet still have shown us how to seek
Those lights whose seeds spring out
Whenever stony flint is struck.
This was to teach mankind its hope,
That light bestowed on us
When Christ came with his own flesh.
For as he said, He is that steadfast rock,
From which a fire sprang forth to all our race.
This tiny flame we nurse in lamps
Brimming with rich and fragrant oil,
Or on the dry timber of the torch,
Or on the rushlights we have made,
Steeped in wax pressed from the comb.
The flickering light grows strong,
As the hollow earthware lamp
yields up its richness to the thirsty wick,
As the pine branch drips its nourishing sap,
And the fire drinks the warmth of waxen tapers down.
Drop by drop in perfumed tears
The glowing liquid nectar falls.
The eager fire sends forth rain
As burning waxen candles weep themselves away.
It is by your own gifts, Father,
Our halls are gleaming now with dancing lights
That strive to emulate departed day,
While conquered night withdraws in flight,
Rending her dark cloak as she goes.
Lord, you are the true light of our eyes,
And light to all our senses;
That which we see within, and that which lies without.
Accept this light I offer you, as my worship, Lord;
A light that brims, with perfumed oils of peace.
Most Holy Father, through Christ your Son,
Your glory stands revealed,
Your Only Born, Our Lord,
Who breathed the Spirit over us,
Out of the bosom of the Father;
Through him your glory, honor, praise, and wisdom;
Your goodness, gracefulness, and might,
Endure in your kingdom, thrice holy God,
And spread through Ages of everlasting Ages. Amen.
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And perhaps a poem or two of George Herbert, 1593-1633.
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The Prayer of Manasseh, from the Apocrypha, a stunning prayer of repentance. Here’s an excerpt:
The whole thing can be read here: http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=26864532
The traditional, historical collects of the church follow the same format as the prayer of Manasseh: an address to God, a theological statement about God, a request related to the theological statement, a consequence of the request or a statement of intention, and a closing.
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Could you give a selection? That’s a whole book,
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Maybe I should clarify. Some of my Christian friends support victory notions of what a “good Christian” should think. This introduced many contradictions that I could not resolve in my mind. “On Being a Theologian of the Cross†– Gerhard Forde, resolved some of these inconsistencies.
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“On Being a Theologian of the Cross” – Gerhard Forde
Solved in my mind some of the contradictions that I see what a “good Christian” should think.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamasov, Chapter 4 – A Lady of Little Faith
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Chapter 7 of Mere Christianity. Lord Liar Lunatic chapter
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Ha! I was gonna say “Luther’s commentary on Galatians”. You read my mind.
Honestly, the Small Catechism isn’t a bad choice either. It already is a “portable Christian” on the very very basics. I’m talking about the little one without “explanation”. I mean really, Luther speaks for pretty much all of Protestantism although very few realize it.
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Dallas Willard’s “Knowing Christ Today,” chapter 2–“Exactrly How We Perish For Lack of Knowledge,” and chapter 3, “How Moral Knowledge Disappeared.”
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the sermon on the mount by Jesus, also referrred to as the christ, as recorded in the gospel of Matthew? Or is the bible excluded???
And maybe an abbreviated version of ‘the mark of the christian’ by Fancis Schaeffer.
Bram
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From the “Confessio” of St. Patrick, translated from the Latin by Ludwig Bieler, mid-5th century:
“38. I am greatly God’s debtor, because he granted me so much grace, that through me many people would be reborn in God, and soon after confirmed, and that clergy would be ordained everywhere for them, the masses lately come to belief, whom the Lord drew from the ends of the earth, just as he once promised through his prophets: ‘To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, “Our fathers have inherited naught but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.â€â€™ And again: ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the uttermost ends of the earth.’
39. And I wish to wait then for his promise which is never unfulfilled, just as it is promised in the Gospel: ‘Many shall come from east and west and shall sit at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ Just as we believe that believers will come from all the world,
40. So for that reason one should, in fact, fish well and diligently, just as the Lord foretells and teaches, saying, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,’ and, again, through the prophets: ‘“Behold, I am sending forth many fishers and hunters,†says the Lord,’ et cetera. So it behoved us to spread our nets, that a vast multitude and throng might be caught for God, and so there might be clergy everywhere who baptized and exhorted a needy and desirous people. Just as the Lord says in the Gospel, admonishing and instructing: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always to the end of time.’ And again he says: ‘Go forth into the world and preach the Gospel to all creation. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be condemned.’ And again: ‘This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached throughout the whole world as a witness to all nations; and then the end of the world shall come.’ And likewise the Lord foretells through the prophet: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days (sayeth the Lord) that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams; yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit and they shall prophesy.’ And in Hosea he says: ‘Those who are not my people I will call my people, and those not beloved I will call my beloved, and in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,†they will be called ’Sons of the living God.â€â€™
41. So, how is it that in Ireland, where they never had any knowledge of God but, always, until now, cherished idols and unclean things, they are lately become a people of the Lord, and are called children of God; the sons of the Irish [Scotti] and the daughters of the chieftains are to be seen as monks and virgins of Christ.
42. And there was, besides, a most beautiful, blessed, native-born noble Irish [Scotta] woman of adult age whom I baptized; and a few days later she had reason to come to us to intimate that she had received a prophecy from a divine messenger [who] advised her that she should become a virgin of Christ and she would draw nearer to God. Thanks be to God, six days from then, opportunely and most eagerly, she took the course that all virgins of God take, not with their fathers’ consent but enduring the persecutions and deceitful hindrances of their parents. Notwithstanding that, their number increases, (we do not know the number of them that are so reborn) besides the widows, and those who practise self-denial. Those who are kept in slavery suffer the most. They endure terrors and constant threats, but the Lord has given grace to many of his handmaidens, for even though they are forbidden to do so, still they resolutely follow his example.”
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And I’ll throw some Chesterton in for good measure. He lightly skips over some Catholic specifics here, but he does so mainly in the service of countering the idea that Christians shouldn’t hold to doctrines at all, and as such I think it works out fairly well for an ecumenical reading:
The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic, chap. 7 (1929):
“The message of Christ [said Chesterton’s opponent] was perfectly “simple”: that the cure of everything is Love; but since He was killed (I do not quite know why) for making this remark, great temples have been put up to Him and horrid people called priests have given the world nothing but “stones, amulets, formulas, shibboleths.” They also “quarrel eternally among themselves as to the placing of a button or the bending of a knee.” All this gives no comfort to the unhappy Christian, who apparently wishes to be comforted only by being told that he has a duty to his neighbour. “How many men in the time of their passing get comfort out of the thought of the Thirty-Nine Articles, Predestination, Transubstantiation, the doctrine of eternal punishment, and the belief that Christ will return on the Seventh Day?” The items make a curious catalogue; and the last item I find especially mysterious. But I can only say that, if Christ was the giver of the original and really comforting message of love, I should have thought it did make a difference whether He returned on the Seventh Day. For the rest of that singular list, I should probably find it necessary to distinguish. I certainly never gained any deep and heartfelt consolation from the thought of the Thirty-Nine Articles. I never heard of anybody in particular who did. Of the idea of Predestination there are broadly two views; the Calvinist and the Catholic; and it would make a most uncommon difference to my comfort, if I held the former instead of the latter. It is the difference between believing that God knows, as a fact, that I choose to go to the devil; and believing that God has given me to the devil, without my having any choice at all. As to Transubstantiation, it is less easy to talk currently about that; but I would gently suggest that, to most ordinary outsiders with any common sense, there would be a considerable practical difference between Jehovah pervading the universe and Jesus Christ coming into the room.
“But I touch rapidly and reluctantly on these examples, because they exemplify a much wider question of this interminable way of talking. It consists of talking as if the moral problem of man were perfectly simple, as everyone knows it is not; and then depreciating attempts to solve it by quoting long technical words, and talking about senseless ceremonies without enquiring about their sense. In other words, it is exactly as if somebody were to say about the science of medicine: “All I ask is Health; what could be simpler than the beautiful gift of Health? Why not be content to enjoy for ever the glow of youth and the fresh enjoyment of being fit? Why study dry and dismal sciences of anatomy and physiology; why enquire about the whereabouts of obscure organs of the human body? Why pedantically distinguish between what is labelled a poison and what is labelled an antidote, when it is so simple to enjoy Health? Why worry with a minute exactitude about the number of drops of laudanum or the strength of a dose of chloral, when it is so nice to be healthy? Away with your priestly apparatus of stethoscopes and clinical thermometers; with your ritualistic mummery of feeling pulses, putting out tongues, examining teeth, and the rest! The god Esculapius came on earth solely to inform us that Life is on the whole preferable to Death; and this thought will console many dying persons unattended by doctors.”
“In other words, the Usual Article, which is now some ten thousand issues old, was always stuff and nonsense even when it was new. There may be, and there has been, pedantry in the medical profession. There may be, and there has been, theology that was thin or dry or without consolation for men. But to talk as if it were possible for any science to attack any problem, without developing a technical language, and a method always methodical and often minute, merely means that you are a fool and have never really attacked a problem at all. Quite apart from the theory of a Church, if Christ had remained on earth for an indefinite time, trying to induce men to love one another, He would have found it necessary to have some tests, some methods, some way of dividing true love from false love, some way of distinguishing between tendencies that would ruin love and tendencies that would restore it. You cannot make a success of anything, even loving, entirely without thinking.”
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I’ve always liked this bit in Lewis from “Mere Chrsitianity” (more than a hint of Chesterton in this, actually):
“All the same, the New Testament, without going into details, gives us a pretty clear hint of what a fully Christian society would be like. Perhaps it gives us more than we can take. It tells us that there are to be no passengers or parasites: if a man does not work, he ought not to eat. Every one is to work with his own hands, and what is more, every one’s work is to produce something good: there will be no manufacture of silly luxuries and then of sillier advertisements to persuade us to buy them. And there is to be no “swank” or “side,” no putting on airs. To that extent a Christian society would be what we now call Leftist. On the other hand, it is always insisting on obedience (and outward marks of respect) from all of us to properly appointed magistrates, from children to parents, and (I am afraid this is going to be very unpopular) from wives to husbands. Thirdly, it is to be a cheerful society: full of singing and rejoicing, and regarding worry or anxiety as wrong. Courtesy is one of the Christian virtues; and the New Testament hates what it calls “busybodies.”
“If there were such a society in existence and you or I visited it, I think we should come away with a curious impression. We should feel that its economic life was very socialistic and, in that sense, “advanced,” but that its family life and its code of manners were rather old-fashioned – perhaps even ceremonious and aristocratic. Each of us would like some bits of it, but I am afraid very few of us would like the whole thing. That is just what one would expect if Christianity is the total plan for the human machine. We have all departed from that total plan in different ways, and each of us wants to make out that his own modification of the original plan is the plan itself. You will find this again and again about anything that is really Christian: every one is attracted by bits of it and wants to pick out those bits and leave the rest. That is why we do not get much further: and that is why people who are fighting for quite opposite things can both say they are fighting for Christianity.”
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Lesslie Newbigin. I’m afraid I don’t have any copies of his books to hand, but he talked a lot about epistemology and ‘The Gospel as Public Truth’, definitely deserves a chapter or two.
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check out table of contents:
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from ‘The Body Broken’ Jean Vanier
“So Jesus begins to make the passage
from the one who is healer
to the one who is wounded;
from the man of compassion
to the man in need of compassion;
from the man who cries out:
‘If anyone thirsts let him come to me to drink,’
to the man who cries out:
‘I thirst.’
From announcing the good news to the poor,
Jesus becomes the poor.
He crosses over the boundary line of humanity
which separates those whose needs are satisfied
from those who are broken and cry out in need.”
p. 49
also recommend the section: ‘Call to Wholeness in the Body of Christ’ in same book by Vanier.
The writings of Vanier will be especially meaningful to those who are physically and mentally challenged, and their families, and those who love them.
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The chapter in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment that ends with Raskolnikov, a murderer, asking Sonia, a prostitute, to read to him the story of Lazarus from John’s Gospel.
It’s the clearest presentation of the Gospel I’ve ever seen in a work of fiction, hands down.
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I would include Oscar Cullman’s work on the largely glossed over issue of the bodily ressurection, and the biblical testament to what awaits us after death:
“Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? by Oscar Cullmann”
(found here for online reading for free: http://www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=1115 ) its only 4 chapters long with about 1 and half pages each, so it fits in your definition. As a side note, I just started a new book by N.T. Wright(which is not my submission) called “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Ressurection, and the Mission of the Church”, that feels very much like Cullman’s very dense and very enlightening work that I mentioned above. Here is a short excerpt: “…Furthermore, if life is to issue out of so genuine a death as this a new divine act of creation is necessary. And this act of creation calls back to life not just a part of the man but the whole man — all that God had created and death had annihilated. For Socrates and Plato no new act of creation is necessary. For the body is indeed bad and should not live on. And that part which is to live on, the soul, does not die at all.
If we want to understand the Christian faith in the Resurrection, we must completely disregard the Greek thought that the material, the bodily, the corporeal is bad and must be destroyed, so that the death of the body would not be in any sense a destruction of the true life. For Christian (and Jewish) thinking the death of the body is also destruction of God-created life. No distinction is made: even the life of our body is true life; death is the destruction of all life created by God. Therefore it is death and not the body which must be conquered by the Resurrection.
Only he who apprehends with the first Christians the horror of death, who takes death seriously as death, can comprehend the Easter exultation of the primitive Christian community and understand that the whole thinking of the New Testament is governed by belief in the Resurrection. Belief in the immortality of the soul is not belief in a revolutionary event. Immortality, in fact, is only a negative assertion: the soul does not die, but simply lives on. Resurrection is a positive assertion: the whole man, who has really died, is recalled to life by a new act of creation by God. Something has happened — a miracle of creation! For something has also happened previously, something fearful: life formed by God has been destroyed…”
Peace.
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It’s all good. Just don’t call it the Book of Common Prayer (not historically accurate)
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We’ve had Lewis, but no Chesterton as yet. So to redress that appalling lack ;-), here is something from the last chapter of “The Man Who Was Thursday”, when Lucien Gregory the anarchist faces the six detectives and the President of the Council (and if that description whets your appetite, read the book; stop whatever you are doing right this second, either rush out to the bookshop, download an online version, or see if it’s on Kindle, and read it):
“You! †he cried. “You never hated because you never lived. I know what you are all of you, from first to last—you are the people in power! You are the police—the great fat, smiling men in blue and buttons! You are the Law, and you have never been broken. But is there a free soul alive that does not long to break you, only because you have never been broken? We in revolt talk all kind of nonsense doubtless about this crime or that crime of the Government. It is all folly! The only crime of the Government is that it governs. The unpardonable sin of the supreme power is that it is supreme. I do not curse you for being cruel. I do not curse you (though I might) for being kind. I curse you for being safe! You sit in your chairs of stone, and have never come down from them. You are the seven angels of heaven, and you have had no troubles. Oh, I could forgive you everything, you that rule all mankind, if I could feel for once that you had suffered for one hour a real agony such as I—â€
Syme sprang to his feet, shaking from head to foot.
“I see everything,†he cried, “everything that there is. Why does each thing on the earth war against each other thing? Why does each small thing in the world have to fight against the world itself? Why does a fly have to fight the whole universe? Why does a dandelion have to fight the whole universe? For the same reason that I had to be alone in the dreadful Council of the Days. So that each thing that obeys law may have the glory and isolation of the anarchist. So that each man fighting for order may be as brave and good a man as the dynamiter. So that the real lie of Satan may be flung back in the face of this blasphemer, so that by tears and torture we may earn the right to say to this man, ‘You lie!’ No agonies can be too great to buy the right to say to this accuser, ‘We also have suffered.’
“It is not true that we have never been broken. We have been broken upon the wheel. It is not true that we have never descended from these thrones. We have descended into hell. We were complaining of unforgettable miseries even at the very moment when this man entered insolently to accuse us of happiness. I repel the slander; we have not been happy. I can answer for every one of the great guards of Law whom he has accused. At least—â€
He had turned his eyes so as to see suddenly the great face of Sunday, which wore a strange smile.Â
“Have you,†he cried in a dreadful voice, “have you ever suffered?â€
As he gazed, the great face grew to an awful size, grew larger than the colossal mask of Memnon, which had made him scream as a child. It grew larger and larger, filling the whole sky; then everything went black. Only in the blackness before it entirely destroyed his brain he seemed to hear a distant voice saying a commonplace text that he had heard somewhere, “Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of?â€
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The “Come Hither!” section in the first chapter of Kierkegaard’s _Training in Christianity_.
A beautiful description of Christ’s calling of all to Himself.
Dante, _Paradiso_, Canto XXXIII
The most beautiful description of God and heaven I have ever read. I cry every time I read it.
J. Greshem Machen, _Christianity and Liberalism_, Chapter 5: Christ
Succinct comparison and contrast of the Christ of Christianity with the Christ of Liberalism and Modernism.
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Selection from Chapter 10 of Donald Miller’s Searching For God Knows What:
“Imagine a pamphlet explaining the gospel of Jesus that said something like this:
‘You are the bride to the Bridegroom, and the Bridegroom is Jesus Christ. You must eat of His flesh and drink of His blood to know Him, and your union with Him will make you one, and your oneness with Him will allow you to be identified with Him, His purity allowing God to interact with you, and because of this you will be with Him in eternity, sitting at His side and enjoying his companionship, which will be more fulfilling than an earthly husband or an earthly bride. All you must do to engage God is be willing to leave everything behind, be willing to walk away from your identity, and embrace joyfully the trials and tribulations, the torture and perhaps martyrdom that will come upon you for being a child of God in a broken world working out its own redemption in empty pursuits.’
Though it sounds absurd, this is a much more accurate summation of the gospel of Jesus than the bullet points we like to consider when we think about Christ’s message to humanity.”
— Donald Miller. Searching For God Knows What. Nashville, Tenn.: Nelson, 2004. 162.
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The following is by C.S. Lewis “The Last Battle,”
from the chapter “Further up and Further in.”
“Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou shouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.”
I love the part that says ‘if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves . . .. ‘
A lot of people need to hear this. A lot of people who reject Christianity need to hear this as an antidote to the hypocrisy of so many who call themselves ‘Christian’, but whose behavior is anything but.
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Chapter Three of Jesus Rediscovered by Malcom Muggeridge (1969). In this short chapter, St. Mugg does not bother with “proofs” or “evidences.” He writes briefly and frankly from the viewpoint of a man who was recently an atheist, beginning with this paragraph:
“IS THERE A GOD?
Well, is there? I myself should be very happy to answer with an emphatic negative. Temperamentally, it would suit me well enough to settle for what this world offers, and to write off as wishful thinking, or just the self-importance of the human species, any notion of a divine purpose and a divinity to entertain and execute it. The earth’s sounds and smells and colours are very sweet; human love brings golden hours; the mind at work earns delight. I have never wanted a God, or feared a God, or felt under any necessity to invent one. Unfortunately, I am driven to the conclusion that God wants me.”
If we’re to have fifty chapters, I’ll nominate these two or three pages to be one of them.
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Those interested in the subject might want to check out
An Anthology of Devotional Literature. Also known as “Fellowship of the Saints.” It’s awesome. Highlights of 20 Centuries of devotional writings. We would have to pick some carryovers.
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The guy I get all my theology from, Dante, “The Divine Comedy”, ‘Purgatorio’, Canto XVI, lines 64-105 when on the Terrace of the Wrathful Dante is asking Marco the Lombard how come the world is in the state it is?
Any translation you like, though currently I like the Hollander one,and I cannot resist quoting at least these lines from the abovementioned canto, about the soul issuing from the hands of God:
85 ‘From the hand of Him who looks on it with love
86 before it lives, comes forth, like a little girl
87 who weeps one moment and as quickly laughs,
88 ‘the simple infant soul that has no knowledge
89 but, moved by a joyous maker,
90 gladly turns to what delights it.
Of course, I’d recommend the whole three cantos to anyone, but that is rather more than the twelve pages limit. Don’t just read the “Inferno” and think you know the whole of it. The “Paradiso” is probably the hardest to get through, but even there there are wonderful images, such as having the double ring of twenty-four souls of heavyweight theologians in the heavenly sphere of the Sun compared to a wreath of flowers, dancers at a wedding, and the parts of a clock going “ting!” as it strikes the hours 🙂
Ah, heck: can I throw in another chunk, as long as it’s under the twelve page limit?
‘Paradiso’, Canto XIV, lines 1-66, the blessed souls in the heaven of the Sun explaining the resurrection of the body to Dante, and this excerpt before they begin:
19 As, impelled and drawn by heightened joy,
20 dancers in a round may raise their voices,
21 their pleasure showing in their movements,
22 so, at that eager and devout appeal,
23 the holy circles showed new joy in wheeling
24 as well as in their wondrous song.
25 Whoever here on earth laments that we must die
26 to find our life above knows not the fresh relief
27 found there in these eternal showers.
28 That ever-living One and Two and Three
29 who reigns forever in Three and Two and One,
30 uncircumscribed and circumscribing all,
31 was sung three times by each and every one
32 of these spirits, and with such melody
33 as would be fit reward for any merit.
And for anyone who thinks this is a denominational choice – well, yeah, maybe a bit. On the other hand, he *does* put more named Popes and assorted clergy into Hell than even Martin Luther 😉
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BTW a table of contents for The Portable Atheist with some links to stuff available online (some of the links might be items longer than what is included in the books).
I would also suggest that one selection should be from the Bible given that is the founding text for Christianity. The Hitchen’s book also includes poems so hymns/Christian poems might also be options.
As a non-Christian I’m not going to put in a choice, but, I would be interested to see what people come up with.
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I would lead off with “The Greatest Drama Ever Staged”, an essay by Dorothy L. Sayers, published in 1939, Hodder and Stoughton (London). The whole 13 paragraphs can be read online at http://www.kendallpres.org/articles2/The%20Greatest%20Drama%20Ever%20Staged%20(Dorothy%20Sayers).doc. Sayres was perfectly at home in both the church and the day-to-day world, comfortable in the company of saints and sinners.
“That drama is summarized quite clearly in the creeds of the Church, and if we think it dull it is because we either have never really read those amazing documents or have recited them so often and so mechanically as to have lost all sense of their meaning. The plot pivots upon a single character, and the whole action is the answer to a single central problem: What think ye of Christ?…”
“…The Church’s answer is categorical and uncompromising and it is this: That Jesus Bar-Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, was in fact and in truth, and in the most exact and literal sense of the words, the God “by whom all things were made.†His body and brain were those of a common man; his personality was the personality of God, so far as that personality could be expressed in human terms. He was not a kind of demon pretending to be human; he was in every respect a genuine living man. He was not merely a man so good as to be “like Godâ€; he was God.
Now, this is not just a pious commonplace; it is not commonplace at all.”
I highly recommend reading the rest of this short essay. Sayres and C.S. Lewis shared a talent for communicating with their culture. God grant us that gift today!
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I’ve been waiting for a very long time for them to find you, actually. Haha. Wait ’till they start fighting about which of the traditional BCPs is the ‘right’ one. haha.
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I agree. Now watch the BCP purists come out of the walls and floor 🙂
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The Canon of Eucharistic Rite I, prayer A in the ’79 BCP, plus the Prayer of Humble Access. I’m being a bit of a fanboy, but I can think of no other prayer in the Christian tradition that succinctly presents the gospel and our response to it as that prayer. Pgs. 334-336, and pg. 337.
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