On the Usefulness of Fables

Excerpts from Philipp Melanchthon's short treatise (1526 or so) 'On the Usefulness of Fables':

'There is altogether nothing more beautiful and pleasant than the truth, but it is too far removed from the sight and eyes of men for it to be beheld and known fortuitously. The minds of children need to be guided and attracted to it step by step by various enticements, so that they may then contemplate more closely the thing which is the most beautiful of all, but, alas, all too unclear and unknown to mortals... Therefore, extremely sagacious men have devised some tales which first rouse by wonder the children's minds that are sleeping as if in lethargy. For what seems more unusual to us than that a wolf speak with a horse, a lion with a little fox or an oak with a gourd, all in the manner of men?...

'I believe that fables were first invented with that intention, because it appeared that the indolent minds of children could not be roused more quickly by any other way of speaking... For we see that the most serious and wisest of men have used this kind of teaching, and I cannot say easily what a great public evil it is that it is now banished from the schools. The learned admire the sagaciousness of the poet Homer so greatly that they place him beyond the common condition of mortals and clearly think that his mind was roused by some divine power. Yet he wrote about the war between frogs and mice...

'[Finally,] there are so many fables in the Holy Scriptures that it is sufficiently clear that the heavenly God Himself considered this kind of speech most powerful for bending the minds of men. I ask you, what greater praise can fall to fables than that the heavenly God also approves of them?'

In a Form Which Is Strange to Us

'Thus we must be very much on our guard that we do not sometime become set in our minds, that we do not resist Christ and refuse to believe in Him, not realizing when, where, how, and through whom He is speaking to us. And almost always it is the case that He speaks to us in the place, the time, the manner, and through the person that we do not think He should. As He Himself says, "The wind blows where it wills (not where we will or think), and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes" (John 3:8). For He is near us and in us, but always in a form which is strange to us, not in the appearance of glory but in humility and gentleness, so that He is not thought to be who He really is.'

- Martin Luther, Lectures on Romans, Luther's Works 25, pp. 242-43

Freezing Repetitions and the Spirit of Play - Theophilus North, Again

A few people have asked about the quotes from Thornton Wilder's novel Theophilus North that I used a few weeks ago in my talk at the Mockingbird Conference in New York. The first comes at the end of the chapter 'Diana Bell', in which a woman who is trying to elope slowly realizes she is not really in love with the man whom she is trying to marry. She discovers instead that she is playing out once again an old story in her life, without realizing it; one which has repeated itself before and has more to do with trying to escape her difficult parents than with love or marriage or who she really is. I talked about how this moment towards the end, this 'freezing realization of the repetitions in her life', is a kind of experience of the

Spirit of God.

I carried her suitcases up to the darkened entrance [of her house]. She said, ‘Hold me a minute.’ I put my arms around her. It was not an embrace; our faces did not touch. She wanted to cling for a moment to something less frozen than the lofty structure under which we stood; she was trembling after the freezing realization of the repetitions in her life. ‘Good night,’ she said. ‘Good night, Miss Bell.’

The second quotation comes from the first chapter of the novel, just after the main character, Theophilus, quits his unhappy job teaching at a boarding school. I talked about how this little sequence, which sets up much of the later action in the book, can be read as a kind of moment of being filled with the Spirit. It captures somewhat, by way of analogy, how a truly unconditional picture of God's grace in human lives – of the life that is justified by faith – manifests in a spirit of humor, freedom, wonder, and childlike play. Not entirely unlike this blog!

From the moment I resigned, two days before leaving the school, I discovered that several things were happening to me in my new state of freedom. I was recapturing the spirit of play – not the play of youth which is games (aggression under the restraint of rules), but the play of childhood which is all imagination, which improvises. I became light-headed. The spirit of play swept away the cynicism and indifference into which I had fallen. Moreover, a readiness for adventure re-awoke in me – for risk, for intruding myself into the lives of others, for extracting fun from danger.

To see the touching and hilarious ways this 'anointing' works itself out, you must read the rest of this extraordinary novel.

Mockingbird Glossary: Pneumatology aka The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

A basic theological question in Christianity is: how is God present to us today? In New Testament times, the answer was pretty easy: God is present to us in Jesus of Nazareth. If you lived back then and you wanted to be near to God, a good bet was to go find this Jesus character and follow him around.

Things, of course, are somewhat different now. Jesus is no longer present on earth the way he was in the Gospels. Indeed, God can often seem completely absent from the world. It is much harder to say with certainty ‘God is here’ or ‘God is there’ than it was when Jesus was wandering around Galilee and eating meals and being born in mangers.

Perhaps anticipating that this would be a problem, the Holy Spirit was sent to be with us in his place (John 16:7). So nowadays when we talk about how we know God, how we experience him, how he is involved in the world from day to day, we are talking first and foremost about the Spirit. The theological term for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is ‘pneumatology’.
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A Charismatic Theology of the Cross: Christoph Blumhardt

The following is inspired by Mockingbird contributor and conference speaker Dr. Simeon Zahl’s essay “Reformation Pessimism or Pietist Personalism? The Problem of the Holy Spirit in Evangelical Theology” which can be found in the (very) recently published new volume, New Perspectives for Evangelical Theology.

For Christians who have been given to see through the fog of human life and its inherent sinful trappings, there is often a deep uncertainty when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Modern Pentecostal theology has told us that humanity can easily perceive the movement of the Spirit in everyday life. We are told that the Spirit is at work when we do the right thing. We are told that the Spirit can help us make choices in our life through supernatural signs. We are also (often) told that our deepest desires will be fulfilled if we asked God in the proper way. Yet when I look at my life and the world, far too often such promises seem empty or precarious. I know myself to be too easily self-deceived. I know how easily I can coerce God to bless what I sinfully want. What can seem to be God’s hand at work is often my subconscious’ doing.

Does Luther help solve this dilemma? Yes, and no. It is Luther’s low anthropology which sees through the false piety of spiritual “enthusiasm.” Luther knows that we cannot properly perceive God’s work.

For Luther, God is only known through the proclamation of the word. As Zahl says,

“For Luther [in his treatise Against the Heavenly Prophets and in the Smalcald Articles], any claim to experience of the Spirit apart from the direct instrumentality of the ‘external Word’ (verbum externum) is false by definition. This view of the Word is strikingly high. The action of the Spirit in the world is tied so completely and directly to the scriptural text as to border on the magical. Luther is saying that in the post-apostolic church the Spirit will never act in a decisive way in a person’s life apart from during a sermon or the reception of the sacraments. ‘Damascus’ experiences, for example, do not happen anymore—God has chosen to speak instead through the Bible alone.”

Yet this, to me, seems to be a very limited view of God’s work in my life and the world. Revelation does not only occur from eleven to twelve o'clock on Sunday morning. Yet how can God be known without finding the projections of my ego? 

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt: A Solution?
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Selena Gomez on Spirit-Inspired Sanctification

Selena Gomez, Disney channel star of Wizards of Waverly Place, has come out of nowhere with a song that addresses some of the key issues in what true Spirit-inspired sanctification looks and feels like. The song is called "Naturally". "It's intuitive", she sings, "you don't have to try".

Note especially the pregnant use of the category of "breath" and the reference to Eastern Orthodox theology ("your energy"). Also, the term "baby" means "Holy Spirit".

It comes naturally, it comes naturally

You follow what you feel inside
It's intuitive, you don't have to try
It comes naturally, mmmm it comes naturally

And it takes my breath away
What you do, so naturally

You are the thunder and I am the lightning...
And to me it's exciting
When you know it's meant to be
Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally
When you're with me, baby

You have a way of moving me
A force of nature, your energy
It comes naturally
It comes naturally

And it takes my breath away (Everytime)
What you do, so naturally

Against Theology? The Holy Spirit as the Thief in the Night

Some fascinating and slightly enigmatic thoughts from Christoph Blumhardt on the Holy Spirit:

"It has now become clear to me that what is decisive in the Kingdom of God is never a single dogmatically fixed and systematized teaching; rather, it is the living God alone that is decisive... But it has also, further, become clear to me that this living intervention of God never repeats itself once and for all according to a certain schema, or is carried out mechanically through means of grace. The intervention of God comes much more like a thief in the night."

"[In the history of the church,] whenever the outpouring of the Holy Spirit ceased, what followed was always a renewed giving of the Law... The radicalism of the Apostle Paul against all statutory Law-giving has justified for all time the prayer for a new outpouring of the Spirit."


Christoph F. Blumhardt (1842-1919) was a South German Lutheran minister and theologian who had all sorts of interesting things to say about the Spirit. He was known as a faith-healer, and developed something like a "charismatic theology of the cross". He was also the only well-known German clergyman to oppose militaristic nationalism in World War 1 on theological grounds, and one of the first to join the Social Democratic Party (for the latter, he was immediately defrocked). For these reasons and others, he is known, I think rightly, as a prophetic/ saintly figure in certain theological circles. Karl Barth called him one of the few theologians since Schleiermacher who "did not bow the knee to Baal". These quotations are from his book Gedanken aus dem Reiche Gottes.

Some Light Thoughts for the Day: Rowan Williams on Luther and the Cross-Shattered Church

Happy thoughts from The Wound of Knowledge by Rowan Williams, taken from the excellent chapter on Luther. I would make an eyebrow/ Dumbledore/ beard joke, but let's face it, that one is pretty much played out.

Anyway, read on for that comment by the Archbishop of Canterbury on Luther's relationship to Rhineland mysticism you've been searching for:


"This is the essence of Christian humility, the recognition of one's total poverty, the 'emptying out' of human wisdom and human righteousness. It is a true 'coming to oneself', in that... it calls things by their proper names, penetrates the appearance, the illusion of being successful and at home in the world, and unveils the truth of human exigency." (p. 151)

"To know forgiveness in the midst of hell because of the cross of Christ is the true criterion of the Christian faith." (p. 152)

"Luther was deeply influenced by the heritage of the Rhineland mystics. But what is different is the insistence that the birth of the Word in the soul can only come after the entry into dereliction: God is born out of the hell of abandonment. It is both the triumph of 'experiential theology' and the wreck of a mere theology of experience." (p. 154)

"The Reformation put a question of the utmost gravity to all Christians, a question about the continuity and dependability of human response to God. It affirmed that the Church was capable of error; that no amount of scholastic tidiness could guarantee fidelity to God; that there was in the Church no secure locus of unquestionable authority. It pointed eloquently to human brokenness, the failure of reason and order. But it did so only to claim triumphantly that the Church's security lay in this very failure, in the insecurity and un-rootedness which drove it always back to its spring in the Word made broken flesh. Against the self-sufficiency of Christendom is set - rightly and decisively - the cross. To Christians looking for a sign, an assurance, it offered only the 'sign of the Son of Man', God hidden in the death of Christ... Luther is a reminder to Catholic and Protestant alike that the strength of Christianity is its refusal to turn away from the central and unpalatable facts of human self-destructiveness; that it is there, in the bitterest places of alienation, that the depth and scope of Christ's victory can be tasted, and the secret joy which transforms all experience from within can come to birth, the hidden but all-pervading liberation." (p. 160-61)

Mockingbird at the Movies: 8 Reasons to See Dark City

A few days ago I finally saw the 1998 science fiction cult classic Dark City, and it was pretty awesome. So here are 8 reasons to see it, if you are into that sort of thing. And by that sort of thing, I mean dark, well-crafted science fiction parables about life and human nature.

1. Awesome trailer, including taglines like "In a world where night never ends, where man has no past, and humanity has no future..."



2. It was directed by Alex Proyas, the same guy who did The Crow, which I haven't seen since high school but remember being pretty cool back then (particularly the scene of the Crow running on a rooftop while a NIN cover of "Dead Souls" by Joy Division is playing). So, 90s high school comic-geek nostalgia, which I know is high on most people's agenda.

3. Speaking of nostalgia, Dark City revolves in large part around a guy trying to get back to his childhood, which he remembers as happy, as opposed to his current life, which is not. It also raises the insightful but depressing question of whether things we remember fondly were ever actually as good as we remember. (Answer: they were not, but there's still hope!)

4. Kiefer Sutherland, aka Jack Bauer, is in it, doing his best impression of Igor (as in, Frankenstein's helper) as a mad scientist. I can't tell if he is brilliantly cast in this role, or horribly miscast. It's definitely not in between. I think it all depends on your sense of irony.

5. It's actually quite intelligent and clever-- as DZ put it, "like a really good, long episode of the Twilight Zone". Sort of The Chronicles of Riddick meets The Truman Show, as long as you think like me that Riddick was one of the better movies of the past decade. Which I am sure you do. The basic plot of Dark City deals quite powerfully with the paranoid but also deeply Christian idea that our lives are much worse than they seem, more than we are even aware. Happy ending though, which is always nice, and also Christian.

6. Great set design and atmosphere, inspired by German expressionist movies like Metropolis, Nosferatu, and M, though especially Metropolis. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow's got nothing on Dark City.


7. It has a brilliant and theologically powerful (to me) resolution to a relationship torn by adultery. Imputation really taken seriously. Oh yeah, and Jennifer Connelly is in it, but don't worry it's not like Requiem for a Dream. [Dark City does have a little nudity however, you have been warned]

8. [Spoiler alert] Finally, and most importantly, really cool psychic mind-battle finale.

Reinhold Niebuhr on Obama, the Recession, and Creative Despair

"[T]he course of history, particularly in the past two centuries, has proved the earlier identification of growth and progress to be false. We have, or ought to have, learned, particularly from the tragedies of contemporary history, that each new development of life, whether in individual or social terms, presents us with new possibilities of realizing the good in history; that we have obligations corresponding with these new possibilities; but that we also face new hazards on each new level and that the new level of historic achievement offers us no emancipation from contradictions and ambiguities to which all life in history is subject. We have learned, in other words, that history is not its own redeemer. The 'long run' of it is no more redemptive in the ultimate sense than the 'short run'.

It is this later development of modern history which has given the Reformation vision of the Christian faith a new relevance. No apology is necessary for assigning so great a pedagogical significance to the lessons of history. The truth contained in the gospel is not found in human wisdom. Yet it may be found at the point where human wisdom and human goodness acknowledge their limits; and creative despair induces faith. Once faith is induced it becomes truly the wisdom which makes 'sense' out of a life and history which would otherwise remain senseless. This is possible for individuals in any age, no matter what its historical circumstances.

"But it cannot be denied that historical circumstances may be more or less favourable to the inducement of the 'Godly sorrow' which worketh repentance. There are periods of hope in history in which the Christian faith would seem to be irrelevant, because history itself seems to offer both the judgment and the redemption which the Christian faith finds in the God who has been revealed in Christ. There are other periods of disillusionment when the vanity of such hopes is fully revealed. We have lived through such centuries of hope and we are now in such a period of disillusionment. The centuries of historical hope have well nigh destroyed the Christian faith as a potent force in modern culture and civilization. We do not maintain that the period of disillusionment in which we now find ourselves will necessarily restore the Christian faith. It has merely re-established its relevance. There is always the alternative of despair, the 'sorrow of the world', to the creative despair which induces a new faith.

"If, however, the modern generation is to be helped to find life meaningful without placing an abortive confidence in the mere historical growth, it is incumbent upon those who mediate the truth of the gospel to this generation, to accept and not to reject whatever truth about life and history has been learned in these past centuries of partial apostasy."

From The Nature and Destiny of Man, Vol. 2, pp. 213-14. The original lectures on which this is based were given in the Fall of 1939, shortly after the start of World War II. I think it is cool that he is Obama's favorite philosopher/ theologian.

N.B.: Reinhold Niebuhr is not to be confused with his brother, H. Richard Niebuhr (also a theologian), or his nephew, Richard Reinhold Niebuhr (also a theologian), or his third cousin, H. Niebuhr Richard Reinhold Reinhold (not a theologian).

Sci-Fi or Fantasy? I say both!

Kelly Clarkson and Moses, Meet Wilfried Joest and the Supremes

Earlier today I was pondering the old question of what Kelly Clarkson, Moses, and the Supremes have in common with 20th century Lutheran theologian Wilfried Joest.

Fortunately for us all, I finally hit on the answer!

They all agree that we need to stop what we’re doing and just kind of chill out.

It's obvious once you start looking for it:


Stop! In the name of love.

- The Supremes


God begins his work with us when our own activity goes quiet—when we have become passive before him, both inwardly and outwardly. The zero point of human activity is the place where God does his work.

- Wilfried Joest, Gesetz und Freiheit: Das Problem des Tertius usus legis bei Luther und die neutestamentliche Parainese, p. 25


Be still, let it go… Slow, slow it down Why do we run? We’re missing so much babe Just lay in my arms for a while Be still, be still now.

- “Be Still” by Kelly Clarkson


The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
- Exodus 14:14


Q.E.D.

Top Five Best Fantasy Novels

I am sure we all have our own views on which are the five best fantasy novels, but I thought I would throw in my own two cents on this important topic. For those who are not entirely clear on what I mean by ‘fantasy novel’, I am referring to those books that are often shelved along with science fiction in your local Borders, and which can sometimes be confused with romance novels from the covers, even though this is a HUGE mistake. (I think.)

But first, some basic principles for what makes a good fantasy novel:

1. A good fantasy novel follows the classic storyline. The main hero rises from obscurity to become powerful and respected; he (and it’s almost always a he, go figure) ends up together with a sassy, powerful, gorgeous girl way above his pay-grade (or several girls! I’m looking at you, Rand Al’Thor); and he plays the crucial role in the defeat of some newly-returned ancient evil of apocalyptic proportions.

2. It’s not just one novel, it’s a multi-volume series. Very long but not overwhelmingly long. Three to Five volumes at 500-800 pages a pop is generally the sweet spot. The point is to escape from the mundane normal life you lead (or, to put a positive and theological spin on it, to get in touch with the deeper truths about good and evil and the End Times that are hidden but powerful realities in the world, and with the power of giving yourself utterly over to a cause, especially when you have friends to help you along the way (church)). You need a lot of pages to get a really satisfactory escape.

3. It is well-written. ‘What?’ I hear you say. ‘Isn’t well-written fantasy novel an oxymoron?’ The obvious answer is yes. Fantasy novels usually go astray when they try to get too literary. Their job is to evoke in very straightforward language an exciting world, and a story that follows a standard pattern within that world. This means that compared with real literature, or even average literature, they are pretty bad. But there is an art to writing a fantasy novel well. The language needs to be imaginatively evocative, but without trying too hard.

You can tell a good fantasy novel from a bad one a mile away, mainly by the character and place names. If you are unable to see the quality difference between good names like Tyrion Lannister (a mistreated prince), Asmodean (corrupted sorcerer, now very evil), Minas Morgul (a dark and evil city), and The Stone of Farewell (a sad and ancient meeting spot where great things once happened), and bad names like Sir Sparhawk (a hero we are somehow supposed to take seriously), Applecore (a feisty fairy), Rooftoppers (tiny beings, known only to a few, who live on a castle roof), The Elf Queen of Shannara (one of the worst titles in a sea of bad novel titles), and Tebreille din Gelyn South Wind (a magical sailor lady)... then fantasy novels unfortunately are not for you.

4. The writer pulls off the ending well. This is extremely difficult, because there is basically only one way to end a long fantasy series well: the defeat of the apocalyptic evil has to entail a massive personal cost to the hero, on a scale unprecedented in the earlier books in the series (which were already full of massive personal cost to the hero), and it needs to have a basically happy but bittersweet resolution. Usually this cost involves dying and coming back in some way (again, go figure), but it can be accomplished other ways. A magical object is often involved, but this can’t be the sole literary device for the ending, or it is too obvious and boring. Only one fantasy series really pulls all of these principles off well—I’ll give you a hint, the title has something to do with sovereignty over hand jewelry, and apparently took place in New Zealand—and even that one doesn’t really have the girl part (bummer). Actually, our number two (see below) does a good job too. Anyway this dearth of quality may or may not be an indicator of how lame fantasy novels really are, even though they are awesome…

With these principles in mind then, at last, my top five multi-volume fantasy series:

1. That one whose title I couldn’t remember, involving the jewelry and the small people, by that English professor guy.

2. Harry Potter. Sorry, that’s just the way it is. This means that you, O reader who loves Harry Potter but not other fantasy novels, are geekier than you know. And you, O geeky fanboy fantasy writer, have been trumped by a children’s author.

3. Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams. It’s not the best on any of our four counts, but it does the best job of being very solid without any huge flaws. It actually ends!

4. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Yes, this stupid series is way too long (I remember once joking with DZ when I was a kid that the final volume might not come out until I was in college! …I am now five years out of college and it is not out yet), and it is not very good in the middle. But at its best, this series blows all but our number one out of the water, and the latest couple were actually quite good again. Jordan unfortunately passed away recently, and the final volume is being completed by some guy named Brandon Sanderson.

5. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. Many would put this one in the number two or three spot, because Martin is a much better writer than anyone else currently in the field, and he has actually done something quite new and contemporary in intentionally muddying the line between who is a hero and who is a villain. The problem is that he violates principle number one pretty badly to do so, and in the end, let’s face it, if I wanted something dark and meandering and literary and cynical rather than cathartic and full of old-school good vs. evil awesomeness, I would not be reading a fantasy novel.

Melanchton

A great quote from the early edition of the reformer's Systematic Theology, courtesy of Simeon Zahl:

"The Christian will acknowledge that nothing is less in his power than his heart."