Seeing Beauty & Saying Beautifully

This book by John Piper is an exploration of how poetic effort can be utilized in devotion to God; as evangelism, as exhortation, as edification, etc. Drawing on the lives & work of three great Christian communicators (each of whom is afforded a relevant-facts-only potted biography to place their works into their proper contexts, alongside a rough examination of the linguistic arts each employed in their vocation), Piper develops a cogent & compelling discourse on how "putting things into your own words" is a mighty fine tool in the finite individual's spiritual formation & missional impact.

   The contents proceed as follows:

1. a brief introduction theologically justifying the poetic use of language by Christians in the communication of their faith, hope, & love - despite the common assertions in the New Testament that "lofty speech" is NOT the way to best present the gospel
2. George Herbert - the 16th-century rural pastor who posthumously became known as one of the greatest devotional writers this world has seen. Herbert's pastoral career responsibilities & magisterial poetic gifting are both given due examination, with his spiritual humility & technical grandeur given similar weight in discussion
3. George Whitefield - the 18th-century trans-Atlantic preacher (with, if we're being honest, a borderline unbelievable virtually superhuman* capacity for bringing to gospel to people far & wide**) whose modes of dramatic eloquent enunciation brought many thousands to Christ & laid the foundations for the Great Awakenings that followed in the years after his tour of America
4. C.S. Lewis - the 20th-century atheist-turned-Anglican who, alongside his career as a scholar of ancient literature, became the foremost apologist for the Christian faith (despite several decidedly heterodox positions that he held compared to most evangelicals of his & our era) via combination of romantic & rationalistic apprehension of Christianity's truth claims; as expressed in both imaginative & logical means
5. a final concluding chapter which briefly restates everything learned from these three great disciples of Christ & challenges us to follow them in their following of & expression of such - we may not all be poets but we all have the capacity for poetic effort, and handedly manifesting such is a tried & true means of deepening our own grasp of the divine just as much as it does communicate such encountered truth to our audiences

   After the concluding section on how each of these very different dudes drew upon the fountain of inspiration that is God*** to make more of their faith, and how each has lessons to teach us about ongoing contemporary ministry in ways fruitful both to writer & reader (or speaker & hearer, as in Whitefield's case) - well, that's the book. I found this a hugely edifying & instructive read as a poet myself, so would highly recommend it to Christians curious about the more daring aspects of expression as a fantastic source of real-life Example in How-To-Do... I dare say even non-Christians who already have a creative bent will find much in here to make them think deeply & feel seenly about Truth.

* Dude preached roughly a thousand sermons a year for thirty years. Which, even given his barely-existent social life outside of itinerant gospel proclamation, must have left him with minimal time for the actual preparation of said sermons - I choose thus to believe that even two centuries before Red Bull was available he must have been largely, especially, winging it.

** An interesting knot of historical biography is that Whitefield was a slave-owner who also dedicated huge amounts of effort in evangelising slaves, who he saw as >potentially< spiritually equal to whites. While there were no doubt abolitionists who pre-dated him, and he was it's fair to say never even one of these, it is also true that he was chiefly mourned by the Blacks in America following his death, given his commitment to & massive success in bringing them the gospel.

*** Having learned much more about George Herbert from this book that I didn't from reading him directly, I do have to confess that I still find William Blake a more compelling Christian voice in poetry's form; were I the staff manager of the Historical Church, yes I may well happily let Herbert write liturgy, and Lewis would have free rein on producing apologetic tracts for non-believers, and obviously Whitefield would be among those on the regular pulpit roster - but it would be Blake's outrageous imagination that I would most like to lead Sunday school.

the Vision of God

This book (available from the Internet Archive from that link for free) by Nicholas of Cusa* is an underrated classic of Christian mysticism. It eschews the argumentative polemic format & instead takes on a kind of prolonged doxology - which fully befits its core theme, the infinity of God. The first half circles around the implications of the ideas that God is omniscient & omnipresent, everywhere & everywhen & thus all-seeing, all-knowing; the theological groundwork discussed here is drawn out in subjective implication for the believer in how they relate to [i.e. can see, can know] God as, being as they are, finite. The second half is dedicated to unpacking the depths of the Christian idea of God as Trinity, and how this relates to philosophical notions of infinitude; followed with unpacking the nest of complexities in how Jesus relates to God as infinite - a hefty task which in my opinion Nicholas undertakes well. While perhaps not as original in content as some of his other works (see the * below) as this is merely expanding on well-trodden ground within Christian thinking, this book still explores some very cogent angles about essentials of orthodox faith & does so in beautiful language; definitely worth a read for any Christian wanting to pick at the scab of ignorance that has formed over the cut in their spiritual skin made by cognizance that we, as finite human sinners, somehow have to relate to an infinite incomprehensible perfect Lord.

* Yeh, what with this after this and that I've been reading a lot of him recently. What can I say? Interesting thinker!

the Lord of the Rings: book five

This book is the second half of The Return of the King, the final instalment of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which as with the rest of the series I've read before (see hence that link going to my prior post about this) but am re-enjoying thanks to dogged YouTuber Tolkien Trash's project to read the series in full, aloud, live, a chapter a week.

Isaac and I

This book is the autobiography of Chris Searle, who more or less dedicated his life to the promotion* of poetry - the eponymous Isaac being his greatest artistic influence, Isaac Rosenberg, an East London Jewish poet & painter who was killed at 27 in World War One, and according to Searle deserves to be much more widely known & read. Searle grew up with a hunger for the poetic, and carried this passion with him throughout quite a travelled life - he taught in Canada & the Caribbean for a stint before returning to the familiar East End, where he almost immediately got fired from his role as a secondary school English teacher because he published a collection of his students' work. It all worked out sooner or later thanks to a combination of union pressure & his outraged students going on strike, making headlines as they did so. Political consciousness & activist struggle are wrapped closely up with his understanding of the functional social power of spoken word, as we see throughout - as he brilliantly puts it, "the further dimension of true poetry is also the power to become others in the constant provocation and 'penetration' of revolutionary human empathy". Poetry is intrinsically democratic, egalitarian, progressive, and Searle's own ethics on socialism & anti-racism demonstrate that he fully comprehends this & follows the path of speakable truth; I was mildly alarmed on a few occasions at the sheer backwardness of the surrounding culture he found himself in, especially regarding race, but I suppose that goes to show how far we've come since the mid/late 20th century. Overall this is a very readable book & a solid testament to the liberatory power of creative expression, be that through individual influence & inspiration as with Chris & Isaac** or with grander collective acts of embodied imagination shown in the activist tendencies running throughout. A final thing I will say is that for an autobiography Chris is remarkably uninterested in talking about himself - it's always "this kid or colleague or acquaintance inspired me in such & such a way" and the text is littered with quotes or the entireties of poems by people who he's had in his life, which adds an erratic but edifying diversity to the reading experience. I doubt you've heard of Chris Searle*** so this is not a book to read out of celebrity curiosity - but if you're looking for a grounded, relatable, inspiring story about the active power of art, community, and hope, this is a good book.

* He is clearly very passionate about poetry, but from how he talks about it in the course of this book it seems he cares less for the aesthetic form of how it is written or performed & more with ways in which it can empower people to express & celebrate themselves together. Quite inspiring stuff to me given my ongoing role as host of a monthly spoken word evening (which yes is still going really well thanks for asking)

** Yes, I did buy this book because it has my name in the title. My copy's signed by Chris even - albeit to Paul... whoever you are Paul, I hope Chris doesn't find out you dumped his signed autobiography off to Oxfam.

*** Or case in point Isaac Rosenberg, sadly.

Humility and the Elevation of the Mind to God

This book by Thomas á Kempis was something of a disappointment (unlike the author's more famous work). Don't get me wrong, it's a classic of western Christian spiritual education, and fully deserves to be read as such - but it's essentially an elongated series of urgent commendations for the reader to discipline themselves in holy obedience, offering very little practical insight of substance or originality in its coverage of humility as a virtue to be cultivated (thankfully other accessible short books exist that do) nor consideration of the via contemplativa, which I assumed from the title this book would at least deal with in some detail (again). So yeah, I didn't get much from reading this, but that doesn't mean that nobody will - if you're yourself exploring Christian spirituality and want to go deeper then the advices and admonishments herein will likely be useful to you. And even if you find after all that they're not so much, it's a very short text (I read it in a single ninety-minute sitting) so you won't be investing wasted time.

On Peaceful Unity of Faith

This book [available as a free .pdf online from that link] by Nicholas of Cusa is, as with his other work I recently discovered, remarkably ahead of its time for what it is - what it is being a holistic statement of Christocentric religious universalism. In a series of dialogues between the Word of God and Saints Peter & Paul on the explaining side & various representatives of the nations on the questioning side, we start by exploring the conceptual foundations of what we philosophically and/or religiously consider "wisdom" to be. Cusa defines it as divine oneness, which is the foundation for his next argument for the perfect simple unity of the Trinity, despite it seeming such a bizarre doctrine to people who have grown up in other faiths. Next the conversation turns to Christology, building on conceptions of divinity and common understandings of human nature to sketch a cosmic anatomy of the Son of God that, while far from intuitive, is straightforward enough to grasp, orthodox enough to grow into, and compelling to ponder.

   I won't lie, I was hoping for more interfaith dialogue from this book.* It's not a long read by any measure but I would have happily spent twice as long reading it should there have been considerations of the Indian & Chinese religions - but alas we are left with solely the Abrahamic trio. I suppose Germany in the mid-1400's is quite a way away from the heartlands of Hindu or Buddhist worshippers. Despite this quibble I found this a very engaging and readable text, and though it is nowhere near sufficient as a total apologetic of Christ over the limited fragments of truth contained [spermatikos logos innit] in other religious traditions it does still provide some very deft philosophical ripostes for the two biggest stumbling blocks in communicating intellectually the fabric of Christianity to those of the other Abrahamic faiths.

* Beyond mere apologetic dialogue I was half-expecting it to be in & of itself an attempt to sketch the metaphysical & theological outlines of all religions brought together in peaceful unity, á la Blake's All Religions Are One.

On Learned Ignorance

This book [available from that link as a .pdf online for free] is a text by 15th-century German Catholic cardinal & polymath Nicholas of Cusa, although to read it (apart from its obvious grounding in Christian orthodoxy) you could be pardoned for assuming it's a work of ancient Greek philosophy, so inchoate & fundamental does it seem in its scope & gist.

   Whereas other medieval mystical Christian texts concern themselves with the nature & practice of contemplation or the spiritual rigours of a life as a disciple, in this extremely concise & precise work Nicholas presents us with a solid axiomatic procedural argument for the fundamental incomprehensibility of God in his infinitude, yet given the nature of that infinitude he remains knowable, relatable to, enjoyable even, in his personal triune essence. The logic undergirding this position draws on mathematical geometric truth [similarly to Spinoza's method but superior, as it employs geometry as essential fact rather than merely the axiomatic method of logical procedure], pure as it is, to fabricate images of infinity & possibility, thereby to provide handholds for the imagination in its fruitless attempts to imagine anything more transcendently perfectly plausibly than the Trinity itself in its divine community & personality.

   This is easily the most compelling argument for Christianity that I have ever read - an apologetic for our admittedly weird & paradoxical notions of God in his truest fullest being that proceeds not from eclectic esoterica or theological winds but from extremely basic self-evident truths about consciousness, cognizance, structured thought & imaginings & possibility, walking you straight up to the doors of perception of God then ringing the doorbell & running away, leaving you to stand empty-handed & dry-mouthed to explain yourself to the triune God whose ineffable presence has just been more or less proven yet about whom you realise you can say or know nothing suitable. God is bigger, God is more beautiful, God is far beyond - as much as right here. This text achieves what in my view is one of the most outlandish victories in the history of philosophy, and I am alarmed that old Nick isn't better-known (see - he doesn't even get a single mention in Russell's History); it's also extremely readable, far more so than the majority of philosophy or theology books that pop up on this blog. I would implore anyone to read it & take a serious hammer of intentionality to see whether there are any cracks in the edifice of this text's idea, because I can't discern any.

   I'll leave you with a copy-paste of the book's contents page, as the chapter titles alone give a clear idea of how the argument proceeds:

1. How it is that knowing is not-knowing.

2. Preliminary clarification of what will follow.

3. The precise truth is incomprehensible.

4. The Absolute Maximum (coinciding with the Minimum) is understood incomprehensibly.

5. The Maximum is one.

6. The Maximum is Absolute Necessity.

7. The trine and one Eternity.

8. Eternal generation.

9. The eternal procession of union.

10. An understanding of trinity in oneness transcends all things.

11. Mathematics assists us very greatly in apprehending various divine [truths].

12. The way in which mathematical signs ought to be used in our undertaking.

13. The characteristics of a maximum, infinite line.

14. An infinite line is a triangle.

15. The maximum triangle is a circle and a sphere.

16. In a symbolic way the Maximum is to all things as a maximum line is to [all] lines.

17. Very deep doctrines from the same [symbolism of an infinite line].

18. From the same [symbolism] we are led to an understanding of the participation in being.

19. The likening of an infinite triangle to maximum trinity.

20. Still more regarding the Trinity. There cannot be fourness, [fiveness], etc., in God.

21. The likening of an infinite circle to oneness.

22. How God's foresight unites contradictories.

23. The likening of an infinite sphere to the actual existence of God.

24. The name of God; affirmative theology.

25. The pagans named God in various ways in relation to created things.

26. Negative theology.

Ignorance of the learned type described herein is a powerful humbling tool in the quest to know God; here, with brute-force mathematical logical brushstrokes, Nicholas of Cusa makes it easy - we are able to shake the hand, in a tiny, silent, virtually meaningless yet utterly unignorable manner, of the triune God who defies knowledge.

Fox's Socks

This book, by Julia Donaldon & illustrated by Axel Scheffler (the duo of Gruffalo fame), is a perfectly framed lift-the-flap book for children under five or so. It follows a fox who is searching various locations in his home for his socks, discovering various other items of clothing beneath the flaps on the way. The pictures are delightful, the language is simple & the rhyme scheme satisfying; a great one for reading with the grandkids.*

* Which is presumably why my parents have it, I don't imagine they're reading this themselves recreationally. Yes, I'm still at my family home for the holiday season - I have my own stack of books to read, but this took me a minute or two to breeze through so it doesn't really count as a meaningful diversion from my own list. It is, interestingly, a very appropriate book for me to have clocked in as the first read of the new year - my mother's surname is Fox** and I recieved a surprisingly large number of socks*** for Christmas, so maybe that combination of factors subconsciously oriented me toward this book.

** As such, the house is strewn with artworks, mugs, a stuffed doorstop, etc, that feature or resemble foxes - capped off with a real roadkill fox head as you go up the stairs.

*** About half of the socks that I currently own have holes in the heel or toe, which I personally don't mind, but my parents seem to perceive this as a sad state of affairs.