This is the best since Blake and Doré.
The painter has caught the essential allegory of Book I. For the majority of the world who do not share my enthusiasm for Milton's epics, Paradise Lost is a retelling of the first three chapters of Genesis, filling out the details and sweeping under it all of what Alexander Pope invited his readers to "expatiate fre" about.
Note the huge, naturalistic--almost photographic--eye that represents The Word. It is present in every panel of the scroll, but for all its realism its details are quite Egyptian in form and reminiscent of the All-Seeing Eye that dominates the Masonic-derived image on the one-dollar bill from the top of the pyramid. But there are plenty of counterfeits of The Word also, the eyes that occupy the whole heads of many of the creatures. It made me ask 'What is the opposite of the Word, the Truth? Obviously, the lie that is the truth of Satan the rebel, the destroyer who destroys for the sake of destroying.' As a story, Milton's verse is so compelling that you want to know the ending, even if you already know what it is. But is it a necessary outcome?
I was first struck by the similarity, even identity, of detail in the tees, the vines, the branches in the first details we see, and no surprise, it morphs into the scales of the serpent.
The council of Pandemonium contains angels who look much like contemporary demons, and it's no joke just what Satan and his rebel angels may have morphed into. That is the value and the delight of allegory: to hold up the mirror to nature by identifying qualities that are so complete in the personification in essences and personae not of our direct experience as to give us back an image of our own collective and individual mind.
As I sat here watching the YouTube video, I had to read the printed text aloud, with great fervor, and it shivered me like a great peal of organ music that vibrates through your seat. This has extraordinary power. Are you up for it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLUAAfPzUw&feature=channel
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Merry Christmas!
Here is my Christmas card, with brave expectation of keeping this spirit thoughout the new year whose number would seem to proclaim half-sight. May all our "inward sight" be clear.
The Mystic's Christmas
by
John Greenleaf Whittier
"All hail!" the bells of Christmas rang,
"All hail!" the monks at Christmas sang,
The merry monks who kept with cheer
The gladdest day of all their year.
But still apart, unmoved thereat,
A pious elder brother sat
Silent, in his accustomed place,
With God's sweet peace upon his face.
"Why sitt'st thou thus?" his brethren cried,
"It is the blessed Christmas-tide;
The Christmas lights are all aglow,
The sacred lilies bud and blow.
"Above our heads the joy-bells ring,
Without the happy children sing,
And all God's creatures hail the morn
On which the holy Christ was born.
"Rejoice with us; no more rebuke
Our gladness with thy quiet look."
The gray monk answered, "Keep, I pray,
Even as ye list, the Lord's birthday.
"Let heathen Yule fires flicker red
Where thronged refectory feasts are spread;
With mystery-play and masque and mime
And wait-songs speed the holy time!
"The blindest faith may haply save;
The Lord accepts the things we have;
And reverence, howsoe'er it strays,
May find at last the shining ways.
"They needs must grope who cannot see,
The blade before the ear must be;
As ye are feeling I have felt,
And where ye dwell I too have dwelt.
"But now, beyond the things of sense,
Beyond occasions and events,
I know, through God's exceeding grace,
Release from form and time and space.
"I listen, from no mortal tongue,
To hear the song the angels sung;
And wait within myself to know
The Christmas lilies bud and blow.
"The outward symbols disappear
From him whose inward sight is clear;
And small must be the choice of days
To him who fills them all with praise!
"Keep while you need it, brothers mine,
With honest seal your Christmas sign,
But judge not him who every morn
Feels in his heart the Lord Christ born!"
I can't get it to load on here except in this plain-Jane layout. I had it in double columns and a picture, but alas.
The Mystic's Christmas
by
John Greenleaf Whittier
"All hail!" the bells of Christmas rang,
"All hail!" the monks at Christmas sang,
The merry monks who kept with cheer
The gladdest day of all their year.
But still apart, unmoved thereat,
A pious elder brother sat
Silent, in his accustomed place,
With God's sweet peace upon his face.
"Why sitt'st thou thus?" his brethren cried,
"It is the blessed Christmas-tide;
The Christmas lights are all aglow,
The sacred lilies bud and blow.
"Above our heads the joy-bells ring,
Without the happy children sing,
And all God's creatures hail the morn
On which the holy Christ was born.
"Rejoice with us; no more rebuke
Our gladness with thy quiet look."
The gray monk answered, "Keep, I pray,
Even as ye list, the Lord's birthday.
"Let heathen Yule fires flicker red
Where thronged refectory feasts are spread;
With mystery-play and masque and mime
And wait-songs speed the holy time!
"The blindest faith may haply save;
The Lord accepts the things we have;
And reverence, howsoe'er it strays,
May find at last the shining ways.
"They needs must grope who cannot see,
The blade before the ear must be;
As ye are feeling I have felt,
And where ye dwell I too have dwelt.
"But now, beyond the things of sense,
Beyond occasions and events,
I know, through God's exceeding grace,
Release from form and time and space.
"I listen, from no mortal tongue,
To hear the song the angels sung;
And wait within myself to know
The Christmas lilies bud and blow.
"The outward symbols disappear
From him whose inward sight is clear;
And small must be the choice of days
To him who fills them all with praise!
"Keep while you need it, brothers mine,
With honest seal your Christmas sign,
But judge not him who every morn
Feels in his heart the Lord Christ born!"
I can't get it to load on here except in this plain-Jane layout. I had it in double columns and a picture, but alas.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Next Eight Wednesdays at Sixth Church
I've been having more ideas for Wednesday readings than I can handle, and I'm sure I'll use most of them sometime, but here is the agenda through the end of 2009. I'm sure there will be more notes to come, and I will put them on the blog. Here, titles are in bold, topics in all-caps.
11/11
War To End All Wars
November 11 is the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that concluded "the war to end all wars." It seems it didn't accomplish that end, and so the name of the holiday was changed from Armistice Day to Veterans' Day in the USA and to Remembrance Day in the UK and elsewhere. The lesson will demonstrate, among other things, the impossibility of using war/sin/crime/evil/error to end war/sin/crime/evil/error.
11/18
The Bible: Our Precious Treasure
National Bible Week is November 22-28.
This title alludes to the opening phrase of Hymn #114, with which we will open the service. (It's also a harbinger of Christmas, being the tune of "The Friendly Beasts.")
Please ponder the attributes of the Bible that this hymn praises.
11/25
From Froward To Toward: Disobedience to Full Obedience
Dictionary definitions:
froward: habitually inclined to disobedience
toward: primarily, in the direction of. But if "untoward" means "difficult to guide, manage, or work with" or "marked by trouble or unhappiness," might not "toward" imply just the opposite?
And of course, poet John Milton is never far from my thought, especially as I reread Paradise Lost in full or in part in May and November when the Adam lesson comes 'round. This time I focused on Book IX, where the Serpent's arguments convinces Eve and "Earth felt the wound," and Books XI and XII, which deal with the seven deadly sins and the virtues that obliterate them--themes of my reading last Wednesday. So, if mankind lost Paradise through "One man's disobedience" (PL I.1) it is restored "By one man's full obedience fully tried/ Through all temptation" (Paradise Regain'd I.4,5) which lines are echoes or allusions to Romans 5:17-19 and I Corinthians 15:20-22--which I used in the Scriptural Selection last Sunday.
December has five Wednesdays, four of which fall during the season of Advent.
Last year during Advent we considered some the the things of which Jesus said "I am the ____".
This year we'll focus on the celebration of Christmas. It cries out for a more spiritual sense of the things we cherish about this season--and which seem sometimes to cause friction and trouble. Please ponder these topics and be prepared to give testimonies centered upon them. Titles are drawn from familiar hymns.
12/2
MUSIC
"Heaven and nature sing" (417)
12/9
GIFTS
"The wondrous gift is given" (222)
12/16
FAMILY, FOOD, FUN
"Keep while ye need it, brothers mine" (170)
12/23
LIGHT AND ANGELS
"The midnight clear" (158)
12/30
nEW YEAR'S DAY
"Thy mercies are new every morning" (Psalms, many occurrences of this trope)
I look forward to a season to be jolly, grateful, healed and healing!
11/11
War To End All Wars
November 11 is the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that concluded "the war to end all wars." It seems it didn't accomplish that end, and so the name of the holiday was changed from Armistice Day to Veterans' Day in the USA and to Remembrance Day in the UK and elsewhere. The lesson will demonstrate, among other things, the impossibility of using war/sin/crime/evil/error to end war/sin/crime/evil/error.
11/18
The Bible: Our Precious Treasure
National Bible Week is November 22-28.
This title alludes to the opening phrase of Hymn #114, with which we will open the service. (It's also a harbinger of Christmas, being the tune of "The Friendly Beasts.")
Please ponder the attributes of the Bible that this hymn praises.
11/25
From Froward To Toward: Disobedience to Full Obedience
Dictionary definitions:
froward: habitually inclined to disobedience
toward: primarily, in the direction of. But if "untoward" means "difficult to guide, manage, or work with" or "marked by trouble or unhappiness," might not "toward" imply just the opposite?
And of course, poet John Milton is never far from my thought, especially as I reread Paradise Lost in full or in part in May and November when the Adam lesson comes 'round. This time I focused on Book IX, where the Serpent's arguments convinces Eve and "Earth felt the wound," and Books XI and XII, which deal with the seven deadly sins and the virtues that obliterate them--themes of my reading last Wednesday. So, if mankind lost Paradise through "One man's disobedience" (PL I.1) it is restored "By one man's full obedience fully tried/ Through all temptation" (Paradise Regain'd I.4,5) which lines are echoes or allusions to Romans 5:17-19 and I Corinthians 15:20-22--which I used in the Scriptural Selection last Sunday.
December has five Wednesdays, four of which fall during the season of Advent.
Last year during Advent we considered some the the things of which Jesus said "I am the ____".
This year we'll focus on the celebration of Christmas. It cries out for a more spiritual sense of the things we cherish about this season--and which seem sometimes to cause friction and trouble. Please ponder these topics and be prepared to give testimonies centered upon them. Titles are drawn from familiar hymns.
12/2
MUSIC
"Heaven and nature sing" (417)
12/9
GIFTS
"The wondrous gift is given" (222)
12/16
FAMILY, FOOD, FUN
"Keep while ye need it, brothers mine" (170)
12/23
LIGHT AND ANGELS
"The midnight clear" (158)
12/30
nEW YEAR'S DAY
"Thy mercies are new every morning" (Psalms, many occurrences of this trope)
I look forward to a season to be jolly, grateful, healed and healing!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Concerning My Title
I just changed the title of this blog to something that expresses what I hope to accomplish what I want to do. In his "Essay on Man" Alexander Pope invites his friend St. John, Lord Bolingbroke, (pronounced "SIN - jun") to join him in surveying the whole range of human activity:
Let us ...
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;
A mighty maze! but not without a plan;
We Christian Scientists would profess that the teachings we follow lead us out of the maze, the labyrinth. We can take an absolute stance that the textbook and the Bible are all we need. But to "expatiate free" we need clear directions as to what we are expatiating into, where we are placed in the long tradition of the best human life can offer. We cna't be so spiritual that we are no earthly good. It's a sad day when one must justify human history, human learning, human letters and humanity in general. Go ahead and read the rest of Epistle I of the Essay. Among other things you'll find the source of some material quoted in S&H,
http://www.bartleby.com/40/2801.html
Let us ...
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;
A mighty maze! but not without a plan;
We Christian Scientists would profess that the teachings we follow lead us out of the maze, the labyrinth. We can take an absolute stance that the textbook and the Bible are all we need. But to "expatiate free" we need clear directions as to what we are expatiating into, where we are placed in the long tradition of the best human life can offer. We cna't be so spiritual that we are no earthly good. It's a sad day when one must justify human history, human learning, human letters and humanity in general. Go ahead and read the rest of Epistle I of the Essay. Among other things you'll find the source of some material quoted in S&H,
http://www.bartleby.com/40/2801.html
Getting this blog off to a flying start!
Now going into my second year as First Reader of Sixth Church of Christ, Scientist, Portland, Oregon, I feel frustrated by the prohibition of making any commentary whatsoever. This extends to what seems to me gracious human touches of noting the provenance of the hymns and solos, marking the occurrence of holidays, and encouragement of dialogue and clarification on Wednesdays. My first response (please, we CS try to respond always, react never) was, 'they're saying make the service as boring as possible; ritualistic, wooden, impersonal to the point of sounding like a recorded announcement.' This--ahem--reaction on my part was excessive. But we're working with texts written in obsolete and obsolescent languages; we're working with ideas that seem to have lost their currency. "Everlasting Punishment" is no longer a hot topic, not ever since the churches adopted the social gospel, wherein to follow Christ became to work in social causes for the amelioration of social ills. Not that personal salvation has taken a back seat by any means: it just isn't on the tip of everybody's tongue. These older ideas, however, are far fom irrelevant: it's just that the relevancy has to be explained and the texts explicated.
So, at the behest of a member of our church executive board, I will henceforth share my observations by means of this blog. This way, you can comment if you like, and I hope you do. Please, no personal attacks, 500 word maximum, one topic per comment--and of course, no obscenity and no profanity. Humor and wit welcome. Pictures and links? Email me first. Ideas expressed here are those of the author(s) and are her/their sole responsibility.
I've been wanting to do this for couple of years, and it's finally happening. Hope it will be rewarding for everyone.
So, at the behest of a member of our church executive board, I will henceforth share my observations by means of this blog. This way, you can comment if you like, and I hope you do. Please, no personal attacks, 500 word maximum, one topic per comment--and of course, no obscenity and no profanity. Humor and wit welcome. Pictures and links? Email me first. Ideas expressed here are those of the author(s) and are her/their sole responsibility.
I've been wanting to do this for couple of years, and it's finally happening. Hope it will be rewarding for everyone.
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