An Appreciation

As I write dawn is breaking. It is an icy cold morning and from my window I see an almost full moon shining on the snow lying all around. I was woken at 6.30 by a lorry driver announcing the imminent delivery of  the heating oil we ordered some weeks ago. He opened his cab door and the light and warmth spilled out onto the frozen pavement loudly accompanied by the sound of a brass band playing "Joy to the World". Ten minutes later our oil tank was replenished with sufficient oil for most of the remaining winter months and two grateful householders put the coffee on.

On a number of occasions recently it has occurred to me how privileged we are today compared even to 65 years ago (the extent of my memory). I can get out from under my warm duvet to a warm house in the morning and go warm to bed. I can step into a hot shower and start my day refreshed and comfortable. Recently there has been a BBC TV series called "Edwardian Farm" in which 3 people live and work in the conditions that pertained at the turn of the 20th century. In rural Wales in the 1950's many things had hardly moved on. Horsepower had been replaced by the ubiquitous grey Fergie tractor but life in the farmhouse continued very much as it had been 40 years earlier. Running water and mains electricity were just beginning to appear depending on how close to the main villages and urban area you lived. But that's a subject for another place and time. This is simply an appreciation of today.

I am also conscious of how privileged I am in relation to others around about me and this year more than any other in my life I have a growing awareness of the needs of others and the need to be of practical help and use. With God's help I pray that this will become a greater part of my life as I have more time in these coming months and years.

I am grateful that this year I did not have to travel over the past two weeks. I am grateful for family and warmth and a home and all of the mod cons that I take for granted so easily. I am grateful for the ready availability of food and warm clothing. I am grateful for friends and books and the ability to see and the blessing of hearing and music. And who am I grateful to? I'm grateful to the God who gave me life and who has provided for me every day of my life. I am grateful to Him for His coming into this world 2,000 years ago and for making it possible to find peace and redemption through His love. For all your blessings I give You thanks and for the greatest gift of all - your Son, my Saviour, Jesus Christ I praise and worship you with a grateful heart.

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing,

Merry Christmas to anyone who happens to read this blog. May you know and enjoy the peace of the Prince of Peace and the fountain of all true joy.

And with that the sun rises in a brilliantly blue cloudless sky.

Darkness and Light, Despair and Hope

This Christmas my thoughts have turned constantly to the theme of light. Regarded as mysterious and even mystical over past centuries even science has found it to be somewhat odd. We are told that it is an electromagnetic radiation of a dual nature. It behaves like a wave propagated like ripples in a pond or as a stream of particles (photons). Both can be demonstrated to be true. The universe's sources of light are the great incandescent stars of the galaxy and the earth's major source is the sun. But I'm not so much interested in its physical properties as its importance to us as the medium by which we see. I often treat my eyesight as a given with little thought to the privilege of being able to see and appreciate the wonders and beauty of the world around me. Without light there would be no sight as we know it - just darkness which is not the opposite of light but the absence of light.

And what is true in the physical realm is also true in the spiritual realm. All of us are gifted with a sense of the spiritual and we see and understand spiritual truth by the light inherent within us. Most religions have some notion of increasing enlightenment usually by many years of study and meditation.

Christianity is no different in one respect only and that is that it emphasises the need for enlightenment. It differs from every other religion in its identification of the source of spiritual light and the the way of communication of enlightenment. In the prologue to his gospel John tells us that the incarnation, the coming of Jesus into His creation is the coming of  "the true light which gives light to every man" into this world. Long before his coming the Psalmist sang, "For with you is the fountain of life. In your light we see light." and "The entrance of Your word brings light". John echoes this when he tells us "In Him (the Word, Jesus) was life and the life was he light of men."

Christmas is all about the coming of light into this dark world. The prophets foretold it in those terms. They saw a world in darkness. "For behold darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people." But it is against this dark background that the prophet continues "But the Lord shall arise upon you and His glory shall be seen upon you and the Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising." In view of this Isaiah can exhort us to "Arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you."

Tragically John has to tell us that the vast majority of his contemporaries rejected Jesus. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (overcome) it." He also tells us why so many rejected Him "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil." In his prologue John puts it like this "He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came unto his own but his own did not receive him." If this were the end of the matter then it would be an unmitigated tragedy. Thankfully the next word is "But" - one of the most wonderful conjunctions in the English language and of the scriptures, for here as in so many other places it turns despair into hope. "But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

The latter clauses highlight the other great difference between Christianity and other religions. Not only is the source of light unique but the method or means of communication of enlightenment unique. St. Paul, in a magnificent passage in 2 Corinthians speaks of the blindness which make us strangers to the light and tells us in 4:6 "For it is the God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Christians are often mocked as those who have "seen the light". That is true for they have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Not only so but now they have also been "called out of darkness into his marvellous light". In the light of His glory and grace we see truth - we are enlightened and we worship. For ultimately that is what truth brings us to this Christmas - to worship a God of love and grace who was willing to enter his creation to bring light and hope and peace and the prospect of glory into this benighted world. Willing to come knowing that he would be rejected and despised and ultimately put to death so that we might be redeemed. But it is through His death and resurrection - yet another festival of light against a dark background - that we find salvation and redemption and freedom and hope.

The angel told the shepherds amidst a burst of glory and light "For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour who is Christ the Lord."  Emmanuel - God with us, the hope and the Light of the world.

Romanticising the Past

I watched part two of Ian Hislop's "The Age of the Do-Gooders" last evening. In many ways I am a Hislop fan - I admire his self - deprecating wit and cynicism and he is an erudite and able presenter. Last night dealt mainly with the lot of children in the not so distant past - Lord Shaftsbury the campaigning peer whose persistence brought about (among many other things) legislation for child employment, Mary Carpenter the educator, Charles Kingsley the clergyman whose book "The Water Babies" instantly pricked the Victorian conscience and relieved the lot of boy chimney sweeps, Dr. Barnado the famous founder of the schools for destitute children and W T Stead whose journalism put the spotlight on child prostitution. It soon becomes apparent that Hislop will not airbrush out the failings of these Victorian do-gooders nor should he. The best of men and women are flawed. Neither is it a surprise that there is a touch of scepticism when he traces the motive behind Shaftsbury's campaigning spirit to a thoroughgoing evangelicalism - that is to be expected in this post-modern day and age. The thing that is so shocking is how soon we have romanticised the past. I guess that we are all guilty of it even within the context of our own lifetimes. Unless we have been truly badly treated in our childhood we are all tempted to put on the rose-tinted glasses when we think of our childhood. I guess that many of our impressions of immediate past centuries are strongly influenced by the romantic literature of the period forgetting that much of that literature was produced by the middle or upper class. Our appetite for period drama - Lark Rise to Candleford, Cranforth and Downton Abbey to name but a few recent efforts - has conspired to give us a very skewed notion of the recent past.

The programme faithfully documented the conditions prevailing at the time and brought home the true horror of the exploitation of children in the terrifying and dangerous conditions of the mines and the mills, the destitution of children left to wander the streets and fend for themselves and the stark reality of child prostitution. On the one hand it makes you realise that things have hardly changed - there are plenty of countries where child labour is exploited, children are left destitute to fend for themselves and where child prostitution is still common. But beyond that it makes you realise that mankind has not changed. These horrors did not start on the Victorian age - they have been part of the history of mankind since the dawn of time. Neither have they ceased in Britain. Children are still exploited and paedophilia is not a modern disease - it is as old as time itself but with a new notoriety enhanced by the internet. It is ironic that Hislop gently mocks the notion of original sin and the basic depravity of man in a programme which simply illustrates the depths to which this country had sunk within its immediate past and not, as we are tempted to think, a long time ago in a galaxy, far, far away....

Endings and Beginnings

For three years now I have been travelling weekly some 180 miles each way to work. I am not complaining about the work or the people I work with or the place at which I work. Rather I feel blessed to have had work offered to me at a difficult economic time. For two of the three years I worked almost full time - maybe nearer to 2/3 time - but this year it's been nearer 1/2. However, the travelling and constant staying way from home has taken its toll and the biggest part of me is glad that it's finally drawing to a close. I find it harder to get in the car on a Monday morning and point its nose North. The journey I make is from South Wales to North East Wales and the South / North Wales road infrastructure is pretty poor. I am faced with a Motorway M4 / M50 / M6 / M56 / M53 (which route is notorious for delays and heavy traffic for most of its Northern section) or alternatively a choice of two very beautiful scenic routes either through Mid Wales or via Shropshire. The North South journey is a no-brainer - Shropshire beats the pants off the bottleneck that is Newtown any day - coming up is a different matter. (It's ironic that the Welsh assembly Government have approved a Newtown bypass in the coming year). It is interesting that Shropshire suffers most from the seasonal agricultural traffic. The Shropshire farmers all seem to have the biggest towing trailers that money can buy and the year proceeds through hay, combine harvesters, potatoes, apples and on a Monday morning the livestock trip from the Leominster / Ludlow area to markets.

So I have learned to be patient and equipped with a well packed ipod. Alongside music I have listened to university courses on The New Testament Gospels and Epistles, Tolkien. C.S. Lewis and also a couple of audio thrillers - The Scarecrow and Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly. Then there is BBC Radio 4 which I enjoy. Recently I have listened with great delight to a load of sermon material by Tim Keller which has been a blessing as I've travelled.

The Shropshire route also has the advantage of a good fish and chip shop en route and in the summer a couple of delightful country coffee shops which help to break up the journey. The rural routes also have the advantage of passing through my home town of Brecon where my brother still lives and where I occasionally call. It's always good to see him.

So now it's all coming to an end. For all its blessings I will not miss the travelling. I cannot deny that I will miss the work and the people that I have worked with. But I also look forward to being at home. Home where the best wife in the world has patiently put up with my wanderings for something like 8 out of the past 10 years. Lot's of things to catch up on - painting , decorating - the list of DIY stuff goes on and on. I think this will be the third time I've finished work but if I've learned something it's simply this - it's great just to be at home. There's nothing to beat it! Pity that we often have to find that out by being away from it so much.

So this is also a new beginning and that also brings its own challenges and excitement. God has been good to me in so many ways and I give thanks to Him for so many blessings. I wonder what he has in store for me in the time ahead. The time I have and the paths I tread are in His hands - what a relief to know and lean on that!

The advent of Advent

This Sunday is the first in Advent, marking the start of the church's celebration of the Christmas season. I am no great follower of the traditions of the church but as a Christian I do love this season. Quoting from Tolkien (see the last blog) "The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy." So this is truly a joyous celebration. The event which the Old Testament prophets had all looked forward to, the event which God had promised way back at the dawn of history finally happened. Isaiah foresaw the time of it's occurence as a time of darkness in this world. "For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people...." How true that prophecy was to prove. God's people under the heel of the Romans following centuries of Greek influences - pagans had taken over the world. Even the worship of God had been corrupted and the religious leaders had lost touch with the nature of the God that they paid lip-service to. But into that darkness came light. "Arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people. But the Lord shall arise upon you and His glory shall be seen upon you. The gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising."

Advent heralds the coming of the light, the dawn of glory. The great story begins in joy with the incarnation - the eucatastrophe, the sudden joyous upturn in the history of Mankind - the pivotal moment in history when God came down into His creation. What story can compare with this?

Tolkien - The Epilogue to "On Fairy Stories"

Among Tolkien's published work there is very little that he wrote directly concerning his Christian beliefs. However, in the epilogue of his essay "On Fairy Stories" as he considers the element of consolation or joy which he sees as the final and essential ingredient for a good fantasy he cannot resist following this through to speak about the gospel. In a famous conversation with C.S. Lewis, who was at that time an atheist, he pointed out that the gospel - the good news - was in fact historical truth and its overarching story (meta-narrative in modern parlance) was the realisation of all that is best in myth and fantasy. His words are far better than mine.

"It is presumptuous of me to touch upon such a theme; but if by grace what I say has in any respect any validity, it is, of course, only one facet of a truth incalculably rich: finite only because the capacity of Man for whom this was done is finite.


I would venture to say that approaching the Christian Story from this direction, it has long been my feeling (a joyous feeling) that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures, men, in a way fitting to this aspect, as to others, of their strange nature. The Gospels contain a fairystory, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in their perfect, selfcontained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. But this story has entered History and the primary world; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the “inner consistency of reality.” There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath.


It is not difficult to imagine the peculiar excitement and joy that one would feel, if any specially beautiful fairy-story were found to be “primarily” true, its narrative to be history, without thereby necessarily losing the mythical or allegorical significance that it had possessed. It is not difficult, for one is not called upon to try and conceive anything of a quality unknown. The joy would have exactly the same quality, if not the same degree, as the joy which the “turn” in a fairy-story gives: such joy has the very taste of primary truth. (Otherwise its name would not be joy.) It looks forward (or backward: the direction in this regard is unimportant) to the Great Eucatastrophe. The Christian joy, the Gloria, is of the same kind; but it is preeminently (infinitely, if our capacity were not finite) high and joyous.


But this story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused. But in God's kingdom the presence of the greatest does not depress the small. Redeemed Man is still man. Story, fantasy, still go on, and should go on. The Evangelium has not abrogated legends; it has hallowed them, especially the “happy ending.” The Christian has still to work, with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope, and die; but he may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. So great is the bounty with which he has been treated that he may now, perhaps, fairly dare to guess that in Fantasy he may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation. All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and as unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know."

I for one find this not only moving, but enlightening, encouraging and true.

Flash

Tolkien - Consolation

The final aspect that Tolkien reckoned to be vital to good fantasy is Consolation which embraces the aspect of joy. It's really the endlessly satisfying theme of the happy ending, or better - those moments in a fantasy story when it takes a sudden and unexpected joyous turn at a moment of the most desperate circumstances in the story. Tolkien invented a new word for this - eucatastophe. The word catastophe comes form the Greek kata which means down or against and strophe - which comes form the verb 'turn' i.e a down turn - a sudden calamity. Adding the eu (meaning 'good') to the beginning of catastophe reverses its sense in that it is a sudden good, joyous turn of events. But I'd best let Tolkien speak for himself because he regarded this aspect of fantasy as critially important (for fairy tale read fantasy in the following)

"Since we do not appear to possess a word that expresses this opposite—I will call it Eucatastrophe. The eucatastrophic tale is the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function. The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn” (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially “escapist,” nor “fugitive.” In its fairy-tale—or otherworld—setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium (gospel, good news), giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief."


"It is the mark of a good fairy-story, of the higher or more complete kind, that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the “turn” comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any form of literary art, and having a peculiar quality."


"This ”joy” which I have selected as the mark of the true fairy-story (or romance), or as the seal upon it, merits more consideration.


Probably every writer making a secondary world, a fantasy, every sub-creator, wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it. If he indeed achieves a quality that can fairly be described by the dictionary definition: “inner consistency of reality,” it is difficult to conceive how this can be, if the work does not in some way partake of reality. The peculiar quality of the ”joy” in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. It is not only a “consolation” for the sorrow of this world, but a satisfaction, and an answer to that question, “Is it true?” The answer to this question that I gave at first was (quite rightly): “If you have built your little world well, yes: it is true in that world.” That is enough for the artist (or the artist part of the artist). But in the “eucatastrophe” we see in a brief vision that the answer may be greater—it may be a far-off gleam or echo of evangelium in the real world. The use of this word gives a hint of my epilogue. It is a serious and dangerous matter.

My final post on this subject will look at the epilogue that Tolkien refers to here

Flash

Tolkien - Escape

The second element of Fantasy that Tolkien recognised is escape. He had this to say

"I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?" — J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien views escape, not in the bad sense of the word as it is often applied - that is escapism as though a temporary but foolish escape from reality only to be dumped back in it again some hours later, but escape in the sense that we are temporaily transported to another world to return to the real world refreshed and somehow the better for our experience. It may be a world of knights and dragons, of Cavaliers and Roundheads, of Centurions and Silurans, of White Witches and fauns and lamposts in the snow, of elves and goblins and dwarves. We come back to our own reality refreshed and in some mysterious way strengthened by the experience. One important aspect of Tolkien's thinking is that this world - that is the phyical reality of all about us - is not everything. He was of course a Christian and as such his world view would have included the belief that this world and our life in it is not is not the sum of reality. Christians believe that this world is imperfect through the fallenness of the human race but that this will not always be so. Christian's are described as strangers and sojourners in this world and as those who are looking forward to the restoration of perfection of both this world and themselves (more of this again).
 
Flash

Tolkien - Recovery

Towards the end of his essay "On Fairy Stories" Tolkien considered three ways in which a successful fantasy story benefits its readers - those who come to it and are enchanted by it - they were recovery, escape and consolation. I was reminded of this as I read through LOTR agin just recently. I was amazed at just how moving the story is on so many levels and I was particularly reminded of what Tolkien wrote about recovery.

What does he mean by recovery? Well, very simply, we get used to the wonder of the world in which we live - it becomes trite - and he believed that fantasy helps us to recover that sense of wonder. There is a sense in which we all need to recover the wonder of this world. For example, I live in a beautiful part of the world and when I walk around our home I am surrounded by beauty which I hardly notice. Thanks to my wife's efforts there are truly beautiful flowers everywhere and all sorts of other wonders. Even in my room I am surrounded by marvels. And yet, I am used to these things and most of the time I hardly see them! The phrase "used to them" seems quite telling. It's almost as though I had in some way seen them, used them and then forgotten them. Tolkien has a great way of putting it - he says

"This triteness is really the penalty of “appropriation”. The things that are trite, or (in a bad sense) familiar, are the things that we have appropriated, legally or mentally. We say we know them. They have become like the things which once attracted us by their glitter, or their colour, or their shape, and we laid hands on them, and then locked them in our hoard, acquired them, and acquiring ceased to look at them."

"Recovery (which includes return and renewal of health) is a re-gaining—regaining of a clear view. I do not say “seeing things as they are” and involve myself with the philosophers, though I might venture to say “seeing things as we are (or were) meant to see them”—as things apart from ouselves. We need, in any case, to clean our windows; so that the things seen clearly may be freed from the drab blur of triteness or familiarity—from possessiveness."

 "Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else (make something new), may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds. The gems all turn into flowers or flames, and you will be warned that all you had (or knew) was dangerous and potent, not really effectively chained, free and wild; no more yours than they were you."

He tells how "It was in fairy-stories that I first divined the potency of the words, and the wonder of the things, such as stone, and wood, and iron; tree and grass; house and fire; bread and wine."

Now while I have great admiration for the films, ultimately Peter Jackson took on an impossible task for while they contain much that is good, they cannot convey the brilliant poetic writing of Tolkien. LOTR is primarily a book, and a film, though it quotes dialogue directly, cannot express the the full content of the background and the world which Tolkien creates when he writes - not even the wonders of cgi can do that!! It is his words which express his stated aim.

Coming to LOTR I guess that the description of trees and forest whether of Mirkwood, the Old Forest, Ents, Treebeard, people like Fatty Bolger, Farmer Maggot, Barley Butterbur, Nob, Tom Bombadill, Aragorn, Gwahir etc places like The Black Gate, Mordor, Gondor, Helm's Deep, Lothlorien, Rivendell, - all of these aspects of his story give us a fresh perspective on places and people in this world. Just the description of Farmer Maggot's mushrooms does it for me (you'll have to read the book). The enchantment of stars, stone, rock, Shadowfax - you name it - all leave their mark in some way or another. Tolkien is a master at embuing common things (particularly natural things) with rich enchantment. But care is required - we soon appropriate things and add them to our hoard. It is a good exercise in any case to attempt each day to spend a little time taking out a little piece of our hoard and letting one or two locked things fly away.

Another verse of the poem Mythopoea always hits me

He sees no stars who does not see them first
of living silver made that sudden burst
to flame like flowers beneath an ancient song,
whose very echo after-music long
has since pursued. There is no firmament,
only a void, unless a jewelled tent
myth-woven and elf-patterned; and no earth,
unless the mother's womb whence all have birth.


We all need to recover something of the wonder of the world in which we live and the life which we have been given. Fantasy can help us recover that wonder but ultimately (as Tolkien also admits) it is a sense of true humility and simplicity which is the key to living with our eyes wide open.

Tolkien - Subcreation

Having recently re-read LOTR I was reminded of the small "Tree and Leaf" book in which, among other things is Tolkien's article nbased on a lecture he gave on the subject "On Fairy Stories". In it he describes what he sees as the warrant for fantasy writing and what its essence is. Some of what he had to say may explains something of the huge appeal of LOTR. LOTR is like Marmite (or Vegemite for down-under readers) - you either love it or hate it. There are many people who dislike / hate / dismiss LOTR - as many as those who a) love the story as a story with all the elements of good and evil and heroism and failure etc. but also b) sense that this story has an influence on them - not just emotional but spritual (in the sense that it has effect on their spirits).


Tolkien was a devout Catholic ChristianHe believed in a benevolent Creator and Creation - he believed in the Biblical accounts of Creation and the decisive coming of the Creator into His Creation - birth, death and resurrection.

As a believer in a Creator and a belief that man was created in the image of His Maker and given dominion over the earth before the Fall, he believed that one of the divinely bestowed attributes that man had retained after the Fall was the ability to be a sub-creator. In the poem Mythopoeia he says

The heart of Man is not compound of lies,
but draws some wisdom from the only Wise,
and still recalls him. Though now long estranged,
Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not dethroned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned,
his world-dominion by creative act:
not his to worship the great Artefact.


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.


That is the viewpoint from which he wrote LOTR. before he even began this undertaking he had written almost the whole history of Middle Earth up to and including the events of LOTR incuding a creation myth etc. That is why LOTR is so incredibly authentic. It is a story to immerse yourself in - and indeed Tolkien's aim was just that. He wanted to write a story which took place in a time and place that was completely different but credible because it was consistently different. Yes, it's fantasy but it's fantasy within a world that has a history and a rich history at that. He saw himself as a subcreator as described in the second stanza above - refracted light - one of many hues splintered from a single white. He distinguished between the primary world - the world in which we live - and a secondary world - the world of the story and considered the degree to which the reader became immersed and involved (enchantment) in the story the important thing. The key to that is the believability of the the secondary world.

Earendil

"There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach." (LOTR The Return of the King)


I had almost forgotten reading this passage until recently in London I walked with my wife past St. Martin in the Fields and saw the sculpture in honour of Oscar Wilde. The inscription on the sculpture was "We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars" - a quote from one of Wilde's plays. My mind went back to Tolkien's words which I had recorded on my phone and which I proceeded to read to my wife at a nearby cafe. I am still struck by that passage from Tolkien. It occurs as Sam and Frodo make their way across the bleak, forsaken land of Mordor inching their way to Orodruin and the Cracks of Doom. Sam has almost abandoned hope of any future when he looked up and saw the star - and hope was renewed.
We all have those times when the world seems bleak and barren and dark are all in desperate need of a glimpse of eternal, piercing beauty to put our lives and aspirations into context. I thank God that at those times we can look up and glimpse eternal glory. The words of Paul in Second Corinthians come to mind. "For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness" has shone in our hearts to give the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." We look up and we see Jesus, the bright Morning Star and our hearts are pierced by wonder and beauty and glory and as the old chorus says, "the things of the world become strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."

Above all it gives us the assurance that ultimately evil cannot triumph - good will prevail. There will be "new heavens and a new earth, the home of righteousness" and by God's grace it will also be our eternal home.

Truth 101 - some thoughts

Huge subject - but some reading and thinking lately has brought a little clarity to my understanding of the current post-modern view of truth and also some of the serious objections to it.

The current secular view is that there is no such thing as absolute truth and that all truth is relative and subjective. "This is my truth, tell me yours" as the Manic Street Preachers said. We are told therefore that we must never impose our personal view of truth on others. Neither can we claim that our view of truth (or for that matter any view of truth) is the only one. Christianity is frequently a target for this kind of argument.

It seems that the guy who contributed most to this post-modern view of truth is the Frenchman Michel Foucault, a philosopher who followed in the line of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who was famed for his "God is dead." statement. Foucault says that "Truth is a thing of this world. It is produced only by multiple forms of constraint and that includes the multiple effects of power." In other words one person's claim to have truth is a means to gaining power over others or restricting their freedom in some way.

As I understand it Nietzsche was famous for being suspicious of everything but in particular the motives for actions based on moral belief or "truth". To cite a modern example - why should the US think it has a moral right to enforce a democratic system like it's own on other nations of the world? To claim that the US democratic system is somehow the best model in all circumstances is a truth claim that to many people is obviously flawed and to make that claim inevitably leads to suspicion about the motive behind that belief. Ultimately this looks like a power play, a means of exercising control over others.

But that example is on a large scale. On an individual scale my desire to convince someone else of the truth of my beliefs would be subjected to the suspicion that I was doing so in order to gain some power over over them or to limit them in some way or even just to justify myself. Now there is a sense in which this suspicion is justified. After all Jesus levelled this argument at the Pharisees of his day. This party had good beginnings, they stood against the influence of the Greek conquerors and their pantheism and way of life in order to maintain the purity of their religion and God-given law. But by the time of Jesus they had become the rigid, holier-than-thou party that we meet in the gospels, always claiming the moral high ground. But they were also known for imposing their views on others but Jesus saw through their proselytising and exposed it for what it was - a power play to gain control over others and to justify their own world view - and even get power over God.

I suppose that from this suspicious viewpoint grew Nietzsche's hatred of all religious systems (particularly Christianity whose emphasis on humility and dependence on grace he saw as promoting weakness and whose hierarchy he saw as the ultimate power-players) and many others have followed in his footsteps. Currently secular thought is  dominated by Foucault's view that no belief system can be trusted, that no claim to absolute universal truth can stand.

But if the claims of these men were true then we have lost all our ground for battling injustice, intolerance and oppression. In fact we have no basis for making any moral statement whatsoever. It seems that G.K. Chesterton was right when he pointed out that "The new rebel is a sceptic and will not trust anything and therefore can never be a revolutionary. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind.... by rebelling against everything he has lost the right to rebel against anything."

At any rate isn't it the case that if Nietzsche and Foucault etc. are right shouldn't we treat their view of reality with equal suspicion? Why should we subscribe to their view of truth? Why should we put our faith in their relativistic world view. After all we exhibit faith in what we believe to be true every moment of our lives.

The same argument applies to the evolutionary biologists who claim that all thought is purely the result of the reactions of one chemical with another in the brain and that what used to be regarded as universal self evident morality is a mirage. Well the same argument applies to their claims to truth. Why should we listen to their explanations if all they have to say is the product of random chemical reactions in their brains?

In fact to claim that there is no such thing as absolute truth is in itself a truth claim and one which could be seen as the ultimate truth claim - in the sense that it seeks to impose its constraints on everyone it seeks to gain power over. So why should we believe it?

In any case it seems to me that though we may stick to the view that all truth is relative, we certainly don't live as if that's true and it may be the case that we could say that we can't live as if that's true. Men have tried to live as amoral beings, shunning all obligation to any kind of right or wrong and have ended as lunatics or in guilt-ridden despair. We continue to battle for justice, for human rights, against oppression and what we generalise as "inhuman behaviour". From whence does the moral standard of acceptable human behaviour come if there is no such thing as absolute truth we might well ask?


There have been plenty of claims to absolute, universal truth over the centuries and in many cases it hasn't required a great deal of effort to see through them. So what makes Jesus claim to the truth so different. Well for one thing He actually claimed to be the truth, "I am the way, the truth and the life." Thomas Aquinas commented, "Without the way there is no going, without the truth there is no knowing, without the life there is no living." What a claim this is! To be the embodiment of absolute truth!

And in opposition to the philosophies of Nietzsche, Freud, Foucault and most modern secular thought which say that all truth claims lead are power plays which lead to constraint and loss of freedom, Jesus claimed that while that may be true for many truth claims, perhaps even for the majority of truth claims, understanding the truth that is Jesus Himself will not constrain us but set us free. Wow, this is a claim worthy of further thought and investigation.  Flash

Lord Of The Rings - yet another read

I picked up my old one-volume copy of LOTR the other day and couldn't resist reading the introduction which led me to read the first chapter and the rest is history, I'm reading it again! Having said that it is some time since I last read it and in the meantime I've watched the excellent (though not perfect) films many times.

This time through is very different. I'm reading it more slowly and with a little more attention to detail but mainly literally savouring the wonderful atmosphere of this world that Tolkien has created. Don't misunderstand me, I think Peter Jackson did a wonderful job on the films and the unique atmosphere he created taking advantage of the wonderful diverse scenery of New Zealand is truly amazing.Add to the wonderful cinematography Howard Shore's brilliant score and that these films become uniquely special.

But the films don't even come close to the book - after all this was Tolkien's medium as a writer of prose and poetry and as a philologist and a scholar. I'm not going to comment too much on what the films left out - I guess that there were difficult decisions and the constraints of time although as I have said elsewhere I was disappointed with the ending (I happen to think that the scouring of the shire and Saruman's end etc. are vital to Tolkien's overall plot). On the other hand the films do bring something to the book. I happen to think that most of the characterisations and casting were brilliant with few disappointments (although Frodo for some reason could be rather annoying at times!).

And so the re-read is going well. I am currently at the edge of Fanghorn and the Rohirrim are catching up with the Uruk Hai and their lesser compatriots. Some highlights - well there is the whole journey from Hobbiton to Bree, Farmer Maggot and his mushrooms, Old Man Willow, Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Wight, Butterburr and the Prancing Pony, the Council of Elrond at Rivendell, the mines of Moriah and the Bridge of Khazad Dum - on and on I could go but then THE magical moment when they arrive at  Lothlorien and that most wonderful description of their arrival at Cerin Amroth, the ancient heart of the elven kingdom. There are passages in LOTR which I can read over and over again and still feel the sense of wonder and yes - real joy as I read them.

But I must rejoin Merry and Pippin bouncing along on the backs of the orcs as the Rohirrim race after them ....... ooh what wonders still lie ahead!

Flash

Some Further Thoughts on the Matrix

From Neo's conversation with The Architect it seems that when the matrix was created the architect considered it perfect but the one factor that had led to its imperfection was simply the human one. (That in itself creates a problem. Were there still some free people who were missed? Did Zion already exist - otherwise how could humanity cause so much difficulty?) Interesting that he's called The Architect - an architect is someone who designs, never actually builds (never mind create!). Isn't it also interesting that up to that point the Matrix has been reloaded 6 times - presumably the seventh was intended to be perfection (maybe ultimately it was - I got a bit confused by the ending?). (I also find it interesting how religious a place Zion is - it's not exactly Christian (!) but it's certainly very religious with its temples etc.)

Compare this to the biblical account of creation. God created man innocent and perfect and if conditions had remained the same then presumably the human race would be perfect today - but just mechanically so - just like the machine world, neither good or bad in itself. But it's plain that both Adam and Eve were created with the possibility of rebellion. On the surface this seems quite a risky move by the Creator. Could it possibly be that the last thing that God wanted was a closed mechanical world which was entirely pre-determined and where human beings would be little more than automatons? But to allow them to make a genuine choice - effectively either to continue to acknowledge God as Creator and Sovereign or to rebel i.e. to become disobedient - to make themselves the centre rather than their Creator.

This was the great pressure point that Satan sought to exploit. The command that God gave could have been many things but ultimately the whole future of mankind turned on a choice. Would man believe God or Satan? Well we know the outcome - not only did man rebel and elevate himself to the place of God (i.e. self rules OK; the “de-goding” of God; I am the master of my fate etc.). there are many aspects to the temptation - the temptation to the senses; the temptation to be like God; the temptation to think that God was holding back something good from mankind. Adam and Eve made their choice and so the perfection was marred and the whole created cosmos was put out of joint and remains so to this day. But the amazing outcome of this is that God didn't do what to us must seem the obvious (Matrix - style) thing - wipe out Zion and start again - although it came close in the days of Noah when evil had almost entirely snuffed out good. The point about the history between the fall of Adam and Eve and the Flood is to illustrate the infectious nature of sin and evil and its spread in the world when it is unchecked. In the very first generation we find Cain murdering Abel and from that it was totally downhill until we read these words in a modern translation / paraphrase - God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart. God said, "I'll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds—the works. I'm sorry I made them”. But Noah was different. God liked what he saw in Noah (AV says simply that Noah found grace in God's eyes). This is the story of Noah: Noah was a good man, a man of integrity in his community. Noah walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. As far as God was concerned, the Earth had become a sewer; there was violence everywhere. God took one look and saw how bad it was, everyone corrupt and corrupting—life itself corrupt to the core." (The Message)

Like Noah, in every generation there were those (sometimes a handful) who freely chose to worship the true Creator and live in accordance with His character and design. Those who chose to own Him as their God did so acknowledging their rebellion and disobedience and trusting in His promises of mercy and grace. An important aspect of their worship and praise was that it flowed from hearts that are free to worship - they were not automatons nor did they live in a deterministic world ruled by fate. They lived in a world which they know has a great future in which they will play a part. They have a solid hope and a purpose. They leave this world confident in the One who said "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall never die."

Not only did not God wipe out His creation and start again but neither did God abandon this fallen and marred world to destroy itself but rather chose to enter it in the person of His Son. The Gospel of John tells us that "He came to His own.... He became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the One and only full of grace and truth." - God entering His marred and now imperfect creation in order to redeem it - to literally buy it back by His death. He didn't send a powerful being or angel, but came Himself in the person of His Son. In doing so he didn't merely act at a distance but bound himself to the fate of mankind. If He (the Bible describes him as the second Adam) succumbed to the power of temptation and evil then mankind would have no hope or future. The good news is simply that he did not and so ensured the glorious future of all who would put their trust in Him.

The true Neo - Jesus, God with us, the One, the Saviour of the world entered into the realm of time. He didn't use violence to do battle with evil but overcame evil with good. In the greatest battle of the cosmos He withstood the onslaughts of evil and died in apparent weakness. But in that dying He conquered death and hell and the forces of evil. Weakness turned out to be the greatest power in the cosmos. The scriptures call Him “The Second Adam” for, in contrast to the first Adam, in spite of all the temptations that he faced, He never weakened. The key to His resistance lay in His absolute obedience to the Father who had sent Him. Every choice set before Him was resolved in the same way -obedience to the Father's will and purpose. So where Adam failed, Jesus triumphed.

There are many parallels between the first film of The Matrix and the life of Jesus - a kind of allegory. It seems that the writers deliberately chose names to echo biblical characters. There are lots of references to these online (a whole genre seems to have grown up around the parallels etc.). But there is only one real story and the allegory falls far short. It may not seem as exciting a story to today's generation but when someone sees it and understand something of the wonder of it, it is truly the greatest story ever told - and it's true. If there is a modern day problem of choice it comes down to the oldest one on record - self or God - who rules, who is in control. And this is an individual choice because though we talk of groups and nations and even civilisations and their destinies, ultimately each person lives as an individual before His Creator in His Creation.

It is interesting that the architect identified hope as the "quintessential human delusion". But if hope is based on the promises and word of the Creator then it is more than just a "hope against hope" which is no hope at all. If the Creator's revealed character and His actions in this world convince a person that in Him is to be found their highest good; that He is the Benevolent One in whom there is no malevolence; that He offers salvation and redemption to those who by nature want nothing to do with Him, then that hope is built on a firm, unshakable foundation. And if the Creator's action in this world in entering His creation and taking to Himself a real human body and soul and living among those who He had created and being willing to demonstrate his unfailing and unconditional love by giving His life for theirs, then again hope is not just a vain, futile fancy but built on the solid ground of the love of the Creator. Flash

Matrix - scene with the Architect

I understand the conundrum that the problem of causality poses. The whole issue of the freedom of the will and causality goes back to the simple question which has no easy answer. Do we live in a world which is wholly deterministic - i.e. everything that happens is always governed by circumstance and the laws of nature, or is there really freedom of choice - are we free to shape our own destiny. Most people prefer to think the latter if they ever think about it at all. There is something innate in us which hates the thought of being the product of time and chance; of blind fate; of being unable to shape our destiny; of living in a closed mechanistic universe. Early science would lead us to the conclusion that everything is governed by fixed laws - that the universe is a closed system - that is until the study of atomic physics began to look at the quantum world of the atom where simple physical laws no longer apply!


Neo is faced with the choice of either accepting the mechanistic world of the architect and effectively returning to what must prove to be the oblivion of the source or continuing to believe that his destiny is to live as a free man. The final words of the architect are significant. "Hope - the quintessential human delusion - at the same time your greatest strength and your greatest weakness." The architect views hope as a delusion, but to live without it is not to live at all. The opposite of hope is despair and nobody can survive long in despair. Yet the architect recognises that hope is a source of strength as well as weakness. To live in a closed, mechanistic universe is to lose all hope, all sense of destiny.

St Paul knew this when he wrote his epistles. He saw the importance of three essential human elements - faith, hope and love and also saw that love is the greatest of these three. Love is the true anomaly that lies at the foundation of human reality. It is the unexplainable element in all our lives. We encounter it; we are sometimes showered with it - unasked for and maybe even unwanted, but we cannot but be affected by it. It's illogical, unreasonable, unpredictable, and powerful. It springs up in us or upon us at the most inconvenient times. It forms us and shapes us and influences us and it is unquestionably the most glorious and puzzling aspect of our lives. To know that we are loved, to love someone, to be in love - what wonder, beauty and glory and grace is this! (It is a huge part of Neo's experience and a huge influence on his actions).

Hope is built on the foundation of love - "hope springs eternal in the human breast" someone wrote. Love engenders hope. Hope does not fix itself upon the present but it looks forward to the future. To become reality true hope as opposed to false hope must be built on a secure foundation. Neo refused to accept the mechanistic closed world of the architect. His love for Trinity and her love for him plays an important part in what he is and does and thinks. Hope is not a delusion to Neo - it's based on solid foundations and ultimately proves not a weakness but his greatest strength. It gives him purpose.

This is where the third element of St Paul's trilogy comes in - Faith. (Incidentally notice that science has no category for any of these three - as far as science is concerned they are just indefinable human emotional responses). To have faith in someone is to a) believe that they exist and b) trust what they say and c) act upon it. That is precisely what you find in the scriptures. In Hebrews chapter 11 the writer says simply "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." In a different translation it says "The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see." and also "It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him." And in regard to the latter the major theme of the bible is that God is love and that he both created and cares enough to respond. His love motivates everything that he does.

So if we a) believe in God and b) trust what he says and c) act upon it then we truly have faith and to have faith is to have hope and purpose.

So what does God have to say? First and foremost, he created us and he loves us. We were created to be at one with Him and He at one with us - this is the position of greatest blessing / happiness / joy - to know that we love and are loved. How can this be when we are so totally 'other'? We don't really want him - we view him as being an inconvenient nuisance - why do we have to choose between believing Him or disbelieving Him? Why should it be such a point of importance? Isn't it better just to push the whole business to the back of our minds and live for the moment, the day, the immediate pleasure?

That's what King Solomon tried to do. He wrote a book called Ecclesiastes ("the seeker - one who is on a quest") and in one way it's a bit of an anomaly in the Bible. It doesn't have much to say about God - it's mostly about trying to live without God. He sees life as just being "under the sun" - in other words he's a materialist living in a closed mechanistic universe - fate rules and the conclusion is that everything is pointless - the product of time and chance. "I returned and saw under the sun that—the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favour to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all". And yet he acknowledges that "He (God) also has planted eternity in men's hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy]" The implication is "What a nuisance that we have this sense of the divine and destiny and purpose - why can't we just be left to enjoy the moment - live for whatever pleasure we can get without having to worry about morality, sin, guilt, judgment, responsibility. If we party hard enough we can push it all to the back of our minds - but when we are alone with our thoughts...............

So the choice comes down to 1) accept the closed world of the machines and live in despair and no purpose 2) accept that there is a Creator and that he is pure love (not the dispassionate architect seeking only perfection of the matrix with no anomalies) and live in faith, hope and love. A Creator who is transcendent above his creation and yet cares enough about it to love all the anomalies and to do something about their plight - because he has entered his creation and demonstrated his love for those who accept their anomalousness (new word?) - Jesus, Emmanuel (God with us) demonstrating what God is like and faced with the ultimate choice of saving his own life or of giving it in order to save a world of God-hating, rebellious anomalies he chose to die. And his death was not in vain for dying in apparent weakness, seemingly at the mercy of the evil in this world, he conquered evil and death and its power and rose again triumphant to ascend to the throne of the universe.

This world is broken and marred in so many ways - and almost all of them because of man's selfishness and greed. But it has a glorious future! Even now we see hints of the glory of the Creator in the wonders of creation. Now we see the (imperfect but real) beauty and glory of what men and women were intended to be in those who have put their trust in their Creator and found their lives transformed by his love and power - men and women with purpose and destiny who have discovered the truth of God's love and kindness and live in its light acknowledging that they deserve nothing but guilt and condemnation but have found mercy and have not been dealt with as they deserve. Acknowledging that there is nothing about them which has in any way contributed to their peace and joy in believing but rejoice in the grace (the undeserved favour) that has been and continues to be shown to them by a God who loves them. This is what makes life in this world so wonderful. To be loved with everlasting love. Flash

The Honesty of Old Testament Bloggers

If you can just remain simply honest in what you write then it will be of value both yourself and others.
It has always been of great personal interest and comfort to me that the bloggers of some 3,000 years ago (the psalmists) poured out as much (if not more) complaints to God as they did praise. Their blogs are still a comfort and inspiration to many. Men and women who have shaken their fists in the face of God have ultimately found peace and hope in believing.

Some examples..........

Psalm 69

Save me, O God,for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in the miry depths,where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.
I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched.
My eyes fail,looking for my God.

(Blog by King David)

Final example of many - Psalm 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,and in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,more than watchmen wait for the morning.
O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

(By an Anonymous Blogger - but feel free to put your name in wherever you read "Israel")

You are not alone!

Flash

LOTR - The Ending

IMHO, one of the mega failings of the film compared to the book is the ending. In the book after the happy ending in Gondor etc. the hobbits return to the Shire to find that its been ravaged by ruffians and half-orcs and the inhabitants of Hobbiton are living in fear of 'Sharkey', who turns out to be Saruman still accompanied by the still enslaved Wormtongue. His interference has completely upset the peace and tranquility of the shire. Sam says "This is worse than Mordor - much worse in a way. It comes home to you as they say, because it is home, and you remember it before it was ruined." The hobbits have fought in the greatest battles of Middle Earth and now they must fight an equally (if not more) important battle to rid the shire of the evil that has disturbed its peace. But now they fight as those who know that good must overcome evil and as those who have been energised by victory.


But Sam's words have even deeper significance because whether we believe it or not there is within every one of us a distant echo of a memory of what this world as a whole was like before sin and evil marred its beauty and peace. We too are called to battle for its return but we can never do this without the knowledge and assurance that the greater battle, the defining battle and triumph of good over evil has been fought and won. Like the shire, in the absence of good, evil will corrupt and spoil and disturb and mar. As Frodo says to one of the ruffians who are causing trouble, "I see that you're behind the times and the news here... your day is over, and all the other ruffians'. The Dark Tower has fallen and there is a King in Gondor. Isengard has been destroyed and your precious master is a beggar in the wilderness." That should speak volumes to all who know that there is a King upon the throne of the universe who has triumphed over evil once and forever and as for those who perpetuate evil in this world - their days are numbered. Flash