I’ve been reading a used copy of a book edited by Christopher Hitchens called The Portable Atheist. Hitchens has selected, edited and introduced 47 various selections from atheist authors, philosophers, writers, journalists and so on. They bring forward a diverse variety of discussions of unbelief in a variety of formats: essays, novels, interviews, book excerpts, etc.
I’m impressed when a worldview can marshal its best representative material from a variety of sources into one volume that someone can make a reading or reference project. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the same sort of book, with all the diverse material in the footnotes taking you into the scriptures, Catholic dogmatics and the Church Fathers. An it’s well written and well organized as well.
So IM audience, it’s time for us to edit The Portable Christian. Whom will you submit to be one of the 50 chapters in our book?
Here are the rules:
Your nomination cannot be author or book. It must be author(s), book and chapter at the least.
If possible, characterize the excerpt you have in mind. Example: C.S. Lewis’s discussion of how Christians recognize one another from Book IV/Chapter 11 of Mere Christianity, “The New Men.”
Your excerpt should, as much as possible, speak for Christianity, not for your denomination or tradition only. I realize that isn’t completely possible, but let’s work toward it.
That doesn’t mean the distinctive voices of a tradition can’t be heard, but they should be articulating Christianity and not simply polemics toward other Christians. Luther’s anti-papal polemics may turn your crank, but his explanation of grace in Galatians is more acceptable for this project.
Your excerpt should be less than 12 pages in length. (I don’t have your book. Just use that as a rule of thumb. Be moderate.)
Contemporary authors must really hit it out of the park. Let’s not be fanboys here. Show some perspective on time-tested, helpful material.
The Canon of Eucharistic Rite I, prayer A in the ’79 BCP, plus the Prayer of Humble Access. I’m being a bit of a fanboy, but I can think of no other prayer in the Christian tradition that succinctly presents the gospel and our response to it as that prayer. Pgs. 334-336, and pg. 337.
I agree. Now watch the BCP purists come out of the walls and floor
I’ve been waiting for a very long time for them to find you, actually. Haha. Wait ’till they start fighting about which of the traditional BCPs is the ‘right’ one. haha.
It’s all good. Just don’t call it the Book of Common Prayer (not historically accurate)
I know I’m a heritic among some Anglicans for saying this, but I love the ’79 edition of TEC’s BCP. Rite II was a great idea IMO. I was at a site for Anglican Dominicans a few weeks ago, and they referenced the section in the BCP’s catechism that discusses the ministry of the laity. GREAT stuff there.
My wife and myself pray compline together in the ’79 BCP most evenings, and Rite II is absolutely essential as far we we’re concerned. She is ESL from Japan, so Rite I King James English successfully prevents here from understanding just about everything. It’s hard enough to learn the meaning of the English without archaic phrases. I use Rite I for morning prayer when I’m by myself, and which is superior I could honestly care less, I just think it’s good to have both options.
Yeah, I’d agree with that. The traditional language is great. The vernacular is great.
Also, I’ve been thinking a lot about the catechism from the BCP. It’s really good even if it is kinda short. Maybe that’s one of the things that makes it good. I remember looking at a Presbyterian prayerbook/psalter that my folks had from the civil war era. That included a really good short catechism too.
Miguel,
I’m sure I’m responding late enough to completely pass you by on this, but the English Church’s Common Worship has a vernacular ‘translation’ of the Rite I canon.
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/hc/order2contemp.html
The Rite I canon is Common Worship’s Prayer of Consecration and first Prayer After Communion put together as a single prayer, IIRC. Also, do you know of Nippon Sei Ko Kai? It’s the Anglican Church in Japan, and they might have some liturgical resources you could tap into. http://nskk.org/
I would lead off with “The Greatest Drama Ever Staged”, an essay by Dorothy L. Sayers, published in 1939, Hodder and Stoughton (London). The whole 13 paragraphs can be read online at http://www.kendallpres.org/articles2/The%20Greatest%20Drama%20Ever%20Staged%20(Dorothy%20Sayers).doc. Sayres was perfectly at home in both the church and the day-to-day world, comfortable in the company of saints and sinners.
“That drama is summarized quite clearly in the creeds of the Church, and if we think it dull it is because we either have never really read those amazing documents or have recited them so often and so mechanically as to have lost all sense of their meaning. The plot pivots upon a single character, and the whole action is the answer to a single central problem: What think ye of Christ?…”
“…The Church’s answer is categorical and uncompromising and it is this: That Jesus Bar-Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, was in fact and in truth, and in the most exact and literal sense of the words, the God “by whom all things were made.†His body and brain were those of a common man; his personality was the personality of God, so far as that personality could be expressed in human terms. He was not a kind of demon pretending to be human; he was in every respect a genuine living man. He was not merely a man so good as to be “like Godâ€; he was God.
Now, this is not just a pious commonplace; it is not commonplace at all.”
I highly recommend reading the rest of this short essay. Sayres and C.S. Lewis shared a talent for communicating with their culture. God grant us that gift today!
Oh, I liked that Sayers essay very much, Tom. Thanks for recommending it. (I saved it to my hard drive.)
BTW a table of contents for The Portable Atheist with some links to stuff available online (some of the links might be items longer than what is included in the books).
I would also suggest that one selection should be from the Bible given that is the founding text for Christianity. The Hitchen’s book also includes poems so hymns/Christian poems might also be options.
As a non-Christian I’m not going to put in a choice, but, I would be interested to see what people come up with.
The guy I get all my theology from, Dante, “The Divine Comedy”, ‘Purgatorio’, Canto XVI, lines 64-105 when on the Terrace of the Wrathful Dante is asking Marco the Lombard how come the world is in the state it is?
Any translation you like, though currently I like the Hollander one,and I cannot resist quoting at least these lines from the abovementioned canto, about the soul issuing from the hands of God:
85 ‘From the hand of Him who looks on it with love
86 before it lives, comes forth, like a little girl
87 who weeps one moment and as quickly laughs,
88 ‘the simple infant soul that has no knowledge
89 but, moved by a joyous maker,
90 gladly turns to what delights it.
Of course, I’d recommend the whole three cantos to anyone, but that is rather more than the twelve pages limit. Don’t just read the “Inferno” and think you know the whole of it. The “Paradiso” is probably the hardest to get through, but even there there are wonderful images, such as having the double ring of twenty-four souls of heavyweight theologians in the heavenly sphere of the Sun compared to a wreath of flowers, dancers at a wedding, and the parts of a clock going “ting!” as it strikes the hours
Ah, heck: can I throw in another chunk, as long as it’s under the twelve page limit?
‘Paradiso’, Canto XIV, lines 1-66, the blessed souls in the heaven of the Sun explaining the resurrection of the body to Dante, and this excerpt before they begin:
19 As, impelled and drawn by heightened joy,
20 dancers in a round may raise their voices,
21 their pleasure showing in their movements,
22 so, at that eager and devout appeal,
23 the holy circles showed new joy in wheeling
24 as well as in their wondrous song.
25 Whoever here on earth laments that we must die
26 to find our life above knows not the fresh relief
27 found there in these eternal showers.
28 That ever-living One and Two and Three
29 who reigns forever in Three and Two and One,
30 uncircumscribed and circumscribing all,
31 was sung three times by each and every one
32 of these spirits, and with such melody
33 as would be fit reward for any merit.
And for anyone who thinks this is a denominational choice – well, yeah, maybe a bit. On the other hand, he *does* put more named Popes and assorted clergy into Hell than even Martin Luther
Those interested in the subject might want to check out
An Anthology of Devotional Literature. Also known as “Fellowship of the Saints.” It’s awesome. Highlights of 20 Centuries of devotional writings. We would have to pick some carryovers.
check out table of contents:
http://www.amazon.com/Anthology-Devotional-Literature-James-Massey/dp/1891314033/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258948490&sr=8-1/
That DOES look like a great anthology, Sean. I wish I had months just to read, walk, listen to music. Working gets in the way of what I would LIKE to do! But working is part of my life and I know I should not see it as “interfering” somehow in my life. It IS my life and I actually am very fortunate that I have a lot of freedom in my job.
Chapter Three of Jesus Rediscovered by Malcom Muggeridge (1969). In this short chapter, St. Mugg does not bother with “proofs” or “evidences.” He writes briefly and frankly from the viewpoint of a man who was recently an atheist, beginning with this paragraph:
“IS THERE A GOD?
Well, is there? I myself should be very happy to answer with an emphatic negative. Temperamentally, it would suit me well enough to settle for what this world offers, and to write off as wishful thinking, or just the self-importance of the human species, any notion of a divine purpose and a divinity to entertain and execute it. The earth’s sounds and smells and colours are very sweet; human love brings golden hours; the mind at work earns delight. I have never wanted a God, or feared a God, or felt under any necessity to invent one. Unfortunately, I am driven to the conclusion that God wants me.”
If we’re to have fifty chapters, I’ll nominate these two or three pages to be one of them.
That IS a great paragraph by Muggeridge, Dan. Now I want to read the whole book. (Though I am thinking maybe I did read it 30 or so years ago.
The following is by C.S. Lewis “The Last Battle,”
from the chapter “Further up and Further in.”
“Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou shouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.”
I love the part that says ‘if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves . . .. ‘
A lot of people need to hear this. A lot of people who reject Christianity need to hear this as an antidote to the hypocrisy of so many who call themselves ‘Christian’, but whose behavior is anything but.
+1
I *love* that exchange between Emeth and Aslan! Good call!
It is one of my favorites from C.S. Lewis
The wonderful way C.S. Lewis has of teaching Matthew 25 in the story of the Aslan and the ‘follower of Tash’ is so clear that a child can understand it. A service of caring done in any name is credited by the Glorious One, and rewarded.
And here again, we see the nexus between Aslan and Christ: Christ will reject those who say ‘Lord, Lord’ but failed to act in giving loving-kindness to the least of His.
As for those non-Christians, the gentle sheep of His pasture? They know His Voice, and respond to the call of the Holy Spirit within their hearts. And acting accordingly, they follow Him, whose Name they may only know as the One who asks them to love.
Selection from Chapter 10 of Donald Miller’s Searching For God Knows What:
“Imagine a pamphlet explaining the gospel of Jesus that said something like this:
‘You are the bride to the Bridegroom, and the Bridegroom is Jesus Christ. You must eat of His flesh and drink of His blood to know Him, and your union with Him will make you one, and your oneness with Him will allow you to be identified with Him, His purity allowing God to interact with you, and because of this you will be with Him in eternity, sitting at His side and enjoying his companionship, which will be more fulfilling than an earthly husband or an earthly bride. All you must do to engage God is be willing to leave everything behind, be willing to walk away from your identity, and embrace joyfully the trials and tribulations, the torture and perhaps martyrdom that will come upon you for being a child of God in a broken world working out its own redemption in empty pursuits.’
Though it sounds absurd, this is a much more accurate summation of the gospel of Jesus than the bullet points we like to consider when we think about Christ’s message to humanity.”
— Donald Miller. Searching For God Knows What. Nashville, Tenn.: Nelson, 2004. 162.
The “Come Hither!” section in the first chapter of Kierkegaard’s _Training in Christianity_.
A beautiful description of Christ’s calling of all to Himself.
Dante, _Paradiso_, Canto XXXIII
The most beautiful description of God and heaven I have ever read. I cry every time I read it.
J. Greshem Machen, _Christianity and Liberalism_, Chapter 5: Christ
Succinct comparison and contrast of the Christ of Christianity with the Christ of Liberalism and Modernism.
We’ve had Lewis, but no Chesterton as yet. So to redress that appalling lack
, here is something from the last chapter of “The Man Who Was Thursday”, when Lucien Gregory the anarchist faces the six detectives and the President of the Council (and if that description whets your appetite, read the book; stop whatever you are doing right this second, either rush out to the bookshop, download an online version, or see if it’s on Kindle, and read it):
“You! †he cried. “You never hated because you never lived. I know what you are all of you, from first to last—you are the people in power! You are the police—the great fat, smiling men in blue and buttons! You are the Law, and you have never been broken. But is there a free soul alive that does not long to break you, only because you have never been broken? We in revolt talk all kind of nonsense doubtless about this crime or that crime of the Government. It is all folly! The only crime of the Government is that it governs. The unpardonable sin of the supreme power is that it is supreme. I do not curse you for being cruel. I do not curse you (though I might) for being kind. I curse you for being safe! You sit in your chairs of stone, and have never come down from them. You are the seven angels of heaven, and you have had no troubles. Oh, I could forgive you everything, you that rule all mankind, if I could feel for once that you had suffered for one hour a real agony such as I—â€
Syme sprang to his feet, shaking from head to foot.
“I see everything,†he cried, “everything that there is. Why does each thing on the earth war against each other thing? Why does each small thing in the world have to fight against the world itself? Why does a fly have to fight the whole universe? Why does a dandelion have to fight the whole universe? For the same reason that I had to be alone in the dreadful Council of the Days. So that each thing that obeys law may have the glory and isolation of the anarchist. So that each man fighting for order may be as brave and good a man as the dynamiter. So that the real lie of Satan may be flung back in the face of this blasphemer, so that by tears and torture we may earn the right to say to this man, ‘You lie!’ No agonies can be too great to buy the right to say to this accuser, ‘We also have suffered.’
“It is not true that we have never been broken. We have been broken upon the wheel. It is not true that we have never descended from these thrones. We have descended into hell. We were complaining of unforgettable miseries even at the very moment when this man entered insolently to accuse us of happiness. I repel the slander; we have not been happy. I can answer for every one of the great guards of Law whom he has accused. At least—â€
He had turned his eyes so as to see suddenly the great face of Sunday, which wore a strange smile.Â
“Have you,†he cried in a dreadful voice, “have you ever suffered?â€
As he gazed, the great face grew to an awful size, grew larger than the colossal mask of Memnon, which had made him scream as a child. It grew larger and larger, filling the whole sky; then everything went black. Only in the blackness before it entirely destroyed his brain he seemed to hear a distant voice saying a commonplace text that he had heard somewhere, “Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of?â€
I would include Oscar Cullman’s work on the largely glossed over issue of the bodily ressurection, and the biblical testament to what awaits us after death:
“Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? by Oscar Cullmann”
(found here for online reading for free: http://www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=1115 ) its only 4 chapters long with about 1 and half pages each, so it fits in your definition. As a side note, I just started a new book by N.T. Wright(which is not my submission) called “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Ressurection, and the Mission of the Church”, that feels very much like Cullman’s very dense and very enlightening work that I mentioned above. Here is a short excerpt: “…Furthermore, if life is to issue out of so genuine a death as this a new divine act of creation is necessary. And this act of creation calls back to life not just a part of the man but the whole man — all that God had created and death had annihilated. For Socrates and Plato no new act of creation is necessary. For the body is indeed bad and should not live on. And that part which is to live on, the soul, does not die at all.
If we want to understand the Christian faith in the Resurrection, we must completely disregard the Greek thought that the material, the bodily, the corporeal is bad and must be destroyed, so that the death of the body would not be in any sense a destruction of the true life. For Christian (and Jewish) thinking the death of the body is also destruction of God-created life. No distinction is made: even the life of our body is true life; death is the destruction of all life created by God. Therefore it is death and not the body which must be conquered by the Resurrection.
Only he who apprehends with the first Christians the horror of death, who takes death seriously as death, can comprehend the Easter exultation of the primitive Christian community and understand that the whole thinking of the New Testament is governed by belief in the Resurrection. Belief in the immortality of the soul is not belief in a revolutionary event. Immortality, in fact, is only a negative assertion: the soul does not die, but simply lives on. Resurrection is a positive assertion: the whole man, who has really died, is recalled to life by a new act of creation by God. Something has happened — a miracle of creation! For something has also happened previously, something fearful: life formed by God has been destroyed…”
Peace.
*Clarification, the excerpt is from Cullman’s work, not Wright’s.*
The chapter in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment that ends with Raskolnikov, a murderer, asking Sonia, a prostitute, to read to him the story of Lazarus from John’s Gospel.
It’s the clearest presentation of the Gospel I’ve ever seen in a work of fiction, hands down.
from ‘The Body Broken’ Jean Vanier
“So Jesus begins to make the passage
from the one who is healer
to the one who is wounded;
from the man of compassion
to the man in need of compassion;
from the man who cries out:
‘If anyone thirsts let him come to me to drink,’
to the man who cries out:
‘I thirst.’
From announcing the good news to the poor,
Jesus becomes the poor.
He crosses over the boundary line of humanity
which separates those whose needs are satisfied
from those who are broken and cry out in need.”
p. 49
also recommend the section: ‘Call to Wholeness in the Body of Christ’ in same book by Vanier.
The writings of Vanier will be especially meaningful to those who are physically and mentally challenged, and their families, and those who love them.
Lesslie Newbigin. I’m afraid I don’t have any copies of his books to hand, but he talked a lot about epistemology and ‘The Gospel as Public Truth’, definitely deserves a chapter or two.
I’ve always liked this bit in Lewis from “Mere Chrsitianity” (more than a hint of Chesterton in this, actually):
“All the same, the New Testament, without going into details, gives us a pretty clear hint of what a fully Christian society would be like. Perhaps it gives us more than we can take. It tells us that there are to be no passengers or parasites: if a man does not work, he ought not to eat. Every one is to work with his own hands, and what is more, every one’s work is to produce something good: there will be no manufacture of silly luxuries and then of sillier advertisements to persuade us to buy them. And there is to be no “swank” or “side,” no putting on airs. To that extent a Christian society would be what we now call Leftist. On the other hand, it is always insisting on obedience (and outward marks of respect) from all of us to properly appointed magistrates, from children to parents, and (I am afraid this is going to be very unpopular) from wives to husbands. Thirdly, it is to be a cheerful society: full of singing and rejoicing, and regarding worry or anxiety as wrong. Courtesy is one of the Christian virtues; and the New Testament hates what it calls “busybodies.”
“If there were such a society in existence and you or I visited it, I think we should come away with a curious impression. We should feel that its economic life was very socialistic and, in that sense, “advanced,” but that its family life and its code of manners were rather old-fashioned – perhaps even ceremonious and aristocratic. Each of us would like some bits of it, but I am afraid very few of us would like the whole thing. That is just what one would expect if Christianity is the total plan for the human machine. We have all departed from that total plan in different ways, and each of us wants to make out that his own modification of the original plan is the plan itself. You will find this again and again about anything that is really Christian: every one is attracted by bits of it and wants to pick out those bits and leave the rest. That is why we do not get much further: and that is why people who are fighting for quite opposite things can both say they are fighting for Christianity.”
+1
I also appreciate that Lewis admits he doesn’t agree with everything he had written in that passage, but he had to submit to it as the ideal of his faith. I think *that’s* one of the incredible and unique things about authentic (mere) Christianity – submitting ourselves to an authority with which we don’t completely agree. It’s a total paradox in our modern age; one of the reasons it feels so true.
And I’ll throw some Chesterton in for good measure. He lightly skips over some Catholic specifics here, but he does so mainly in the service of countering the idea that Christians shouldn’t hold to doctrines at all, and as such I think it works out fairly well for an ecumenical reading:
The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic, chap. 7 (1929):
“The message of Christ [said Chesterton's opponent] was perfectly “simple”: that the cure of everything is Love; but since He was killed (I do not quite know why) for making this remark, great temples have been put up to Him and horrid people called priests have given the world nothing but “stones, amulets, formulas, shibboleths.” They also “quarrel eternally among themselves as to the placing of a button or the bending of a knee.” All this gives no comfort to the unhappy Christian, who apparently wishes to be comforted only by being told that he has a duty to his neighbour. “How many men in the time of their passing get comfort out of the thought of the Thirty-Nine Articles, Predestination, Transubstantiation, the doctrine of eternal punishment, and the belief that Christ will return on the Seventh Day?” The items make a curious catalogue; and the last item I find especially mysterious. But I can only say that, if Christ was the giver of the original and really comforting message of love, I should have thought it did make a difference whether He returned on the Seventh Day. For the rest of that singular list, I should probably find it necessary to distinguish. I certainly never gained any deep and heartfelt consolation from the thought of the Thirty-Nine Articles. I never heard of anybody in particular who did. Of the idea of Predestination there are broadly two views; the Calvinist and the Catholic; and it would make a most uncommon difference to my comfort, if I held the former instead of the latter. It is the difference between believing that God knows, as a fact, that I choose to go to the devil; and believing that God has given me to the devil, without my having any choice at all. As to Transubstantiation, it is less easy to talk currently about that; but I would gently suggest that, to most ordinary outsiders with any common sense, there would be a considerable practical difference between Jehovah pervading the universe and Jesus Christ coming into the room.
“But I touch rapidly and reluctantly on these examples, because they exemplify a much wider question of this interminable way of talking. It consists of talking as if the moral problem of man were perfectly simple, as everyone knows it is not; and then depreciating attempts to solve it by quoting long technical words, and talking about senseless ceremonies without enquiring about their sense. In other words, it is exactly as if somebody were to say about the science of medicine: “All I ask is Health; what could be simpler than the beautiful gift of Health? Why not be content to enjoy for ever the glow of youth and the fresh enjoyment of being fit? Why study dry and dismal sciences of anatomy and physiology; why enquire about the whereabouts of obscure organs of the human body? Why pedantically distinguish between what is labelled a poison and what is labelled an antidote, when it is so simple to enjoy Health? Why worry with a minute exactitude about the number of drops of laudanum or the strength of a dose of chloral, when it is so nice to be healthy? Away with your priestly apparatus of stethoscopes and clinical thermometers; with your ritualistic mummery of feeling pulses, putting out tongues, examining teeth, and the rest! The god Esculapius came on earth solely to inform us that Life is on the whole preferable to Death; and this thought will console many dying persons unattended by doctors.”
“In other words, the Usual Article, which is now some ten thousand issues old, was always stuff and nonsense even when it was new. There may be, and there has been, pedantry in the medical profession. There may be, and there has been, theology that was thin or dry or without consolation for men. But to talk as if it were possible for any science to attack any problem, without developing a technical language, and a method always methodical and often minute, merely means that you are a fool and have never really attacked a problem at all. Quite apart from the theory of a Church, if Christ had remained on earth for an indefinite time, trying to induce men to love one another, He would have found it necessary to have some tests, some methods, some way of dividing true love from false love, some way of distinguishing between tendencies that would ruin love and tendencies that would restore it. You cannot make a success of anything, even loving, entirely without thinking.”
+1
Wow. That is awesome! I can see Chesterton’s inspiration of Lewis. I’m studying for a theology degree right now, living a harmony of simple faith and deeper theological study is strenuous. I will be referring back to this quote many times!
For pity’s sake, man, drop whatever you’re reading and pick up Chesterton. His style gets on my nerves from time to time, but he is like nothing else.
The Everlasting Man is probably the right starting place.
Or the Father Brown stories, especially the Flambeau ones which are (going roughly by memory) “The Blue Cross”, “The Queer Feet” and “The Flying Stars”.
But yeah, read ‘em all!
Okay, for a student theologian, quotes from “The Blue Cross”:
“The first he heard was the tail of one of Father Brown’s sentences, which ended: ‘… what they really meant in the Middle Ages by the heavens being incorruptible.’
The taller priest nodded his bowed head and said:
‘Ah, yes, these modern infidels appeal to their reason; but who can look at those millions of worlds and not feel that there may well be wonderful universes above us where reason is utterly unreasonable?’
‘No,’ said the other priest; ‘reason is always reasonable, even in the last limbo, in the lost borderland of things. I know that people charge the Church with lowering reason, but it is just the other way. Alone on earth, the Church makes reason really supreme. Alone on earth, the Church affirms that God himself is bound by reason.’
The other priest raised his austere face to the spangled sky and said:
‘Yet who knows if in that infinite universe — ?’
‘Only infinite physically,’ said the little priest, turning sharply in his seat, ‘not infinite in the sense of escaping from the laws of truth.’
…’Reason and justice grip the remotest and the loneliest star. Look at those stars. Don’t they look as if they were single diamonds and sapphires? Well, you can imagine any mad botany or geology you please. Think of forests of adamant with leaves of brilliants. Think the moon is a blue moon, a single elephantine sapphire. But don’t fancy that all that frantic astronomy would make the smallest difference to the reason and justice of conduct. On plains of opal, under cliffs cut out of pearl, you would still find a notice-board, `Thou shalt not steal.”
…’How in blazes do you know all these horrors?’ cried Flambeau.
The shadow of a smile crossed the round, simple face of his clerical opponent.
‘Oh, by being a celibate simpleton, I suppose,’ he said. ‘Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men’s real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil? But, as a matter of fact, another part of my trade, too, made me sure you weren’t a priest.’
‘What?’ asked the thief, almost gaping.
‘You attacked reason,’ said Father Brown. ‘It’s bad theology.’”
From the “Confessio” of St. Patrick, translated from the Latin by Ludwig Bieler, mid-5th century:
“38. I am greatly God’s debtor, because he granted me so much grace, that through me many people would be reborn in God, and soon after confirmed, and that clergy would be ordained everywhere for them, the masses lately come to belief, whom the Lord drew from the ends of the earth, just as he once promised through his prophets: ‘To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, “Our fathers have inherited naught but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.â€â€™ And again: ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the uttermost ends of the earth.’
39. And I wish to wait then for his promise which is never unfulfilled, just as it is promised in the Gospel: ‘Many shall come from east and west and shall sit at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ Just as we believe that believers will come from all the world,
40. So for that reason one should, in fact, fish well and diligently, just as the Lord foretells and teaches, saying, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,’ and, again, through the prophets: ‘“Behold, I am sending forth many fishers and hunters,†says the Lord,’ et cetera. So it behoved us to spread our nets, that a vast multitude and throng might be caught for God, and so there might be clergy everywhere who baptized and exhorted a needy and desirous people. Just as the Lord says in the Gospel, admonishing and instructing: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always to the end of time.’ And again he says: ‘Go forth into the world and preach the Gospel to all creation. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be condemned.’ And again: ‘This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached throughout the whole world as a witness to all nations; and then the end of the world shall come.’ And likewise the Lord foretells through the prophet: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days (sayeth the Lord) that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams; yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit and they shall prophesy.’ And in Hosea he says: ‘Those who are not my people I will call my people, and those not beloved I will call my beloved, and in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,†they will be called ’Sons of the living God.â€â€™
41. So, how is it that in Ireland, where they never had any knowledge of God but, always, until now, cherished idols and unclean things, they are lately become a people of the Lord, and are called children of God; the sons of the Irish [Scotti] and the daughters of the chieftains are to be seen as monks and virgins of Christ.
42. And there was, besides, a most beautiful, blessed, native-born noble Irish [Scotta] woman of adult age whom I baptized; and a few days later she had reason to come to us to intimate that she had received a prophecy from a divine messenger [who] advised her that she should become a virgin of Christ and she would draw nearer to God. Thanks be to God, six days from then, opportunely and most eagerly, she took the course that all virgins of God take, not with their fathers’ consent but enduring the persecutions and deceitful hindrances of their parents. Notwithstanding that, their number increases, (we do not know the number of them that are so reborn) besides the widows, and those who practise self-denial. Those who are kept in slavery suffer the most. They endure terrors and constant threats, but the Lord has given grace to many of his handmaidens, for even though they are forbidden to do so, still they resolutely follow his example.”
the sermon on the mount by Jesus, also referrred to as the christ, as recorded in the gospel of Matthew? Or is the bible excluded???
And maybe an abbreviated version of ‘the mark of the christian’ by Fancis Schaeffer.
Bram
Dallas Willard’s “Knowing Christ Today,” chapter 2–”Exactrly How We Perish For Lack of Knowledge,” and chapter 3, “How Moral Knowledge Disappeared.”
Ha! I was gonna say “Luther’s commentary on Galatians”. You read my mind.
Honestly, the Small Catechism isn’t a bad choice either. It already is a “portable Christian” on the very very basics. I’m talking about the little one without “explanation”. I mean really, Luther speaks for pretty much all of Protestantism although very few realize it.
Chapter 7 of Mere Christianity. Lord Liar Lunatic chapter
I would just say all of Book 2 of Mere Christianity. It comes in at around 20-30 pages in my edition.
Sadly, that chapter has only limited relevance today. Most critics won’t accepting the underlying assumption that the words of the gospels are the actual words of Jesus. Therefore, “liar, lunatic, or lord” is of no use. They would be more apt to reject all three labels and instead attach the label of “legend.”
I have to agree — even at Lewis’ own time, this was probably the weakest argument he made. It works only if you assume the gospel texts report Jesus’ claims about himself, rather than someone else’s claims about him.
However, I am personally quite drawn to Lewis’ discussion of how in Christ “myth became real.” Like Lewis, I’m moved deeply by myth and story, so this way of understanding the Biblical narrative feels quite compelling. It doesn’t offer proof. But it is beautiful!
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamasov, Chapter 4 – A Lady of Little Faith
“On Being a Theologian of the Cross” – Gerhard Forde
Solved in my mind some of the contradictions that I see what a “good Christian” should think.
Could you give a selection? That’s a whole book,
I would give section 1 of “On Being a Theologian of the Cross” which includes a discourse of thesis #1-#12. Really sets us up as sinners pointing us to Christ. Thesis 1-12 really shoot at the heart of a self-glorified Christian/non-Christian as the source of righteousness. To steal from M.Horton, “if you get the diagnosis right….”. I have heard some suggest this would not make for a new Christian read but it was great for me to read as a Christian for only 3 years.
As a side note. I’m done at “that” popular Christian bookstore. They had one small isle left that included books written by old dead people, classics. Even that isle is now gone. Its been taken over by an expanding Christian fiction section and the Osteen book wing.
I wholeheartedly agree.
It’s hard to select one section from this book. The Heidelberg Disputation, which is the subject of this book, is probably one of the most important treatise that Luther wrote. Understanding the difference between the theology of the cross vs. theology of glory I think helps to unpack what is really wrong with evangelicalism.
If I had to choose, I would say chapter 4: God’s Work in Us: the Righteousness of Faith”.
Maybe I should clarify. Some of my Christian friends support victory notions of what a “good Christian” should think. This introduced many contradictions that I could not resolve in my mind. “On Being a Theologian of the Cross†– Gerhard Forde, resolved some of these inconsistencies.
The Prayer of Manasseh, from the Apocrypha, a stunning prayer of repentance. Here’s an excerpt:
The whole thing can be read here: http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=26864532
The traditional, historical collects of the church follow the same format as the prayer of Manasseh: an address to God, a theological statement about God, a request related to the theological statement, a consequence of the request or a statement of intention, and a closing.
And perhaps a poem or two of George Herbert, 1593-1633.
1.) The second chapter of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s ‘The World’s First Love’. Wish I had a copy of the book to hand – the chapter is a beautifully clear discussion of the Christian idea of freedom.
2.) This evening hymn, originally in Latin, from the fifth century – for a reminder that beauty has been there all along in the Church. (And also because it’s a hymn in Latin that ends on a distinctly Orthodox note – there was a time when the Church was united.)
Gracious Lord, Creator of the golden light,
You establish the patterns of revolving time,
And as the sun now sets, the gloom of night advances in.
For all your faithful, Christ, restore the light.
You have arrayed your heavenly court
With all the countless stars,
setting the moon there as a lamp,
Yet still have shown us how to seek
Those lights whose seeds spring out
Whenever stony flint is struck.
This was to teach mankind its hope,
That light bestowed on us
When Christ came with his own flesh.
For as he said, He is that steadfast rock,
From which a fire sprang forth to all our race.
This tiny flame we nurse in lamps
Brimming with rich and fragrant oil,
Or on the dry timber of the torch,
Or on the rushlights we have made,
Steeped in wax pressed from the comb.
The flickering light grows strong,
As the hollow earthware lamp
yields up its richness to the thirsty wick,
As the pine branch drips its nourishing sap,
And the fire drinks the warmth of waxen tapers down.
Drop by drop in perfumed tears
The glowing liquid nectar falls.
The eager fire sends forth rain
As burning waxen candles weep themselves away.
It is by your own gifts, Father,
Our halls are gleaming now with dancing lights
That strive to emulate departed day,
While conquered night withdraws in flight,
Rending her dark cloak as she goes.
Lord, you are the true light of our eyes,
And light to all our senses;
That which we see within, and that which lies without.
Accept this light I offer you, as my worship, Lord;
A light that brims, with perfumed oils of peace.
Most Holy Father, through Christ your Son,
Your glory stands revealed,
Your Only Born, Our Lord,
Who breathed the Spirit over us,
Out of the bosom of the Father;
Through him your glory, honor, praise, and wisdom;
Your goodness, gracefulness, and might,
Endure in your kingdom, thrice holy God,
And spread through Ages of everlasting Ages. Amen.
I love Bishop Sheen. I’m glad that EWTN radio includes him in their broadcast schedule.
Thank goodness for people including poetry. Almost any other place online (that I’m familiar with, anyway), the closest you’d get to somebody suggesting a “Christian” poem would be “If. . .” Ugh!
Oh – the hymn/poem is in the collection ‘At the Lighting Of The Lamps’; a selection of Greek and Latin hymns up to the 10th century. It’s not so large as that might make it sound
, and there are some marvelous pieces.
Eugene Peterson’s article in Christ Century – Transparent Lives
http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=1195
or something from Peterson’s writings on the topic presented.
Tim
thanks for the link: this is VERY good; rarified air compared to the usual weekly “do better, try harder” gruel we so often get.
thanks
Greg R
I love ‘The Masai Creed’ – an adaptation of the Nicene creed into the cultural language of the Masai – an indigenous African tribe in Kenya and Tanzania.
“We believe in the one High God, who out of love created the beautiful world and everything good in it. He created man and wanted man to be happy in the world. God loves the world and every nation and tribe on the earth. We have known this High God in the darkness, and now we know him in the light. God promised in the book of his word, the Bible, that he would save the world and all nations and tribes.
We believe that God made good his promise by sending his son, Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left his home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and man, showing that the meaning of religion is love. He was rejected by his people, tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died. He was buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch him, and on the third day, he rose from that grave. He ascended to the skies. He is the Lord.
We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him. All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins, be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love, and share the bread together in love, to announce the good news to others until Jesus comes again. We are waiting for him. He is alive. He lives. This we believe. Amen.”
I heard it in a Speaking of Faith program about Creeds Jaroslav Pelikan.
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/pelikan/masai.shtml
Luke, I had never heard of The Masai Creed but I like it very much. Thanks.
As for poetry, I’m a big fan of many of the poems that come from Toyohiko Kagawa’s “Songs From the Slums”. One example follows:
“One Garment Left”
I have no one
To make a garment
For me;
Nor yet
A garment to be made.
My clothes
Are soiled,
And torn,
And tattered.
On the streets,
The people stare at me
Each time I leave the slums.
But those who clothe themselves
In borrowed garb
Are like a crow
Wearing a peacock’s feathers–
Fools!
As for myself,
Bare legs,
Short shirt,
Sweatband on brow,
I gird me up
To move the world!
And when
I wash
My one poor garment,
Stiff with filth,
Naked,
I wait
For it to dry.
Naked,
I kneel
Down at the crossing
In the mud,
To weep
And pray.
Stripped thus of all that Thou hast given me,
Lord, I would give again my all to thee!
Chapter 18 of Thomas Merton’s “New Seeds of Contemplation” is entitled “Faith” and I heartily recommend not only the book but that particular chapter, as well.
Also, the “Second Conversation” of Brother Lawrence’s “The Practice of the Presence of God.”
The first chapter of the Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer and the first chapter of the School of Christ by T.Austin-Sparks. Those chapters will be for a great introduction to this project.
Brother Lawrence’s 11th letter – http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/download/text/practice.txt
Definitely. Definitely.
I really think this is a great idea and actually hope it really gets published. So far, none of the to fifty most influential evangelicals are even listed; makes you wonder if someone might take notice and ask why.
Not to necessarily appeal to the fine young calvinists, but the Dungeon of Giant Despair from Pilgrim’s Progress would be important.
It could easily become a C.S. Lewis collection, but the scene in hell from “The Great Divorce” is priceless.
The chapter, “The Maniac” from Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy” is significant.
Don’t forget Merton! How about, “The moral Theology of the Devil” from “New Seeds of Contemplation”?
How about “Losing as Winning: the Prologue to the Good Samaritan” from Capon’s “Parables of Grace”?
…and John Wesley’s sermon no. 39: “the Catholic Spirit”.
http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/39/
I second that vote for my buddy Mr. Wesley.
If we can take more Lewis, I would highly recommend Ransom’s theophany (or whatever it is) near the end of Perelandra. It’s about five pages; a magnificent, almost operatic expression of a universe loved by God. A piece, not the best but perhaps the most understandable by itself:
“Another said, “Never did He make two things the same; never did He utter one word twice. After earths, not better earths but beasts; after beasts, not better beasts but spirits. After a falling, not recovery but a new creation. Out of the new creation, not a third but the mode of change itself is changed forever. Blessed be He!”
And another said, “It is loaded with justice as a tree is loaded down with fruit. All is righteousness and there is no equality. Not as when stones lie side by side, but as when stones support and are supported in an arch, such is His order; rule and obedience, begetting and bearing, heat glancing down, life growing up. Blessed by He!”
One said, “They who add years to years in lumpish aggregation, or miles to miles and galaxies to galaxies, shall not come near His greatness. The days of the fields of Arbol will fade and the days of Deep Heaven itself are numbered. Not thus is He great. He dwells (all of Him dwells) within the seed of the smallest flower and is not cramped; Deep Heaven is inside Him who is inside the seed and is not distended. Blessed be He!”
“The edge of each nature borders on that whereof it contains no shadow or similitude. Of many points one line; of many lines one shape; of many shapes one solid body; of many senses and thoughts one person; of three persons, Himself. As in the circle to the sphere, so are the ancient worlds that needed no redemption to that world wherein He was born and died. As is a point to a line, so is that world to the far-off fruits of its redeeming. Blessed be He!”
“Yet the circle is not less round than the sphere, and the sphere is the home and fatherland of circles. Infinite multitudes of circles lie enclosed in every sphere, and if they spoke they would say, For us were the spheres created. Let no mouth open to gainsay them. Blessed be He!”
…
“The Dust itself which is scattered so rare in Heaven, whereof all worlds, and the bodies that are not worlds, are made, is at the centre. It waits not till created eyes have seen it or hands handled it, to be in itself a strength and splendour of Maleldil [God]. Only the least part has served, or ever shall, a beast, a man, or a god. But always, and beyond all distances, before they came and after they are gone and where they never come, it is what it is and utters the heart of the Holy One with its own voice. It is farthest from Him of all things, for it has no life, nor sense, nor reason; it is nearest to Hm of all things for without intervening soul, as sparks fly out of a fire, He utters in each grain of it the unmixed image of His energy. Each grain, if it spoke, would say, I am the centre; for me all things were made. Let no mouth open to gainsay it. Blessed be He!”
“Each grain is at the centre. The Dust is at the centre. The Worlds are at the centre. The beasts are at the centre. The ancient peoples are there. The race that sinned are there. Tor and Tinidril are there. The gods [that is, the angels] are there also. Blessed be He!”
“Where Maleldil is, there is the centre. He is in every place. Not some of Him in one place and some in another, but in each place the whole Maleldil, even in the smallness beyond thought. There is no way out of the centre save into the Bent Will which casts itself into the Nowhere. Blessed be He!”
“Each thing was made for Him. He is the centre. Because we are with Him, each of us is at the centre. It is not as in a city of the Darkened World [earth] where they say that each must live for all. In His city all things were made for each. When He died in the Wounded World He died not for me, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less. Each thing, from the single grain of Dust to the strongest eldil, is the end and the final cause of all creation and the mirror in which the beam of His brightness comes to rest and so returns to Him. Blessed be He!”
…
Sorry it’s kind of long, but it all builds up upon itself. Even this is like an amputated arm without the rest.
Also, something from George MacDonald could surely make the cut. Something from his Unspoken Sermons, perhaps? I don’t know them well enough to make a direct suggestion.
Yeah! Anything from his two volumes of poetry would be great (available on Project Gutenberg). “Diary of an Old Soul” is good, too.
Chapter 4 of Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing about Grace–”The Lovesick Father.”
Hitchens probably includes Dostoevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor,” in The Brothers Karamozav, but I think I would include it in The Portable Christian, too, because of Alyosha’s response (after Ivan’s atheistic rant, his Christian brother Alyosha responds by kissing him).
I really like the first four chapters of N.T. Wright’s Simply Christian, his arguments for God from our needs for justice, community, spirituality, and beauty.
The section from Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship in which he discusses the relationship between faith and works–”Only the person who obeys can believe, and only the person who believes can obey.”
“A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none, a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.”
And other snippets from Luther’s “The Freedom of a Christian.”
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/REFORM/FREEDOM.HTM
THE PAIN THAT PLAGUES CREATION
by Mark Heard.
http://mhlp.rru.com/pain_plagues.html
As this planet falls around the sun trapping us in the orbit
Creation groans in unison like a race of frightened orphans
The darkness of this raging storm is covering up our portals
But a yearning for the light is bourne in the heart of every mortal
Day to day we ache
With the pain that plagues Creation
Night to night we lie awake
And await its restoration
Heaven knows our lonely ways, heaven knows our sorrows
And Heaven knows things that we don’t know and the joy of eternal tomorrows
But through this glass we dimly see this world as it was made
Oh and the good we know must surely flow
From the heart of a kind Creator
Day to day we ache
With the pain that plagues Creation
Night to night we lie awake
And await its restoration
So hold on in this restless age and do not fear your shadow
Your alternating tears and praise are prayers that surely will matter
Day to day we ache
With the pain that plagues Creation
Night to night we lie awake
And await its restoration
The bit in Augustine’s Confessions where he gets converted–the “take up and read!” passage. The Rule of St. Benedict. St. Patrick’s Breastplate. The Dream of the Rood.
Tozer’s “Pursuit of God” was already mentioned but I would add chapter 7 to the list as well. Entitled “The Gaze of the Soul”, Tozer talks about faith as looking squarely towards Christ, the “author and finisher of our faith”. Here’s a selection :
“Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves–blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.”
Jim Packer’s chapter on the heart of the Gospel in “Knowing God” is pretty good. Having said that, so is the chapter on sons of God.
Jonathan Edwards on the end for which God created the world (or parts of it)
Calvin’s Institutes 3.11
As mentioned earlier, the prayer of humble access in the BCP is very good. The BCP burial service is also worth mentioning, along with the primary Collect for Advent.
I’d nominate the Didache for the list. It’s short, so I’d probably include all of it.
The Creeds would be essential; at least the Apostle’s and Nicene.
Something from Steve Brown’s A Scandalous Freedom. I’m not sure which chapter, at this point, though. Something about Brown’s ideas of the “Radical Nature of the Gospel” and grace, freedom, etc.
One of the introductory sections of Robert Weber’s Worship is a Verb that discusses historic Christian worship and how that can apply cross-denominationally today.
Yes, definitely the Didache and Creeds.
“And Can It Be” by Charles Wesley is a great bit of religious poetry
The General Confession from the Book of Common Prayer, which Richard Foster claims in his book Prayer, “Who… can improve upon the Spirit-empowered words of the General Confession from The Book of Common Prayer?” (p. 107).
ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind In Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.
AND….
From Frederica Mathewes-Green’s little book The Illumined Heart: The Ancient Christian Path of Transformation (2001) — Chapter 6 entitled “Repentance, Both Door and Path.” This little 100-page book is a treasure.
For a little lightheartedness:
The bit about trying to move a paperclip by faith in “The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, aged …” (I forget how old).
Donald Miller’s chapter on the voice and character of God from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It is stunning both cognitively and emotionally. I would probably include Thomas Campbell’s 1809 Declaration and Address.
http://european-literature.suite101.com/article.cfm/bishop_of_digne_from_les_miserables
Hugo’s Bishop of Digne, in Les Miserables, is a terrific and unforgettable picture of Christ. The above link describes the bishop’s character and gives some plot summary. These are the opening chapters of Les Miserables and if you read nothing else from this very long book, read those. Whittaker Chambers, who read Les Miserables as a young man, said he was influenced by the Bishop for the rest of his life.
Tough one. Possibly something from Neuhaus’ “Death on a Friday Afternoon”. His chapter “Do Not Judge” raises some absolutely essential questions about salvation, faith, and hell. But on a whole that books is a stunningly beautiful meditation on the cross.