Relaxing vacay reading

I try to sound as basic as possible.

Anyways, having a 2.5 hour flight provides the perfect opportunity to get a head start on the literary endeavor of your choice. In this case, I'm fangirling over Aimee Byrd after catapulting myself into Housewife Theologian on the plane. Just came across this excerpt, which cements a conviction which has been recently growing on my mind. I need to move away from just consuming the wisdom of older people around me and realize that despite my best efforts, I'm acquiring some of my own as well. My life expeiences are much less meaningful if I don't apply them and use them to help others. In other words, SARAH STOP BEING LAZY.

We need to be purposeful in our relationships and reminded of our responsibilities so that we do not fall into sin.

This can be very difficult for the twenty-first century woman. Our American culture is very individualistic. When we read of this duty to admonish the younger women, we do not want to put ourselves in such an imposing, uncomfortable relationship. Many young women today do not want to hear this "advice." I recently attended a wonderful women's workshop on spiritual friendship. One point that enriched my thinking on this matter was the consideration that we are all an older woman to someone, and we are all a younger woman to someone. We share in the responsibility to teach, as well as to be teachable.

Housewife Theologian, p. 140

O come, O come, Emmanuel

Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,

according to your word;

for my eyes have seen your salvation

that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and for glory to your people Israel.”

And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” 

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. 

Luke 2:25-38

Taking heaven by storm

Amid the spiritual.....picnic.....of the past several months, one of the most powerful truths I've learned is the "violent" nature of our sanctification. As Christians, we are not called to a life inside a Thomas Kinkade painting. Instead, like the armed man the Interpreter presents in Pilgrim's Progress, we are going to fight our way into Heaven. I always understood this as a battle with the triple forces of the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. And it is. But now I see that our sanctification is not just a fight against enemies. It's also a fight for what has been promised to us. It is both defensive and offensive.

What do you know? Thomas Watson just happened to write a book about this. Here follows a choice excerpt:

3. What is implied in this holy violence? It implies three things: Resolution of will. Vigor of affection. Strength of endeavor.

Resolution of the will. Psalm 119:6: "I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I keep Thy righteous judgments." Whatever is in the way to heaven (though there is a lion in the way), I will encounter it like a resolute commander who charges through the whole body of the army. The Christian is resolved that, come what will, he will have heaven. Where there is this resolution, danger must be despised, difficulties trampled upon, and terrors condemned. This is the first thing in holy violence: resolution of will. I will have Heaven whatever it costs me, and this resolution must be in the strength of Christ.

Resolution is like the bias to the bowl, which carries it strongly. Where there is but half a resolution, a will to be saved and a will to follow sin, it is impossible to be violent for heaven. If a traveler is unresolved, sometimes he will ride this way, sometimes that; he is violent for neither.

Vigor of the affections. The will proceeds upon reason; the judgment being informed of the excellence of a state of glory and the will being resolved upon a voyage to that holy land, now the affections follow and they are on fire in passionate longings after heaven. The affections are violent things. Psalm 42:2: "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God." The Rabbins note here that David did not say, "My soul hungereth," but "thirsteth," because naturally we are more impatient with thirst than hunger. See in what a rapid, violent motion David's affections were carried after God. Affections are like the wings of the bird that make the soul swift in its flight after glory; where the affections are stirred up, there is offering violence to heaven.

This violence implies strength of endeavor, when we strive for salvation as though a matter of life and death. 'Tis easy to talk of heaven, but not to get to heaven; we must put forth our strength, and call in the help of heaven to this work.

Heaven Taken By Storm, pp. 9-10.

"Do you love me more than these?"

Over dinner tonight, Maddie of Bestfriendom and I fell to talking about how difficult but crucially important it is to maintain a meaningful relationship with Christ. It directly influences all the other aspects of our lives. And then I came home and stumbled across this passage in Flavel. Once again, books spookily echo what has just been on my mind:

Without love to Christ we may have the name of Christians, but we are wholly without the nature. We may have the form of godliness, but are wholly without the power. Give me thine heart is the language of God to all the children of men, Proverbs 23:26; and "Give me thy love" is the language of Christ to all His disciples.

Christ knows the command and influence which love to Him, in the truth and strength of it, has; how it will engage all the other affections of His disciples for Him; that if He has their love, their desires will be chiefly after Him. Their delights will be chiefly in Him; their hopes and expectations will be chiefly from Him; their hatred, fear, grief, anger, will be carried forth chiefly unto sin as it is offensive unto Him. He knows that love will engage and employ for Him all the powers and faculties of their souls; their thoughts will be brought into captivity and obedience unto Him; their understandings will be employed in seeking and finding out His truths; their memories will be receptacles to retain them; their consciences will be ready to accuse and excuse as His faithful deputies; their wills will choose and refuse, according to His direction and revealed pleasure.

 All their senses and the members of their bodies will be His servants. Their eyes will see for Him, their ears will hear for Him, their tongues will speak for Him, their hands will work for Him, their feet will walk for Him. All their gifts and talents will be at His devotion and service. If He has their love, they will be ready to do for Him what He requires. They will suffer for Him whatever He calls them to. If they have much love to Him, they will not think much of denying themselves, taking up His cross, and following Him wherever He leads them.

(The True Christian's Love to the Unseen Christ, pp. 1-2)

And thus we have a testament to the power of the love of God. First, it is mirrored in ours. "We love, because He first loved us." But it also strengthens us to godly action. Not only does it make us love Him, it makes us like Him. We are transformed when we encounter the love of God.

As Dante ended the Divine Comedy,

Yet, as a wheel moves smoothly, free from jars,

My will and my desire were turned by love,
The love that moves the sun and the other stars. 

Not that I'm counting or anything

However, if I were, I'd write a blog post about how there are 22 days separating me from England.  Sandwiched amongst the pre-European festivities is a trip to Florida to visit my aunt. Between the two of these excursions, I plan on missing the majority of the new and improved polar vortex the Weatherman is threatening us with again.

Last night, my genial coworker asked whether I'd started packing yet. To this, I indulged in a laugh with a maniacal edge to it and replied that I was happy I had just done my laundry. Having thrown 75 pages of papers at yours truly, the semester has been brutal. It began with me incredulously remarking that I had nothing to do, and ended with me running into the living room where my sister sat, proclaiming for all the world to hear: "I AM A WRITING GODDESS!!!"

Anyways, the reality that I am going to be gone in three weeks is hitting me. I have my plane ticket, an over-zealous itinerary of places to visit, and a church to attend. My bank has been told that imminent transactions in Europe are just me trying to buy myself some groceries, OK?!?! Today, I went to the store and stocked up on all the random stuff I'll need to bring along. Can't survive without those socks. I think I've had a master packing list since at least last spring. Actually buying the stuff on there made this trip start to sink in.

These are the classes I'm signed up to take:

• Philosophy of Religion (God's attributes, prayer, eternal life)
• Pauline Epistles
• The Early Church
• Explorations in Literature (basically a western survey)
• Christianity and the Arts (THERE ARE FIELD TRIPS)

Soooooo excited.

I've had two people recommend visiting a service at King's College Chapel. The choir is beautiful. The chapel is beautiful. This whole semester is just going to be one long case of aesthetic over-stimulus.

HOW DO YOU EVEN CONCENTRATE???

And that's about all I have to say at this point. The countdown continues.

THANK YOU LELAND RYKEN

The other day, when presenting my paper on Christian literary theory, I matter-of-factly stated that Christian theory should not be afraid to promote the Christian agenda (duhhh). I'm pretty sure I annoyed several of my classmates. That made me happy. Anyways, I am finishing up said paper and came across this quote by Ryken, which I am going to appropriate as validation.

Modern literary theory has championed the idea of interpretive communities - readers and authors who share an agenda of interests, beliefs, and values. Christian readers and writers are one of these interpretive communities. Everyone sees the world of literature through the lens of his or her beliefs and experiences. Christians are no exception. As an interpretive community, Christians should not apologize for having a worldview through which they interpret the world and literature.  

("A Christian Philosophy of Literature" in The Christian Imagination, p. 31.)

Literature is all about understanding said  "beliefs and experiences." Reason #83582950 why I hate postmodernism is that it strips literature of all meaning. Wayne C. Booth, one of my Chicago School (=great books) homies, described two possible functions of art: "showing" and "telling." "Showing" simply draws a picture; "telling" comments on it. We have a word to describe art which simply "shows": BAD. That kind of thing is the realm of art students in Drawing 101 who need to practice their drapery, or the budding poet who needs to master the form of a sonnet. But postmodernism seems to believe that complacently stalling here indefinitely is ok. In reality, it's sophomoric. Also naïve, because who are we kidding? Everybody has an agenda, whether they admit it or not.

 

Rant over, carry on.

I am woman, hear me roar

It's finals week, and my lucky professor has a rant on feminist literary theory waiting for him. I got so personally invested in it, I decided to immortalize it here for posterity.

-----

In “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision,” Adrienne Rich argues that revision is necessary in order for women to find their place in the canon of literature. The problem with this statement rests in three underlying assumptions: First, that women cannot relate to the experiences their male counterparts describe; second, that the existing depictions of women in literature are weak and unrealistic; and third, that dwelling on this perceived disunity will somehow promote efforts to create unity.

Writing about the literary potential of the twentieth century, Rich anticipates that “at this moment for women writers in particular, there is the challenge and promise of a whole new psychic geography to be explored” (513). Rich conflates the distinction between universal realities and particular experiences. Is it really the case that men’s description of the human condition is unhelpful because it is not comprehensive? For example, one of the most universal experiences for humans is the case of falling in love. Outward factors and circumstances may vary between individuals, but everybody, regardless of gender, race, age, etc. is capable of synthesizing these experiences and thereby identifying the overarching phenomenon. Instead, by creating a fundamental dichotomy between male and female versions of the of same experience, feminists such as Rich wander dangerously close to erasing any concept of the human condition. There is no longer a single, unifying constant which brings mankind together

The second flaw is Rich’s characterization of the female presence in western literature. In western literature, a woman “meets the image of Woman in books written by men. She finds a terror and a dream, she finds a beautiful pale face, she finds La Belle Dame Sans Merci, she finds Juliet or Tess or Salome” (516). Here, Rich purposefully lists a string of pathetic (not tragic) heroines. While including Shakespeare, Rich could just as easily have mentioned Beatrice, Portia, or one of the Wives of Windsor. Instead, however, she picked an example of teenage melodrama. If Rich is to gloss over such characters as Antigone, Beatrice, and Helen because they are not relatable versions of womanhood, she must also dismiss Odysseus, Beowulf, and Arthur because they are idealized portraits of men as well. Meanwhile, Rich neglects to mention later, better-rounded examples of women whose actions directly challenge the behavior of the men surrounding them, such as Jane Eyre or Elizabeth Bennet.

Finally, Rich argues that painstaking revision (or the act of identifying female oppression in male-dominated literature) is necessary in order to move forward. “Re-vision-,” she writes, “the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction – is for women more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an act of survival” (512). By calling for a separate, female-oriented body of literature, Rich adopts the same mindset she accuses male writers of implementing: One-sided perspective. While it is necessary to address the faults of the past in order to effectively move forward, it is very easy to make the mistake of defining oneself by these problems. By understanding women as victims of patriarchy, Rich paints a reactionary image of femininity. The basis of a correct understanding of man- or woman-hood is by first understanding humanity. Variables such as gender and race add further depth.

Revision is not the answer to female oppression in literature. Instead, by searching for the common, universally-applicable threads of humanity, readers discover the shared dignity men and women can enjoy in creation.

Semester in review

When you ask for this:

Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurp'd town to another due,

Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,

But am betroth'd unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

(Donne, Holy Sonnet #14)  

You end up with this.

I struck the board, and cried, "No more;

                         I will abroad!

What? shall I ever sigh and pine?

My lines and life are free, free as the road,

Loose as the wind, as large as store.

          Shall I be still in suit?

Have I no harvest but a thorn

To let me blood, and not restore

What I have lost with cordial fruit?

          Sure there was wine

Before my sighs did dry it; there was corn

    Before my tears did drown it.

      Is the year only lost to me?

          Have I no bays to crown it,

No flowers, no garlands gay? All blasted?

                  All wasted?

Not so, my heart; but there is fruit,

            And thou hast hands.

Recover all thy sigh-blown age

On double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute

Of what is fit and not. Forsake thy cage,

             Thy rope of sands,

Which petty thoughts have made, and made to thee

Good cable, to enforce and draw,

          And be thy law,

While thou didst wink and wouldst not see.

          Away! take heed;

          I will abroad.

Call in thy death's-head there; tie up thy fears;

          He that forbears

         To suit and serve his need

          Deserves his load."

But as I raved and grew more fierce and wild

          At every word,

Methought I heard one calling, Child!

          And I replied My Lord.

(Herbert, The Collar) 

Not even me

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written,

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39