The Journey Continues (AG and the Divine Comedy)

Friday Evening 9:00

Why do we get lost? Dante is not asleep at the start (that is a mistranslation). He is lost because the right way is gone and he is full of sleep. Being drowsy is not sleep.

AG says, “The dark wood is the greatest lack of clarity in our lives.” Virgil (line 76) calls the dark wood the place “where fear destroys peace.” Love cannot come if you cannot see. You can see (in a lesser sense) without knowing. Oddly, in Dante’s cosmology you actually ascent through the stationary earth to Purgatory.

It would be a descent if he stays there, but he gains clarity as he journeys. At the bottom, he sees the nature of evil and so turns what might have been a descent into an ascent.

The greyhound (?) will drive the Wolf back to Hell. Envy freed him. I think this demonstrates that the Wolf is lust for political power. This lust is not like that found in the bottom of Hell (Brutus). It is more useless and divisive. It simply wants and wants in a way that cannot be sated. It does not desire to kill Caesar and save the Republic (bad as Dante thinks this would be). It simply wants the “whatever” someone else has. It is small, but dangerous.

Or not. It seems the problem with this is that I am still overwhelmed by Satan. I still see a kind of greatness in him that I should not see. He is very, very evil. There is no good in him. And yet. He is a mighty fallen being, that is still so great that Saint Michael will only say, “The Lord rebuke you.” What is the nature of evil? What does evil do to such a once great being?

Why Virgil? What this man? Virgil is the man who was “once a rebel,” but is a rebel no longer. He is a “fit tool.” He is not too good to be heard by Dante and to visit Hell. However, he is good enough as a soul in Limbo to speak good words. Virgil is like Merlin in C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength.

Canto II Who is Virgil?

Changing one’s mind as Dante does here seems false, but this lack of courage is the result of ignorance more than of vice. This withdrawing from our experience, which is what we sometimes do in taking notes in class, causes us to forget.

Paradise Canto I (8) Our intellect drawing near to its desire sinks so deep that memory cannot follow it. We get far enough that memory is useless. We stay knowing or we forget what we knew. It is the class where no notes can be taken. (Side comment: I actually need to move my hands to concentrate. Taking notes helps keep my mind from wondering.)

There are three ladies who act: the Blessed Virgin Mary, to Lucy, to Beatrice. Each speaks to one devoted to herself. What is the role of Lucy? She appears three times (here, in the Vision of the Siren in Purgatory, and in Canto XXXII of Paradise). I believe her to be light (the meaning of her name), the patron of the shortest day (on December 21 it was common to pray, “Saint Lucy light, shortest day, longest night.), and a mediating virgin martyr between the great Virgin and Beatrice (who was married).

Beatrice is here heard for the first time, but she is heard indirectly. She is heard through the words of Virgil. Dante is still unable even to hear the Voice of the Living Soul of Beatrice. We are having a vision related to us by the poet. He is telling us the words of Virgil, who is telling us the words of Beatrice.

Souls cannot harm. They lack the power. Dante has to see this for himself. We must move on in hope of knowing. When we know something, we become what we know.

Join my walk through Dante with the one of the master teachers of our time. This weekend Al Geier of the University of Rochester will be leading Torrey through the Comedy. I plan on taking notes on line. That cannot give a feel for the intensity that fills the room. Al sits with his iron gray hair and his equally iron constitution for the dialectic at the head of the room. He is surrounded by fourteen Torrey chums. I am at the other end of the room with Adam Johnson. One cannot listen too carefully. I will refer to Dr. Geier as AG in these overly brief notes. We are using the translation by Dorothy Sayers (DS). Because I am listening so carefully, these notes will just provide mere glimpses to the wealth of experience that cannot be transcribed.

Friday 7:00 Inferno Book I

What is the wood? The wood is not the city. It contains beasts, but no men. The wood is full of evil an danger and induces fear in Dante. In order for Dante to ascend, he has to deal with the animals. If the animals (at the least), represent evils. Evil does not seem capable of being one. The animals (leopard, Lion, and She-Wolf) seem to tract the levels of the Inferno. AG notes that (contra DS) that the leopard’s sin is ambiguous. As a Christian, Dante is already showing evil as both internal and external. Fear is mentioned four times at least in the first fifty lines. Dante is afraid.

The dark word is not so much dark as obscure. Dante’s vision is not clear, but he will become enabled to climb. Without that enabling, he will never get to Paradise. He can find good there, when Virgil comes. In line 7, he notes he sees good there. What is the good he finds there? One thing it cannot be is the cosmic dance. Dante cannot see the stars.

The stars are not seen there. (Stars? What are the stars? My first reaction has been that the stars are the constant light that I can see. The sun is too great for my eyes, and the moon waxes and wanes. But thank God, I can always see the stars. They help us when we are lost in the dark.) However, the obscure darkness of the savage wood does not allow the stars. This is a thick forest indeed. It is described as savage, harsh, and dense.

Where are we afraid of evil? We fear its consequences, but is that not fundamentally because God is not with us? Virgil brings the presence of the City (lost in the country), but most importantly the presence of God in Heaven. Dante remains afraid of the She-Wolf. The erotic appetites (AG) is greatly to be feared. It appears the fear that makes Dante

MSNBC - U.S. launches new Fallujah attacks; 10 GIs killed: “A new poll by The New York Times and CBS News found that 47 percent of those surveyed believed taking military action in Iraq was the right thing to do, while 46 percent said the United States should have stayed out of Iraq. A month ago, 58 percent said the military action was right, and 37 percent said it was not.”

Polls before this election bid fair to drive one mad. What can be done? Should we set up a new government agency to stamp out Poll Disease? (”Come quickly doctor, he is a hitting refresh again at Rasmussen!”) Should some Hollywood actor get California to tax polls in order to provide tax money for therapy? (”Make the polling companies pay!”)

I have decided to encourage Poll Free Day. On the morrow, we shall all recite three things:

1. Polls are instant snap shots in time.
2. Polls cannot predict the winner in November now.
3. My happiness does not depend on Rassmussen.

Go Poll Free and let me know how you do!

St. John Chrysostom: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN: “although we have this strong consolation, and are confident of the recompense that shall be made us, still when we see that the work in you does not go forward, our state is not better than the state of those husbandmen who lament and mourn, who hide their faces and are ashamed. This is the sympathy of a teacher this is the natural care of a father.”

The words of Chrysostom comfort every teacher. What of the student who goes wrong? The Saint recognizes this possibility, even in a good teacher. He comforts us, a bit, by pointing out that we will receive a reward for our good labor, but as he points out this does not take away the “father’s” sorrow for a wayward child. Chrysostom recognizes that there is a spiritual reward for teaching. This reward is very attractive to new teachers, but no one tells of the pain of students who drift away from the faith. On top of that, we cannot have the confidence that Saint John Chrysostom has about his own holiness and effectiveness as a mentor.

When I started teaching, I was too young. No one should teach at twenty, as I did. My students were too much like peers, as many of them nearly were. My goal was to be a friend. I hope they forgive me for this and as they too have grown older have seen the wisdom of age soften the harsh judgements of youth. As I grow older, and I hope see more of Christ, the right vantage point comes more naturally. Students must be like my own children. I must nourish them and protect them. Too many teachers gain cheap popularity by siding with students in their complaints and culture. My job is to help them grow to have adult culture!

The teaching of Chrysostom is also goal directed and ideological. He wants his students to be Christians, not in some generic sense, but in a sense of building the cause of Christ. He sets a high standard that please God I can begin to meet in every college class I teach.

MSNBC - Altercation: “They may think they would, but once the folks who ran Bush’s campaign in South Carolina last time around get ahold of this issue, they won’t. When it comes to the politics of religious prejudice, you can certainly fool some of the people all of the time. “

Oh I get it. It is not Kerry’s advanced secularism, his views on homosexuals, or abortion. What will sink Kerry is that he is Catholic! Conservatives hate Catholics? If it were not for that Pat Robertson and his life time of friendship with Catholic leaders, the rest of us would know that secretly every evangelical church holds an anti-papist rally every weekend.

I work at a leading evangelical school with strong differences with Rome. I share those differences. I have never, ever heard any anti-Catholic bigotry. Who is Alterman talking to?

Where did that leave my Dad, a priest in the Anglican tradition, over the weekend? He was in clericals and was mocked and cursed by the Alterman crowd all weekend. No respect. No courtesy for even his physical handicap. Just hatred for the clothe and church.

Talon News — Pro-Life Activists Make Stand at Abortion March: “Father Dayton Reynolds stood along the route blessing marchers and making the sign of the Cross. A few of the abortion supporters graciously accepted the blessing dispensed, but many marchers reacted negatively to the presence of the clergyman.
Over 100 times the Episcopal priest was called &*@ and *(*. Many shouted obscenities at Reynolds, who responded with cheerful reverence. ‘God Bless you,’ he would call after women who gestured at him with their middle finger.
A small group of women from a group called Queer Choice stood in front of Reynolds screaming slogans and grabbing their crotches. One of their chants was ‘Keep your rosaries off our ovaries.’
A large lesbian contingent was evident among the abortion rights marchers. Many held hands, kissed, and one couple mockingly asked Reynolds to perform a marriage ceremony for them. Bizarre hair colors and various piercings were in abundance.”

I love my Dad. He knows how to raze hell.

MSNBC - Explorers plan quest in search of Noah’s Ark

The odds say a wooden boat would not survive the thousands of years in the mountains. However, it would be nifty if the Ark were found. What would it prove? Not much, actually. But it would be good for Christianity and bad for the bad guys in general. So here is hoping that it is found.

Tonight Book IX of Dante began to provoke thought in me about home. What is home? For Dante, the answer (at least in part) must be Rome. Rome is our home. We are products of Roman civilization if we are from the United States or any nation dominated by Western European thought. Jerusalem is like this as well, but Rome is closer to us.

I am often asked as an Eastern Christian why I spend so much time speaking of the West. The answer to this is simple: I am not an Eastern Christian. I am a Christian of the West who is part of the Orthodox Church. I can never be an Arab and am not called to be. I love Arab culture and see the Christian glory of Arabia, but cannot be that without being false. I am an American from West Virginia. It would be a betrayal of my heritage, my home, and my own self to be anything other than I am. My ethnicity and my culture are not the error, just a theological perspective. And the Church accepts this. This Church had for all its history and Eastern and Western branch. Sadly, the Western branch has gone astray.

This is an important point for Protestants. Rome matters. None of us who are not Roman Catholics should give the Roman heritage to the Bishop who at present occupies the seat of Peter. Protestant must claim that they are the true Romans, as the Reformers did. They are the best heirs of the New Testament forms of Christianity as expressed in the West. They have reformed the Western church not invented a new one. Otherwise, they fight the weight of the Eternal City.

So we must pray (those of us who are not part of so called Roman Catholic Church) for the liberation of the Roman church. We must pray that the Bishop of Rome become orthodox and really Western. We must view the gradual corruption of the doctrinal and institutional church as just this very thing. In the same manner, Eastern Christians must remember that the revival of the Western church will not lead to an Arabic church. The Church of England must be English, but with its doctrine reformed and purified in the right manner.

Perhaps, most controversially it means the Western church, splintered though it is, may have much to teach the East. The division was real, it was bad, but often great things were done in the sundered West. One of those things was serious thought about salvation. Most important: Luther and the Lutherans carefully and wonderfully forever destroyed the heresy of Pelegius which is always creeping into the church without care. The great Reformers, whatever else they got wrong, got this right. Salvation is through God’s grace alone and not through any work.

When Dante speaks of images, he is speaking of authenticate images. It is an authenticate image that can communicate truths to great for unmediated contact, such as the nature of God. Images require (for Dante) both the stamp and the wax that gets stamped.

Dante often speaks of the need for both the wax and the stamp to be sound. Often, things in the natural world no longer reflect the Image of God well, because either of failure in either case. This is particularly true in the work of the human artisan. This even very gifted man sets out to make a thing, but in doing so he often destroys another and more beautiful thing. The stone mason quarries the granite out of the hill to build the temple, but hill he might have destroyed may have been more lovely than the temple he builds.

Second, the artisan may come to worship one thing and so destroy other things. A man may come to love woodlands and so work hard to build one in a swamp. What is lost? The swamp had a particular beauty that now is no more. We already had woodlands and now have more. East coast buildings should not be built thoughtlessly on the West Coast. Those buildings are not suited or natural to our home here.

The mass production of many objects seems like this mistake. Mass production itself is a tool, but the may be a tool we seldom use well. The fact that this particular tree could be made into a baseball bat does not mean that tree should be a bat. Of course, it might be appropriate for the tree to become a bat, but this should be considered.

Though men are to rule and reign on the Earth, this rule must be prudent. Prudence, or practical wisdom, is the most widely ignored or derided of the great virtues. Few are named “Prudence” anymore! Yet it is prudence that seems most in demand in order to determine what a thing is for. Modern science which no longer cares about teleology does not even try to help us with this task. Ears are not for hearing says the modern, they just happen to hear. So we must content ourselves with our native wit in this area. Our judgments are ill formed, yet our culture has given us huge power to manipulate the world. We are imprudent children with the powers of the gods.

Antarctica does not seem to be meant for human habitation of the Western sort. So should we go and transform it or force it to fit the pattern of North American or European living? It would seem not. Our culture can build whatever it wishes in the ice, but should not. The traditional Christian view was that this part of the Earth had value for the Earth. . . and for the viceroy of the earth: man. However, both ends must be met and one should not destroy the other. So men must move slowly and with prudence.

Space travel brings this sharply into focus. Why should humans exploit Mars? What is the purpose of this? What would be gained? Men are for earth. It would seem that wise men would want to quarantine our problems on this planet. Mars is for whatever Mars is for the Martians or the purpose of High Heaven. Of course, C.S. Lewis built his Space Trilogy around some of these thoughts.

Dante people Mars with saints. Mars served as an icon for war. We have dimmed this icon thoughtlessly by our city lights. Now we want to people it and turn it into an Earth park. This seems wicked to me, but Dante has much left to teach me.

Mad Max (Maxine Waters makes a Compelling Argument for Abortion Rights): “Waters told the rallied, I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion.”

Liberalism amounts to self-hatred.

Today was the feast day of John Mark. John is a Hebrew name. Mark is a Roman one. The first name points to the God of Israel and the second to Mars, the pagan god of war. John Mark wrote a gospel, abandoned Paul on a missionary journey, but later proved useful to Paul, and was an intimate of Peter. His gospel brings together the two sides of his heritage. It reads like a Biblical comic. . . all suddenlies and action. (I almost anticipate: “Jesus! Whap! Pow!”) This fast paced read has a deep and complex structure at the same time.

John Mark is a man of tensions. Courage. Cowardice. Action. Subtle complexity. He is the perfect model for our divided age. Why? John Mark does not subordinate one part of his self to another nor does he try the hopeless task of “integration.” Instead, he follows Jesus, who completes both halves of self and thus creates something New: a whole soul. Jews looked forward to the completion of the promises of the Old Testament. Greeks looked for wisdom, but had not yet found it. Jesus came and brought completion to both. John Mark went beyond his self to become a new thing: a follower of Jesus Old things passed away and now all things became new in his life. John Mark became a new man.

Election 2004 Presidential Tracking Poll

Let me repeat my prediction that the President will win over 30 states in the upcoming election. Why? There are three essential reasons. First, the President defeated Gore in a perfect time for a Democrat to win. He won despite a last minute drunk driver charge. Most important, is the War. More people support the troops and the Cold War showed people don’t trust the Democrats with foreign affairs post-Vietnam. Finally, John Kerry is a stiff and unlikeable. You have to hate Bush to like Kerry. Some people hate Bush, but not enough.

State/Prediction

ALABAMA/Bush
God, guns, and gays, Mr. Dean said. God will not vote. Gays are one to two percent. Guns. They will vote for Bush.

ALASKA/Bush
Last frontier will not vote for the boater from Back Bay.

ARIZONA/Bush
Older voters will not vote for a Fonda Democrat.

ARKANSAS/Bush
Baptists for Bush.

CALIFORNIA/Stiff
More people in the three main cities than in most of the state.

COLORADO/Bush
Home state of Focus on the Family.

CONNECTICUT/Stiff
Suburb of NYC.

DELAWARE/Stiff
North eastern liberal has some appeal here.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA/Stiff
Why it will never be a state.

FLORIDA/Bush
Jeb is a good brother. Panhandle votes this time.

GEORGIA/Bush
Come to Jesus, Mr. Bush.

HAWAII/Stiff
Sort of has a Republican party.

IDAHO/Bush
Sort of has a Democrat party.

ILLINOIS/Stiff
The dead will vote again. And again.

INDIANA/Bush
“Regular” people like Bush.

IOWA/Bush
Kerry carries the patrician Iowa vote.

KANSAS/Bush
Dole.

KENTUCKY/Bush
Try letting Theresa speak at the county fairs.

LOUISIANA/Bush
Imagine Kerry eating crawfish.

MAINE/Stiff
New England was once Christian.

MARYLAND/Stiff
Maryland was once Catholic.

MASSACHUSETTS/Stiff
Massachusetts was once American.

MICHIGAN/Bush
Union workers will not vote for leftist Kerry.

MINNESOTA/Bush
Trending Republican.

MISSISSIPPI/Bush
Kerry will carry this state after the Rapture when all his voters are Left Behind.

MISSOURI/Bush
Look on every corner. Assembly of God. Bapitist. Methodist. Kerry can only carry states with many Episcopalians.

MONTANA/Bush
Bush wins every state where males don’t get manicures.

NEBRASKA/Bush
Last national Democrat they likes was Williman Jennings Bryan. Bryan could win in modern America.

NEVADA/Bush
Vegas for Kerry! The rest of the state for Bush.

NEW HAMPSHIRE/Bush
Live free or die.

NEW JERSEY/Bush
The gov is Kerry without the medals.

NEW MEXICO/Bush
Pro-life, pro-family says, “Hola.”

NEW YORK/Stiff
9/11 forgotten.

NORTH CAROLINA/Bush
Move on.Christian

NORTH DAKOTA/Bush
No french spoken here.

OHIO/Bush
Too many rural voters.

OKLAHOMA/Bush
They liked the Passion here.

OREGON/Stiff
Coast people kill state.

PENNSYLVANIA/Bush
Abortion.

RHODE ISLAND/Stiff
semi-state votes for semi-candidate.

SOUTH CAROLINA/Bush
One nation under God.

SOUTH DAKOTA/Bush
Five dollars to my favorite charity for every day Kerry spends here.

TENNESSEE/Bush
Another good state for Theresa.

TEXAS/Bush
The buckle of the Bible Belt.

UTAH/Bush
Memo to Kerry: it is LDS not LSD.

VERMONT/Stiff
Massachusetts colony.

VIRGINIA/Bush
Pat Robertson.

WASHINGTON/Stiff
Close. Coast rules.

WEST VIRGINIA/Bush
God, guns, gays again, Mr. Dean.

WISCONSIN/Bush
Packer football fans note Kerry has a bad throwing motion.

WYOMING/Bush
There was a Democrat here once.

Torrey Honors Institute Biola - THI: “Apr 25 - Torrey Theatre Club Presents William Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ “

If you are anywhere near Biola, you must come see this play. Simply a rollicking good time, with the kind of sincere “gee whiz” performances and direction that remind you that Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney could have put on a play of Broadway quality in an old barn. Steady amateur acting and first time directors, who know their stuff surprisingly well, made it a treat for me.

Beatrice is one of Shakespeare’s strongest women. Beatrice. Again. It should not remind me of Dante, but I cannot avoid comparing. Shakespeare’s maiden is so much like the personality I would love to imagine Dante’s Beatrice had before she died. Spirited. Sharp tongue that can slice and heal. Shakespeare’s Beatrice is a real woman, not a saint at all. Dante worships his Beatrice. Shakespeare kisses his. Good summary, I think, of the difference between the Italian and the Anglo-Saxon.

The script is, of course, sublime. Is there any way to review Shakespeare? You are tempted to purple prose, worse than is normally the case. At one point, a character refers to the soul in control of the body. This one throw away line captures the play. These folk struggle to allow their souls to control their bodies, their erotic desires. They struggle to be clvilized. In the end, by following the advice of the priest, they do it. The Church helps tame them by leading “Hero” through death and sorrow to life and marriage. Of course, marriage. Everyone must get a wife. Men who are alone, especially men who are alone, become unhappy. Isn’t that utterly true?

Finally, I just love the kids in this play. Some of the best senior students who have ever tried to crack the mystery of Republic took a flying leap into Shakespeare. They may be bruised, but they more than survived. It is easy when you look at our culture to allow the media to focus your attention on the bad boys. Our culture assumes good kids are few in number and boring if found. That is just not true. At least at Biola they are everywhere, doing amazingly creative things, and saving the West by their very lives. They did Shakespeare. . . and the audience lived the story with them. A whole house filled with 275 people of all ages rooting for a cast to do the impossible and finish the three hour play in good order. There was no irony, no intrusion of a ham-handed director into the text of the play. It was pure. And I loved it and those marvelous kids. Go see it and know that so long as the United States can produce such people, there is promise.

Jane Eyre - a musical by John Caird and Paul Gordon

Tonight Mary Kate and Ian got into a squabble of the young child sort. Ian called Mary Kate a “pig” at some point in the pointless back and forth. Both of them felt injured and full of wounds. Have you ever tired to ajudicate one of these moments? Believe me, it is tempting to pull a John Kerry and attempt to leave the entire issue to the U.N. Or to the French. Or to anyone.

What stuck in my head at the end of it all, when both children had cried themselves to sleep, was the wisdom of our Lord. Love your enemies. Pray for those who despitefully use you. So counter to my impulse which is to defend or to despise, I must forgive and love.

My favorite musical of the past four years was Jane Eyre. Hope and I were lucky enough to see it on Broadway. The house of jaded New Yorkers gave a standing ovation that night to one song: Forgiveness. It contained a line that has haunted me, “Forgiveness is the mightiest sword.” The song which reminded secular New York that “the Gospel is true, you must forgive those who lie” is especially vital now.

Of course, states must execute justice. Just wars must be fought and criminals arrested. Christians do not get to hate the foe. Even Sadaam or Usama must be given a dignified death. Though it seems nearly impossible, justice must be served cold with no glory in revenge. We cannot do just anything to win the War, but as best we can love our enemy and try to come to peace with him quickly. Tough love, yes, but love none the less.

Christians are called to separate from fellow believers who continue willfully to walk in sin. But even that pulling apart should be done with sorrow and with hope for restitution. There should be earnest prayers that the unholy Christian would change and find the joy of holiness.

The Christian can have no enemies except for those who make themselves God’s enemies. Even then, we must not hate, but forgive. In that manner, we place justice in God’s hands. We pray for mercy on all men, given our need of mercy.

MSNBC - Ex-NFL player Tillmankilled in Afghanistan

A gentleman falls in a noble cause.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithfully departed rest in peace.