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Post by Divides the Waters on Dec 3, 2011 23:53:15 GMT -5
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Post by Kessie on Dec 4, 2011 10:59:08 GMT -5
Wow, what an article. Then, what about doctrine and theology?
I think that right doctrine is far more often taught in stories than in direct dogma. At least it works better for me that way. I'd like to go back a minute to something you asked about atheism. One of my sons-in-law is an English Anglican theologian priest. He has talked about being atheists for Christ's sake. He means that Christians build up little gods, little temples of Baal. We begin to worship them. And we must tear them down, destroy them. The gods we erect are easier to worship than the Creator of the universe. They're more comprehensible. The God I believe in is not comprehensible in finite, mortal terms. God is infinite, immortal, all-knowing. I have a point of view, you have a point of view. God has a point of view. But we don't like having to depend on that which we cannot control, manipulate, dominate.
In a sense, praying and writing involve the same disciplines. When I sit down with an act of will, either before the typewriter or to pray, I have to let go of my control and listen. I listen to the story or I try to get beyond the words of prayer and listen to God. Ultimately when I hear, that is the gift, not my act of will, not my act of virtue. It is pure gift. I guess my favorite analogy for the difference between faith and works came from Rudolph Serkin. My husband and I heard him play Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata better than Beethoven could play it. When the last note faded away there wasn't a sound. Then, slowly, like the ocean waves, the applause swelled. Later I realized that we had been present at a moment of transcendence, of transfiguration. What did Serkin have to do with that? He practices eight hours a day every day. I have to write every day whether I want to or not. I have to pray every day whether I want to or not. It's not a matter of feeling like it, or waiting when I feel inspired, because both in work and in prayer, inspiration comes during rather than before. |
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Post by newburydave on Dec 4, 2011 22:17:26 GMT -5
Excellent article, many good insights.
Thanks for sharing it.
SGD
dave
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Post by tris on Dec 7, 2011 9:46:37 GMT -5
Please note this particular article was published in 1979...far too many Christians go around quoting Ms. L'Engle without realizing how far she has strayed from her original ideas of faith. Yes, stories do a better job of teaching doctrine than straight dogma, but too often we fail to realize what's being taught isn't always what we intended or thought.
My husband pointed this out once by citing an example from his childhood: on Saturdays his parents always watched several Westerns, such as Have Gun Will Travel. As a youngster Bruce thought his parents approved of smoking because of all the cigarette commercials advertised during the series...commercials which his folks never commented on.
Even in Ms. L'Engle's early books (which I thoroughly enjoyed), she equates Jesus with Ghandi and Buddha. Her later books in the early 80's dealt with lesbianism and teen premarital sex in a way that left the impression those choices were alright and had no consequences.
If we want to quote high ideals, let's find a better source. Quoting her articles implies approval and that can be misleading to young people whom we have a responsibility to point to the truth.
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Post by Kessie on Dec 7, 2011 10:29:00 GMT -5
Tris: That always has troubled me about her, equating Jesus with Buddha. I also did totally not understand A Swiftly Tilting Planet, but I understand lots of other people enjoyed it, so I guess it's just me. She strikes me as a mystic, and like most mystics, we just look at them askance and take a large grain of salt. There's also that one guy who I can't remember his name, who wrote that whole book series dramatizing Jesus's marriage with the Church ... it was weird and ... I don't know ... something about it was off.
L'Engle does know her stuff when it comes to writing. Like Stephen King's excellent On Writing book. Of course we don't advocate any of the stuff in his books, but he knows his craft.
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Post by tris on Dec 7, 2011 17:43:26 GMT -5
Kessie,
Not saying L'Engle doesn't know her stuff... just that as Christians if we're going to recommend principles for Christian writers "from Christian writers" let's make sure they're genuine. I'd rather read a writing technique book from a secular source because I know they're secular and not trying to pass a pseudo Christianity off on unsuspecting young writers. (grin) It's also the reason I'd much rather work for a non-Christian instead of a Christian.
Just saying there are some excellent writing craft ideas out there by Christian authors (and our own Jeff Gerke is one) and I'd rather see those promoted.
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Post by Kessie on Dec 7, 2011 18:57:52 GMT -5
Tris: Well then, hey, promote them! I just finished reading L'Engle's book Walking On Water. While a bit "out there", I couldn't fault her basic theology. I kept wondering why she equated Jesus with Buddha when she holds Him in such high regard in real life. I haven't read her other books, so I can't make judgments on the lesbian thing.
As far as writing goes, I just love reading about writing. I do wish that Jeff would post his "Novel's First 50 pages" list on his writing tips, though. I listened to the live webinar about it, and he ran out of time before he could really elaborate on each item.
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Post by Kessie on Dec 8, 2011 14:04:32 GMT -5
I wish there was room to use this as a signature:
"Is there any rationale for building entire mansions of words? I think there is, and that the readers of Margeret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind and Charles Dickens's Bleak House understand it: sometimes even a monster is no monster. Sometimes it's beautiful and we fall in love with all that story, more than any film or TV program could ever hope to provide. Even after a thousand pages we don't want to leave the world the writer has made for us, or the make-believe people who live there. You wouldn't leave after two thousand pages, if there were two thousand. The Rings trilogy of J. R. R. Tolkien is a perfect example of this. A thousand pages of hobbits hasn't been enough for three generations of post-World War II fantasy fans; even when you add that clumsy, galumphing dirigible of an epilogue, The Silmarillion, it hasn't been enough. Hence Terry Brooks, Piers Anthony, Robert Jordan, the questing rabbits of Watership Down, and half a hundred others. The writers of these books are creating the hobbits they still love and pine for; they are trying to bring Frodo and Sam back from the Grey Havens because Tolkien is no longer around to do it for them." -- Stephen King
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Post by Divides the Waters on Feb 23, 2012 16:04:31 GMT -5
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Post by Kessie on Feb 23, 2012 20:32:04 GMT -5
LOL! That's it exactly!
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Post by yoda47 on Feb 23, 2012 21:33:39 GMT -5
Donita K Paul is a Christian writer with writing advice on her website. Don't know much about her exact theology, but nothing of hers that I've read strikes me as off...
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