Reconsideration of "The Rood"

After I finished writing my last Blopost here, I walked downstairs to make a coffee, and immediately realised I’d missed a whole area of reflection. I’d taken a completely negative view of the contextualisation implicit in The Dream of the Rood, missing the (very obvious) positive aspect, and the necessary nuance (and risk) involved in any attempt at contextualisation.

False Contextualisation: The Dream of the Rood

 The Dream of the Rood (available here) is a classic piece of Anglo-Saxon poetry, from the 8^th or 10^th centuries. Rood is the old English word for ‘rod’ or ‘pole’, and came to be used of the Cross. The poem narrates a dream sequence, in which the author sees a tree being cut down, and eventually used in the crucifixion of Christ.

The Church in Wales

We visited a Church of Wales service while on holiday. There was an assortment of locals and tourists. No singing, because of Covid; just the liturgy. A lay-leader explained to us, that they had a tradition of supporting pilgrims, passing through, some as corpses for burial, to the holy island of Bardsey, which was known as a “thin place”, to be near the resurrection.

The Spiritual Dimension of Mission

I was challenged to think missiologically by the recent City-to-city conference, on reaching Europe, especially its cities. I was impressed, particularly, by their honesty about the difficulty of the task, faced with the indifference and even hostility towards the gospel in secular Europe. So, I written several blogs reflecting on what it might take to do mission here. One factor, which I think much western missional thought misses is the role of the Holy Spirit in mission, and especially the Pentecostal dimension: that is, signs and wonders.

Capitalism, Modernity, and the Gospel

Reflecting further on why the gospel is hard to communicate in Europe today, it is not only that Christianity is old, but that it is now identified with power, with the establishment. This is in part due to the Constantinian settlement, whereby church and state became allied in a co-dependent system of ideological legitimation, which eventually produced Christendom. 

Failing the Gospel in Europe

I’m listening to some of the discussion in City-to-City’s Evangelism Project. Specifically, their honest inquiry into why it’s so hard to share the gospel in Europe, and if there are any lesson from the European experience? There is a perception that evangelism is difficult in Europe, both to do, and to get any results, in terms of conversions. 

Wages of (Social) Sin

With the recent verdict in the George Floyd case, and the British government report on race, it seems appropriate to share some thoughts on the different levels of sin, and and their social aspects. In evangelicalism especially, we concentrate on the individual and neglect the collective effects of sin. Since this is a blog, my account will necessarily be sketchy and brief. 

Shot Gun Wedding – Covid Marriage

 

Although a bit different from the shotgun wedding, with the bride’s father hovering with his loaded weapon, to make sure the reluctant groom marries his pregnant daughter, there has been pressure for people to get married during the pandemic. Like wartime weddings, where people were in a rush, because they didn’t know what would happen, or where they’d be, Covid weddings are similarly different.

Meditation on 'Normal'

“Vaccines mean a potential return to normalisation.” So said a business pundit on the radio. There is a widespread desire for return to normal. Even while people recognise it will have to be a ‘new’ or ‘novel’ normal, they are desperate for stability, for a style of life, that is familiar, similar to what they have lost: shopping, pubs, socialising. 

Apologetics and Action

Recently I read three Christian books responding to the Corona pandemic: John Lennox, Where is God in a Coronavirus World?; John Piper, Coronavirus and Christ; Tom Wright, God and the pandemic. Here are my thoughts.

The Creativity of Covid

Throughout the pandemic, especially during Lockdown, it was recognised that the isolation could cause loneliness. So there were many suggestions for ways to maintain our mental health. These ranged from sports and exercise, through quiz nights online, to arts and crafts. And this concern has continued as the crisis looks set to continue into the winter. 

Grayson Perry, the ceramicist, for example, did a TV programme, in which he recruited his celebrity friends, to do something artistic, as a way to encourage viewers to emulate them. When he encountered some who were anxious about getting it ‘right’, he said something that is remarkably freeing: “Your mistakes are your style.”

Whole Lotta (eschatological) shakin'

I was cycling yesterday past the university bookshop, where I have spent many happy hours, since I arrived in London years ago. I stopped at the lights and glanced over to the windows, and saw they were selling everything with a ‘green sticker’ for a pound.

It occurred to me that this is another sign of the crisis facing our retail industry generally, including bookstores, during the pandemic. This is intensifying the problems they faced previously from internet shopping. But how many physical stores will keep going? 

Filling the Religious Vacuum

We met them while we were recording our worship songs in the church garden.  They had heard the sound and come over to investigate – largely I suspect because, during lockdown, there was little else going on. A young couple in their twenties, they explained their interest in spirituality, the laws of attraction and such like. They realise there was something missing in our pre-Covid society, with its hollowed-out materialism and consumerism. Instead, they hoped, the crisis, through disrupting patterns of shopping and working from home, would enable people to realise the true inner values. As we discussed where people might find these spiritual values, while they pinned their hopes on this amorphous non-specific spirituality, I was able to suggest it could only be through Christ.

Dreaming with no future

The uncertainty of these days makes life feel like a dream. We drift through the empty streets of the city, floating in an air of unreality. London’s deserted avenues resemble De Chrico’s depopulated Italian squares, skirted by forsaken modernist-classical buildings.

One friend spends his days walking through unexplored areas of London, past unfinished housing developments, redolent of J. G. Ballard’s Drowned World. His is a singular expression of our collective pilgrimage - a postmodern Childe Harold; our own peripatetic, Anglo-Saxon, aboriginal, dreamtime.

Our Covid Easter

The Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grunewald, is one of my favourite depictions of Christ’s death and resurrection. It has, I believe, especial relevance during this season of Coronavirus.

The piece hung originally in a mediaeval German hospital chapel, where patients could meditate on the central image. The Christ figure is twisted, writhing in agony. But particularly important were his green, putrefying, puss-filled, feet, which illustrated the symptoms of the skin diseases these inmates experienced. Here they could really sense that Christ had borne all things for them (Isa. 53.4-5).

Coronavirus

Last Thursday, the American team who were supposed to lead our evening meeting, had to return home. Their Mission Board recommended this action, as a sensible response to the Coronovirus pandemic, so that they wouldn’t become stranded in the UK, if the travel restrictions were extended.

We were sad, because we were looking forward to their ministry among us. But, as it was then too late to cancel our meeting, we went ahead. I am glad we did. Although, humanly speaking, we did not have a lot of time to prepare, we were able to worship God, led by Rebecca and Allan, where we experienced a powerful anointing of his Holy Spirit. People really entered into the felt presence of the Lord, with many visibly moved.

The Berlin Wall and Christian Dissent

Recently it was the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which harbinged the collapse of Communism throughout Eastern Europe. This celebration also highlighted the role of dissent, which involved different ideological positions, including many Christian intellectuals.

Do we not need an underground Christian resistance movement in the contemporary West? Of course, we do not live under a totalitarian regime. But we do live in one that is ‘totalising’. Totalitarianism is a deliberate system of ideological conformity. In the West, under cover of official pluralism, we inhabit a totalising system which imposes a single view of reality.

Why Essays?

Why does the title of this blog mention ‘essays’? Brian Dillon gives a brilliant answer in his book, Essayism: On Form, Feeling, and Nonfiction. This short-form style is aptly suited to expressing opinions on a variety of issues, shifting focus regularly rather than delving down deeply into any particular subject. This suits my personality. I am not a specialist, but a dilettante, who likes searching around for interesting stuff. 

It’s like Edward De Bono’s concept of ‘lateral thinking’. He compares thinking to digging holes. The expert, he says, is someone who likes digging deep holes, with nice smooth walls. The lateral thinker, however, likes to dig lots of holes, new ones, without necessarily going deeply into any single one. He also leaves lots of mess, when he moves on to a new enthusiasm.

Why "Jeremiad"?

A Jeremiad is defined as a "long mournful complaint or lamentation; a list of woes". Based on the prophecies of Jeremiah, especially the Book Lamentations (ascribed, wrongly, by tradition, to him), the term also denotes a literary genre, where one berates the contemporary world and its decadence.

I therefore thought it an appropriate title for my new blog, in which to indulge my pessimism and negative take on the world. Jeremiah’s ministry was a faithful, countercultural, protest against the apostasy and injustice of a society which had abandoned the covenant with Yahweh.