A Jazz Evening with Readings from Merton, Hesse, Buber and Eliot.
Readings by Ron Dart.
Hosted by Brian Fraser
Brentwood Presbyterian Church
Jazzthink
T.S. Eliot began the 6th of his Advent-Christmas-Epiphany Ariel poems “The Cultivation of Christmas Trees” in an apt and poignant manner.
There are several attitudes towards Christmas,
Some of which we may disregard:
The social, the torpid, the patently commercial,
The rowdy (the pubs being open to midnight),
And the childish—which is not that of the child
The birth of the child, of course, was none of the above, so accurately depicted by Eliot. The actual birth was about the uncertain Joseph-Mary having to leave their home in Nazareth, being ignored in their hour of birthing need in Bethlehem, larger political powers seemingly driving them to places of loneliness---they must have wondered as did the Magi in Eliot’s “Journey of the Magi” that indeed it was a cold coming, a hard coming and was it all folly? And where was God in all this, God actually with them in the form of a vulnerable child (never easy to see when much seems to contradict and oppose such a read of a lived historic moment).
It would have been a matter of months (perhaps under 2 years) that Herod sent his death squads to slaughter many innocent children, Joseph-Mary and Jesus refugees, flight to Egypt and the Jewish community there a temporary home for a few years. Such is, in brief, the tale of the Jewish Jesus born from the Jewish context, the Biblical Jewish tale central to the Western Tradition and ethos, a chosen people, a people offered land, a people near and dear to a significant segment of the Christian Tradition. But, where in this tale are the Muslim and Christian Palestinians?
We have witnessed a barbaric and aggressive Jewish assault on the Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The extreme right-of-centre Israeli state has brutally, even though judged as engaging in genocide and violating international law, ignored basic human rights and savaged the Palestinians in Gaza (the West Bank has also felt the impact of this). The right-of-centre Jewish Orthodox Zealots and Christian Zionists have cheered on such a war against a people, and Western leaders have done little to halt the carnage. And, there was the 1st Christmas--yes, the slaughter of the innocents (many more done by the Jewish state than ever done by the Roman military) and Mary-Joseph-Jesus refugees (rather minor when compared to the multitude of Palestinian refugees).
What will be the long-term ripple effect for politics in the Middle East and Palestinian children who have seen families killed, homes destroyed, hospitals, and educational structures obliterated? How will Muslim states (pro-contra West) view the virtual apathy of Israel in this war? And there was the 1st Christmas, many faithfully and religiously remember these days, some as Eliot noted, missing the deeper meaning. But what is the relationship between what the Palestinians are living through (much more gruesome and sustained, Jewish death squads creating hovels, slaughtering many innocents) and the 1st Christmas? To isolate the latter from the reality of the former is to misread the meaning of the contemporary reality in Israel today and its war, genocide, and refugee-making machine on the Muslim and Christian Palestinians on this Christmas season. It might be of some worth to read Eliot’s “The Triumphal March,” the 5th in the Ariel poems, to get a sense of how such a drama plays itself out in the affluent and insulated West to get a sense of the tragedy the West and Israel are facilitating and inflicting on the Palestinians and the unwary implications of it
Fiat Lux
Ron Dart
December 27, 2024 in Author - Ron Dart | Permalink | Comments (0)
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A Jazz Evening with Readings from Merton, Hesse, Buber and Eliot.
Readings by Ron Dart.
Hosted by Brian Fraser
Brentwood Presbyterian Church
Jazzthink
April 14, 2022 in Author - Ron Dart | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Continue reading "T.S. Eliot's Ash Wednesday - Analysis & Reflection by Ron Dart" »
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III
At the first turning of the second stair
I turned and saw below
The same shape twisted on the banister
Under the vapour in the fetid air
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
The deceitful face of hope and of despair.
At the second turning of the second stair
I left them twisting, turning below;
There were no more faces and the stair was dark,
Damp, jaggèd, like an old man's mouth drivelling, beyond repair,
Or the toothed gullet of an agèd shark.
At the first turning of the third stair
Was a slotted window bellied like the figs's fruit
And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene
The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green
Enchanted the Maytime with an antique flute.
Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown,
Lilac and brown hair;
Distraction, music of the flute, stops and steps of the mind
over the third stair,
Fading, fading; strength beyond hope and despair
Climbing the third stair.
Lord, I am not worthy Lord, I am not worthy but speak the word only.
March 04, 2022 in Author - Ron Dart | Permalink | Comments (0)
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II
Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree
In the cool of the day, having fed to sateity
On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been
contained
In the hollow round of my skull. And God said
Shall these bones live? shall these
Bones live? And that which had been contained
In the bones (which were already dry) said chirping:
Because of the goodness of this Lady
And because of her loveliness, and because
She honours the Virgin in meditation,
We shine with brightness. And I who am here dissembled
Proffer my deeds to oblivion, and my love
To the posterity of the desert and the fruit of the gourd.
It is this which recovers
My guts the strings of my eyes and the indigestible portions
Which the leopards reject. The Lady is withdrawn
In a white gown, to contemplation, in a white gown.
Let the whiteness of bones atone to forgetfulness.
There is no life in them. As I am forgotten
And would be forgotten, so I would forget
Thus devoted, concentrated in purpose. And God said
Prophesy to the wind, to the wind only for only
The wind will listen. And the bones sang chirping
With the burden of the grasshopper, saying
Lady of silences
Calm and distressed
Torn and most whole
Rose of memory
Rose of forgetfulness
Exhausted and life-giving
Worried reposeful
The single Rose
Is now the Garden
Where all loves end
Terminate torment
Of love unsatisfied
The greater torment
Of love satisfied
End of the endless
Journey to no end
Conclusion of all that
Is inconclusible
Speech without word and
Word of no speech
Grace to the Mother
For the Garden
Where all love ends.
Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining
We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each
other,
Under a tree in the cool of day, with the blessing of sand,
Forgetting themselves and each other, united
In the quiet of the desert. This is the land which ye
Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.
February 26, 2022 in Author - Ron Dart | Permalink | Comments (0)
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February 21, 2022 in Author - Ron Dart | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Jim Forest: Crooked Yet Straight
Jim Forest crossed the river, unexpectedly, January 13 2022—he was 80 years of age. Many were the seeming crooked paths taken and yet each was his paradoxical straight trail home. Jim and I met, initially, when I was on staff with Amnesty International in the 1980s and he was on staff with the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. Many a handwritten and typed letter crossed the ocean from Holland to Canada and back in those years and as emails became the standard way of communicating, they became our dependable bird of delivery.
Most who know Jim are acutely aware of his journey as a “red diaper baby” to the military, to Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker, friendship with Thomas Merton and Daniel Berrigan (he wrote biographies of each of them). Then Jim’s turn to Orthodoxy and founding of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship, the “Peace” vision ever held high. Such a straight yet crooked line pilgrimage is tracked, in a compact way, in his autobiography of sorts, Writing Straight with Crooked Lines: A Memoir (2020). Jim’s final book was on Thich Nhat Hanh, Eyes of Compassion: Learning from Thich Nhat Hanh (2021). There were also the many intricately illustrated children’s tales and book on the Beatitudes which are must-reads. There is so much that could be said about Jim’s living and written journey, his wife, Nancy, as he said in Writing Straight “one of my editors long before it ever crossed our minds that we might marry each other” (322)---such a lovely photo of Jim and Nancy together on page 322.
I have been on the National Board of The Thomas Merton Society of Canada (TMSC) for more than 20 years and the TMSC invited Jim to Canada to speak on Merton a few times, Jim’s photographs of each visit more than worth the heeding and seeing. The fact that Jim lived in Holland many a decade, Erasmus was from Holland, Erasmus was, probably, the most significant “peace theologian” of the 16th century and Erasmus an icon for mine, meant we had much in common on the Erasmus journey. Jim sent me many a photo of Erasmus from Holland, and we were invited to write a book together, by Orbis, on Erasmus. We never did do such a book but many were our affinities with the crown prince of “peace theology.”
It was just a matter of time before Jim and I were on the same path again with the American Beats. Merton had an interest in them, Jim did also and I published a book, Thomas Merton and the Beats of the North Cascades (2008) that Jim wrote a kindly “Foreward” to. It is, though, the many walks (when Jim was on the west coast of Canada, he bunked in with us), conversations, extensive correspondence, generous vulnerability, and life lived with its crooked yet straight line homeward that will forever massage my soul, mind, and imagination---rest well my dear friend, well done.
amor vincit omnia
Ron Dart
January 17, 2022 in Author - Ron Dart | Permalink | Comments (0)
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CLICK HERE to order your copy of Anika Bauman's Becoming Neighbours: Five Values for a World of Welcome.
January 10, 2022 in Author - Ron Dart, Book Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0)
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December 15, 2021 in Author - Ron Dart | Permalink | Comments (0)
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C.S. Lewis & the Last Battle: Whose Version of Aslan (God)?
by Ron Dart
Of Heretics, Kings & Foxes
by Bradley Jersak
November 17, 2021 in Author - Brad Jersak, Author - Ron Dart | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Louis Markos, Myth Made Fact: Reading Greek and Roman Mythology through Christian Eyes (Classical Academic Press, 2020).
There can be little doubt that the challenge, burden, and vocation of Louis Markos has been to make it abundantly clear that classical western mythology (and philosophy), like the Jewish heritage, is an apt and significant preparation for the coming of Christ and Christianity. There has been, sadly so, a tendency within some forms of Christianity, to demean and caricature Classical Greek and Roman thought and set it in opposition to Jewish thinking. Such a collision and clash between Athens and Jerusalem, the Academy and the Church, gratefully so, has not been the dominant approach to faith and learning within historic Christianity, but such an approach has done much to shape and define a tendency and leaning within substantive parts of protestant and evangelical Christianity. There has been a desperate and definite need to overcome such simplistic ways of understanding the Athens-Jerusalem tensions that post-apostolic and patristic Christianity engaged in, thought through, and lived forth. It was this more nuanced dialogue by classical Christians with their Classical heritage (always discerning the wheat and chaff, gold and dross) that, in most ways, created Western Civilization and the best of Christian Humanism.
It is to the credit, therefore, of Louis Markos that he has given himself, in an attentive manner, to ponder how the early church interacted with the Classical Tradition and the perennial relevance for those of us today who live, increasingly so, in a post-Christendom, post-Christian and post-structuralist context. The publication of From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics (2007) and From Plato to Christ: How Platonic Though Shaped Christian Thought (2021) are but two of a variety of books birthed by Markos that insightfully and intricately weave together the nuanced relationship of Classical philosophy and literature as a form of common grace and general revelation. It is, though, with the publication of Myth Made Fact: Reading Greek and Roman Mythology through Christian Eyes (2020) that we are taken on a deeper dive into the richness and fullness of, mostly, Greek myth and the relationship of Greek myth to both Jewish thought and the emerging Christianity of the Bible and classical Christian thought and culture.
Myth Made Fact is front-loaded with endorsements and accolades (Foreword and Preface) that legitimate the larger rehabilitation and renovation project of Markos. The “Introduction” by Markos, “More than Balder”, sets the larger aims and goals in an apt and appropriate context and setting. In short, Markos is not only interested in Greek and Roman myth (he is also interested in comparative mythology) as a form of scholarly archival and museum research. He is much more committed to recovering and representing many of the perennial truths in Greek and Roman mythology that are applicable today for soul formation and a renewal of the classical virtues.
Myth Made Fact brings to frontstage 50 classical myths that reach across the ridges of time, the 50 myths divided, wisely and discerningly so, into six parts: 1) Journeys and Origins, 2) Platonic Myths, 3) The Four Great Heroes, 4) The Tragic House of Thebes, 5) The Tragic House of Atreus and 6) Love Lost and Found. Each of the myths retold is combined with a section that deals with “Reflections” and “Applications”. Markos, in these “Reflections” and “Applications” threads together passages from the Bible and larger historic events that bring to life the myths and compare-contrast them with Biblical stories.
There is, therefore, an ongoing and discerning approach, a careful weighing of Biblical, Classical myths and classical Christian reflections on the relationship between Classical myths, the Bible, and Classical Christianity—such a method evokes much in the longing heart, mind, soul, and imagination.
There has been a tendency within some forms of Christianity to be focused on the Bible and ignore how Christianity, post-Gospels, Paul and catholic epistles interpreted and applied their faith in a classical civilization (many of the early Christians who were not Jews from the 2nd to the 7th centuries were trained in classical literature). The dilemma of such an approach to Christianity (memoricide as a serious problem) means many modern forms of Christianity lack a minimal understanding of why most early Christians found classical myths, philosophy, literature, and theology attractive and valuable as a stepping stone to their commitment to Christianity. Myth Made Fact walks the extra mile to explain and articulate why immersion in classical myth, literature, and philosophy can enrich and deepen our understanding of Christianity. This has been the historic approach of Christianity and the recovery of such an approach is taken wisely and well in Myth Made Fact. This is also, as Markos rightly notes, why the modern mythmaking of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, and Star Wars (each and all drawing from classical myths) have such an abiding appeal.
Myth Made Fact is brought to a fit and fine end with the “Epilogue: Beyond Greece and Rome” and “Appendix A-B-C” that are portals of sorts that point the way to yet further trails to take on the Classical myth-Christian journey pathway. In short, the waymarks are ample, the challenge being one of going on the journey. I might also add that in this hefty tome there are some fine paintings that illuminate and richly illustrate the myths in a visual manner.
There has been, in the last few decades, a decided movement to explore the often forgotten classical heritage of Christianity in our age that tends to be rootless, fragmented and divided (both in the church and world). It is this recovery and renovation project that is part of a larger attempt to halt the deterioration of faith and culture in a context that has no anchor or moorings. Louis Markos is, rightly so, playing a significant role in this larger project and his work in classical myth and literature (often ignored in such a rehabilitation process) should be welcomed and applauded, Myth Made Fact but one pillar in the cathedral of this rebuilding effort.
Ron Dart
October 23, 2021 in Author - Ron Dart, Book Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Paul Zizka, Aloft: Canadian Rockies Aerial Photographs (RMB, 2021).
There are photographic books on the Canadian Rockies worthy of a few scans and there are superb books on the Canadian Rockies—such is Aloft. The title and subtitle offer the curious the visual nature of this bounty of a book. The photographs are, indeed, taken from above the Rockies and the photographer is very much aloft, the “Introduction” by Zizka worthy of a reflective read (as are his visual gifts).
The photographs taken reflect all the seasons in the Canadian Rockies and track the varied faces and forms of the Rockies in a sort of ordered journey, Rundle Range and Three Sisters near Canmore taking the lead and initial bow, Mount Assiniboine area stepping on stage to strut its sheer beauty. Then, it’s to Banff, Lake Minnewanka, Sulphur Mountain, Mount Louis and Mount Norquay ski hill bounties not to miss. The photographic journey turns northward to Castle Mountain, Sunshine Meadows (summer and winter on display), Bourgeau Lake, Shadow Lake, Storm Mountain and Shadow Lake Lodge next on the Rocky Mountain and Taylor Lake aloft tour. It was inevitable, of course, on the photographic overview of the Rockies that Lake Louise and Moraine Lake would be next to visit, their expansive and epic-like grandeur worthy of multiple meditative moments. Those who have lingered and trekked in the area are amply rewarded by photographs of Eiffel Lake, Sentinel Pass, Lake Agnes (tea hut ever-present), Temple, Victoria-Lefroy and Louise Ski Hill, of course. Lake Louise freezes in the winter and the shoveled Lake near Chateau is cleared and turned into rinks to skate on (many pleasant memories of skating on Louise in winter). Zizka has eloquently captured the golden beauty of the alpine larches in the early autumn, Abbot Hut above the higher tea hut suitable for many a night stay (such tales to be told from Abbot Hut). The photographic pilgrimage continues to the ever-charming Lake O’Hara region with its rich and layered history, Yoho, many trails done there and Takakkaw Falls a place not to miss (many a night spent sleeping at the base of it). The turn is then made, ever aloft, to Kootenay National Park, the Icefields Parkway the journey ever northward from an aerial perspective, Bow Lake highlighted (treks taken from there worth the doing as is kayaking on the lake), Peyto Lake frontstaged (the starting point for the Wapta Traverse).
The aerial overview maintains a northwards flight, Saskatchewan and Athabasca Glaciers illuminated, crevasses noted and Mount Athabasca (climb worth the effort) duly noted, tourist trips part of the photographic package. Jasper National Park, rightly so, comes into attractive and compelling hue, Fortress Lake, Hooker Icefield and Chisel Peak but tasters and teasers. But, to Jasper and Edith Cavell, Fairmont, Chevron and Ramparts, Tonquin Valley and Amethyst Lakes photographs not to miss (nor, in the Rockies, treks not to miss). Humber Provincial Park is given its prominent places as is Mount Alberta and the ever attractive Maligne Lake, Mt. Robson and Berg Lake next on the agenda as Jasper is left behind.
There is much more that could be said about this photographic and aerial overview of the Canadian Rockies, but for those who have done many of the trips in the area, skated, skied, trekked, hiked and climbed many of the peaks, Aloft is a memory massager and reminder of the vast, compelling, immense and perennial appeal of the Canadian Rockies. Aloft is certainly worth the purchase and the photographs, descriptions and vividness of the tour a journey not to miss.
montani semper liberi
Ron Dart
October 13, 2021 in Author - Ron Dart, Book Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The contemplative tradition within the West tends to define the spiritual journey in three phases: purgative, illuminative, and unitive. This classification tends to ignore the fact that the contemplative journey has substantial political, social, and economic implications as well. Many modern mystics have recognized this failure in understanding and defining the contemplative pilgrimage. That is why a fourth stage has been added: transformative. It seems to me that the Beatitudes embody all four phases: purgative, illuminative, unitive, and transformative. This makes perfect sense, of course, Jesus understood the waymarks of the mature and integrated faith journey, and the Beatitudes best embody such a path between peak and valley.
This missive is a brief reflection and commentary on the rip-rap steps that make up the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes can tell us much about the deeper meaning of the time-tried path to the eternal peak. They can also ensure that we do not lose our footing as we traverse the slopes where mountain and valley meet.
October 07, 2021 in Author - Ron Dart | Permalink | Comments (2)
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Review of Stephen Hui, Destination Hikes In and Around Southwestern British Columbia (Greystone Books: Vancouver, 2021). Foreword by Cecilia Point
I have before me a few first edition books (collector’s items I assume) that were pioneering guide books in their day: Mt. Garibaldi: Vancouver’s Alpine Playground (1922) by Don Munday, a signed edition of Dick Culbert’s 1960s A Climber’s Guide to the Coastal Ranges of British Columbia, a splendid 1967 copy of Glenn Woodsworth’s A Climber’s Guide to the Squamish Chief and Surrounding Areas (signed by the superb climber and search and rescue legend Tim Auger—we spent some lovely time in Lake O’Hara many a year ago) and the many editions of 103 Hikes in Southwestern British Columbia by, initially, David/Mary Macaree, then Jack Bryceland. The more recent stepping on the stage by Stephen Hui has enriched and enlarged, updated, and revealed yet a greater variety of more and less demanding treks to take.
The publication of Destination Hikes In and Around Southwestern British Columbia is a fit and fine companion to Stephen’s earlier book, 105 Hikes In and Around Southwestern British Columbia. The style of both books is much the same, but this new book adds to the possibilities of trails yet to take and destinations yet to see. The book is divided into four regions: 1) Hikes North of Vancouver, 2) Hikes East of Vancouver, 3) Hikes West of Vancouver and 4) Hikes South of Vancouver (in the United States). Each hike is replete with superb photographs and headings that include distance, time, elevation gain, high point, difficulty, maps and trailhead. Photographs also include a variety of animals, waterfalls, scenic sights, thick forests, carpeted forest floors, signs, alpine flowers, wooden cabins, richly coloured clouds, and various types of glaciers. There are also many “Stop of Interest” sections that make a trip to the mountains yet more attractive and worth the effort in doing. Stephen, rightly so, makes it clear that for those keen to take to the mountains (shorter or longer trips) preparation and precautions are needful and necessary—he has a fine few pages that cover the basics of outdoor rambling so that one and all return safely and in good form.
The 55 hikes included in Destination Hikes do, as the subtitle suggests,
point to “Swimming Holes, Mountain Peaks, Waterfalls and More”. The “More” opens up more enchanted trails worth the trekking. 19 of the hikes are north of Vancouver, 20 of the hikes east of Vancouver, a mere 7 of the hikes west of Vancouver and another 9 hikes south of Vancouver (in the state of Washington). So, the bulk of the hikes in this timely beauty and bounty of a well-crafted book are north and east of Vancouver.
The Foreword by Cecilia Point is a keeper not to miss. Cecilia has an evocative way of inviting those keen to take to such sacred and time tried 1st Nations landscapes to realize many have gone before them and their footprints still remain for those with eyes to see and hearts to feel. The Foreword is, indeed, worth a few meditative reads and much inward digesting.
The “Overview Maps” (pages 30-37) are well worth the pondering as plans are made for trips into the backcountry and means of evaluating the expectations and demands of such trips, mountain weather, and group dynamics, always, of course, the variable and unpredictable elements in any mountain and rambling trip.
I have done most of the trips that Stephen so well describes and there can be no doubt that Destination Hikes is a must-have book for those eager to take to the mountains, alpine lakes, peaks, ridges, and much else in southwestern British Columbia and further southward into Washington. The book also provides most of the information needed for safe trips there and back again and continues the unfolding journey
of solid and reliable guidebooks for those interested and committed
to mature trips into the bounty of beautiful British Columbia.
Montani Semper Liberi
Ron dart
October 05, 2021 in Author - Ron Dart, Book Reviews | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Robert D. Sider (edited), Erasmus on the New Testament, (University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 2020).
Mark Vessey (edited), Erasmus on Literature: His Ratio or “System” of 1518/1519, (University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 2021).
Erasmus was too good a humanist to live only in the past.
—P.S. Allen
The name of Erasmus will never perish.
—John Colet
Erasmus has published volumes more full of wisdom
than any which Europe has seen for ages.
—Thomas More
I am halfway through the Ratio Verae Theologiae of Erasmus, loving the clarity and balance of his Latin, his taste, his good sense, his evangelical teaching. If there had been no Luther, Erasmus would now be regarded by everyone as one of the great Doctors of the Catholic Church. I like his directness, his simplicity, and his courage. All the qualities of Erasmus, and other qualities besides, were canonized in Thomas More.
Thomas Merton
Erasmus has often not been treated the best in both 16th-century Reformation-Renaissance history, thought, and religion, or the centuries that followed. The Roman Catholic Church put his writings on the Index at Trent and many Protestants have uncritically bowed the knee to Luther’s rather volcanic and reactionary rebuttal to Erasmus’ Freedom of the Will (1524), in the rather feisty The Bondage of the Will (1525). Both Roman Catholics and Protestants, therefore, in the religious and culture wars of the 16th century did not know how to cage this wild bird. Erasmus tended to transcend the tribalism of both the Roman Catholic and variations of Protestant clans and Sanhedrins. And yet it was Erasmus, more than anyone else, in his various translations and annotations of the New Testament, who raised substantive questions about serious mistranslations (and the theological-pastoral implications of them) of Jerome’s Vulgate. The main translations by Erasmus of the New Testament in 1516, 1519, 1522, 1527, and 1535 did, as the saying goes, lay the egg that Luther hatched. It was in these, increasingly so, translations, commentaries, and annotations that Erasmus distinguished himself as one of the most significant scholars of the first half of the 16th century. The recent publications of Erasmus and the New Testament (2020) and Erasmus on Literature (2021) do need to be read together as companion tomes on Erasmus’ layered and nuanced approach in how to read, interpret and apply the text of the New Testament. In fact, both books walk the extra mile to highlight the all too obvious reality that Erasmus should not have been marginalized in his age and ethos or our context. But, it is to these two books worth the reviewing we now turn.
Continue reading "Erasmus in Review: Two Works - Ron Dart" »
September 30, 2021 in Author - Ron Dart, Book Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0)
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A.M. Allchin, Participation in God: Forgotten Strand in Anglican Tradition (Morehouse-Barlow, 1988).
Arthur Macdonald “Donald” Allchin (1930-2010) was one of the most significant Anglican theologians of the 20th century, and his ever deeper probes into the classical vision of contemplative theology and the Anglican way are pointers not to miss. Significantly so, there has been a troubling tendency within the historic Anglican way to ignore the theology of theosis or, in sum, “God became man so humanity would be divinized (or deified)”. Participation in God reclaims such a vision as embodied in the historic Anglican way.
Allchin highlighted, in his “Introduction”, how two important Anglican writers on spirituality missed this core notion of deification: Thornton’s English Spirituality (1963) and Moorman’sThe Anglican Spiritual Tradition (1983). Allchin’s three lectures, delivered in 1983-1984 in the USA, probes the aberrant read by Thornton and Moorman and turns to significant post-reformation Anglican Divines in their read of deification. The initial lecture discussed Richard Hooker and Lancelot Andrewes, the second lecture lingered with Charles Wesley and Williams Pantycelyn, and the third and final lecture E.B. Pusey and the Oxford Movement are covered. The final and summary chapter articulates “The Co-inherence of Human and Divine”. Needless to say, the Patristic Tradition ethos ever informs such insightful lectures turned book.
The elevated ideal of deification is often seen as the bailiwick of the Orthodox way but given the historic Anglican-Orthodox dialogue and the fact both traditions draw deeply from the best of the Patristic way, it is quite predictable that the notion of theosis would be held in common by both---such is the deeper meaning of sobornost that Allchin understood so well, his engagement as a catholic Anglican with the Orthodox central to his vocation. As the deeper and more perennial meaning of theology, soteriology, and anthropology is more maturely embraced by the Christian Tradition, the integrative and high vision of true Christian Humanism will be realized, theosis the portal into such an expansive reality.
There are few good and readable overviews of the doctrine of deification but Participation in God: A Forgotten Strand in Anglican Tradition is definitely one of them. Such a compact missive corrects a certain read of the Anglican way that has tended to shrink Anglican contemplative theology to the smallest circle turns. We should be grateful to Allchin for his life and prolific writings. Participation in God a superb entrée to Allchin’s life and thought.
Fiat Lux
Ron Dart
August 05, 2021 in Author - Ron Dart, Book Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Monika B. Hilder, Sara L. Pearson & Laura N. Van Dyke (eds.), The Inklings and Culture: A Harvest of Scholarship from the Inklings Institute of Canada (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020).
There has been, within Canada, a committed history of interest in the Inklings. My mother was faithfully involved with the Toronto group that published Pilgrimage: The Toronto C.S. Lewis Society (a magazine on Lewis and the Inklings in the 1980s-1990s, final edition 2009). The Canadian C.S. Lewis Journal: The Inklings, Their Friends & Predecessors that closed shop Autumn 2001 (lasted almost 30 years, 100 publications) was, in its last decade, published on the West Coast. But, it was with the founding of The Inklings Institute of Canada at Trinity Western University that a more mature and integrated vision of the Inklings came into being. The publication of The Inklings and Culture is the well-birthed child of such fine parenting.
The fact I took in Lewis and the Inklings with my mother’s milk, and, in some small way, contributed to The Inklings and Culture, means my decades-long journey (from the earliest years) was amply rewarded by heeding and reading the many and polyphonic voices in this well-tuned Inklings symphony.
The Inklings and Culture: A Harvest of Scholarship from the Inklings Institute of Canada is, indeed, a harvest and feast of a read. The tome is divided into 4 parts and 27 chapters. Each part is packed with insights and probes that make for creative reads and varied interpretations of the pure gold of Inklings life and thought: Part I: Literary Influences, Part II: The Christian Imagination, Part III: Artistic Responses, and Part IV: Contemporary and Theological Issues are not to be missed.
Most of the Inkling worthies step on front stage (MacDonald, Lewis, Sayers, Chesterton, Williams, Tolkien, and Barfield – some more obviously Inkling than others) and other lesser-known writers and artists who historically anticipated or had affinities with the Inklings in direct and indirect ways (Charlotte Bronte, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Anna Sewell, Bede Griffiths, and Reinhold Niebuhr are also mentioned and discussed).
Lewis decidedly leads the pack of articles with 15 of the 27 reflections dedicated directly to him, whereas Tolkien is featured in 5 articles and Sayers in 3 of the essays. MacDonald, Chesterton, Williams, and Barfield are momentarily on stage. But, there can be no doubt that Lewis is the main actor that speaks his speech well – not trippingly on the tongue as some do. The quality of essays and themes covered are of a high level and not to be missed. There can be no doubt that Hilder, Pearson and Van Dyke have done Canada well in their harvest of scholarship. The Canadian Inklings children have now matured as well-rounded, comprehensive, and creative adults, the table spread a bounty not to miss, much nourishment in the feast. I might also add that Hilder’s “Introduction” and Van Dyke’s “Chronology” makes the tome a greater, grander and fuller bounty not to miss.
There can be no doubt those who anticipated the Inklings (MacDonald, Chesterton) and the Inklings did, in their unique way, unconceal, and by doing so, reveal a mother lode of mythic, imaginative and literary gold within the Western and Christian Tradition that had been somewhat concealed by a hyper form of right of centre Enlightenment rationalism and scientism. It was this healthy and full-bodied Christian romanticism and humanism that was the genius of the Inklings and why their presence ever persists to inform, instruct and point the way to finer and fitter trails worth the taking. There can be no doubt that The Inklings and Culture is Canadian scholarship at its evocative best and the impact of such a hefty tome will linger for many a decade and be a library from which future Inkling scholars will turn to slake a deeper thirst, the wine full-bodied and palette tasty.
Ron Dart
July 30, 2021 in Author - Ron Dart, Book Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Monika B. Hilder, Sara L. Pearson & Laura N. Van Dyke (eds.), The Inklings and Culture: A Harvest of Scholarship from the Inklings Institute of Canada (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020).
There has been, within Canada, a committed history of interest in the Inklings. My mother was faithfully involved with the Toronto group that published Pilgrimage: The Toronto C.S. Lewis Society (a magazine on Lewis and the Inklings in the 1980s-1990s, final edition 2009). The Canadian C.S. Lewis Journal: The Inklings, Their Friends & Predecessors that closed shop Autumn 2001 (lasted almost 30 years, 100 publications) was, in its last decade, published on the West Coast. But, it was with the founding of The Inklings Institute of Canada at Trinity Western University that a more mature and integrated vision of the Inklings came into being. The publication of The Inklings and Culture is the well-birthed child of such fine parenting.
The fact I took in Lewis and the Inklings with my mother’s milk, and, in some small way, contributed to The Inklings and Culture, means my decades-long journey (from the earliest years) was amply rewarded by heeding and reading the many and polyphonic voices in this well-tuned Inklings symphony.
The Inklings and Culture: A Harvest of Scholarship from the Inklings Institute of Canada is, indeed, a harvest and feast of a read. The tome is divided into 4 parts and 27 chapters. Each part is packed with insights and probes that make for creative reads and varied interpretations of the pure gold of Inklings life and thought: Part I: Literary Influences, Part II: The Christian Imagination, Part III: Artistic Responses, and Part IV: Contemporary and Theological Issues are not to be missed.
Most of the Inkling worthies step on front stage (MacDonald, Lewis, Sayers, Chesterton, Williams, Tolkien, and Barfield – some more obviously Inkling than others) and other lesser-known writers and artists who historically anticipated or had affinities with the Inklings in direct and indirect ways (Charlotte Bronte, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Anna Sewell, Bede Griffiths, and Reinhold Niebuhr are also mentioned and discussed).
Lewis decidedly leads the pack of articles with 15 of the 27 reflections dedicated directly to him, whereas Tolkien is featured in 5 articles and Sayers in 3 of the essays. MacDonald, Chesterton, Williams, and Barfield are momentarily on stage. But, there can be no doubt that Lewis is the main actor that speaks his speech well – not trippingly on the tongue as some do. The quality of essays and themes covered are of a high level and not to be missed. There can be no doubt that Hilder, Pearson, and Van Dyke have done Canada well in their harvest of scholarship. The Canadian Inklings children have now matured as well-rounded, comprehensive, and creative adults, the table spread a bounty not to miss, much nourishment in the feast. I might also add that Hilder’s “Introduction” and Van Dyke’s “Chronology” make the tome a greater, grander, and fuller bounty not to miss.
There can be no doubt those who anticipated the Inklings (MacDonald, Chesterton) and the Inklings did, in their unique way, unconceal, and by doing so, reveal a mother lode of mythic, imaginative, and literary gold within the Western and Christian Tradition that had been somewhat concealed by a hyper form of right of centre Enlightenment rationalism and scientism. It was this healthy and full-bodied Christian romanticism and humanism that was the genius of the Inklings and why their presence ever persists to inform, instruct and point the way to finer and fitter trails worth the taking. There can be no doubt that The Inklings and Culture is Canadian scholarship at its evocative best and the impact of such a hefty tome will linger for many a decade and be a library from which future Inkling scholars will turn to slake a deeper thirst, the wine full-bodied and palette tasty.
Ron Dart
July 16, 2021 in Author - Ron Dart, Book Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0)
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