Macbeth and Total Depravity
February 26, 2005
Have you ever worked on a post for an hour - AND THAN LOST IT!!! Now you know how I feel.
I had a grand post on MacBeth, Total Depravity, Harold Bloom, and Neibuhr. Than I hit close instead of post. So let me quickly summarize.
I started rereading Macbeth. Specifically Harold Bloom's guide to Shakespeare's Macbeth. Bloom describes himself as an "unbelieving Jew of strong Gnostic tendencies." Bloom sees Macbeth as us,
Macbeth is all too human. ...since we are Macbeth, though we are pragmatically neither murderers nor mediums, and he is. ...The proleptic element in Macbeth's imagination reaches out to our own apprehensiveness, our universal sense that the dreadful is about to happen, and that we have no choice but to participate in it.
Bloom shows Macbeth to be a passive pawn of his own imagination, and then, the violent acting upon those thoughts. Unknown forces contaminate Macbeth. "The nature that Macbeth most strenouously violates is his own, but though he learns this even as he begins the violation, he refuses to follow Lady Macbeth into madness and suicide." But his nature, is as he imagines it.
Rather than a gnostic view of Macbeth, I see the drama as an example of man's total depravity. Yes, we are Macbeth. No, we do not have to participate in a destiny that is forced upon us by external powers. We are born of sin, son's of Adam, a wrathful God has made judgement upon us, but has chosen to provide redemption through his son taking on sin and its judgement by paying the penalty for our sins on the cross.
When I first saw Macbeth - I saw evil, when I later read Macbeth I saw evil coupled with ambition and its violent results. Now I still see evil in Macbeth, but he is evil because he is a man born of sin. This makes Macbeth even more tragic and empty, because there is no redemption. Unlike Harold Bloom who says,
That pretty much makes Christianity as irrelevant to Macbeth as it is to King Lear, and indeed to all the Shakespearean tragedies.
On the contrary, Macbeth is the most Christian of the Shakespearean tragedies. A man born in sin, swallowed by sin, and responsible for his sin - sees no need for a Saviour. Now that is a TRAGEDY.
Crossing To Safety - Book Review
February 21, 2005
A good friend, almost 80, a wise Christian woman who reads voraciously - recommended the American writer Wallace Stegner and his novel Crossing to Safety. A recommendation from this friend is good enough to get me reading.
Crossing to Safety is beautifully written. Stegner is a master of words and pulls you into his time and place. With large parts of the novel set in Vermont, Crossing to Safety is a New England novel. The characters have New England sensabilities and eccentricities. Set during the depression it follows two newly married couples through their academic lives, travels, and travails. Mostly, the book is about marriage and friendship.
Stegner deals with the difficult and prickly parts of our personality. The prickles come out to stab and bother at the most ordinary times. Friends overlook the prickles, marriages develop tough (but not calloused) skin. Sorrow and pain occasionally poke through.
Read this book and you will see yourself in one of the four characters. You'll gain insight into your friendships and your marriages. You will feel a new tendernesss towards those who do not always meet our standards.
Syncretism and Pi
January 29, 2005
Syncretism has been in the news lately. First we had the Lutheran minister accused of syncretism at the 9/11 event held in Yankee Stadium, than we have George Bush accused of syncretism when he speaks of the Muslim god and our God as the same god, a god of peace. This was brought home as I finished reading Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. The young Pi becomes a good Hindu, Christian and Muslim; all at the same time.
He goes to Friday prayers and knows the Holy Qur'an. He is regularly
seen at the Hindu temple coming for darshan and performing puja. And of
course he goes to Mass on Sunday and meets regularly with the priest to
discuss the gospel. When Pi is out with his family one Sunday he is met
by the priest, the imam, and the pandit. A fight for his soul insues as
each holy man makes claims for his religion.
In the end the pandit says
Pi's piety is admirable. ""In troubled times it's good to see a boy so keen on God. We all agree on that." The imam and the priest nodded.
"But he can't be a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim. It's impossible. He
must choose.'"
When Pi was asked about the choice he must make, Pi said, "'Bupu Gandhi said, 'All religions are true.' I just want to love God.'"
The Father's reply echoes what I so often hear today, "I suppose that's what we're all trying to do--love God."
Syncretism in a time of trouble and turbelence is insidious. It's beguiling call is harmful - yet alluring. The desire for peace is understandable.
Paul says in Romans "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Chris." Peace can only be found with God, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
