a soft hymn,
gleaming,
over the way struggles
with feeblest intonation,
virginal intention
the curtain is
motheringly
riven:
a glimmering note
alit,
coated in eternity.
stones reset
in the vineyard
of naboth
and all rome genuflects
as the daughter’s lips
part
and blood rushes forth.
Because he has footnotes that say things like this:
I have discovered that there exist stories about what I have said in this or that circumstance that are not true. For example, I have been introduced at least three times with a story that is not true. It seems I was in Cambridge walking across the Yard at Harvard trying to find my way to the library. I am alleged to have stopped an undergraduate and asked, “Can you tell me where the library is at.” The student responded, “We do not end sentences with prepositions at Harvard.” To which I responded, “Can you tell me where the library is at, asshole.” I realize this is the kind of story that seems so true it should be true, but in fact it did not happen. Of course “did not happen” may be an inadequate way to understand “true.” (The State of the University, 133)
HT: Halden.
If anyone is interested, Comment Magazine has published (online) my review of David Dark’s intriguing book, “The Sacredness of Questioning Everything.” Take a look!
I’ve just dipped into N.T. Wright’s new book, “Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision.” And already something (as is usual when reading Wright) has hooked my attention:
Second, the question [of justification] is about the means of salvation, how it is accomplished. Here John Piper, and the tradition he represents, have said that salvation is accomplished by the sovereign grace of God, operating through the death of Jesus Christ in our place and on our behalf, and appropriated through faith alone. Absolutely. I agree a hundred percent. There is not one syllable of that summary that I would complain about. But there is something missing—or rather, someone missing. Where is the Holy Spirit? In some of the great Reformed theologians, not least John Calvin himself, the work of the Spirit is every bit as important as the work of the Son. But you can’t simply add the Spirit on at the end of the equation and hope it will still have the same shape. Part of my plea in this book is for the Spirit’s work to be taken seriously in relation both to Christian faith itself and to the way in which that faith is “active through love” (Galatians 5:6).
Amen and amen and amen!
